10 Best Video Game Cover Arts From The Last Decade

Firaxis has continued their exemplary work on the XCOM franchise with the release of XCOM 2 last week, and many hardcore fans have already beaten the unforgiving title. While the game introduces plenty of brand new gameplay elements into the fold , Slg walkthrough veteran players will find many nods to the original series hidden within XCOM 2 . The most notable reference to the original series came at the very end of the game, and we'd like to take a moment to speculate on what this means for the future of the XCOM franch


Psionics are incredibly powerful in XCOM. These mentally-draining abilities can let you mind control enemies or cause enemies near you to cower in fear, and end up providing you with a large variety of abilities that could seem overpowered later in the g


As well as providing a beautiful view of the game's landscape, Shadow of the Colossus ' cover art is brilliant for two main reasons. Firstly, it shows the game's "David vs. Goliath" theme in a very striking way with the enormous size difference between the two figures. While the second, very spoiler-heavy reason is that it foreshadows the game's ending . Wander has his sword out, ready to fight the colossus, while the enormous creature has its back to the playable character, seemingly not interested in fight

In any event, it looks like XCOM 2 fans should expect some terrors to rise from the murky depths within the next few years, as the cliffhanger ending shows that Firaxis evidently has no intention of slowing things down with the ser

Unfortunately, the biggest and most heartbreaking problem with XCOM 2 is from the technical side of things. For one, after almost every turn concludes and there are aliens on screen, the game will stall for upwards of a minute until finally giving you back control of the squad of characters. It could very well be unidentified aliens moving around in the background, but considering you don’t know how many there are, it will test your patience to an unfortunate degree. This combined with load times that hang for far longer than they should create an experience that will artificially extend your playtime clock. This isn’t even the worst part, though as we also ran into various crashes, enemies being able to shoot through geometry they shouldn’t be able to, out of the ordinary performance issues and some of the visuals going haywire. The controls can also be a little clunky at times when trying to select an enemy to fire at, although it’s far from the worst problem here.


Their power only continues as you get into their special equipment . Claymores are also at their disposal to take out cover and weaker enemies, while their Banish ability allows them to empty their entire magazine into an enemy. There is virtually no reason to not have a Reaper in your party, as they do everything a Sniper does with significantly more power in their unique activated abilit


Like any good work of art, Far Cry 5 is dripping with interesting details and insight at every turn, with the influx of guns in front of a church showing it's not the sort of place for a relaxing Sunday pra

Regardless of these occurrences, Firaxis has done a great deal to enhance the overall XCOM experience by adding variety to its combat. For example, melee is a new feature to the XCOM universe, dealing massive damage to enemies at the risk of having a character exposed out in the open. This generally does significant damage in comparison to standard projectiles, which adds a new layer of strategy outside of hunkering down or providing cover fire. This also ties somewhat into the improved character class system that allows for additional customization outside of the rather robust selection of aesthetics. Just as Enemy Unknown contained, each character has their own class tree that will be accessible based on promotions on the battlefield. The higher a character traverses in their class, the more powerful and capable they become, learning additional traits and abilities. There are some deviations from the traditional format in that the classes are specialized, and their traits feel like they provide far more assistance than ever before. For example, the new Ranger class that can wield a sword can pick up a skill that ensure concealment even after your party initiates a battle, or straight up do greater damage. Depending on their skillset, they can be completely different from a character in the same class, which can lead to some interesting pairings, especially later in the game when more party slots open up.


The game purposefully left the fate of Doctor Vahlen, the chief scientist from Enemy Unknown , a mystery throughout the game. While she was mentioned briefly, it looks like XCOM have been unable to establish communication with her. In the prequel novel for XCOM 2 , it was revealed that Vahlen escaped a brutal ADVENT attack on a research outpost by taking a boat to the sea. We have little doubt that Firaxis left her fate open for a reason, and we suspect she has been one of the first to work out that a new threat is due to emerge from the dep