XCOM 2 by Firaxis – First Look

A sequel to Firaxis’s reboot of the franchise was announced recently. The game seems to follow a divergent timeline from the original games.

XCOM Timeline

In the original xcom games released by microprose the games followed the “win” condition of the previous game.

1. XCOM: UFO Defense – (1998) – The Aliens appear for the first time attacking humanity. XCOM is tasked with eliminating the threat. Eventually tracking them down on Mars and defeating them.
   1. XCOM: Enforcer – (1999) – An Enforcer program is started that attempts to create the perfect robot warrior to combat the emerging threat. Though the program was discontinued by the primary XCOM project, it continued in secret by a scientist who refuses to give up on its potential.
2. XCOM: Terror from the Deep – (2040) – Following their defeat on mars the aliens activate their earthbound ocean base to continue their assault on earth.
3. XCOM: Interceptor – (2067) – Though the aliens are defeated earth is finding it increasingly difficult to find the resources we need and so, using its space travel capabilities we set forth to gather resources from space. Our enemy however wants those resources for themselves and so the inevitable conflict commences.
4. XCOM: Apocalypse – (2090) – Humans have been forced to live in domed cities as the surface of the earth has become inhospitable to life. The XCOM project is now little more than a non-profit organization. The aliens return via portals and you are forced to fight them back and save the primary domed city.

The original series took some interesting twists but it seems that firaxis is taking a different approach. The reboot timeline is as follows:

1. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified – (1962) – Aliens show up with a plot to abduct people and terraform the earth to suit their needs. The US creates a branch called XCOM to deal with the threat discretely. The aliens are defeated and the events are hidden from the general public.
2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown – (2012) – The aliens have returned and cannot be ignored as they are openly attacking cities and gaining major media coverage. XCOM is established again but as a national organization.
   1. XCOM: Enemy Within – (2012) – XCOM pursues radical methods such as genetic manipulation and cybernetics to combat the alien threat.
3. (2015) – In the end, XCOM is unable to deal with the threat and the nations of the earth are forced to unconditionally surrender. The XCOM project is dismantled and scattered. The aliens build new cities that they operate to deal with the survivors of the conflict. This becomes known as unification
4. XCOM 2 – (2035) – Survivors of the XCOM project have banded together on the edges of society to try to fight back against the alien incursion and reclaim the earth for humanity.

So basically things went down like this

Gameplay

Though we only have the following still image to go by

It looks to be similar to Enemy unknown and a return to the turn based strategic combat the game is known for. It looks like we will be seeing melee weapons in this game. This is something we’ve not seen in an XCOM game since terror from the deep and UFO defense. Though it looks like we’ll be getting a bit more verity than what was  featured in those games. At the very least we’ll be getting swords instead of stun rods and vibro blades (which were just glorified drills).

New Robot units

We see in the trailer what appears to be a robotic unit fighting alongside the XCOM group. It has a similar appearance to the flying drones in Enemy Unknown. What we can tell from the trailer:

• It flies. Yeah ok, this is obvious but mechanical flying units friendly to XCOM were pretty non-existent in Enemy Unknown. it’s nice to see a return of this type of unit as even UFO defense had flying heavy weapon platforms(later called SHIVs in Enemy Unknown) that could be built.
• It some sort of energy effect around it suggesting it has some level of shielding
• It fires an electrical attack reminiscent of the arc throwers in Enemy Unknown and the foe hit by it simply crumples to the ground without any other sign of damage, this suggests that the drone either is or can be equipped with an arc thrower that can stun opponents. However, the alien drones in Enemy Unknown had a lethal electrical attack so it may just be this.

Return of the Snakemen

This was also nice to see. In the trailer one of the guards standing outside the genetic processing center is a snakeman. Snakemen were a normal enemy in UFO Defense. The thinmen in enemy unknown were suggested as being genetically altered snakemen who had been made to look human.

These new snakemen look like they have a constriction attack similar to the strangulation attacks the seekers had in Enemy Within. Though they probably can also poison like the thinmen did.

Muton Streakers I mean Secoids

This is just a theory but we see these guys in the trailer

When I first saw these guys I thought maybe it was a human/secoid hybrid. But apparently these are secoids? This seems like a weird change since they have always been short naked aliens. Making them taller like this to me just makes them look like Mutons who have been neglecting their steroids and have decided to run around without any clothes on for some reason. Even in the trailer we see these guys creeping around in the dark alley ways of the city. This seems really bizarre since the city is controlled and run by the aliens, maybe these really are just muton streakers and they’re trying to not get busted by the cops.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am excited about this game. I was a little bit confused when I first saw the trailer as I didn’t have any context for it and was beginning to wonder if XCOM was being turned into some kind of weird syndicate game. Since I saw XCOM solders running around in populated city with civilians going about their daily lives, whilst ignoring the heavily armed solders. it looks like they might be going the same direction half-life went. I just hope they aren’t. Not because half-life is a bad game, but because the XCOM games have always been best when they’ve only tried to be themselves. Games like Interceptor, Enforcer and even The Bureau all tried to copy other popular games and they were worse for it.

