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The E3 demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown will feature a cameo appearance from Civilization creator Sid Meier.
The video finds an XCOM squad being torn to shreds at the hands of various aliens – including the newly-revealed Chrysalid – before the good guys decide to send in reinforcements. Meier then shows up as one of the Reaper Squad – high-powered operatives sent in to clean up the mess.
“Who better to save civilization than the man who invented it?” quipped associate producer Pete Murray, giving us a sneak peak of the clip at a recent XCOM press event.
Meier uses his fearsome psychic powers to give the aliens a taste of their own medicine, manipulating them via his fearsome mind control abilities. He also wears a rather slinky black bodysuit; hopefully this is based upon his real-world fashion sense.
XCOM will be the first Firaxis game to not have Sid Meier’s name on the box. Murray explained that it was lead designer Jake Solomon’s idea to squeeze Meier into the demo.
“Jake has worked with Sid for years. He said, ‘Sid, I want to put you in the demo!’, and he [Sid] just laughed and laughed. He thought it was great.”
Murray hinted that Meier may crop up in the final game in some form or another.
“We’ve got this cool model, we should probably do something with it.”
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is due for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in the autumn. Check out our latest preview here.
