So, from the gameplay demo of XCom 2 at E3, we got introduced to this guy:

the XCom 2 Berserker.

Now, this isn't really that bad, until you watch the video (provided below) to which the Firaxis guest drops this bomb.

That "he" is actually a "she".

Firaxis... Why?... Do you know what have you just unleashed on us?... Snaketits was bad enough (which at least looks attractive enough if your into the whole Naga/snakewoman thing), but this?... I'm scared...

(statement is at 21:25, and the line is "The Berserker, yes...ah there is not much we are going to reveal about her other than uh...")

4484539 XD

4484539 I don't care about that. What I care about is the fact that they went and made all my efforts in keeping my soldiers alive and the war won a moot point.

And let us not forget about the original ending.

4484564
Oh, I'm still ticked about that. So many better ways to get the same beginning state for the game. But that's anger inducing, not horrifyingly disturbing.

The Berserker thing is this:

The plot issues thing is this:

So XCOM got defeated prior to XCOM2.

4484586 Gotta admit that the totally not the original Snakeman*Cough*Woman's ability to yank your soldiers right out of cover is terrifyingly cool.

And despite the lingering anger of getting fucked story wise, it'll be interesting to see how they make a game about a secret government funded faction like Xcom into a rebel group fighting from the shadows.

Edit: 4484579 whoops, this comment was actually meant for you Ghost.

4484564 As far as I understood, XCOM 2 is a "what if...?" story. So our victory in first XCOM is canon. No one says that XCOM 3 can't be continuation of the "win" ending of the first game.

4484634

So our victory in first XCOM is canon.

Sorry, Firaxis has explicitly stated that "XCom 1 was a total loss" is canon.

4484644 ...damn. Didn't saw that. I took my assumptions from IGN interview at E3.

4484579 now that I'm thing about it, what's the matter Champ? I thought you liked strong women! :D

We broke one big ship in xcom 1. Why would any one assume that was the only one they had?

The etheral's pulled races from all over to wage their wars they are probably spread across the stars and when 1 of their ships went boom the others detected it and showed up. Since 'The New One' was dead they swarmed us and took over.

The male and female thing is much the same. They needed to breed or grow their troops some how. Breeding is easier than growing at times as a new mutation could very well appear that would work. Even at their max evolution they would still have 2 genders at least to work with for full manipulation.

Why only use half a race?

4484652
If you look at the video I posted in the OP, he double-downed on that view (which I still think is incredibly stupid from both a business POV and from a writing POV).

4484656
I do, but not a woman so strong she can b-slap you through a building and has worse looks than a Hell Knight from the Doom series.

4484657
For the same reasons as stated by Firaxis in the video in my last post, which completely shreds your idea (despite your idea being significantly better). Also, if you watch the gameplay footage, you'll see that the storyline's narrative is that "XCom shot first" rather than the aliens, which is why they are the saviors.

EDIT: fixed a spelling mistake.

4484539
What if.....

The alien ruled by feminazi?

4484681

4484683

4484683 what if... The feminazi was a zombie...

CoD Blackops 3 Feminazi Zombies mode confirmed...

Found this while looking for more new XCom 2 stuff, and we all now know why Firaxis dumbed the original XCom down so much:

While, I'm not the best of players with the original, I'm at least better than this...

4484579

XCOM Continuity Reset

As a guy who argues the importance of cohesive narrative in games (and who got thoroughly burned Bioware's hack job on ME3 and their games after), I sympathize with you. Sure, Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within didn't break the mold with its story or characters, but the science and mechanics of the world made you care about every action, from the soldiers to the science team. Every new research project not only brought us closer to victory, but also held the potential to change mankind's future.

So, to be told the investments of time and energy put into the world Firaxis lovingly created doesn't matter seems like a leap backward in terms of a sequel.

That is, until, I started looking at other pieces of lore and information. Speculation and fan theories ahead. Bare with me.

So, according to everything Firaxis has said thus far, XCOM and Earth were defeated within a month or two of the initial invasion. We didn't have time to get past ballistic weapons before they overwhelmed us. That's an entirely different scenario from what EU / EW established. As Dr. Shen and Dr. Vahlen correctly theorized, if the aliens wanted to, they could easily conquer Earth without any major resistance.

