Watch Five Minutes of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

[Shawn Zipay]

Still left wanting more XCOM? Have no fear because there is a new video out showing about five minutes of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, the upcoming third-person title from 2K Marin (BioShock Infinite) and 2K Games.

The Bureau is due out on August 20 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms (sorry Wii U).

[K-16]

I like what I'm seeing so far. I'm glad it's progressed to this state compared to the teaser I saw back when it was initially announced as a first-person shooter. What bothers me currently is the AI shown in this video, where the player marks a position for his teammates to guard and hide behind at the 2:23 mark; what happens at the 2:28 mark is that Lucas vaults over the damn thing and provides suppressive fire in his exposed state, and then leaps back to safety. Limor takes cover as ordered (so no issues there).

While I like the context-sensitive animation of vaulting over obstacles (playtesting and bugfixing that must be agonizing), I don't want my teammates to put themselves in danger unnecessarily. Can't suppressive fire happen while staying behind cover? Still, overall I like how this is much more consistent with the XCOM theme and core gameplay mechanics involving tactics and consequential actions (in this case, permadeath).

There's a part of me that feels like this is similar to CoD: WaW trying to meet the expectations of gamers who played CoD4: MW by referencing the predecessor and assuring this title will be consistent with the series it represents. Still, I'm comfortable with how they're doing and will look forward to its launch. Just uh, no suicidal teammates please.