The XCom games are famous for their engaging squad-based combat. The games have always featured a large collection of alien types – each with an ability that players must keep in mind if they want all of their soldiers to make it back to base in one piece. Some of these aliens can fly, some are advanced robotic killing machines, some are basically living tanks, but the deadliest of them have psionic abilities that are frustrating at best – and absolutely devastating at worst. These are the most difficult alien types a player can expect when playing the X-Com titles; minus the unique types like the Uber Ethereal or Warlo

StarCraft 2 continues the story of the Terran, Zerg, and Protoss after the events of Brood War . In the game's three parts, players see the Terrans struggle against an autocratic Dominion, the Zerg redefine its Swarm, and the Protoss secure its leg

The tactical and ever so nail-biting strategy game is back as Firaxis and 2K Games revealed XCOM 2 prior to E3 2015. Now players will be able to experience the deaths of even more comrades as their memorial continues to grow. While Enemy Unknown was a surprise hit, Firaxis is looking to up their game by introducing procedural maps, mods and even more to this PC exclusive. During our time at E3 this year, we sat down with Art Director Greg Foertsh at Firaxis Games to talk about their upcoming title.

They can create their own parcels. You can say "I want a level that all it ever draws is parks," and you will get all propaganda parks. You can say "I want all buildings, and I want them all this close to each other." You can do whatever you want with it. It is really REALLY robust. Even though something draws on the street, that’s all procedural, too. You will never see the same street layout. Ever. It just won’t happen. And you can add to that. You can add cars, advent checkpoints, you can put whatever you want down and all that stuff will be drawn on the streets, along with the buildings being procedural, along with the parks and parking lots. That level you saw, that park is one of our levels. That fits into the plot so that’s a plot parcel system. The plot is the road network, and it may not be roads. The roads are a good example, but it’s just a connective tissue layer.

We'll start with namesake of the entire expansion, The Chosen. The three unique champions of the ADVENT forces spend the entire game trying to track down the player and blow the Avenger out of the sky (which is a thing that can absolutely happen), and have a tendency to show up during difficult missions and make things twice as difficult. If players are in a pickle trying to survive a particularly tedious mission, imagine how things go if a Chosen arrives and starts spawning down more enemies and taking powerful sniper shots from across the

Players of grand strategy games might have heard of Endless Legend. Moreover, it's perhaps one of the most interesting fantasy-science fiction 4X titles to have graced the PC. In this game, players end up as one of the many remnants of races in a changing Auriga. The game features 14 playable factions, with five others in expansi

However, it's not just the new Chosen enemies and a few new ADVENT enemy types that these soldiers will be facing. Missions in abandoned cities are frequently overwhelmed with swarms of The Lost, a zombie-like enemy that attacks both XCOM and ADVENT forces upon sight. Any explosions in the map trigger a new swarm of these monsters, and pandemonium can quickly reign as they attack friend and foe al

Players of Stellaris aren't "Evil," but only brave souls would dare venture into the vastness of Stellaris and its 4X experience. Similar to other strategy games, Stellaris players control their own colony , this time in space. Additionally, alongside this premise are the usual things found in 4X games. These include resource gathering and tech trees, diplomacy and warfare, and even dealing with various wacky scenar

XCOM 2 is not a SLG game events for those who think about what’s going on in a single instance. Everyone will need to think three turns ahead in every aspect of the campaign, and even then, it’s mostly about luck, creating an incredibly random experience in the process. Even from the beginning, players believing they’ll be able to keep everyone alive will run into a harsh reality check, whether they’re on the easiest or hardest difficulty settings. It’s not primarily the combat that can be difficult though, it’s the world management that can be a bit stressful. Similar to Enemy Unknown, there’s a time component to XCOM 2, ensuring you don’t take your sweet time to level up characters and accept every side mission that becomes available. There will be crucial choices to be made, but instead of ruining reputations based on countries and risking resources, these are classified as larger reaching outcomes to alien progression in the world. There’s so many systems at play that anyone could easily see themselves overwhelmed, and it doesn’t help that there’s an unfortunate lack of explanation on the various mechanics.