Titanfall Companion App Now Available

If you’re an owner of a mobile device running Windows Phone 8, Android, or iOS and you’re a big Titanfall fan then you’ll be interested to know that Respawn Entertainment and Microsoft have worked to publish a new companion app for the game.  The app allows you to see a lot of detailed information about your class and titan setups as well as real-time map information.  It may not be the most ideal way to view a map since you have to take your eyes off the screen, but if you have a tablet that can be posted up in your view then you can see the entire map of the level you’re currently playing on.  It has some benefits over the proximity-based mini map that you see while in-game, but this seems to be more of a cool extra than a real must-have experience.

PC fans will probably benefit more if they’re running Windows 8 since you can run this app while playing the game.  In this instance, the companion apps map view is potentially rewarding since dual monitor setups could see the app running on one screen right next to your main game window.  It could help you out if you’re looking to find pilots across the map while in a titan so you can sprint to an area and find the pilot that was giving themselves away while using unsuppressed fire.  You might as well give it a glance if you’re playing Titanfall and have one of these supported platforms because it’s a free app.  Just be sure you’re connected to WiFi because this app is huge.  We’re talking in the 670-710MB range depending on which platform you download it on.

Titanfall Expedition DLC Available May 15 On Xbox One, PC

The good news for Xbox One owners is just pouring out from all angles.  The best-selling video game of March and April, Titanfall, is finally set to receive its first set of DLC.  Titled “Expedition”, the DLC will focus solely on new maps to keep things a little more varied in your play sessions and is set to release tomorrow, May 15.  To preview the new maps just boot up your Xbox One as the preview is currently featured on the main page, or just click the YouTube video below and view it here.

Along with the DLC we’re expecting a patch for everyone to unlock the new 2v2 Last Titan Standing mode.  Other DLC and free updates that will bring more features and options to the game are in the pipeline.  We’ll likely see them over the course of 2014, but for now Expedition is your first taste of Titanfall DLC and it only costs you $9.99, as opposed to the popular $14.99 price points that Call of Duty and other franchises tend to make you pay for.  The seasons pass for all three planned DLC releases will run you $24.99, saving you $5 in the end.

By the way, the 360 DLC content will not be ready until sometime in June.  This is likely due to the delay in the 360 version of the game.  Respawn Entertainment will likely take a few weeks to tailor the content to the 360 and make sure it’s stable.  We’d expect something in the first half of June for the 360 Titanfall owners.

Titanfall 38% Off @ Amazon – Today Only

For you gamers on a budget, the hit shooter Titanfall is on a one-day-only sale at Amazon.com today.  Titanfall is 38% off, which brings it down to $36.99 for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC platforms.  Titanfall was launched on March 11, 2014 and lead the US and UK for game sales on any games platform for the month of March.  Titanfall is also picking up its first DLC content in the next couple weeks as Respawn Entertainment confirmed earlier this month that they’d be launching their first add-on in May (we believe early May is the launch window).

Titanfall DLC + Content Update Coming In May

Respawn Entertainment’s popular shooter Titanfall is due for an update in May which will provide small tweaks to correct bugs and the games performance.  No word on whether this will be an update that jump the resolution yet though Respawn mentioned they still expected to bump the resolution of Titanfall on Xbox One at PAX East last weekend.  What players will get is a new gametype in a new 2v2 Last Titan Standing variant, new burn cards to collect and Titan insignias.  In an experimentation with matchmaking without using Xbox Live’s service Titanfall is using a hashtag-like system to promote private matches that anyone can join should they search for that tag.  More details should be available as the patch nears deployment.

We expect around the same time, or shortly after, an announced DLC pack for Titanfall as well.  The DLC is titled “Expedition” is will drop in three new maps for players to go to war on.  The three maps will be called “Runoff”, “Swamplands” and “Wargames” and are set in locations that have something to do with the IMC’s retreat after the campaign mode’s final moments.  Respawn gave this little background excerpt for those that cared about the story:

In the wake of the Battle of Demeter, IMC Expeditionary Forces travel deep into Frontier space to recover from their recent defeat. On an uncharted world, the IMC begin construction of a new fleet operations base, using newly acquired water collection and filtration plants to support the new base. When drainage operations reveal ancient ruins and artifacts of an unknown origin in a nearby swamp, Spyglass activates an archaeological team to investigate the site. To maintain battle readiness at the new base, IMC Pilots use simulation pods to train for anticipated Militia raids, based on lessons learned in Angel City and IMC Airbase Sierra.

