If that's really so, then Firaxis did a hell of a job on a rushed schedule (even if the game's development history dates to 2008.) As the sports writer here, I deal with games built on a one-year lifespan on a daily basis. I can't name the last time a major publisher put out a multiplatform, retail release game this good nine months after it was announced.

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It's not that the game's underlying concepts of strategic neglect, inevitable defeat and advancement from it, are novel introductions, either in this game or in the strategy genre overall. It's how perfectly XCOM: Enemy Unknown forces these conditions, and how the tenor of the game changes once you suck it up and push ahead, despite the fiasco of that last UFO crash investigation.

All of that said, even after accepting defeat as a fact of life, XCOM remains a tough, demanding game, even on "Normal" difficulty. Not with a gun to my head would I ever attempt its "Impossible" difficulty, though its inclusion is a shrewd nod to the idea that if we ever face an invasion led by beings with this kind of power, we're unavoidably doomed. Still, there is a chorelike quality not only to XCOM's interstitial missions—which necessarily grind you along toward weapon and technology upgrades—as well as in its liturgy of effective combat. Preventing flanking, moving slowly, covering teammates, all of these chesslike steps must be followed, no matter how skilled your fighters are. If you are new to the series, you will have to learn a lot by trial and error, and sometimes the mistakes you make in your broader strategy of research, engineering and training will send you down a path that makes ultimate success much harder, if not impossible. A lot of XCOM: Enemy Unknown assumes knowledge of the series or the genre, and without it, the game has discouraging jolts.

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To XCOM's credit, though, the game is as honest in consistently applying consequences to your long term strategy as it is to your choices in short-term conflicts. Units that are highly trained but poorly equipped will get crushed in the field. A project with unstoppable soldiers will be in serious trouble if it doesn't have enough satellites in the air, or hasn't built advanced aircraft. There's an orthodoxy in the tactics, too, in the way shooting from elevation, flanking (or avoiding it) and using cover and suppression are utterly critical, especially as your largest force will be only six members, perpetually tasked with repelling superior numbers.

XCOM has its own story. It features cutscenes, pivotal missions and events, story-based set pieces and a cinematic finale. Deep down, though, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is what defines the best of video gaming: it's a great game, first and foremost. And still it provides a greater tablet for players to write their own stories; to write a friend at midnight, regretfully informing him of his heroic death in action.

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The writers of Kotaku are nominating nine games for 2012 Game of the Year. The nominations will be posted throughout the first week of January. The winner of our staff vote will be announced on the following Monday and that game will be our 2012 GOTY, shifting 2011 GOTY Portal 2 a little further down our imaginary trophy shelf. Read all of our 2012 nominations, as they're posted.