I don’t know how easy XCOM’s easy mode is. All I know is that’s I’m responsible for the deaths of tens of men and women, having jumped straight into Classic Ironman like a dummy. But reportedly it wasn’t all that easy, and consequently Firaxis have sanded down some of its spikes. They’ve also fixed some biggish bugs; find out which after the jump.
Whoosh. Straight over the jump, like one of those ugly redesigned floaters that killed by best sniper last night.
Speaking of which: it turns out there was a problem with the Snapshot skill – an alternative to the much-better Squadsight which allows snipers to fire after movement, with an attendent penalty to accuracy. The penalty had been applying to snipers Overwatching without first moving, which is obviously bad. Luckily Firaxis have squashed the bug, even as they reveal its existence.
More dramatically, there was an issue which prevented players from moving or interacting with their SHIVs – not prison knives, but robots which use up a slot in your squad. That’s fixed now, along with some visibility problems on the roofs of alien Abductors, dodgy multiplayer connectivity and hanging ‘Alien Activity’ screens.
Not fixed is the bug that hilariously/unforgivably sees the campaign win cutscene replaced with its defeat equivalent, although Firaxis are currently “researching this issue”.
XCOM is a big game – I’m sure there are still nasty problems lurking out there in the darkness. Are there any gaping wounds you’ve uncovered yet to be cauterised?
Thanks, Eurogamer.