A set date isn’t available yet for the DLC however we do think it will come either May 6 or May 13 since originally the first round of DLC was said to release about six weeks after the games launch.  A two-week delay in the Xbox 360 version likely bumped back the launch date of the DLC back and thus a first-half of May launch makes sense.  For those that have already hit the max regeneration points the new content will give more reason to continue playing other than just for the fun of the game.

Titanfall Receives Update – New Features and Balancing

Since Titanfall released there’s been little else to talk about when covering the Xbox One in terms of actual games.  Kinect Sports launched this week but other than that things have been pretty similar to before Titanfall’s launch: uneventful.  But since Titanfall is an excellent shooter that is enjoyable to play with friends it’s nice to see that Respawn Entertainment quickly pushed a new update to the game.  Here’s what’s been reported as changes and balancing in the new patch according to Respawn’s forum page:

NEW FEATURES (All Platforms)

Private Match (beta) – This is the first public test of our new Private Match mode. This gives you a way to organize matches with and against your friends, for casual or tournament play. Some features are unfinished or not yet implemented, and we welcome your feedback. A few highlights:

• Private Match supports 2 to 12 players, with 1 to 6 players on each team.
• You can start a new Private Match lobby by choosing it on the main selection screen (alongside Campaign, MP, and Training). Invite your friends in or have them join you at any time.
• Choose any of the game’s maps or modes (CTF, Pilot Hunter, etc.) to play in.
• Choose which team you’re on.
• There is no XP gain, challenge progress, or achievement unlocking while in a Private Match. For this beta, the Last Game Summary screen will display what you would have earned in normal play outside of Private Match, but be aware that this progress will not be recorded to your lifetime total.
• For this beta, there is no concept of a “lobby leader”; any player can change game options in the lobby or start/stop the match countdown.
• All Private Match games are still played on dedicated servers via Xbox Live Cloud Compute, just like normal matches.
• New options like round time, score limits, and much more will come in future updates.

Party Colors – Your party members and their titans now show up on the mini-map with green colors, instead of the normal blue colors that other friendlies use. Their names are also drawn in green on your HUD, the obituary text, and in the pre-game lobby. This helps you figure out where your friends are and what they’re up to, especially in the heat of combat.

Auto-Titan Color in Obituary – Your auto-titan’s name now shows up in the obituary with the gold color that your own name does. Previously it had the same blue color as any other friendly. This makes it easier to keep tabs on how your titan is doing.

Removed Wall-hack Exploit – PC cheaters were able to modify their local configuration files to enable a sort of wall-hack cheat using legit game code. We’ve closed the exploit that they were using.

Menu Changes – “Play Multiplayer” is now the default (top) option on the private lobby menu, if you’ve completed both the IMC and Militia campaigns. It has also been renamed from “Play Classic”, since the term “classic”, which we used internally, proved to be confusing to some players.

Game Version on Main Menu – The main menu now displays the game’s version in the bottom-left corner. Now you don’t have to wonder if you really do have the latest version of the game, and we can use that to double-check things if support is helping you troubleshoot issues.

NEW FEATURES (Xbox One)

Party App Shortcut in Menus – Added a shortcut on all menus that opens the Xbox One’s “Party” app by pressing Left Trigger on the controller, similar to the existing Right Trigger shortcut that invites friends. You can then press ‘B’ to close it when you’re done, or leave it up. (This is much easier than the manual method of going to the Home screen, opening “My games & apps”, selecting Apps, scrolling a few screens over to the “Party” app, and opening it.)

GAME BALANCE CHANGES

The Gooser Challenge – Based on recent feedback from fans of the game, the Gen 5 challenge requirement ‘Gooser’, requiring players to kill 50 ejecting pilots, will be reduced to 5 total. We had a couple of design goals for Regeneration. One was to give players a structured way to discover and experience ways of playing the game they might not have otherwise tried on their own. The second was to recognize players’ mastery of various skills, going beyond just ‘time played’. We went a bit too far with this challenge, especially considering the unique conditions that have to be met just to have the opportunity to get a kill on an ejecting Pilot. We understand some players have already completed the challenge, or have already earned more than the new requirement so we will be internally noting those players so we can recognize their accomplishments in a future game update.

