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The Bureau: XCOM Declassified out now on Mac
Mac owners can unearth the secrets of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, with the game now available to the public via the App Store, priced $35. If you'd rather scrutinize the third-person shooter under the cover of Steam, the good news is TransGaming is bringing it there "soon." We were taken in by the The Bureau earlier this year - not in the for-questioning sense, but in a four-stars-out-of-five-glowing-review way. As the always sharp-suited Ludwig put it, "The Bureau: XCOM Declassified feels immediate and inclusive as a strategy game, relying more closely on your rapid-fire commands than the bursts of your rifle. The odd hybrid is far from being fully evolved, but it's well suited to further study."
Report: Bureau, BioShock 2 developer allegedly done for
Yesterday's confirmed layoffs at 2K Marin, developer of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and BioShock 2, may have been simply the prelude to the long goodbye. Several outlets are reporting the classified story behind the story is that 2K Marin won't be around much longer. A source tells RockPaperShotgun that the studio is "essentially" done, while Polygon has a source saying they are "100 percent sure" 2K Marin in its current incarnation is closed. Allegedly, folks not picked up by Rod Fergusson's new studio for 2K Games in the San Francisco Bay area were the ones let go. During its six-year history, 2K Marin had the unfortunate task of working on the games that, despite critical acclaim, "nobody asked for" – as expressed in the modern parlance.
Layoffs hit The Bureau: XCOM Declassified developer 2K Marin
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified developer 2K Marin has been hit with layoffs. The game launched in August, with downloadable content having arrived just a few weeks ago. A 2K representative told Game Informer, "We can confirm staff reductions at 2K Marin. While these were difficult decisions, we regularly evaluate our development efforts and have decided to reallocate creative resources. Our goal to create world-class video game titles remains unchanged." We've reached out to 2K for more information.
BioShock 2 re-released on Steam with Minerva's Den
2K Games has relaunched its undersea first-person shooter BioShock 2 on Steam, bundling it with add-on content and stripping away its once-restrictive Games for Windows Live integration. The Steam version of BioShock 2 includes the base game and all previously-released multiplayer downloadable content, along with the "Protector's Trials" single-player DLC. The story-driven add-on "Minerva's Den" is available separately for $4.99. Previously, BioShock 2 was only available as a Games for Windows Live release, leaving players without access to its DLC following the recent closure of the GFWL marketplace. Players who purchased BioShock 2 on disc or via Games for Windows Live can get a Steam copy bundled with all available DLC by following these instructions.
XCOM Enemy Unknown and The Bureau bundled for $25 on Amazon
Looking for an opportunity to jump in on the XCOM franchise? Amazon is currently offering the PC versions of Firaxis' turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown and 2K Marin's third-person shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified as a discounted bundle priced at $24.99. Both games are redeemable via Steam. Downloadable versions of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and The Bureau are available individually for $9.99 and $19.99, respectively. If you prefer the classic stylings of the XCOM games from the '90s and early 2000s, you may want to check out the $3.75 XCOM Complete Pack, which collects XCOM: Apocalypse, XCOM: Enforcer, XCOM: Interceptor, XCOM: Terror from the Deep, and the 1993 debut entry XCOM: UFO Defense.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified 360-exclusive DLC launches next week
The first DLC for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will be uncovered next week, available exclusively on Xbox 360 as detailed previously. 2K Games will make The 'Hangar 6 R&D' DLC available to the public on Tuesday, October 8, priced $5 on the Xbox Games Store. The DLC stars Agent Nico DaSilva as the protagonist rather than Agent Carter, taking place shortly before the events of the main game. DaSilva volunteered to be a part of a psychic experiment program at 'Hangar 6' - sometimes you just need the money. As DLC lead designer Harley White-Wiedow notes, Hangar 6 R&D raises the difficulty level, but aims to balance this with abilities based on the 'Signal and Beyond' level in the game. Also introduced is the delicious-sounding Microwave Gun, along with a new AK-47.
