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After several hints on Twitter Firaxis have announced a brand new DLC for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Unlike Shen’s Last Gift and Alien Hunters this is a full expansion with two main overarching mechanics as well as a slew of smaller features.
The first major feature is a group that the expansion is named after: a group of aliens known as The Chosen. This is an elite force of three powerful foes: the Ranger-like Assassin, the long range sniper Hunter and the psionic Warlock. The Chosen are trying to recapture the Commander with each having their own strengths and combat doctrine and each will return again and again growing stronger just as XCOM does until you find and defeat their stronghold much like EXALT in Enemy Within.
To help deal with The Chosen as well as other new threats they have introduced three other resistance factions: the Reapers, the Skirmishers and the Templars. Working alongside these factions and helping them over the course of the campaign will eventually allow you to recruit their members as what are referred to as “Hero” classes.
Reapers specialise in stealth, sniping and sabotage. Skirmishers are stated as being alien-human hybrid defectors who are extremely quick and can perform multiple actions per turn and Warlocks are psionics who charge up their power over time to perform a big play off.
The Chosen are not the only new foes however. So far a new alien, the Spectre who has the ability to create copies of your forces, as well as two ADVENT units have been shown off. The ADVENT Purifier has so far been stated to use explosives whereas the Priest utilises psionics. In addition to this there is The Lost, zombie like mutants found in pre invasion ruined cities.
Ruins aren’t the only new environment however, also confirmed are underground tunnels and xenoformed wilderness.
In addition to the new sub factions Firaxis have put greater emphasis on customisation and replayability. One part of this is that soldiers build bonds with their teammates to gain new abilities and perks. Whether or not they keep these when not with their friends is not clear however although I would doubt it.
Additionally the new SITREP system will dynamically add modifiers to tactical missions which combined with the already existing dynamic mission map generation (which will most likely see new tiles being added) will allow for each operation feeling much more unique.
War of the Chosen is stated for release on the 29th of August on Steam, Xbox One and Playstation 4.
Destiny 2’s coming up soon, and Bungie confirmed last week that the threat of Destiny ‘The Darkness’ wouldn’t end up being discussed during the sequel either. Players would love to find out what it was so this is a little disappointing, but turns out that actually they might not be the only ones who don’t know.
Talking to Game Informer, game director Luke Smith said “Destiny 2 is a game about Light, and what happens when it’s taken from you, and the lengths that Guardians will go to get it back. We’re exploring the relationship between the player and the Ghost in terms of Light, and Ghaul’s coveting of the Light. As such, we wanted to carve off other things that we didn’t think were important to the release, such as words like The Darkness.”
He did admit that players were due some closure on The Darkness, but said it wouldn’t be happening in Destiny 2. Why? “We had no idea what it was. Straight up. We had no clue.”
So it seems that the mysterious The Darkness is so mysterious that not even its own creators know quite what it is. They admitted there’s been some ideas thrown around such as saying it was the name for the group of aliens you fight, but decided that their IP deserved much better than just that.
Hopefully if there’s a Destiny 3, we’ll find out just what players have been fighting against.
A popular modding tool for GTA V among other games was taken down about a week ago, when the creators received a case and desist letter from Take Two. Obviously the modders felt they had no choice to avoid legal action.
OpenIV had been going since 2008 and as well as GTA V had been used for modding it’s predecesor GTA IV and Max Payne 3. A lot of people used it and a lot of people loved it. However, the notice gave the developers little choice and they took down all the files and ceases distribution entirely.
The player response has not exactly been favourable to Take Two and Rockstar, with the Steam rating of reviews given to the GTA V game going from a highly Positive percentage down to Mixed – with many of the new reviews stating the takedown of OpenIV was what was causing them to review it as Negative now. Now a petition has popped up on Change.org asking Rockstar to ‘save’ the mod by allowing the team behind it to distribute it again, as well as asking that modding “be deemed legal again” across the series.
“The closing of OpenIV leaves 10,000s of people without access to be able to mod their games, and leaves 10,000s of people without the ability to continue their hobbies. All modding used by OpenIV is for singleplayer use only to make the game more enjoyable, the software OpenIV was never used to mod multiplayer or Grand Theft Auto Online so it does not harm anyone.”
However, the response from Rockstar a few days back disagrees on that last point about the mods being kept to singleplayer, as they stated that the reason Take Two had to tackle OpenIV was that it had been the basis for a number of recent malicious mods that “allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody.” They have also stated that they are working to find a way they can “continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players.”
