Still playing XCOM. Finished Classic/Rigger, one human plus Shivs. Early SHIVs are garbage, hover SHIVs are hax, SHIVs do not show up in cutscenes, so some of the later stuff with the Volunteer is a little bit odd.
Now playing Impossible. The first 6-10 maps are fuckin' brutal, but I'm actually warming up to it towards the mid-game. It's still hard, I wipe fairly often, and there are definitely times when RNG just fucks you for no reason -- not so much in hit rates, since those become manageable tactically and in prep, but more in how the enemies move pretty randomly, so you might just have six Mutons dropped on you in a pincer while you're already tangled up with a bunch of enemies. This would be fine if it was planned, but that it occurs more or less randomly (since there are basically always enough enemies somewhere on the map to overrun you) can be a bit annoying. I do like the bit of extra urgency that the slightly more difficult base management offers, too. Altogether it's gelling quite well now.
Also playing Slingshot, the DLC, which... well, the new missions are fun enough, though they suffer a bit from the final dungeon's predictability -- once you've wiped on them once, you know where the reinforcements are coming from and can plan accordingly.
Zhang, the special character, is definitely a little problematic. I'm not sure if his stats scale to Impossible, so he joins with literally double the HP of your ordinary squad (to be fair, he's over levelled, but still, 10HP vs 5 is huge), plus inflated hit and will stats. He's a Heavy, so that's some balance, but it makes the aim bonus pretty noticeable too (he's got 75 at Lieutenant, which I think is about 5 higher than average?). Throws off the curve of the game quite a bit, I definitely understand why some people are bummed by that.
I like the other content, though, the new armour, haircuts and helmets. So worth the $7, as far as I'm concerned, but definitely not a bargain at that price.
