XCOM Enemy Unknown Errors and Fixes Guide

List of workarounds to fix the general errors, crashes, freezes and connection issues you might come across while playing XCOM Enemy Unknown.


XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a decent turn-based strategy game that allows players to think of various strategies in their own way. Freedom is what many gamers like, and XCOM’s latest iteration does exactly that. It was released on PC today and already; many are experiencing different errors and other game-breaking issues that require developer’s immediate attention but in the meanwhile, we can help with this XCOM Enemy Unknown Errors and Fixes guide.

XCOM Enemy Unknown Errors and Fixes

If you have been facing any trouble in running the game properly or even start it, you can refer to the following list of common issues and their probable solutions/fixes.

#1 Nvidia Physics Issue
If you are using an Nvidia Card and want phsyx to work properly, you should install these optimized drivers.

#2 Corrupt Files Game Fix
You can resolve this game breaking issue by exiting steam and restarting it. It’s that simple. If that doesn’t work, update the game.

#3 Black Screen Issue – Can’t change resolution
You should try minimizing the game to the windowed mode (Alt+Enter) from where you can change the resolution to the one supportable by your screen.

#4 Game Crash Fix
You need to re-validate the game files to resolve the issue.

#5 XCOM: Enemy Unknown Restarts My Computer
The issue can be related to the outdated chipset/bios drivers. I will recommend an update but make sure that you are cautious enough as Bios update can damage your system (if not done properly, that is).

#6  Camera Stuck on the Tutorial
Unplug your controller to resolve this issue.

#7 Stuck At 100% Downloading
If it’s taking forever (I will recommend that you wait for it a little longer) to download, go to where your steam files are and delete the clientregistry.blob file in there. This should complete the download.

#8 Disk IO Failure
If you have verified the game cache and tried re-installing the game, you can try out the following work around:

  • Backup the game files on an external drive. You can find the files in the steam folder, under “depotcache”.(Should be about 12 GB of files)
  • After you’ve backed them up, delete the local content.
  • Then copy the depotcache files back onto the original directory (where they were before).

#9 The Game Won’t Start, Exits With Error Message
You need to restart steam and verify the game cache to resolve the issue.

#10 XCOM: Enemy Unknown Bad Textures ‘Laptop’ Fix
This issue arises due to your laptop switching between on-board graphics chipset and nVidia/ATi graphics card. Disabling switchable graphics option in your bios settings should resolve the issue. If you are on PC and are experiencing the same issue, disable anti-aliasing and filtering in your in-game video settings.

#11 Startup Crash Fix
Some users are experiencing crashes after installing Enemy Within expansion. There are few things you can do to resolve the issue:

  • First, try re-validation your game’s cache.
  • If that doesn’t help, try disabling the cloud save option from Steam.
  • If you have any antivirus installed like AVG, try disabling it.
  • You should also try playing the game in offline mode. It has helped some users to dodge the crash. Hopefully, a proper fix will be rolled out soon.

#12 How to Skip Intro
You can skip the intro videos by using the ‘-nostartupmovies’ command line argument.

#13 How to disable Multiplayer Chat
You can disable the multiplayer chat using the following method:

  • Head to the configuration files location.
  • Click on XComEngine.ini or DefaultEngine.ini
  • Search for the [VoIP] section.
  • Set the value of bHasVoiceEnabled as ‘false’.

#14 How to Enable Armor Tint Options
You can enable the armor tints option using the following method:

  • Head to the configuration files location.
  • Click on XComGame.ini or DefaultGame.ini
  • Copy/paste these lines at the end of it:

[XComStrategyGame.XGCustomizeUI

bArmorDecoAvailable=true

bArmorTintAvailable=true

#15 Game Plays in Slow-Motion Fix
If you’re using Gigabyte’s OC Guru overclocking software, it can cause the game to seemingly run in slow-motion. You can fix this issue by closing the OC Guru overlay

If you come across any other issue, let us know in the comments and we will help you out!

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...