[Multiplatform] Xcom etc etc

I played through The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. For me, it replaced Assassin's Creed 3 as the poorest game made in recent years. But enough talk about that pile of crap.

XCOM: The Enemy Unknown is the game Shin is talking about and more people should be.

Playing it co-op together with my otter, it made a fantastic social experience when we were talking all night long about different strategies to overcome the "endless" swarm of enemies. As the missions start, you however DO get the enemy statistics, of how much which incarnation will be present in the level, but we realized that only in the end of the storyline. Oh, well.

The game provided us with a fresh type of challenge, even at normal difficulty. The kind of which games never nowadays do, unless you tweak up the difficulty to maximum, at which point games are usually no fun at all. (Except Civilization Revolution) The fact that the game forces you to make a strategy, or you will die instantly, is a sign of excellent game design. We didn't really go about tweaking the things in the base too much - just some basic operations and whatever was needed for the story to advance. We found out from endgame statistics that we blazed through the game ahead of average.

Things to note: There's basically one strategy that trumps all - early access to plasma sniper rifle. After that it's a breeze. There's no replay value whatsoever though, but that's been the case with every game in the past five years, anyway.

Easily one of the best gaming experiences I've had in years.

Waiting for the upcoming XCOM: The Enemy Within. From what I gather, it's just the same story, but with added complicity in the game mechanics. I think?

Jam it back in, in the dark.