- Cozy Up with 2K: The Autumn Sale is Live on Steam! Save Big Through Oct 8.* - 1 October 2026
As the leaves turn and the crisp autumn air settles in, that familiar feeling returns: the golden hour after school or work, rushing home to drop your bag, power up your rig, and lose yourself in a world you love. The long summer nights are wrapping up, but the best gaming weather of the year is officially here.The 2K Autumn Sale is live on Steam, giving you the perfect excuse to trade the chilly outdoors for your cozy desktop setup. Whether you want to relive classic gaming nostalgia, reconnect with an all-time favorite, or finally cross those long-awaited blockbusters off your Wishlist, we’ve marked down prices across our catalog.Fall back into the stories, sports, and strategy games that defined your love for playing. Wrap yourself in a good story, lock in those limited-time discounts, and make this autumn unforgettable.*Digital only. Offers end October 8, 2026. Terms apply.
- Time to Play: The 2K Summer Sale is Officially Live on Steam - 25 June 2026
The 2K Summer Sale is officially live on Steam, and it’s the perfect excuse to find your next great escape. Summer is about having the time to truly immerse yourself, dive deep into a world, and remember exactly why you fell in love with gaming in the first place.Whether you’re looking to reconnect with a classic masterpiece you haven't played in years, or finally take the plunge on that massive hit you've been eyeing, these savings are built for you. We’ve cut prices across our entire catalog, making it easier than ever to back your favorites and taking a chance on something new.Your wishlist is waiting, and your next unforgettable journey is just a click away. Grab these limited-time deals and make this a summer worth playing.*Digital only. Steam offers end July 9, 2026. Terms apply
- New X-COM book explains the special kind of terror that made the first game a classic - 9 September 2021
No series has defined the past and present of turn-based strategy more than XCOM. The Firaxis-made games in the series, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, are two of the best games of the last decade. The whole series, which dates back to the mid-'90s, is one of PC gaming's most beloved, even with its history of forcing us to make painful decisions and the questionable third-person shooter spinoffs... Read more.
- Modder Superior: a swabbie s guide to X-Com conversion mod X-PirateZ - 4 March 2019
Every other Monday, Dominic gives you a reason to dust off one of your old games and dive into its mods with Modder Superior. Sin Vega first introduced me to X-PirateZ three years ago, already a sprawling X-Com: UFO Defense mod by “Dioxine” about leading a crew of sexy lady air-pirates in a post-apocalyptic world. She called it “The greatest total conversion ever made” at the time, but I wasn’t so convinced. Massive as it was, I felt it was still skeletal and confusing, requiring much trial and error and many false starts. A lot has changed since 2016, and it has grown into a (mostly) coherent strategy RPG sandbox with a devil-may-care attitude on par with Disgaea . Orbital, underwater and underground missions are in. Story arcs, bounty hunts, tons of factions, over a hundred mission types and more guns than anyone could ever use. There are duels and even d…
- Celebrate six years of warfare with XCOM 2 s Tactical Legacy Pack, free at launch - 2 October 2018
Six years ago, Firaxis pulled off the impossible with XCOM , re-envisioning a DOS classic – next week, they’re celebrating this feat with the Tactical Legacy pack for XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen . It’s pure fan-service of the less-sexy kind (unless Carapace armour turns you on, in which case fly your freak flag high), featuring old favourite equipment and environments used in a new series of tactical mini-campaigns. Better still, it’ll be initially free to owners of War Of The Chosen. It’s out next week, October 9th. Check the reveal trailer below. (more…)
- UFO sans DRM XCom Complete Edition lands on GOG - 14 June 2018
Is six years within ‘fashionably late’ territory? Better late than never, at least. Today, Firaxis’s alien-bothering turn-based squad tactics revival, XCom: Enemy Unknown has launched on GOG after over half a decade of the PC version being Steam-exclusive. Rather than divide it up, GOG are only selling the Complete edition of the game, including two minor bits of DLC and the rather more significant Enemy Within expansion. (more…)
