Second Wave makes it a whole 'nother game...

Like Marathon. Everything's so slow. Sectoids and Thin Men stay around for months, wounded soldiers stay out of the game for two, four weeks sometimes, new technologies take forever to research early on...it's pretty great.

Rookies having random stats is pretty fun too. Really makes everyone unique.
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Good work, ChaosZeroRoxorz!

Yeah it's just a patch, you just start up the game and it should tell you there's an update.

Apparently it also fixed a few annoying bugs too like enemies spawing out of nowhere due to an AI pathing glitch.
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From: ACasser | #005

Any truth to the rumor that some of the Second Wave options are only available if you beat the game on Impossible? It's not a problem for me -- I finished up my Impossible run this afternoon and the last mission was really underwhelming compared to some of the Terror and UFO missions I had thown at me -- but I'm sure someone else will ask at some point.

Some of the Second Wave options do look interesting, though. I'm trying to figure out which one(s) I want to try in my next game now that I'm going to go back and play on "Normal" and trying the DLC missions.

Yes, there are four options only available if you beat it on Impossible.

The normal ones are:

Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.
New Economy: Randomized council member funding.
Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats.
Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.
Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier’s mission stats.
Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.
The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.
Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete.
Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases.
High Stakes: Random rewards for stopping alien abductions.
Diminishing Returns: Increased cost of satellite construction.
More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare.

Then if you beat it on Impossible you can also unlock:

War Weariness: Council funding goes down over time.
E-115: Elerium degrades over time.
Total Loss: Lose all soldier gear upon death.
Alternate Sources: The power source cost to build facilities increases dramatically.

Marathon and Hidden Potential are a lot of fun.
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From: Halectic | #007

Not created equal is good also, you can get rookies with 87 aim

Oh yeah I forgot that one. Pretty awesome when your heavy has the aim of a sniper.
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From: Rowde | #014

Also, I just got this game last week. Taking my time with it. I beat the game on easy the first time, and I only have the first four options available in the Second Wave menu. So I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that normal would unlock 5 - 8, classic 9 - 12, and impossible 13 - 16.

Really? Did not know that, that's pretty interesting....
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Good work, ChaosZeroRoxorz!

Those and Not Created Equally are the most fun in my opinion.
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That's another thing, I LOVE the long injuries on the soldiers. Really makes the officer training school double healing rate upgrade worth it. And then your squad actually gets some variety because dudes are out for a month at a time.
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http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/128/2/d/ri_chibis_series_3_by_frist44-d3fwuko.png
Good work, ChaosZeroRoxorz!