I’m hoping this game is actually XCOM and not just a half-life wanna be.

The Sims Freeplay – Infinte Life Points and Money

In the sims life points can be used to purchase high-end items as well as speeding up completion time of quests. Using this method I can gain as many life points as I want, it just depends on how much time I’m willing to put into it. What’s nice is that since this isn’t a cheat using this method will not risk your game in any way.

The Toast Factory

Step 1: Build a house that will be devoted entirely to the farming of life points. Basically you can just build an empty lot.

Step 2: Build a single room that is 6×18

Step 3: This will give you room to set up 6 stations consisting of (1 toaster, 1 oven and 3 Empty countertops) and 2 stations consisting of (1 toaster, 1 oven, 1 empty counter top and 1 sink).

additional decorations can be added, but these are the basic things you’ll need. It should be noted that for this there is no difference between 1 star and 3 star appliances, so you can get away with buying cheap appliances for each of the stations.

Step 4: You will now want to send as many sims as you can muster to this location to cook. A maximum of 10 sims can be sent, but the factory can be operated with less, but you will gain life points slower.

Ideally you will want 8 sims cooking while 2 sims are on cleanup. (hence the two sinks)

Step 5: Get Life points. Ok, sure there’s slightly more to it than that, but not much. Once you have mastered the cooking hobby you will be given the option to collect all of the cooking items again and your reward for doing so? 5 life points. Additionally, the skill level of your sim no longer matters with regard to collecting items, this means that even a novice can receive the golden measuring spoons. Also, this is infinitely repeatable.

Toast only takes 1 minute to make and costs 5 simoleons, this means that with 8 sims all cooking at the same time you will reveal 8 items every minute. There are only a total of 18 items to collect. In theory you can complete the entire hobby in as little as 3 minutes. In practice though, you will collect all but a few of the items very quickly. After that it can sometimes take a while to get the last items.

In testing you have to cook 70 to 75 toast meals to collect all 18 items. This means that with 8 cooks constantly cooking you will net 5 life points every 10 minutes or so.

But don’t I lose money?

Actually, not only do you not lose money in the process, but you actually make money. This is because each time you collect an item you receive a simoleon reward. The reward varies depending on the level of the item. The rewards are as follows.

 

Rewards
Level	Bronze	Silver	Gold
1	25	50	150
2	25	80	250
3	50	100	275
4	75	200	500
5	500	500	500
6	500	500	500

This means that each time you complete the hobby you get 4,780 simoleons. This is of course not taking into account that as cooks skill up, you also get xp, money and a life point. Even taking into account a cost of 5 per dish and having to make 75 dishes, you only end up spending 375 simoleons.

So, in the end, every 10 minutes you will not only net 5 life points, but earn 4,400 simoleons as well.

I will point out that in order to do this, you basically have 8 sims that are devoted to cooking. The two clean up sims can have whatever hobby you wish as all they are doing is constantly washing dishes. Also, this method requires your constant attention. But, if you want to grind out 30 life points real quick you can do so in an hour, thus making all of the timed quests easily accomplished.

 

 

 

The Sims Freeplay by EA Games

Publisher	Electronic Arts
Platform	Mobile
Multi-account	Yes
Type	Life Simulation, Free to Play
Initial Review Date	2/13/15
Last Updated	2/13/15
Wiki	http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_FreePlay
Files/Tools

Click here to Play

I admit the last “The Sims” game I played prior to playing this game was the original. Like the original you take control of virtual people who seem to be completely incapable of making any decisions. They will sit around becoming dirty and miserable until you command them to do even the most basic of tasks like “go to the bathroom”. However, the game can be fun without becoming overly tedious.

Gameplay

As stated before your sims will not do anything without being told what to do. Due to the free to play model (not to mention being built on a mobile platform) you don’t have the familiar customization of the PC games. There isn’t a built-in method to import original creations and so your options are only what you are provided with. EA does occasionally have specialty events and every so often will introduce new content. Something you will notice right away is the quest system in the game. This system helps give you some direction by rewarding you with points and money for doing certain activities.

Quests

Quests come in three different types. You have Event quests, Weekly quests and Social quests.