40mm magazine capacity for default and Extended Mag – The default magazine size was making the 40mm too powerful. It is intended to be the only weapon that can take a Titan down without reloading, if used skillfully. However, 20 rounds per magazine were proving to be too high and overly tolerant of indiscriminate fire. We’ve reduced it to 12 rounds per magazine, which still allows players to take a Titan down without reloading, but helps balance it out against other Titan weapons. The extended mag has also been dropped from 25 to 16, with the same design principles applying to this change.

Titan Quad Rocket mag size change – During development, there was a time when the Quad Rocket was too powerful. We made a lot of changes to pull it back before shipping (lessened the screen shake impact, lessened the duration of the first person impact FX, lowered the magazine size, pulled the damage back, etc.) It currently can struggle against other Titan weapons and going back to the 5/6 (default/extended mag) magazine sizes helps balance the weapon and allows players to miss a few shots and still be effective. It was 4/5, now its 5/6.

Titan Quad Rocket damage vs Titan shields – It was taking too long to drop a Titans shields with the Quad Rocket (5 shots). This meant you had to reload before you could even drop an enemy Titan’s shields. This was the only Titan weapon that had this issue. We’ve now upped the damage against Titan shields so that it can drop a shield with 4 shots. Combined with the increased mag size, this damage increase effectively gives you one more volley in the mag to deal serious direct hull damage.

Titan Quad Rocket ‘Rapid Fire’ Mod’s mag size change – We upped the magazine size for the Quad Rocket’s Rapid Fire Mod to help it compete with the changes made to the extended magazine (from 5 to 6). The Rapid Fire Mod’s magazine size is going up from 16 to 18.

Amped Kraber Titan damage change – We upped the damage that the Amped Kraber Burn Card does to Titans. It is now the only significantly effective “small arms” weapon against Titans. Note that this only applies to the Amped version of the Kraber. The damage goes up from 100 to 800. We added this to give the Kraber Burn Card a little bit more character, as well as to give you something to shoot if you have a hard time hitting those little Pilots with the Kraber. So snipe away at those Titans…before they kill you!

Hardpoint Domination scoring changes – We wanted to reward and encourage players to go out and capture enemy hardpoints. As important as defending a hardpoint is, capturing them is more important and a tougher task, generally speaking. We did not want to completely remove points for defending, but attacking players were getting too little credit for their efforts. Here is a breakdown of the changes:
• Capturing a hardpoint from 150 to 250
• Assisting in capturing a hardpoint from 75 to 100
• Neutralizing a hardpoint from 50 to 150
• Assisting in neutralizing a hardpoint from 25 to 75
• Killing a player inside an enemy hardpoint from outside (nearby) from 75 to 50
• Killing a player inside an enemy hardpoint from outside (far) from 75 to 50
• Killing a player inside an enemy hardpoint from inside the hardpoint from 75 to 50
• Killing an NPC inside an enemy hardpoint from inside the hardpoint from 25 to 10
• Killing a player outside of a friendly hardpoint whilst inside of a hardpoint from 75 to 50
• Killing a player inside of a friendly hardpoint whilst inside of a hardpoint from 75 to 50
• Killing an NPC outside of a friendly hardpoint whilst inside of a hardpoint from 25 to 10
• Killing an NPC inside of a friendly hardpoint whilst inside of a hardpoint from 25 to 10
• Defending a hardpoint now goes from 75 to 25

CTF scoring changes – We wanted to make sure the big payoff in CTF came from capturing the flag. Killing the carrier and then returning the flag was worth 400 points (combined), while capturing the flag was worth 500 points in comparison. These changes are meant to reward players who capture the flag a bit more than those who kill the carrier and return the flag. Defense is still a very important aspect of CTF so we wanted to make sure to keep defending points high enough to still encourage playing defense. Here is a breakdown of the changes:
• Capturing a flag from 500 to 400
• Returning the flag from 250 to 100
• Killing the flag carrier from 150 to 100

BUG FIXES (All Platforms)

