An absolute mountain of games have been released during the past few months, but there is one gaping hole - XCOM 2. Firaxis originally targeted a December launch for their tactical strategy sequel, but a cruel twist of fate snatched it out of our hands until February 5th, 2016. On the basis of the sublime original I'm sure the wait will be worth it though. 

This time around Earth has been conquered by the invading alien force. Aliens rule alongside the ADVENT corporation, and players are tasked with utilising a band of guerilla fighters to win our planet back. XCOM 2 expands on its predecessor in almost every conceivable way, with more room for customisation, a greater selection of procedurally generated maps, expanded research and base development, powerful new alien species to fight, and more. Firaxis has said what it's accomplishing here is so ambitious it's not even possible on the current-gen consoles. With that in mind, check out the official XCOM 2 system requirements.

XCOM 2 Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit 
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6GHz or AMD Phenom 9950 Quad-Core Black Edition 2.6GHz
• RAM: 4 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 1GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD 5770 1024MB
• DX: DirectX 11
• HDD: 45GB Free Hard Drive Space
• Audio: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

XCOM 2 Recommended System Requirements

• CPU: Intel Core i5-2320 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 651K 3.0 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 or AMD Radeon HD 7970

Well, well, well. Visually, XCOM 2 is extremely similar to the original. There's some minor touching up going on, along with more destructible environments, but it's pretty much on par. Which is what makes it a little surprising to see such a hefty leap in system requirements. Now the minimum system requirements for XCOM 2 are by now means massive, with only fairly ageing CPUs and graphics cards doing the job, but the recommended specs are a huge jump. A GeForce GTX 770 or Radeon HD 7970 seems total overkill for maxing out XCOM 2, unless we're talking extreme resolutions. For point of reference, the GTX 750 Ti absolutely hammers the original, and I wouldn't expect it to be any different here. 

Elsewhere you can see there's a very large install size for the type of game XCOM 2 is. This is as big a download as Just Cause 3, so Firaxis certainly aren't going light on content. 

One last thing is that unlike the original there will be gamepad support, at least at launch. If you want to play XCOM 2 then you'll have to do it with a mouse and keyboard, or a Steam Controller of course. 

Remember, you can always check out how well your PC can run the XCOM 2 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the XCOM 2 GPU benchmark chart.