Event quests are sort of like mini-stories. At the conclusion of each story you will be rewarded with something major that will give you more play options in the future. These Game play options can be things like giving you a new hobby that your sims can partake in or adding a new feature that can be added to your houses like pools. These event quests also have a count down timer that begins the instant you start a new story. If you complete the story within the time limit you will get an additional reward. The downside is that often the bonus reward can not be obtained any other way and there isn’t a way to try again later or stop the timer. I feel that these options are missing in an effort to monetize the game.

Weekly quests are a random series of tasks that if you finish all of you are rewarded with a single key. Keys can be spent to open mystery boxes that will give you random items. The better boxes require multiple keys requiring you to save up for (quite literally) weeks to get to open. The items you win are added to your inventory which you can then use to place in which ever home you would like them in. Otherwise, completing these tasks will reward you with either life points or simoleons.

Social quests are similar to weekly quests, but with a couple of differences. To start with there is no over reaching goal or limit. A quest can sit uncompleted for weeks with no penalty or limit. You don’t get a special reward for completing a certain number, but you will occasionally get social points. All of these quests require you to complete the task in a neighbor’s town. Unfortunately, this means that if say you have to play with a soccer ball, but none of your neighbor’s have one you’ll either have to convince one of your friends to get one or pay some life points to skip the quest. Purchasing the required item yourself so you can interact with it does not count with regard to completing these.

It should be noted that only social quests can be completed at a neighbor’s town. Interacting with a neighbor’s widget will not count towards other types of quests.

Life Points Vs Social Points Vs Money

As you play you will notice that there exists in the game three types of currency. You have Life points (LP), Social Points (SP) and Simoleons ($). All of your basic items can be purchased with simoleons, these items can be very expensive but its rare to litter ally purchase anything better than a 2 star item (out of a possible 3) just using simoleons. Premium items are always purchased using LP and SP. Often (but not always) these will be 3 star items and can be relatively cheap or quite expensive. EA of course will allow you to spend real money to get any of these currencies, however they can be gotten though normal gameplay as well.

Simoleons are earned by planting, completing quest tasks, working at jobs and a daily bonus which arrives in your sim’s mailbox each day. This is the easiest to get, it is even possible to build a particular building that will give you a chance each time you complete a task, to get bonus money (even if the original task doesn’t give you money or even if it normally costs money).

Life points can be obtained as stated above by completing weekly and event quests. These points will often be rewarded at milestone quests. There are other ways in the game to get them though as follows:

• Leveling: Every time you level you will earn LPs.
• Growing your town: each building you construct adds to the overall value of your town. When you hit certain milestones you are rewarded with LPs.
• Pets: pets will randomly generate simoleons. Often the amount is quite small compared to what you could normally get via baking or planting, however occasionally you will get a LP convince. The higher star pets generate more money and have better chances at give you LPs
• Mastering a Hobby: Once you have gotten all of the collectables for a particular hobby and have gotten all of the special rewards for that hobby, getting all of the collectables again will reward you with LPs
• Maxing out a Hobby: When a sim reaches the highest skill level of a hobby you are rewarded with a single LP
• Watching Ads: Sometimes when you have the quest screen open a blinking filmstrip/LP symbol will blink in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Clicking on this icon will cause you to temporarily leave the game to watch a 30 sec commercial for another mobile app (often other games, but not always). After you watch the commercial you can click on the “x” in the upper right of the screen to close the ad and take you back to the game. You are then rewarded with a single LP. The opportunity to do this seems to be limited and so you can’t just constantly watch ads to build up LP while you wait for your sims to complete a task. Even so, this seems like a fair trade, as you are not required to do anything other than let the ad play.

Life points can also be used to speed up tasks. Generally, this is a poor use of a LP as its benefit is fleeting and they are harder to acquire.

Social points as stated above are earned by completing milestone social quests. I have not yet encountered any other way in-game to get these.

Conclusion

The game has fairly high production value for a free to play mobile game. The graphics are on par with the graphics found in the regular pc sims games and sims are generally responsive to your commands. They do occasionally have pathing issues but they are quick to alert you if they can’t reach something because it is blocked. The biggest annoyance I’ve encountered is when it comes to adding new sims to the game. You have to have an empty house in order for the option to show up though some of the text would seem to indicate you should be able to reach the sim creation screen via other methods. this means that you’ll have to do some shuffling around just to have more than 1 sim per house. This is a minor issue though as it can be worked around without a painful amount of effort. I do miss the customization that the PC games offer but they give you  a reasonable assortment of items to work with. In the end, if you haven’t played the sims, this is the one to try since it’s free. If you have played one of the other games then you already have a pretty good idea if you would like it or not. This game doesn’t really offer anything above or beyond what the other games do, but it is nice having it available on a mobile platform.