XCOM 2

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC strategy games ever made, now freshened up to include our favourites from 2017 and 2018. From intricate, global-scale wargames to the tight thrills of guerrilla squads, the broad expanse of the genre contains something for everyone, and we've gathered the best of the best. The vast majority are available to buy digitally, a few are free…

Tagged with AI War: Fleet Command, best games, Best Of Strategy, Best Strategy Games, bestest games, Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension, Dune 2, Dune Legacy, feature, Galactic Civilizations II, Gary Grigsby's War In The East, Ground-Control, Heroes of Might & Magic III – HD Edition, Imperialism 2, Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded, Myth, Rise-of-Nations, RPS Recommended, rps-ultromegafeature, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Colonization, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, Warlords II, Age Of Wonders III, Battle for Wesnoth, BattleTech, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Company of Heroes, Crusader Kings II, Darkest Dungeon, Defcon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Endless Space 2, Europa Universalis IV: Art of War, Frozen Synapse, Hearts of Iron IV, Homeworld Remastered Collection, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, King of Dragon Pass, Men Of War, Neptune's Pride, Northgard, Offworld Trading Company, Panzer Corps, Solium Infernum, StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Stellaris, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, Total War: Warhammer, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Unity of Command, warcraft III, Wargame: AirLand Battle, XCOM 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

The mutant spider queen ripped through another building and I knew my team was dead. This didn’t bother me, I’ve played enough of nu-XCOM to accept the loss of humanity’s last hope. But there’s something more unsettling than being impaled by a large arachnid in Phoenix Point. Its the game’s uncanny and unnerving resemblance to its XCOM cousins. It’s like seeing a doppelgänger of your…

Tagged with feature, Julian Gollop, preview, Snapshot Games, Phoenix Point, XCOM 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months. Below is the full, hundred-strong…

Tagged with Age of Empires II HD, Call of Duty®: Black Ops II, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, feature, Final Fantasy XIV Online, Left 4 Dead 2, NBA 2K17, NBA 2K18, Shadowverse CCG, Steam, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, 7 Days To Die, Ark: Survival Evolved, Arma 3, Assassin's Creed Origins, Astroneer, Black Desert Online, Borderlands 2, Call of Duty: WW2, charts, Cities: Skylines, Conan Exiles, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Crusader Kings II, Cuphead, Dark Souls III, Darkest Dungeon, Dead by Daylight, Dishonored 2, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Don't Starve Together, Doom, Dota 2, Dying Light, Elite Dangerous, Endless Space 2, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Europa Universalis IV, Factorio, Fallout 4, Farming Simulator 17, Football Manager 2017, Football Manager 2018, For Honor, Friday the 13th: The Game, Garry's Mod, Grand Theft Auto V, Grim Dawn, H1Z1, Hearts of Iron IV, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Hitman, Hollow Knight, Just Cause 3, Killing Floor 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, NieR: Automata, Northgard, Oxygen Not Included, Paladins, Path of Exile, Payday 2, Planet Coaster, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Prey, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, RimWorld, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, Rocket League, Rust, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Smite, Sniper Elite 4, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Stardew Valley, Stellaris, Subnautica, Tales of Berseria, Team Fortress 2, Tekken 7, Terraria, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Forest, The Sims 3, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, theHunter: Call of the Wild, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Tom Clancy's The Division, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, Wallpaper Engine, War Thunder, Warframe, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War III, Watch Dogs 2, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, XCOM 2.

Back in the summer, I boldly declared that 'I will play XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen's daily challenge mode every day.' Er. Whoops. I've only played a handful since then, and I'm not alone there. Though the mode still pumps out a new challenge every day, it hasn't blossomed into a new religion in the same way The Binding of Isaac and Spelunky's daily…

Tagged with daily challenges, Firaxis, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

Though it suffers from having as many different tones as the last thirty years of Dulux catalogues sellotaped together, I found in my XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen review that the latest expansion for Firaxis' game is an extremely effective remix of, basically, everything. But there's one very small change in WOTC that I didn't mention - a tiny thing with massive, massive repercussions…

Tagged with feature, Firaxis Games, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

I'd long suspected it, but it's nice to have tangible evidence: I am the best in the world at XCOM. For one moment of one day, on one of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen [official site]'s daily challenge maps. It could happen again another day, and, yeah, I guess this is going to be my life now.

Tagged with feature, Firaxis Games, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

As predicted, I spent most of the weekend playing XCOM 2: War of the Chosen [official site]. It's good to be back, fighting against the faux-benevolent burger-making overlords of future Earth, but I haven't actually made a great deal of progress in my new campaign. That's because there have been several new campaigns, and that's because I'm an idiot who can't resist the lure of…

Tagged with 2K, feature, Firaxis, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

The Steam Charts aren't, as you may have been led to expect, large sprawling maps depicting the locations of all the world's known steam. They were, but due to government pressure we've altered them to list the top ten selling games on Steam, in reverse order, like a rocket taking off.