But they didn't. Instead, they tested mankind by gradually introducing new obstacles to overcome and new abilities to force us to evolve (i.e. psionics). The ethereals wanted to see if we could adapt to these new technologies and powers without being consumed by them in the process. Throughout the last level aboard the Temple Ship, the Uber Ethereal kept pointing out how the other races had undergone similar tests and failed to adapt. The sectoids, while psionically strong, were left frail and cruel. Thin men and mutons, despite gaining incredible physical prowess, were incapable of higher thought or imagination. Floaters, cyberdiscs and drones became overly reliant on their technology, becoming soulless tools of war.

Now comes mankind, who took everything the ethereals threw at them, survived and evolved. They became everything the ethereals hoped for; a race physically and mentally capable of utilizing the psionic gift without being consumed by it. In us, the ethereals saw new hosts they could inhabit, leaving behind their decrepit forms.

But their plan worked too well. Mankind had developed the strength to overcome the ethereals themselves, resulting in the destruction of themselves and the Temple Ship. We may have developed along the path they intended, but we didn't intend to stay on it.

So, how does this tie into XCOM 2, you ask?

Well, what if these ethereals we fought weren't alone? What if, in another timeline / dimension, they existed as well, searching for new hosts just as they did in EU / EW. Sure, we won in that timeline, but what about this one? Perhaps the Ethereals were able to send a message to themselves in this alternate universe saying "Yeah, forget the gradual invasion / research operations. Just drop Sectopods and Elite Mutons on them en masse. Don't give XCOM any chances." And from there, we were decimated within the first month. Earth surrenders, XCOM goes underground, and the Ethereals have free reign to do as they please.

Too much of a stretch? Well, recall this scene from The Bureau : XCOM Declassified. (Skip to 12 : 49)

We give our kind no name, although our hosts throughout the realities have applied many to us.
Throughout the realities
Realities

But how would the volunteer factor into this, you ask? Recall Jake Solomon's tweets about our psionic volunteers surviving the Temple Ship implosion. Imagine that's not just clarification on the ending scene but a hint about a potential role he / she plays in XCOM 2.

Remember how the volunteer disappeared before the Temple Ship blew? My guess is he / she transcended their physical form, becoming akin to the True Ethereals. Perhaps, as the Ethereals sent out their warning to themselves in this new timeline, the volunteer picked up on it and is trying to help somehow.

4484979
I'll make a more detailed response once I get back to my desktop (I'm working on a tablet atm). But the facepalm is more in regards to how they've handled the issue so far and how they explained why they chose the route they did. It's not the worst thing that they could have done (ie BioWare), but they haven't done anything to assuage the fears that their rather poor (as far as the plot goes) announcement created. As a marketer by education, they've done a ton of things right, but this one area has got me worried.

4484979
Your ideas are the exact ones I'm hoping that Firaxis is going to go with. It all fits, and would completely remove all of my complaints against the current XCom 2 storyline. It would even bring in that game that most people (developers included) loathe to attach to the XCom series, The Bureau, which had some of the strangest lore (both in the "What did I just read?" and "And this is important, why?" ways) in the XCom universe that seems to have been shoved in a crate next to the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones' movie and completely forgotten about. All of the pieces are there and ready to be used that would blow my expectations for this game's storyline away, but I worry that Firaxis might actually miss it. Things like that have happened before, and so that's why I'm more concerned than I would be normally.

The least amount I'd tolerate is if they hint that things are going to get wrapped up in the next DLC/game, or if that the game feels like it's not quite finished (think Halo 2's ending), however if they fail that, then I can't help but call Firaxis out on just bad/lazy writing. There are tons of ways that they could have kept the starting point from XCom 2 and connected it to the victory ending from XCom 1. I've seen about forty discussed so far in various places that all would have the same general effect. Or they could have gone the TFTD route, and tried to improve on that (given that a few people in the leadership of Firaxis didn't like certain things from that game).

Nonetheless, I am willing to give them the benefit of a doubt. The team, as a whole, seems to have a good sense of storytelling and are willing to listen to fans about what they think. I just hope that they don't do the same kind of half-assed ending like they did in XCom 1 (where the ending scene is mostly just the rest of Strike 1 flying back to base).

