I'm willing to bet that while not having cover early on isn't a problem, heavier aliens make quick work of MECs. I'm also hoping that EXALT starts using alien equipment and gene mods.

I think in a different hands-on demo, it was revealed that EXALT will only go as high as Laser Weapons...but don't quote me on that.

And yeah, I can see guys like Muton Elites and Sectopods make quick work of MECs if you're not careful.

Wonder how an expansion works for iPad version.

My thoughts so far...

MECs - totally badass, especially as you upgrade the suits. However, they lack the overall versatility of an actual trooper. I also feel like the Heavy and Support versions of the MEC are the most useful. (Heavy gains a shield that gives +20 def and crit immunity against the closest target, support puts up a field with +10 def to all allies within it). The suits themselves get 2 choices per rank of additional parts. First you pick between the flamethrower and the kinetic rod, second option is a grenade launcher or a medkit mist, third is a proximity mine launcher or an EMP blast.

Gene mods - definitely don't feel super powerful, but rather, since your normal troops are so strong by the end, particularly if they are psionic. Particularly since there is a foundry upgrade now to give all your troopers 2 item slots.

Medals - potentially one of my favorite additions, although I'm not entirely sure how to earn them just yet. There are 5 in total and before you can award them you have to pick one of two powers that apply to them from then on. Little things like choosing +5 aim against targets in full cover vs +5 defense if you have cover.

Finally finished the campaign. RIP Col. Gertrud 'Cyclops' Becker, KIA while piloting the Temple Ship away from Earth.

Is there a class restriction on the Ethereal Device? I had two psionic troopers, Col. Becker (sniper) and Col. Nikolai 'Psycho' Zaytsev (assault), but when I activated the Gollop Chamber, I could only choose Col. Becker.

Also, point of interest: in my first encounter with an Ethereal, I managed a live capture, courtesy of Col. Molly 'Sheriff' Hill (assault).

It's been a little bit since I played, but playing around with the second wave options make the game crazy amusing. Random stats and class abilities make for really amusing characters. My supports first upgrade choices allowed her to get the heavy ability to fire twice (or move and fire, reload and fire, etc) which was quite useful. Although my snipers ended up getting slightly hosed with their choices so I MEC'd them and got laughs as they blew everything away with miniguns and railguns at 100+ aim stat.

I never really played this game until recently, and the second wave stuff makes it pretty interesting. Basically I cull people with weak wills, just like the original xcom!

I don't have the expansion yet, but it sounds pretty good.

I found it totally worth the cost of admission. The game is balanced much more overall.

I bought Enemy Within. Must be a huge download, it's taking forever.

OK, having played it a bit, it's very much a mixed bag. I haven't built a Genetics Lab yet, but my first MEC trooper (Shaojie Zhang, the Triad guy you rescue in one of the Council missions) is pretty cool. On the downside, I am extremely unhappy with the across-the-board nerf to XCOM's weapons. Instead of base damage being a flat number (previously 4 for standard assault rifles, for example), weapons now inflict a variable amount of damage (the assault rifle does 2-4 damage). What, precisely, the fuck?

That is not a new thing. Or rather, you might have noticed before that you didn't always do the listed damage on a weapon. Now they are just showing you the range.

It is a new thing. Before, damage could be modified by the target's Defense, but the base damage was a flat number: an assault rifle hit would always, or nearly always, kill a Sectoid or Thin Man. Now, assault rifles no longer reliably kill Sectoids or Thin Men in one hit. I shudder to think what's going to happen when I start running into Sectopods.

Pain, suffering, explosions, and possibly a slight tingling before death.

WELL... Sectopods now take 50% reduced damage and HEAT rounds from heavies only add +50% damage... but you won't run into sectopods for a long time.

I'm also pretty sure the alien weapons now do increased damage. Sectoids' plasma pistols do 6 damage on a crit, when I think they were 4 before.


So, Enemy Within is Firaxis giving a rimjob to the masochistic grognards who whine about games not being difficult enough?

Got me. I enjoyed it a lot, and am not so good with difficult games.

Hardly. I didn't find Enemy Within any more or less difficult than Enemy Unknown. They simply rebalanced skills and enemies to make some not complete jokes (really, sectopods may as well have been a joke when 1 heavy shot would almost kill them and would take out cyberdiscs).

You know what they did? Made it so you have to play smarter and use more teamwork. Especially when you want to move fast sometimes to grab the MELD.

Cover and flanking is even more important than ever before!!!

Well, except for the MECs.

Yeah, well, when you're a ten-foot tall monster of metal and cybernetics, you really don't need cover.

I'm pretty sure that's an option - even in the base game.

I know on my steam version (without the expansion) I can toggle a setting that makes weapon damages a range instead of a fixed number.

I know the option. It's turned off in my game.

If I'm not mistaken, the starting assault rifle has a range of 2 - 4. The vast majority of the time without the option enabled, you will hit for 3. This remained true for me in both EU and EW.

Hey, remember how there was some talk here (or somewhere else on DS, I can't recall where) on how awesome it would be if XCOM was a tabletop game?

Weeellll.....

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4972

(not a minis game, obviously, but this still is pretty good. And FFG does good work too)

I remember seeing something a long time ago for an actual miniatures game based on the original XCOM.