The Bureau - XCOM Declassified review: Mad men are from Mars
Agent William Carter peeks around a backyard wall, surrounded by the buoyant remains of a scattered birthday party. Straight-faced in an evacuated 1960s suburbia, he is the man who shouts against the alien invasion on America's porch. "Draw their fire!" he tells his two colleagues in arms. "Put a mine there!" And finally, with a bold pose and a deep cache of air in his lungs, he screams the scream that won the war: "DEPLOYING BLOB!" The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a game about shooting aliens, coordinating offense under duress and, in some cases, deploying blobs in a tactical fashion. As a dapper CIA agent and pragmatic not-on-MY-watch type, William Carter rejects the lexicon of XCOM, a secret organization that now finds its Cold War paranoia rerouted to deflect "The Outsiders," slender grey men from outer space. Carter's blob is actually a "silacoid," a mercurial pet formed from magnetically bound lumps of inky material. The scientists back at HQ delight in describing its fascinating properties and how they repurposed it from our would-be conquerers, but to Carter it's just a roving tool meant to distract enemies in battle. (The alternative sound bite on this order is "Blob out!" which sounds like an instruction to lie in bed and inhale a gallon of Ben and Jerry's.) Carter's role in the action itself is to anchor your strategies, and that's what makes The Bureau a more arresting third-person shooter. There's the usual knee-high detritus that serves as cover in firefights, the pop-and-shoot gunplay, the evasive roll – and you've gotta have a melee attack, so Carter gets a huge electric bracelet that looks like it stuck after he punched through a desktop computer.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified launch trailer gives you new orders
Survive. Adapt. Win. And look suitably smart when you do. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified suits up on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this week; check back soon for our thoughts on 2K Marin's mixture of XCOM strategy, third-person shooting, and 1960s style.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified live-action series ends with an ambush
As this final installment in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified's live-action series shows, humanity hasn't quite learned how to deal with alien invaders. In 1962, we just punch the crap out of them because Space Channel 5 has yet to teach us how to come together through dance.
HungoverX is a Bureau: XCOM Declassified mini-game
When Take-Two recently registered the domain HungoverX.com, we weren't sure what to expect. The publisher pulled the curtains back on the URL today to reveal a mini-game related to The Bureau: XCOM Declassified in which players guide a hungover Bill Carter through a groggy day at the office. The browser-based game is available now at HungoverX.com. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will launch on August 20 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified live-action video is in pursuit
This live-action trailer for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified shows Lost and Lord of the Rings star Dominic Monaghan in pursuit of an enemy while on the phone with a man that needs to shut his fridge door. The game is slated to launch on August 20 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified trailer lets you tweet an agent's fate
A new live-action trailer for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified partakes in an incongruous mixture of top-secret government information and large-scale social network marketing. Still, it will be interesting to see which way the public goes on the fate of Special Agent Meriadoc Brandybook, or Ennis Cole to give him his XCOM codename. In the aftermath of a classified incident which left him without his wife and child, the vid asks users to tweet hashtagged votes for what Cole should do next. Votes can be registered until Wednesday, July 24, when the video revealing his determined fate will be released. That's all well and good, but the date to remember is August 20; that's when The Bureau opens its doors to Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Video Preview
Drop in on this footage-filled discussion of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and learn how classy vests and buff-granting backpacks can save the Earth from extraterrestrial peril. If you'd like to venture beyond the brief chat above, have a look at our impressions of The Bureau's on-foot tactical combat, and see how its Cold War setting strives for authenticity within reason. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is due on August 20 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
The Uncanny History of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
The first shot of the game is historically inaccurate, but not without good reason. "As much as possible, I try to stick to history," says Erik Caponi, the narrative designer. "There's actually a huge pet peeve I had that I finally gave up on. It's the first shot of the game. Sputnik is there. Sputnik should not be there in 1962. Nobody recognizes the Vostok 12 satellite, which is what should be there, so we stuck with Sputnik because it's iconic and recognizable." The Russian satellite becomes a subtle lie in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, a game by 2K Marin that has endured several revisions throughout its history. It's not a first-person shooter (it's third-person now), warfare isn't waged in polite turns (time slows while you're issuing orders), and it's not about overseeing the modern XCOM organization, which acts as Earth's weaponized umbrella when the aliens rain down. Instead, you're where the real Sputnik would be in the early 1960s: on the ground. Playing as pragmatic CIA agent William Carter, you assist in the Cold War birth of the XCOM defense organization, jolted into premature operation by a manipulative alien race dubbed "The Outsiders." You also learn of Carter's motivations and the fate of his family – the kind of story you couldn't quite make out from the perspective of a commander in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. %Gallery-193969%
BioShock 2 creative director Jordan Thomas leaves Take-Two
Jordan Thomas, creative director at BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin, has left the company. His departure should have no effect on the studio's current project, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, which he moved away from in early 2012, he tells GI.biz. Thomas makes his exit from the company to go indie with an unnamed partner and work on his own projects. He came to the decision after helping Irrational Games finish work on BioShock Infinite. "It cemented for me that while BioShock spoke to me, it'll never be for me what it is for Ken. I've expanded that legacy here and there, but I could never have created it from scratch. I need to build something that is, to me, what BioShock is to Ken. No matter how long it takes, I have to start now." Thomas already has a game in mind, of course: He wants to take some of the ideals found in Thief and BioShock and apply them "with a radically different focus." If it's well-received, Thomas says "we might expand the vision and explore further dimensions of the same theme with more content producers. But we'd love to keep it as lean as possible for now, in the hopes that we're not writing checks our asses can't cash. Indie ambition is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness."