4484539
Shit, my finances are going to be hit by both the X-COM hype train and the fallout 4 hype train.

4485498
I've got XCom 2, BlackOps 3 (Zombies FTW!!!!), Destiny: The Taken King, The Division, and Halo 5. Goodbye my next year's worth of paychecks I never even got to meet you

Actually, it has been confirmed elsewhere that XCOM lasted around ten months before they lost. Hell, I think their justification for letting XCOM lose the first war is actually sound: XCOM is not a power fantasy, it's about overcoming near-impossible odds. If they let you keep all the tech from the first game, they'll have to make the new enemy even MORE overpowered than the aliens in the first game, which would just feel like an asspull.

Plus, according to achievements, the majority of XCOM players never finished the campaign. Meaning that the "Mysterious Council Guy gets mindjacked by a Sectoid Commander" ending is actually the MAJORITY ending. I'm guessing that affected this decision too.

Plus, you do realize they were most likely just joking about the Berserker, right? I don't think the aliens even HAVE genders.

4485565 you and me brother... We're on the same page.

4485565
Never heard of most of those games.
I think I might pull my money out of the fallout ring if they keep the Mass Effect speech system.

4486074

Actually, it has been confirmed elsewhere that XCOM lasted around ten months before they lost.

No. No it's not. That has been disprove via Word of God. XCom didn't get out of conventional weapons (the first weapon tier), so they didn't last five weeks, much less ten months. This is explained in the "Why Impossible Ironman is Canon" video.

Hell, I think their justification for letting XCOM lose the first war is actually sound

Not the way they have it currently set up. "The entire first game is AU" is their explanation. That's as hand wavy as it gets. That's weak writing, and very poor as far as explanations go. There are thousands of better ways to get to XCom 2's starting point (which is justifiable, and not one person I've seen is arguing against). Losing the first war is completely unjustified, unless we're talking about a plot much like 4484979 described. Hell, the developer even said one of the most basic ideas about how to connect XCom winning the first game to the start of XCom 2. "[XCom] won, so the world doesn't need XCom any more." (which also hints that the Temple ship was the entire invasion force) Take that and apply basic politics to it. The funding nations stop funding XCom, and XCom gets shelved. Aliens come back for round 2, and XCom is not able to beat them off a second time.

If they let you keep all the tech from the first game

I can give you twenty different ways that has XCom win the first game, and still ends up in the starting position that XCom 2 has. All of which are more logically sound than the fact that only 1.1% of people who purchased XCom (not played XCom, or attempted to beat XCom, or even attempted that difficulty, but purchased) have beaten Impossible Ironman.

Plus, according to achievements, the majority of XCOM players never finished the campaign.

Given that 51% of people built their first lab, and fewer built their first workshop, something tells me that not many people even tried to complete the Impossible Ironman, much less the campaign at all (which has just as much statistical legitimacy as their reasoning). These achievement stats tell you jack, and that's coming from a guy that works with statistics for a living. It's just Firaxis attempting to CYA.

4486172
No, it was too off-the-cuff and subtle, to have been a joke. And the aliens already have been confirmed to have genders with the Snakewoman.

4486947
Three of those are major releases (Call of Duty, Halo, Destiny), one is a hyped release (XCom), and the last is being released but is being done so in a horrible manner with almost no marketing on it being done (The Division).

4487064 "This was disproven by Word of God"

Damn, and here I thought I found a possible link that this could work.

Just started up a new game of Ironman Impossible Enemy Within, and the beginning quote had me thinking.

"Those who play with the Devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."

I had a crazy thought when I saw that again that maybe when we won, Xcom's almost uncaring spread of tech releases (the council requests that give you moolah or men to fight with) was released to the civilian public, and EXALT remnants were able to work the press and public opinion to change from Aliens=bad to Aliens=Saviors.

4524607
Still a better storyline then what they've released so far.

personally i am more concerned with the fact that TWO lower class aliens can practically auto-kill a entire squad than the fact that they are females. Besides naturally speaking the females are generally the more aggressive of a species.

4811804 impossible difficulty first mission of Unknown. You can't tell me that a single sectoid was able too wipe your squad first attempt?

Either way, it just clearly shows exactly how much more they'll have to fight just to have a chance against them