- Great moments in PC gaming: Finally going on the offensive in X-Com: UFO Defense - 13 May 2018
Great moments in PC gaming are short, bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories.   One of the great things about the original X-COM, or UFO: Enemy Unknown as it was called in the UK, was that it wasn’t afraid to be about losing. Losing really badly. Apocalyptically badly, often. Not for nothing did it have ‘terror missions’, which lived up to their name as the initial weak little-grey-men Sectoids got politely pushed out of the way for the likes of the Chryssalids, hideous Giger style monsters who didn’t just kill your jumpsuit-wearing soldiers, but implanted them with hideous alien wing-wang to turn them first into a zombie, and then into another bloody Chryssalid. So many deaths. So many worlds lost. Ah, but then comes The Moment. You can almost feel it in the air. The moment where the tables turn, and the X-COM organization switc…
- Best PC games of all time - 24 November 2017
There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it’s important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we’re here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made. (more…)
- The Gollop Chamber: XCOM is now a genre - 17 October 2017
All images courtesy Julian Gollop. Welcome to my first column for PC Gamer. What’s it all about, you may ask? You can look forward to my musings on games, the games industry, and also follow progress on my new XCOM-style game, Phoenix Point , which is underway at Snapshot Games in sunny Bulgaria. Phoenix Point was first announced at the PC Gamer Weekender event in March last year, where I argued that XCOM is now an established genre, thanks to the tremendous success of the Firaxis games. Ever since I signed over the X-COM rights to MicroProse back in 1997 I have been trying to build a new X-COM-style game, but I never quite succeeded, despite releasing several turn-based games over the last 15 years. The XCOM genre is something special and distinct, and diverging too far from its fundamental design pillars results in something less than satisfactory. At the Game Developer s Confe…
- GOG s 2K sale features old school X-Com among others - 12 October 2017
Over at GOG, the reduced-price trips down memory lane continue, only this week there’s a whole lot more X-Com. Specifically, this week’s GOG sale range focuses on a lot of 2K’s older franchises, particularly from the strategy genre. The entire original run of X-Com games can be found here for less than 2 / $2 each, which is nigh-impossible to not recommend. Then there is the 2004 version of Sid Meier’s Pirates, a game I’ve poured more hours into than I really want to think about, and much more. (more…)
- Get your ass to Mars the original X-COM is free - 31 January 2017
Oh sure, it’s basically been pennies for years, but nothing motivates the merely curious like free-free-free. For that is the case for X-COM: UFO Defense aka UFO: Enemy Unknown, the 1994 alien-bothering strategy game that kicked off a series now made something of a household name by Firaxis’ remakes. Only until tomorrow, though. …
- GOG bundles discount classic 2K games - 29 March 2016
GOG's Take On 2K sale sees 11 of the publisher's classics debut on the distribution platform. Running until April 5, the sale bundles games from the X-COM, Freedom Force and Railroad Tycoon series—and Sid Meier's Pirates—into groups as follows: Railroad Tycoon Bundle: 5.97/$8.65 (-66%, 50% off individually) * Sid Meier's Railroads; * Railroad Tycoon II; * Railroad Tycoon III; X-COM Classic Bundle: 5.45/$7.45 (-75%, 50% off individually) * X-COM: UFO Defense; * X-COM: Terror from the Deep; * X-COM: Apocalypse; * X-COM: Interceptor; * X-COM: Enforcer; F reedom Force Pack: 2.78/$3.98 (-66%, 50% off individually) * Freedom Force; * Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich; Sid Meier's Pirates!: 3.49/$4.99 (-50%) "Ruthless strategic warfare? Check. Weirdo superheroes? You bet. Hilarious dancing sequences? Naturally," reads a post on GOG.com . "And once again, the satisfaction of checkin…
- Xenonauts 2 Is More Likely Than Not - 30 September 2015
XCOM 2 is a hugely exciting prospect (so much so that I’m genuinely grumpy about the delay ), but XCOM and X-COM are so very different things by now that it’s unlikely to slake anyone’s thirst for a true-blue, Gollopy experience. Fortunately, sounds like we might also be in for a sequel to unofficial X-COM spiritual sequel Xenonauts , 2014’s Cold War-set alien invasion strategy title. …
- Whatever Happened To X-COM s Julian Gollop? - 10 December 2014
