Ethereals are the leaders of the alien forces. They have numerous, and powerful psionic abilities that can cause havoc among the player’s squad and deliver significant damage. Their deadliest abilities are the ability to control the minds of the player’s soldiers, and the ability to drain a soldier’s health and heal itself at the same time with its Psi Drain. To make them even more difficult, Ethereals have the Hardened trait that makes them highly resistant to critical hits. Ethereals also have a devastating one-two punch with their Mindfray, which lowers a soldier’s Will, and their Rift ability which deals extra damage to a soldier with a low Will sc

However, the next ten years may see the direction change once again, as cover art is regaining importance thanks to the prominent rise of Game Pass and other subscription services. With EA Play included, Game Pass now has over 200 games available to players, giving cover art newfound importance as games need to find ways to stand out from the cr

In any event, it looks like XCOM 2 fans should expect some terrors to rise from the murky depths within the next few years, as the cliffhanger ending shows that Firaxis evidently has no intention of slowing things down with the ser

XCOM 2 's cover has a far more minimalist design than the other entries on this list. The game's cover is extremely sinister, with the alien's face being made up purely of human skulls, letting players know straight away that this isn't going to be a wholesome Bandicoot -like adventure. Moreover, the morbid aesthetics and fact that the alien is looking straight at the viewer could be seen as an implication of the game's punishing difficul

What do you think XCOM 3 will bring, Ranters? Firaxis may be injecting their own original pieces to the plot, but the series is still heavily intertwined with the original vision from MicroProse. Only time will tell if this influence will help shape the future of the rebooted ser

Keeping the spirit of the Total War franchise, SLG Updates Total War: Warhammer 2 brings the same level of real-time tactics and turn-based strategy with the gritty world of Warhammer Fantasy . In this dark world, Humans and races such as the Skaven, Dark Elves, High Elves, and Lizardmen interact and deal with the Forces of Ch

Grim Fandango was one of many iconic graphic adventures to have been remastered in recent years, joining The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle . The point-and-click classic is considered to be the genre's final bow, with its huge 94 Metascore being a testament to how it encapsulated so much about what was great about graphic adventu

In Dawn of War , gamers get a "converted" WH40 tabletop for the PC. Thanks to this game, players can experience the thrill of squad-based combat with units they can customize with unique weapons , abilities, and even appearan

A sign of a good cover is if someone who has no idea about the product can guess what genre it's in and what it's going to be about. It doesn't take a gaming expert to look at Halo 4 's cover and know instantly that not only is Master Chief the hero but that the game is going to consist of him at war with the odds stacked solidly against him, exemplified by him kneeling beneath the crumbling world ab

The Mutons are some of the most difficult enemies to defeat in every XCom game. Muton Elites are enhanced to make them even more formidable. They have some of the heaviest armor in the game, and a very high health rating. Muton Elites are armed with heavy plasma cannons; which can kill even a heavily armored soldier with one shot. Elites are also armed with explosive grenades which can negate the cover the player’s soldiers are using. They also have a suppression ability which can gives them an attack of opportunity during the player’s turn. Sometimes it seems like Muton Elites are invulnerable; which not only affects the morale of the player’s soldiers, but the morale of the pla

Unfortunately, the biggest and most heartbreaking problem with XCOM 2 is from the technical side of things. For one, after almost every turn concludes and there are aliens on screen, the game will stall for upwards of a minute until finally giving you back control of the squad of characters. It could very well be unidentified aliens moving around in the background, but considering you don’t know how many there are, it will test your patience to an unfortunate degree. This combined with load times that hang for far longer than they should create an experience that will artificially extend your playtime clock. This isn’t even the worst part, though as we also ran into various crashes, enemies being able to shoot through geometry they shouldn’t be able to, out of the ordinary performance issues and some of the visuals going haywire. The controls can also be a little clunky at times when trying to select an enemy to fire at, although it’s far from the worst problem here.