XCOM: Enemy Within adds Save Scum mode

XCOM: Enemy Within includes a new menu option enabling those who save scum - the practice of reloading quicksaves to avoid unwanted random results.

Save scumming runs contrary to the spirit of XCOM, which favours the Iron Man approach of permadeath, but has always been technically possible. It's not been very effective, though, because reloading a quicksave inside an encounter doesn't generate a new random seed - so whatever result you got he first time will always happen again.

In expansion Enemy Within, Firaxis has implemented a menu option that generates a new seed when loading from saves if activated.

"It's called Save Scum in honour of what Jake Solomon likes to call players who do this. It resets the random number seed whenever the game is loaded. For people who really want to keep shooting until that 80% shot hits," lead game designer Anand Gupta told PCGamesN.

Gupta also revealed that Firaxis implemented a secret luck stat which increases in strength as you turn the difficulty down; if the game notices you getting a lot of poor results, it compensates.

"Believe me though, on Easy, if you miss three times in a row you're not going to miss your fourth shot. It can be a 1% chance to hit and you're not going to miss that shot," he said.

XCOM: Enemy Within launches on November 15. It will be available as a DLC expansion on Mac and PC, but as part of re-release the Commander's Edition on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Thanks, games.on.net.