• Fixed an issue where a Titan firing ordnance would not show on the minimap correctly.
• Fixed a rare bug with Pilot health pools that would make them virtually invincible.
• Fixed rare cases where Titans could be called in through solid geometry.
• Titan shields now protect friendly rodeo players from explosion damage (such as from an Arc Cannon).
• Fixed a case where a Pilot could embark a Titan through walls.
• Spitfire LMG and XO-16 firing sounds will no longer sometimes cut off before the gun is finished firing.
• The Archer now locks onto the top of a heavy turret rather than the base of the turret.
• The Archer’s rockets now home in on Titans correctly when those targets are kneeling.
• Fixed shadows incorrectly shimmering on a particular area of Lagoon.
• Fixed Satchel Charges and Particle Walls causing pilots to permanently rodeo other pilots.
• Fixed certain characters not rendering properly in French and other languages.
• Fixed an issue where “Initializing…” would be displayed if a server wasn’t found.
• Fixed being unable to scroll to the top of the datacenter list after scrolling down.
• Greatly reduced the bandwidth used when connecting to a server. People who previously could not progress past the load-screen when connecting to servers should be able to play now.
• Grunts now show up on the minimap when they shoot.

BUG FIXES (PC)

• Fixed issues with Asian fonts.
• ‘-nojoy’ command-line parameter now disables gamepad input.
• All anti-aliasing modes should now properly be displayed in the video settings menu.
• Fixed graphics corruption and some GPU underutilization for SLI and Crossfire configurations.
• Fixed a crash in the options menu when toggling between Low and Medium shadows.
• Mouse buttons can now be used for voice chat in lobbies.
• Titanfall will no longer override your Windows microphone volume setting when it is launched.
• Fixed the Smart Pistol reticle so it scales properly based on the Field of View setting.
• Fixed crashes on machines with 32 or more cores.

BUG FIXES (Xbox One)

• Fixed a rare full-screen blue/red flash.
• Audio should no longer overlap after going to the Xbox dashboard and back into Titanfall.
• Fixed a crash when saying “Xbox go back” on certain menus

Lastly, Respawn also published a few things to look forward to in an upcoming patch.  They didn’t include the already-confirmed gametype expansions but we can assume that those will come in the next update or two.  A selection of improvements that will be released in an upcoming update:

• More Custom Loadout Slots with Custom Slots per Game Mode
• Ability to rename Custom Loadout Slots
• Last Game Summary shows the scoreboard from the previous match
• Additional customization options in Private Match
• Better 120hz monitor support
• Pick-up prompt for dropped Amped weapons appear in a different color than for normal weapons

• Enhanced interaction with Challenges. You will be able to review your Challenges by the following criteria:
o Completed (in your previous match)
o Most progressed (in your previous match)
o Almost completed (overall)

• Scoreboard icons will reflect 3 new states:
o Player Evacuated
o Player Dead with Auto-Titan Still Alive
o Player Alive with Auto-Titan Still Alive

Titanfall will also see its first set of DLC pushed out presumably in the next month or so.  According to some anonymous leaks, Respawn had originally slated their first round of DLC to go out roughly 45 days after the game launched on PC & Xbox One.  There’s a fair chance that, if that were the case, the launch window was pushed back due to the team focusing on getting the Xbox 360 version of the game out.  The 360 edition was delayed almost two weeks and as a result we may have to wait until mid May to see new content in addition to new gametypes.  Stay tuned!

 

TitanFall Will Add New Game Modes For Free

To prevent the Titanfall community in tact while playing online, Respawn Entertainment are going to offer the rumored-now-confirmed playlist expansion in an upcoming update free of charge.  These playlists haven’t been revealed as of this time but it could be in the next 2-3 weeks seeing how there were murmurs of Respawn wanting to offer some kind of DLC package within the games first 45 days.  That would put us somewhere in the 3rd week of April timeframe.  Respawn will be quick and clear when announcing the content and its delivery date as soon as they feel the content is ready to roll.  Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment’s executive producer, has mentioned that the content isn’t ready for primetime and that they would make no effort to reveal the coming update before they felt they were ready for it.

Respawn have also been quietly adding fixes and augmentation to their game.  Those of us that ascended to and beyond the 5th regeneration playthrough will be sad to know that, after the “goosing” of 50 ejected pilots to continue, Respawn will be drastically cutting down the challenge requirements from a total of 50 ejected pilot kills to just 5 ejected pilot kills.  It’s a fair enough change as many took perhaps several days to get the challenge completed, but it’s more evidence that Respawn are looking to keep things smooth and reasonable as players offer feedback.  The good news is that, for those that completed the challenge at the 50 ejected pilot kill stage will be recognized in a future update.  How that will be displayed has not yet been revealed.