Tagged with feature, Steam Charts, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition, Absolver, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Grand Theft Auto V, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, The Escapists 2, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

Hark, it's the sweet vocal vibrations of the humble RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. The lads (lads lads) are back from the bright lights of Gamescom and ready to chat hard about the games they saw. But Pip is only giving us a maximum of three words about each one. Madness. Never mind, we can talk more verbosely about the alien-shooting of the Destiny…

Tagged with Bungie, Devolver Digital, feature, Firaxis, Sloclap, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Absolver, Destiny 2, Gamescom, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

I had a whale of a time with XCOM 2: War of the Chosen [official site] (out today), despite finding its tonal ping-ponging between gritty resistance saga and preposterous superheroics a little jarring. Speaking of the latter, here's a video I made showing just how off-the-chain crazy the various new abilities, weapons and features can be. In the space of a single turn (the first…

Tagged with feature, Firaxis Games, video, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

Other sites will bombard you with "facts" and "details" about the top-selling games on Steam, but not us. We won't patronise you with such things. We know you're better than that, taller, more attractive than the readers of those sites. We know you know we know you better, and as such reach for higher, smarter, more eloquent brilliance.

Tagged with feature, Steam Charts, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, F1 2017, Grand Theft Auto V, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Prey, Quake Champions, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, The Escapists 2, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

Fallen cities swarming with the dangerous remnants of their human populations, alien battlefield commanders who resemble fantastical heroes, new rulesets for friendship and fear, and an actual active resistance out on the Geoscape. XCOM 2 [official site] is changing. The War of the Chosen is "definitely the biggest expansion we've ever done", lead designer Jake Solomon told us at E3. Introducing unique enemy champions doesn't…

Tagged with 2K, E3 2017, feature, Firaxis, Jake Solomon, preview, XCOM 2, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. There was a time when I'd buy anything X-COM. I sometimes look at people who have an entire room dedicated to collectibles and tat based on a specific franchise and think, "there but for the grace of Gollop go I". If there'd been…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, X-COM: Interceptor, XCOM 2.

The original X-COM (UFO: Enemy Unknown), Julian Gollop tells me, "succeeded in spite of itself". I asked him how he felt about the game now, twenty three years after its initial release, and particularly about the way it's often placed on a pedestal. He didn't expect it to be a success and certainly didn't think he'd be making a game heavily based on its legacy…

Tagged with feature, interview, Julian Gollop, Snapshot Games, Phoenix Point, UFO: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Those of you familiar with XCOM 2's Long War 2 [official site] mod will know it needs little introduction. Crafted by Pavonis Interactive (formerly Long War Studios), it's the indirect follow-up to Enemy Unknown's Long War - a total conversion mod that expands upon Firaxis' core concepts and ideas, making just about every little detail more difficult along the way. Long War 2 offers much…

Tagged with best mods, feature, Firaxis, long war, long war two, mods, Pavonis Interactive, XCOM 2.

From the very first mission of The Long War 2, the stakes are different. Your enlarged squad isn't doing anything as brash as blowing up an Advent statue; instead, they've managed to track down an under-strength patrol and are determined to take it down. Two things are immediately clear: the insurgency aren't as bold as at the beginning of vanilla XCOM 2, but, as individuals…

Tagged with 2K, Firaxis, Pavonis Interactive, The Long War 2, XCOM 2: Long War 2, XCOM 2.

We command you to open the next door in our calendar, Commander. It's 2016's best strategy game, XCOM 2.

Tagged with 2K, feature, Firaxis, The RPS Advent Calendar 2016, The RPS Bestest Best Games 2016, XCOM 2.

We usually do our enormous GAMES OF THE YEAR posting fest at the end of the year (as would seem logical) but because it seems silly to reserve praise for special occasions we're doing a Games Of The Half Year collection to tell you about everything we've loved playing so far. It can double as a summer holiday recommendations list too! We've listed ours in…

Tagged with Best PC games 2016, feature, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, American Truck Simulator, Apollo 11, best pc games, Californium, Cookie Clicker, Dark Souls III, Darkest Dungeon, Day Of The Tentacle Remastered, Devil Daggers, Digital Bird Playground, Doom, Duskers, Dying Light: The Following, Enter the Gungeon, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, Fantastic Contraption, Firewatch, Grim Dawn, Hitman, It's Spring Again, Kathy Rain, North, Offworld Trading Company, Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, Overland, Overwatch, Oxenfree, Pony Island, Samorost 3, Sorcery! Part 3, Stardew Valley, Stellaris, Stephen's Sausage Roll, Stikbold, Subnautica, SUPERHOT, Tetrageddon Games, The Flame in the Flood, The Lab, The Witness, Tilt Brush, Total War: Warhammer, Virtual Desktop, XCOM 2.