The sequel to 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown is finally here! XCOM 2 has made a fantastic impression on just about everyone who has played the game, and even we couldn’t help be praise it in our review.
However, like almost every PC game, it’s not without its own set of technical issues. There are several errors, crashes, freezes, and bugs in the game that are preventing users from enjoying the brilliant experience that is XCOM 2.
We have shortlisted the most common issues currently being found in the game, and have compiled possible solutions for all of them.
If you find solutions other than the ones listed below, please do share them in the comments below. Also, if you’re facing problems not included in this article, let us know – we and the community will try to help if we can.
#1 XCOM 2 – Poor FPS and Performance Fix
If you meet the system specs yet are facing low frame-rates, disable the in-game Antialiasing. The game’s antialiasing seems to be extremely performance intensive and can gobble up 20+ fps on certain machines.
Running the game in windowed mode has also improved frame-rates for some players.
This solution should work for most, but there have been reports of even Nvidia GTX 980 users facing low frame-rates, indicating the game is poorly optimized.
#2 XCOM 2 – Cannot input Name
If whatever you type keeps on getting reset or the typing cursor jumps back to the left instantly, make sure any gamepad you have is disconnected from the computer.
#3 XCOM 2 – Game Crashes to Desktop
If your game is crashing to desktop with or without an error, try one of the following:
- Make sure you have Service Pack 1 installed for Windows 7/8.1.
- If the game crashed between a mission, restart your PC and try playing it again. If this works, you might have to restart every time a crash occurs.
- Go to your steam folder and navigate to \SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\XCOM 2. Inspect the commonredist, amd, directX, and vcredist folders. Install all the exes in each of the folder and try running the game.
- Head to Steam library in your Steam application. Right click XCOM 2, then Local Files, then ‘Verify Integrity of Game Cache.’ Wait and let Steam download the necessary files.
If none of these work for you, I suggest waiting for a patch as this is a problem many seem to be facing.
#4 XCOM 2 – Audio Out of Sync
If you’re facing issues with the game’s sound lagging behind, try changing the sound settings in Windows to Stereo. If that doesn’t work, try reducing the graphics settings of the game.
#5 XCOM 2 – Cannot Close Soldier Equipment Screen
This bug can occur immediately before starting a mission. This bug is random, and in order to avoid it, you will have to equip your soldiers with the required equipment outside of the pre-mission screen.
#6 XCOM 2 – Limited Resolution Options
If you can only see limited resolutions in the in-game settings, restart the game to fix this minor bug. If it still persists, adjust the display setting from the Launcher.
#7 XCOM 2 – Save Files Missing
If your save files are not showing up in the game, it may be because the game failed to create an XCOM 2 folder within ‘My Games.’ Check \Documents\My Games\XCOM2\XComGame\SaveData.
If the XCOM 2 folder is not there, that is what is causing the problem. Create one, and copy the data within ‘save’ and ‘saves’ from \SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\XCOM 2\Binaries\Win64 to the XCOM 2 folder in My Games.
#8 XCOM 2 – AMD Crossfire Screen Flickering Fix
If you’re facing flickering issues while using Crossfire, do the following:
- Head to AMD’s Crimson Control Center
- Go to Game -> XCOM 2 -> AMD Crossfire Mode -> Use AMD pre-defined profile -> XComGame.exe
- Start XCOM 2
- Disable in-game antialiasing
#9 XCOM 2 – Getting SLI to Work
Download Nvidia Inspector and copy/paste the SLI profile from XCOM: Enemy Unknown into the bank SLI profile of XCOM 2.
Change the following two lines in the Compatibility section to:
SLI compatibility bits(DX1x): 0x000000F5
SLI compatibility bits: 0x02402005
Change the following four lines in the SLI section to:
NVIDIA predefined number of GPUs to use on SLI rendering mode on DirectX 10:
SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_TWO
NVIDIA predefined number of GPUs to use on SLI rendering mode:
SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIA predefined SLI mode on DirectX 10:
10 SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_DX10_FORCE_AFR
NVIDIA predefined SLI mode:
SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_FORCE_AFR2
Apply the settings. This should get the game to use 2 GPUs.
#10 XCOM 2 – Playing on 4K Resolution
Head over to SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\XCOM 2\ and search for ‘Engine.ini.’ In here, search for ResX and ResY. These two values determine width and height. Set accordingly (for 4K, it is 3840 and 2160 respectively).
#11 XCOM 2 – No Voice in Cutscenes and Mission Briefing
This issue can be fixed by accessing the Steam library in the Steam client, right clicking on XCOM 2 and going to properties, and changing the language of the game. Once it has been changed, simply change it back to English (or whichever the original language you desired was). The issue should now be fixed.