TitanFall: Excellence That Needs Patching

There’s no question that TitanFall has been a wild success for Xbox and PC gamers and, for the most part, gamers have feasted on it since its launch a week and a half ago.  But now that we’re away from the honeymoon period and have extensive time to assess the game as-is, we have some points to make that Respawn Entertainment and Microsoft need to address in an update sooner than later.

Party Chat:  For whatever reason, after TitanFall launched the Xbox One’s party chat function seems to be a bit touchy again, leaving some without the ability to voice chat with any of their fellow party members.  We’ve even seen issues where players will get connectivity errors that force a rejoin just to continue chatting.  There have been players that you could hear/could talk that all of the sudden aren’t able to anymore.  It’s a mixed bag of good/bad experiences for players and it needs to be addressed immediately.  After all, how much fun are you going to have if you’re playing with friends but having zero communication with them?

Latency:  Another enigma here is the dedicated server connectivity.  TitanFall runs on Microsoft-hosted computers via Xbox Live, which is backed by Microsoft’s cloud system known as Azure.  For the most part, matches run start-to-end without dropping players (at least 99.9% of the time from what we can tell).   One thing that is worrisome is that, despite the dedicated servers, players are still lagging and latency has climbed recently from 30-35ms averages up to 50-60ms averages (based on our own experiences as of late).  There’s no telling how much worse it gets for other players, however the proof is in the pudding when you add killcams and the “Xbox, record that” functions, where we’ve noticed that more than a little discrepancy between what happens server-side and what we’re seeing in game.  Players getting shot up after evading fire by ducking into a corner still take damage and die.  Titans are ripping pilots out of their chassis when in “doomed state” but seem to be well beyond arms reach – the problem being that in order to grab a pilot you have to be very close (melee range).  All of this is likely attributed to latency issues and getting the dedicated servers to run more consistently with lower average latency will do wonders for the game experience.

Consistent Graphics:  The game is supposed to receive a patch at some point to optimize the graphical performance and up the resolution of the game on the Xbox One.  This update is still not confirmed for a release date, but the problem of graphical consistency also are a point of concern as there will be minor/major framerate drops that can greatly affect a heated battle for better or worse, depending on how you fare through it.  Screen tearing also occurs at times and can be a bit distracting, leaving horizontal lines on screen while motion occurs – not as important but still annoying.  Even if Respawn don’t ever push the game to 1080p this is an essential fix area that needs to be addressed soon while players are still fully enveloped in the online shooter.

Resets:  A select group of players have hit up TitanFall’s Twitter and forum feeds to report issues with their ranks, along with everything else along with it, reset to first-generation level 1.  That’s a bit of a fiery subject since some players are trying to climb the ladder to the final-generation 10.  This definitely requires fixing asap.

There are various other quirks and hiccups with things like the lobby and party matching system, but they tend to be on the less-frequent side and not everyone may experience them.  One way or the other, TitanFall could really use a quick patch.  Respawn have done a couple small tweaks this week already but they haven’t addressed all of the noticeable issues on their end yet.  As for the server operations, Respawn have said in interviews that it’s not their problem to fix the servers.  That’s not them dishing off responsibility, but actually identifying that Microsoft is the hosting partner and for optimizations to come then it will all be with Azure and Xbox Live.  That’s a nice luxury to have as a development studio and has all of the sudden become a hot point for other devs and publication studios.  Microsoft’s cloud approach hasn’t yet been fully adopted by anyone except for maybe Respawn Entertainment.  Now that studios are seeing such a high-magnitude online shooter work better than most games of the new generation out of the gate there seems to be an increase in interest in the Xbox One’s cloud service, something select Respawn employees noted when being asked about the delivery of TitanFall with Microsoft’s online platform.

There is plenty of good news on the horizon for TitanFall with an un-dated DLC package on the way sometime in the next two months according to various online reports.  Additional large-scale fixes and additions are likely coming with the DLC rollout and gamers can expect new game modes to come along with all of the fixes and maps.  If you’re looking at TitanFall with reasonable expectations, it is nice to see it functioning so well out of the gate given that Respawn consider it “unfinished”.

