Xenonauts 2 gets biggest update yet, adds new UFO, missions and weapons

rockpapershotgun.com:

Xenonauts 2 received its biggest update yet last night, adding a bunch of new things to the early access X-COM-like that will be sure to please your rude Chief Science Officer Gaius Baltar James Callis whatever his name is SMUG FACE. Alongside a brand-new Cruiser UFO to pilfer for new technology to help fight back against your alien invaders, the Milestone 3 update also brings new story missions, weapons and vehicles, extending the campaign's play time from 180 in-game days all the way up to 260.

Developers Goldhawk Interactive stress that it's still not possible to fully complete the campaign just yet - that will come with Milestone 5, they said in their latest Steam blog post, as there are still two more UFO types they've got waiting in the wings before that. But the additional 80 days of in-game playtime should give the current early access campaign quite a bit more meat on its bones.

When the new Cruiser UFO does eventually show up, it will have two different interior layouts, so if you encounter it a second time (or play through the campaign again), you may not be able to use quite the same strategy as before. If you do manage to successfully infiltrate it, you'll gain access to a bunch of new weapon types, including two types of fusion weapon, as well as a new interceptor and dropship, and an improved version of your robot buddy MARS (appropriately named ARES).

There are lots more smaller improvements in the Milestone 3 update, too. Aliens can now suffer bleed wounds, for example, as "community feedback suggested it was unfair" that they couldn't before (too right, I say), and the developers have made better efforts to help tutorialise specific mission types. Crucially, there have also been "significant AI upgrades", meaning that enemies are now more intelligent and, I quote, "civilians are now much less suicidal" (with the specific detail that AI units "will no longer just stand in fire / smoke until they die or pass out"). Hmm. Yes. Quite.

Generally, I'm