Just for the setting, if nothing else, Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Arkham Knight
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided(though, admittedly, that might be optimistic, but...)
The Division
Homefront 2, which looks interesting with the scrounging they're talking about
Just Cause 3
Overwatch
Rainbow 6 Siege, which I'm sorta worried about, but at the same time...R6.
Rising Tides for Civ:Beyond Earth
Uncharted 4, which I'll buy the damn console for. Just have to have.
XCom 2

Then, of course, are the ones probably NOT coming this year, but which will probably be at E3, so more info, at least.

Borderlands 3
Fallout 4
Mass Effect 4, before all others really.
And the new and secret stuff that hasn't been revealed yet.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

More like two. One for the game to come out, and one for the version that actually works to follow.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ah, too true, I can't wait to see the Day One bug list on this one. And it's next-gen too, so that probably means all the teething problems of a new engine thrown in as well. Still, I like to maintain some measure of optimism, if only because I've been waiting on this game since at least 2011.

Still, I'm not sure how thrilled I am by this trailer. One thing is for certain, Bethesda is no JJ Abrams when it comes to keeping secrets. Most of the reveals in the trailer, from Boston being the setting to the player character having a voice were leaked months or even years ago. About the only surprising thing was a lack of Ron Perlman narration, unless that's him doing the news report. Please, Bethesda, don't tell us you got rid of Ron!

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Well okay then, Bethesda did manage to keep at least one secret.

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

:)

--G.
tcai
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yes, this, too.

So... the premise of XCOM 2 is, "You lost XCOM 1."

And that's not the sound of me reaching for the preorder button.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yeah, I'm left wondering what was the whole point of the first game's narrative, with the big twist in the finale that there was some bigger bad out there that even the Ethereals feared, if the idea for the next game was "Let's just act like everybody who played the first game gave up in frustration."

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Granted, there's probably something out there that does it better than XCOM, but I have yet to find it.

It doesn't sound promising, does it? But they've got an IGN article out with quotes more or less explaining the reasoning.

It goes something like...

'We want to make the most awesome gameplay' --> 'We want to have it make more goddamn sense than Terror From the Deep did' --> 'Some kind of big new threat'd be pretty hard with the setup we had from the last game' --> 'So what about a Bad End continuation?' --> 'That'd be kind of a gyp to players that won the game?' --> 'Not if we set it after the abandoned campaigns.'

...And y'know? I'm okay with that. I play on bloody easy, and I haven't finished every run I ever started. I'm sure every player has at least one campaign they failed or gave up on.

A second chance to clean those up seems pretty neat.

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

If I play this one, in my head it will be the continuation of my first-ever attempt to play Enemy Unknown (also my first-ever attempt to play any small-unit tactics game!) Normal difficulty, IIRC, and things were going so well until the first terror mission, at which point the Chrysalids executed a textbook TPK on the only squad I'd bothered to train, leaving me with nothing but rookies. Faced with this, the base commander just ... gave up, and ignored all further alien activity for two months, which is how long it took the Council to pull the funding.

(Out of character, I figured there was no way I could win at that point so I might as well hit fast-forward and see the bad ending.)

IMO of course, but sugar-coating, "you, the player, fucked up last time around and this the result," doesn't make it any less bitter.

... if we hadn't explicitly set such a thing up in the closing cutscene, anyway.

What? I'm just sayin'. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

For that matter, they could opt for orbital bombardment as a strategy, and where would we be then? In need of new gear for a new environment, new craft to combat the threat, and very far behind the curve with most of our critical infrastructure down - all XCOM's gear is designed for surface work, they'd need new tech for zero/low-G environs. And by the end of the game, we're taking the fight to them in space, possibly with a final mission on the moon or Mars. And the next game? Interplanetary/interstellar warfare as we seek out the source, while the aliens just keep getting weirder and more dangerous. And maybe, just maybe, at the end of the line we find out that we have become the bad guys they were afraid of to begin with.

...Yes, I realize that's a gross oversimplification of the process and a LOT of speculation. I woke up with an urge to plot, please don't hit, etc.

I've assumed there was going to be no maybe about this, regardless, ever since Dr. Shen first started telegraphing it with his Curiously Specific Concerns in the original game - and never mind when Enemy Within practically came with a Western Union logo. Of course humanity's adaptations to win the war with the aliens makes it cease to be humanity, that's always the message in 21st-century sci-fi.

--G.
yawn
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I was surprised, with the way the first half of the trailer looked, that they went with flat-out stating "you lost X-COM 1" rather than "X-COM won the war but the aliens won the peace", considering how much alien tech that Earth appropriated. Seems like a gradual infiltration / EXALT type government would have blended in better.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Just tell them the aliens are an allegory for illegal immigration, problem solved and best-selling game of 2015 to boot!
What, me cynical? never!

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Mercifully(?), I think this is a game setting too preoccupied with that "post-human singularity" bullshit to bother being political.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

(I literally typed four separate responses before this one, each taking a different tack on the post-human thing, before realizing that I am neither qualified nor particularly inclined to soapbox on the subject and thereby humiliate myself.)

Further, and deeper explanation of this found HERE,
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/11/xcom-2s-bleak-future-why-impossible-iron-man-mode-is-canon-ign-first

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

Still not reaching for the preorder button.

But I do think I can get along with the "whelp, you failed; now try again only poorer" setup to at least get around to playing it eventually.

-Droken

-Droken

No, sorry, not idea, the other one. Fact. Fact is the word. Firaxis's designer said so, can't remember where off the top of my head, I'll dig it up and link to it later.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

You can do that with the original game, though. You don't have to give Firaxis more money for the privilege. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

-Droken

Would I be indulging in a bit of old-mannery if I said "Good." at this point? :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I hated seeing them pop up on UFO Defense every time. Snakemen == crysalids back in the day, as you know well. That association will forever be burned into my mind.

-Droken

Considering that, as far as I know, we're about of age, and I'm pleased as SHIT that they're there? I don't really know...

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

I thought the Thin Men were a pretty good replacement, is all. They filled mainly the same gameplay niche and fit the "UFO Pop Culture" theme better.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Plus I still think that, of all the little videos we get during the interrogations, the Thin Man's was the coolest. He doesn't screech or pound against the glass, he just gives the scientists one hell of a death glare.

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

On the one hand, point, definetly. On the other hand...well, harkening back, as it were, to the original X-Com? Definetly a bonus for me.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

These are the same fans who, if they'd been handed a trailer showing that all the work that had gone into the previous two games had been thrown out and everything looked totally different, would scream "It looks nothing like the other games!"

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject