42

Starting with the intro movie, XCOM features its fair share of cutscenes that I'm just not all that interested in.

I know Firaxis made the game, I don't need to see their logo for a full minute every time I open the game, and I know what Central Officer Bradford is going to say when I'm playing the tutorial mission for the fourth or fifth time.

Is there any way to skip the cutscenes in XCOM:EU? If it matters, I'm on the PC; I imagine the consoles cutscenes double as load screens, but my PC is fast enough it shouldn't be that big an issue.

Improve this question
6
  • 3
    Strange... I seem to be able to skip cutscenes just by clicking or hitting escape (PC obviously), although thus far they've all been cutscenes I've seen before that I've skipped....
    – gkimsey
    Oct 10, 2012 at 16:50
  • 1
    Ug... wish I could edit my bounty message. By "skip", I really mean "never even start at all", not "allow you to press escape to cut it short", since that's already currently the case.
    – Sterno
    Oct 15, 2012 at 18:35
  • 2
    @Sterno some of the skyranger bits are loading screens in disguise.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Oct 15, 2012 at 19:17
  • 1
    What bugs me the most are the little audio snippets of the base crew when you are in the base screen. Hitting escape doesn't skip those, and the ui is disabled til whoever it is finishes talking. Engineering guy and research lady need to shut up already.
    – Fambida
    Oct 18, 2012 at 1:01
  • 3
    @Fambida you can click on buttons instead of rooms to go to them when they are talking. Strange, but it works.
    – kotekzot
    Oct 18, 2012 at 4:25

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
44

Found the answer in the Steam Community page for the demo.

Find XCOM's install folder. For Steam, it's the following:

  • Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/XCOMData

Then go through to \XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Config\ and open up "DefaultEngine.ini" in a text editor like Notepad.

Under the header ; PC Startup movies (CTRL + F for quicker access), delete the "+" before the 4 entries there. Save and start XCOM and the movies should be gone, however your video settings will be reset. Simply reconfigure your resolution and the changes will stick.

Improve this answer
5
  • When I did this, it messed with my fullscreen/resolution settings. Once I adjusted them back, it worked fine.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Oct 9, 2012 at 12:30
  • @StrixVaria I found the 4th entry: +StartupMovies=1280x720_Black didn't really produce a cutscene. You might try leaving that one enabled to see if you can get the best of both worlds.
    – agent86
    Oct 9, 2012 at 12:43
  • 1
    my xcom configuration seems to have changed lately, theres some stuff in my documents/my games/xcom - enemyunknown/xcomgame/config stuff and the original solution doesn't seem to work anymore
    – l I
    Oct 12, 2012 at 21:46
  • 1
    You just need to skip the first two. And you can put a ; in front of it instead of deleting it (in case you want those scenes back)
    – Muz
    Oct 16, 2012 at 17:09
  • I'm guessing that's not going to work on a PS3 ;)
    – Antony Stubbs
    Nov 29, 2012 at 15:44
21
+25

You're better off modifying your user configuration rather than files in xcom's installed folder, as those may get wiped out during a patch. I prefer putting a semicolon in front of the line instead of deleting it.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    I can report that this also works for Enemy Within (there's an Enemy Within folder as well as the Enemy Unknown one)
    – Flyto
    Nov 15, 2013 at 17:38
  • First link is dead.
    – Thunderforge
    Mar 26, 2018 at 4:39
  • moved first link to archive.org
    – Mark
    Jun 10, 2020 at 17:19
4

This mod at XCom Nexus did the trick for me. The mod is really just a batch file that does the same "heavy" lifting for you as @Mark's Gamefront article. Instructions are on the download page. Note, if you had the demo, be careful that you get the correct instance of XComEngine.ini.

Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to skip the other cutscene's outside the ESC key and even then some of the cutscenes seem like they are really more loading screens disguised as a cutscene.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .