First of all, it's 2k Gabes, you had to expect ridiculously unoptimised game before preordering or buying short after release. It was OBVIOUS the game on the launch will work like 60 years old soviet tractor. I still bought it and playing to my heart's content, and i certanly don't care if my fps can suddenly drop in bloody turn-based game. I spent some time looking for a fix that makes fps drop to the bottom because of bloody USB MODEM connected. And this bug is present since BORDERLANDS 2 and was never fixed (something about 2K online integration and stuff). Majority of Enemy Within performance issues were never fixed and you expected a clean lubed start with this one? This is like buying Total War or Paradox games and expect them to work.
Yes, PC games' quality control is dire nowadays, there's no actual testing, wide variety of PC configurations can not work with the game for mystical reasons, publishers always push devs to release SOONER AND SOONER, it's not a reason to discard the game if the game is good. You should have a vague idea that making games is pretty hard, right? Or do you think throwing a tantrum about having 59 fps isntead of 60 will somehow change the world?
Second of all, people complaining about game being TOO HARD, TIMED MISSIONS ARE TOO FAST, INTEL INCOME TOO LOW... Is it official IGN embassy or what? It's XCOM, bro, make up your mind. You are supposed to care about every single rookie in your barraks and to know how to damage control your every failure. You are supposed to have squad wipes because of bad luck, massive panic from unlucky crit, scarce resources and you have to know how to work with what you got, unless you like to be a whimp and save scum your every failed shot. It's in this games' blood, that's the point. "OMG i can't finish mission in 8 turns :^(((" - WTF?
Game is fairly balanced on Classic so far, except for annual major diff spikes here and there, there's nothing that human being with three digit iq couldn't handle. Certain class abilities can even be called absolutely OP and can pull your whole squad through completely doomed operation.
If anything, everything is much easier than originals, where you can't scratch your bum without throwing smoke grenade first.
There are also people who are STILL complaining that it's nothing like original UFO defense, but they are old farts by now, they can complain all they want.
As for the changes from previous games since reboot - i like almost every change in mechanics. EVERYTHING is handled better. Tactical combat is much more compelling, geoscape gameplay makes much more sense, base management is somewhat nonexistent, but i don't really care that much. To be fair, this thing about single base was stupid in the first place, so making mobile base is pretty much right decision, considering that introducing multiple bases would only spawn more "too difficult >:(" whine at this point. I wish there was more variety in weapons between tiers, but that's what mods are for. Full mod support, baby!
Majorly improved story, A E S T H E T I C S, sound, graphics, gameplay, a lot of cool science-fiction stuff here and there, snakes with boobs, CODEX'S BOOTY, ability to create a squad with Hatsune Miku and Samuel L. Jackson because of pretty rad customization options, what the hell more do you want? Core mechanics of previous game aren't really changed, so if you didn't like them back then - you won't like this one. But with whole gorilla warfare theme everything sort of makes much more sense, so you still can try it even if you didn't like Enemy Unknown/Within
As someone who's following franchise since the original games, i can say that this game is best effort to bring XCOM into modern pc game reality without just copypasting outdated mechanics to pander to hardcore oldfarts who can just go and play the originals for 100th time. It's basically like Heroes 5 compared to Heroes 3, both are excellent games with the same spirit, one is just much more modern, so it will lose a lot of charm for MLG-LAN-PARTY-RANDOM-MAP-PROS.
I give this game 100 hidden movements out of 100 and encourage you to buy and play it as soon as possible. But if you are man of faint heart and cràppy rig - wait for more performance patches and gameplay mods.