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified: Personal pacifist edition
Here's The Bureau: XCOM Declassified being played without the main player firing a shot. It's all squad tactics and powers through the demonstration, which happens to be one of the longest ones we've seen released publicly. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is scheduled to hit retail on August 20.
The Bureau declassifies DLC plans
Publisher 2K Games announced today that The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will have pre-order and post-launch downloadable content, which is about as shocking of a revelation as knowing Marmite will divide humanity into the two groups of the next great war. "We're excited that our stories will provide a new perspective on the war effort, much like how our critically acclaimed Minvera's Den DLC for BioShock 2 allowed us to present a unique perspective of Rapture," said Morgan Gray, development director at 2K Marin. The game's pre-order bonus is the "Codebreakers" side mission. In it, Special Agent Carter and his squad must reestablish contact a top-secret government communications facility, eliminate any threats and decrypt the employee's combined lunch order. There are no details about the post-launch DLC, but the first pack "will be available exclusively to Xbox 360 players." The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will fight the future on August 20 and 23 in North America and internationally, respectively.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified files 'Battle Focus' trailer
Unearthed from a crate thought lost to Hangar XCOM, this gameplay trailer shows how 2K Marin meshes real-time shooting with strategy in The Bureau. Time can be slowed down while players get tactical via a radial menu, from which they can command Special Agent Will Carter and his trusty squadmates. Also, it shows us that if you're going to see off an extraterrestrial invasion, you may as well do it dressed to the nines - Carter is the definition of dapper in that vid. Independence Day could only have been improved if Jeff Goldblum had boarded that spaceship in a tux. The fashion of alien warfare aside, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified touches down on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on August 20. %Gallery-191760%
Being a Bureau dude in XCOM Declassified
You always remember your first alien invasion. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified puts you on the ground in 1962 as William Carter, a crucial member of what will eventually become the planet-guarding, all-caps organization known as XCOM. The game brings it own brand of agency to the revitalized strategy series, though not in the drastically simplified form you might expect from a third-person shooter. Once Earth becomes unwilling host to "The Outsiders," a race of aliens that have enthralled other extraterrestrial creatures, Carter and a crew of two are ordered to investigate the fate of a fallen agent in New Mexico. The Outsiders have a few slaves up their sleeves, including XCOM's classic sectoids. To compensate, Carter has a dapper vest that effectively says, "Everyone, listen to me, I am going to use some tactics on these aliens." %Gallery-187991%
2K Games pulls XCOM shooter site, trailer from the internet
2K Marin's XCOM shooter seems to be in trouble, based on how thorough 2K Games has been about erasing it from the internet. The XCOM shooter website and even all trailers uploaded to 2K Games' official YouTube channel have been removed.Last month, a piece from Superannuation posited that 2K Games is looking to rebrand the XCOM shooter, based on some domain registrations for thebureau-game.com, thebureau-game.net, whathappenedin62.com, and whathappenedin62.net. The XCOM shooter, if you'll recall, takes place in 1962.As of February, XCOM is still in production at 2K Marin for parent company Take-Two's fiscal 2014, which means it's due before March 31, 2014. We've contacted 2K Games for comment and will update when we hear back.
