What We Said: "At the end of the day, XCOM 2 is the poster boy of the modern turn-based strategy game. The game can feel unfair at times, but Firaxis has crafted a dynamic experience with virtually limitless replay value and a constant level of challenge. Fans of the series will find plenty of enjoyment watching the XCOM troops struggle to protect mankind once again, and Firaxis can pat themselves on the back for making one of the most addictive and rewarding strategy games of all ti

These robotic horrors can mean death to entire squad if the player is not careful. Cyberdiscs have very strong armor and a lot of hit points; this is made worse for the player by the presence of drones that can repair Cyberdiscs. Their main cannon will usually kill a soldier without heavy armor. Cyberdiscs can also lob grenades across the battlefield; which means seeking cover isn’t as effective against them. Lastly, don’t get too close or a Cyberdisc will use their "Death Blossom" attack that does severe damage in a 360°

We’ve shown in the demo the Specialist, which has the Gremlin, and again, the Gremlin will grow as the character grows. The Ranger, which is the melee character. And in the trailer we have the Sharpshooter and the Grenadier, and we’ll probably go into those characters sometime soon. But those are four of the new classes we have.

As this list will show, cover art is similar to band names. The Beatles and Rolling Stones may not sound great on paper, but they're iconic because they're attached to iconic bands. The same can be said for box art, where the game's quality affects how the cover art is percei

Greg Foertsh: In the storyline it’s 20 years in the future. It’s 2035 and you lost the fight in the first third of the campaign in Enemy Unknown. It’s where we’re mentally cutting it. So you never developed any of the crazy stuff, you lost early, and for the past 15-20 years you have been underground. Now the time is right and you’ve decided to come back and reclaim Earth.

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

Borderlands 3 isn't the only game to take inspiration from religious artwork, as Far Cry 5 's cover is a clear reference to one of the most famous paintings of all time, Leanardo De Vinci's The Last Supper. The reference is an ingenious way of telling players just how highly regarded Joseph Seed is among his cult memb

If you’re playing XCom 2 , and you encounter a human-looking enemy that has white hair and a purple visor that covers the entire face, have all your soldiers target that enemy. That is probably the only chance of successfully completing that mission. That type of enemy is called an Avatar, and thankfully they are rare. They have extremely high mobility, armor, and damage potential. To make matters worse, Avatars have powerful psionic abilities as well. Many aliens can mind control the player’s soldiers; Avatars can mind control up to three at one time. This enemy can kill a well-equipped squad by itself if it’s not dealt with quic

So we added concealment, squad-based concealment which is really cool and is a different mechanic. A lot of that again is from user feedback where every time you stumbled on the aliens, they got the jump on you, so we wanted to turn that around on them a bit and address it. There’s also hacking, there’s loot, and there’s all sorts of cool stuff added. On top of that, we tried to take all the characters, whether they’re enemies or soldiers, and really push them apart. We didn’t feel like they were different enough in Enemy Unknown. We wanted to create separation and contrast between all the different elements of the game. That’s sort of how we approach the art side, too, with all the different environments, we really pushed them as far apart from them as we could to offer different experiences, so they’re dramatically different spaces. That’s kind of our approach, both on the design side and the art side.

What We Said: "Much like Braid , The Witness is a game design triumph. It takes great ideas and runs with them, all the while delivering visuals and themes that are just as strong as the gameplay at its core. Many titles released this year will be hyped as ‘must-play’ experiences — but few will have the longevity that this SLG Game analysis will surely enj