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[Culise]

I admit it kind of pisses me off when I go through an entire game winning it

Only for the sequel to go "Ha ha FOOLED YOU! you actually failed the entire time!"

I'm not really seeing that, though.  If they'd pulled something like, "nope, there was an even bigger Temple Ship that decloaked and blew the ever-loving daylights out of XCOM a week later, ha ha ha," I could, but this is an alternate world, more like a situation where XCOM never had the player as Commander in the first place.  Your original XCOM timeline is still presumably rebuilding from under the wreckage of the alien attacks as part and parcel of their own "happily ever after." 

[Neonivek]

It can't be that Culise because if you see the main aliens are the Sectoid Hybrids.

[Culise]

What do you mean?  As far as I was aware, they were hybridized after the successful alien conquest.  I apologize, but I'm not really seeing how Sectoid hybrids rule out this taking place in an alternate world. 

[LoSboccacc]

well ufo: aftermath plot kind of worked: they used a biological agent to kill all population off, after losing with conventional weapons. gg humans, but the xcom still didn't surrender and eventually they come to a truce, since there was nothing to fight for anymore anyway (for the xcom) and the plot/game revolves around xcom discovering that there was something indeed, they was foiled, and they resume the fighting.

that features a spaceship alien lended to the xcom operatives to continue living since the earth is scorched anyway. ehehe. laputa. never name a thing without a translator team support. eheheh.

pretty enjoyable game all considered.

[KingofstarrySkies]

I believe the statement 'twas that in this timeline, XCOM lost within the first week. Stop whining.

I wonder if EXALT has any role in this - I think they stated somewhere ADVENT isn't EXALT (but maybe they are related, eh?). Or maybe they could join forces with XCOM at some point for their own reasons. They could teach XCOM their whole 'you can't capture me, poison!'-routine. Us terrorists need all the help we can get.

They said that ADVENT isn't directly related to EXALT, but then again whenever have those fuckers ever done anything directly? (except charging toward encoders)

I refuse to believe that XCOM 2 is canon. AltUniverse? SURE! But not canon. NNNNNO.

I'd love an alt-universe setting, because then I'd be commanding an alternate XCOM. Some sort of X-ALT, as it were

ohohohoohohohohohooOHOHOHOHOHOOOO

[BurnedToast]

I admit it kind of pisses me off when I go through an entire game winning it

Only for the sequel to go "Ha ha FOOLED YOU! you actually failed the entire time!"

Some games don't expect/plan for a sequel.  Some games are designed for the good guys to win everything.  This is probably one of those games.
You either retcon just about everything and pass it off as the new canon timeline or you make an obvious what-if alternate universe.

But it's so *easy* to fit it into a "you won the first game" scenario, there's no reason for them to have to insult players with a "LOLNOPE U FAILED" scenario.

Do we still need to spoiler xcom spoilers? well I will anyway just in case

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You find out at the end of xcom:EU was all a test, the aliens didn't really want to destroy you they wanted to see if you were good enough to fight some unknown galactic big bad. Blowing up the temple ship is supposed to be you defeating them, but all they had to do was change it it so the temple ship was the final part of the test. You blow it up, you win, a week later 500 temple ships show up and they aren't playing around anymore. The technologies you discovered didn't have time to become widely disseminated and the alien attackers dismantled XCOM setting you back to pre-invasion tech

There. game setting is exactly the same, players don't get insulted, everyone is happy.

I could understand if EU had ended with you teleporting a million nukes into the alien homeworld or something... but it just seems so perfectly set up for this scenario I don't know why they have to set it up that you lost.

[Hawk132]

How is it insulting? I don't understand.

I actually like the "YOU GOT REKT, LOL" thing.

[Krevsin]

That leaves me even more salty than the game saying: "Here's what would have happened if you weren't around! Or competent!" because in this case the game actually acknowledges that you were successful only to have your success be taken away by the machinations of the Plot.

Just make it that the player wasn't there/was taking drugs at the time/accept that this is an alternative universe and that if you want to relive your glory days of defeating an invasion of aliens by good ol' human spirit and plasma weaponry you'd probably be better off playing XCOM:EW.

[Henny]

What's this thing with Bradford and dashing?

A quote by Kagus back when EU was new, that I have saved in my quote file.

Bradbert:"Gentlemen, we're heading into a very dangerous mission with lots of unknown factors.  I want you to exercise extreme caution at all times."

Moi:"Roger that, command"

Bradbert:"Now, use up all your movement by dashing madly ahead with everybody, and make sure to cluster around explosive objects with lots of flanks"

Yours Truly:"...Uh, sir, I think-"

Bradbert:"DASH!  DASH!  I MUST SEE THE DASHING, I LOVE DASHING!  SO HAPPY AND FREE!"