Well, he eventually rebooted and remade war of wizards Spectrum classic Chaos Reborn , which I’ve had a lot of fun with over the last few days, and which took to Steam Early Access yesterday. You can read more about that here . But what happened to the co-creator of X-COM, Laser Squad, Magic and Mayhem, Rebelstar and more over the last ten years or so? While so many long-standing developers have seen their stars rise and rise, Julian Gollop seemed to fall out of sight. In this concluding part of my big interview with him, we talk about where he’s been, why he turned to Kickstarter for his comeback, how he was doing Early Access long before it ever existed, his thoughts on latter-day X-COMlikes such as Xenonauts, Invisible Inc and Mordheim, and the pressing question of whether we’ll ever see a new X-COM or Laser Squad=style game with him at the helm. …
- Gollop: Own X-COM Hopeless Cause After Firaxis Game - 10 December 2014
X-COM creator Julian Gollop did have plans for his own new version of the legendary strategy game, but abandoned them in the wake of 2K’s well-received XCOM. “I seriously considered that before Firaxis announced their XCOM,” he told RPS in an interview published today , “but of course once they announced it I thought, well it d be a hopeless cause because it s just not going to get the same traction.” “I may have been completely wrong in thinking this by the way,” he added. When I suggested that he’d probably have succeeded nonetheless, he added that “I probably could have. I don’t know.” The Laser Squad and Chaos developer, who yesterday released wizard-battling strategy remake/sequel Chaos Reborn on Steam Early Access, hasn’t entirely ruled out an X-comeback of his own, however. “Well, we ll see. Got to fini…
- These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things (In PC Games) - 19 November 2014
Some moments in some games stay with you. The right event, the right surprise or the right hats at the right time, and it’s imprinted on your memory forever. I’ve been playing PC games for almost 25 years: I’ve got a million of these, and so have you. I’ll show you just a few of mine if you show me yours. …
- Research Completed: OpenXcom Hits V1.0 - 16 June 2014
What happy times we live in for fans of old-style X-COM , the way your Gollopmother used to make. The awfully X-COM-y Xenonauts left early access and launched properly only a fortnight ago, and now “open-source clone” OpenXcom has hit version 1.0 after five years of development (“This is your father’s X-COM” goes the tagline in an alternate universe with softer copyright laws). It’s actually more of a replacement engine for X-COM: UFO Defense, mind, requiring the original game to drop in its data files. As well as improving the interface and fixing old bugs and whatnot, it adds mod support. And with that, you can keep playing new old X-COM for ever and ever and ever. …
- XCOM creator's 'Chaos Reborn' prototype playable in-browser - 14 April 2014
Chaos Reborn, the crowdfunded project from XCOM creator Julian Gollop, is now playable as a prototype. The reboot of the classic Spectrum game Chaos: The Battle of the Wizards will once again put wizards in a competition to the death.
- Be Like Levine: Chaos Reborn Prototype Released - 9 April 2014
Statistically speaking, you are probably not Ken Levine. That’s fine. I’m not him, either. And neither is Graham. But thanks to all the silicon and electricity and stuff, you can at least be a bit like him. One of the ways in which he’s been special recently is in the role of cheerleader for the Chaos Reborn Kickstarter , where he’s been championing Julian Gollop’s return. He has already played (or should that now be ‘Let’s Played’?) the hexy beast, and now you can too. Head here to grab the time-limited prototype of the strategic wiz thing, and bring some friends. …
- Magic Gathers To A Close: Chaos Reborn s Nearly There - 3 April 2014
13 days and $65,000 to go – that’s the scores on the doors for X-COM creator Julian Gollop’s Kickstarted Chaos remake (which I previewed here ). Not a bad situation for the turn-based wizard battler to be in, given it’s already $115k to the good, but a photo finish looks likely. The game’s also up on Greenlight now, so you know what to do if you’re excited about it. There’ve been eight updates since the project went live a few weeks back, and it’s heartening to see that they primarily focus on explaining features and concepts. Also one of them has a unicorn with a sword for a horn, so big bonus points for that. …
