One point that should be emphasized: For the best experience, Xcom should only be played in Ironman mode (ie no save/load trick in the game, saves are automatic, so that you have to face the consequences of your decisions).

What could be better?:
- the interception “minigame” should be somehow improved (it feels… not on par with the rest of the game, although it remains adequate).
- the game could be longer (I mean regarding in-game time) (the threat level increases really fast and you can expect to finish the game in 4/5 month of in-game time)

But in the end, It is my type of game

Thibaut
(trying to finish Classic/Ironman mode).

One thing I would like to point out is that I’m very happy with Firaxis having published this great game. If it is relatively successful (and it seems that’s what is happening), they will publish more in the same line, and other companies may start trying publishing more turn-based strategy games… maybe in 2-4 years we get some new jewels in the style of the XCOM. I would love if someone published similar games but with other themes (zombies, fantasy, sci-fi,…)

I love the idea of making a police force that would be known across the servers. The only flaw with the humanity system is that even if you kill someone in self defence. Your humanity too, will go down. Branding you an innocent bandit.

I would like to add that the game has many of the great elements of a good Narrativist RPG, organically creating wonderful stories as you play along… people who enjoy telling stories well into the night will absolutely love this game.

About multiplayer, I do not think it would make a lot of sense for CK2. In any case, here is a forum of people playing multiplayer; you could ask them how to start a game or even join one: http://forums.ederon.net/default.aspx?g=posts&t=2684&p=5

Some examples from my games in medieval Iberia:
Story 1: The bloodthirsty hunchback Dwarf
After changing the Succession Laws for my Kingdom of Navarra to Seniority, heirs start dying of “unnatural causes”… After the 3rd murder, my Spymaster informed me that one of my cousins was behind the assassinations… It was too difficult to imprison him, so I did not do anything about it… two murders later he was first in succession and the murders stopped for the last 4 years of my benign reign… Now this guy was not only a kin-slayer but also a hunchback and a dwarf so everybody hated him and less than a month after he became king, all the Nobles rebelled… a bloody and costly year-long ensued during which the King of France helped himself to some of my counties… after a year of fighting I managed to stop the rebellion: almost all my Counts and Dukes were now in jail, and I was ready to start improving again my kingdom, but only 20 days after defeating the last rebellious noble, the character was assassinated… his Spymaster, who also hated the King apparently “failed” to see the pot coming…

Story 2: The Cruel Queen
One of my characters turned out to be gay and to have only daughters, so all Nobles of the kingdom saw him as weak… To avoid a full scale rebellion, I had to give the nobles a lot of power. When he died, the eldest daughter became Queen, but I soon saw that the nobles were too powerful and would probably rebel… The only option I saw was to imprison them all, including her two sisters… Luckily for her, the imprisonment attempts were a success, and soon all the main nobles were in jail, unable to start a rebellion… That did not prevent the character from receiving the title of “The Cruel” and being poisoned less than a year after filling her dungeons with blue blood…

I just wish it would hurry up and go on sale!