Still Me:"Fine, yes sir, right away."

Brad:"Now, I want you to jump through that window into the unexplored dark building with no support, and make sure to dash while you're at it so you can't fire any shots."

XCOM Commander:"Sir?  Shouldn't we-"

Rad Brad:"JUMP THROUGH THE WINDOW.  I MUST SEE IT SHATTER, I LOVE IT WHEN IT SHATTERS!"

Yo Supremo:"Yes sir."

Bradminton:"Okay, see that obviously unstable man with the shotgun and grenade?  Send someone right in front of him to talk things over."

Kagus-with-a-fancy-hat:"What?  Sir, that's just stupid.  We haven't cleared the building, we have no idea what's going on here, and that man is clearly not in his right mind.  We should-"

A Brad Enough Dude:"THAT BOMB LOOKS INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS, YOU MUST SECURE IT AT ALL COSTS."

Me:"Fuck you, sir."

Kagus - bay12

Plot twist: Bradford was the Commander in this alternate universe.

[Rolan7]

Fakedit: I kinda got ninja'd but oh well
Actual edit:  A lot of personal interpretation got into this, oh well.  I still think that having XCOM lose the first game is reasonable and the opposite of insulting.

Dunno, that seems way more insulting.  Considering things like the base assault mission, it also feels contrived.  The aliens do their best to destroy XCOM.  Not humanity, which they want for experiments, but XCOM definitely.  I don't believe they're giving meld to XCOM on purpose, considering it "detonates" just like their weapons do.  Seems more likely that they're spreading it into the environment as part of their research.

It's not like they need XCOM to unlock human psionic capability.  Just look at Operation Progeny - regardless of XCOM's psi research status, the aliens instill four abductees with psionic power greater than anything XCOM ever discovers.  They then use these powers to try to *destroy* XCOM HQ - not test it.  They've already found exactly what they're looking for, they just need to capture Earth relatively intact.

If the player wins NewCOM 1, the aliens fail.  It's true they serve some "higher power", and that could have been a basis for a sequel, but that would cheapen the victory and result in awkward power creep.  The TFTD problem: All your soldiers are flying around with blaster bombs and mind controlling ethereals, so where does the challenge come from?

(Apocalypse handled this perfectly, and I would have absolutely loved an Apocalypse-style NewCOM.  At least there are style similarities)

I've won games of XCOM, but I've also lost them.  Heck, I haven't won it on Impossible or Long War, I probably never will.  So I feel like this choice actually lauds winners.  "Oh, you actually managed to save humanity despite being outnumbered, outgunned, and hilariously underfunded?  That's amazing.  Here's what would have happened without you, could you fix this too?"

Instead of "Your 'victory' was completely orchestrated by the aliens.  More of them arrive from nowhere and delete all your research data and equipment."

[Culise]

Instead of "Your 'victory' was completely orchestrated by the aliens.  More of them arrive from nowhere and delete all your research data and equipment."

I completely agree.  This kind of story tells the player, "it doesn't matter what you did or what you do.  You lose, a DEM rips you apart, and worst of all, no matter what you did, it played exactly into the aliens' real plan."  The story Firaxis seems to have gone with doesn't say that, because it wasn't you; it was a different commander (Bradford, for instance, as Henny joked).

[10ebbor10]

Also, the problem with the aliens sending 500 temple ships to blow you up is that directly enforces serious villain decay. After all, they send 500 ships, curbstomp you into oblivion, and then what? All their ships patiently bugger off to give you a fighting chance?

That's not to say an XCOM victory couldn't work for a sequel. But I'd rather have it through a logical chain of events, rather than another Deus-ex-machina.

[Hawk132]

This week we got our first look at XCOM 2 and the war to free Earth from alien occupation by way of an action-filled cinematic trailer depicting an XCOM attack on an Advent and alien patrol. You can probably pick up on many of its hints on your own (watch the original trailer below if you missed it), but to dig deeper and unearth some juicier secrets, I sat down with the brains behind the game: Creative Director Jake Solomon and Lead Producer Garth DeAngelis. Watch the video above to hear them elaborate on how the classes and abilities shown will affect gameplay in XCOM 2.

EDIT: Wrong link. Fixed.

EDIT2: Fixed the link even more.

[GobbieMarauder]

I really don't understand how a hypothetical "what if XCOM lost?" scenario is somehow more insulting to the players of XCOM:EU than a contrived "aliens won anyway nothing you did mattered lol gg noob" handwave.

[umiman]

Non mobile link to Hawk's thing: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/06/03/xcom-2-reveal-trailer-rewind-theater