Gamers Want To See Electronic Arts Burn

EA has a long history of excellent AAA games under their belt.  They foster the EA Sports franchises like Madden and FIFA that are always good sellers as well as the action-packed titles like Battlefield, Mass Effect, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  They just added TitanFall to the mix and, just like all these other games over the past few years, was told to get steppin’ before all of its bags were packed.  You won’t hear any of the developers openly criticize EA because people treasure their jobs and the projects they work on, but gamers and analysts both are for once in agreement over the atrocities that EA have allowed in recent years.

Battlefield 4 could have been the shooter to end all shooters.  It’s fun, it’s big, it’s bold.  The game feasts on large-scale warfare and does a pretty good job of keeping things somewhat focused like Call of Duty does without pigeon-holding you to one section of the map or style of play.  The problem came when it launched with all consoles and PC late last year, where the game constantly crashed and glitches ran wild.  It was like playing a Bethesda game only there have been a higher percentage of game-stopping glitches rather than just goofy quirks.  As a result, Battlefield 4 struggled to steal the show and developer DICE are taking a lot of the burden by having to constantly scramble post-launch to iron out the kinks.  At some point they may just stop trying and move on to an inevitable Battlefield 5 title and make sure it’s right before launching.

The same goes for games like Warhammer Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Both games had huge potential and were hailed as World of Warcraft killers.  It was totally within reach, especially with The Old Republic.  The games both fared pretty well but the big problem was content and depth, especially in The Old Republic’s case.  There just wasn’t enough ready to go at launch and developer Bioware have had to push hard to put more viable content in for new and existing players to remedy the situations.  World of Warcraft didn’t have that problem as it took several months of dedicated play & work to get to end-game content and beat it.  Even when you did, there were great ploys to keep you coming back for more.  But EA didn’t want to wait and decided to push each game out the door before the developers were ready.  Warhammer Online’s pre-release cycle was actually cut short by EA and pushed straight to release.  The result is always an unfinished game.

The latest tragedy falls to TitanFall.  The game is outright fun and a huge shift in shooters because of all the little things added in to make it a fresh experience for all players.  The biggest pitfall is content variety and replayable hours.  You can sink dozen of hours into the game, but it’s a lot like Call of Duty where you really spend all your time online playing against other players competitively.  TitanFall benefits from being so good that the misses are almost completely unknown to most gamers at first.  For me, I’m currently 2/3 of the way through my 2nd generation pilot progress (basically a prestige, if you’re familiar with CoD’s leveling system) and I still enjoy the game a lot, but I can tell that it’s a game that will best be enjoyed with friends on instead of playing alone frequently, and that all of the game modes aren’t radically inventive, save for maybe Last Titan Standing.  Respawn Entertainment are committed to TitanFall’s success and growth over the rest of 2014.  There are hints at not just maps being added to the game’s set list, but perhaps new gametypes, “monsters”, better graphics, and perhaps even new titans coming through DLC and free updates over the next few months.  One can only hope, but the tone we get from the devs and others close to these companies that EA are creating tension with the developers and are greatly hurting several of the games that players get excited about pre-launch.

The result to all of this has been a lot of EA hate.  Jump onto EA forums and online game news site comments sections and you’ll see a lot of EA bashing, which is appropriate.  When the games aren’t finished it’s not the developers saying “screw it, lets put this thing on sale”, it’s the publishing studios like EA, Activision, Microsoft Studios, etc. that are making that bad decision to push the games out unfinished and try to begin drawing revenue.  Sometimes it’s necessary because there’s no telling when the games will actually be ready for primetime, or there’s been way too much investment already and the studios need to start recouping their investments just to keep working on the projects.  But in the examples of TitanFall, Battlefield, and more this is simply inexcusable.  These games make money and bring a much higher number of sales than the average game will and deserve completion before launch instead of 2-6 months after launch.  In TitanFall’s case the shortcomings are less noticeable because of the quality and speed the game works with, but not all games have that luxury.  Going forward it would benefit EA to make better decisions on their new IPs.  If a launch date is in jeopardy then give more support to the development staff to work faster ahead of launch instead of right before or after launch because, at this moment, gamers are ready to crucify EA for their indiscretions and crimes against gaming.

TitanFall – Review

No Introduction Needed – This Is TitanFall

TitanFall aims to reshape the FPS genre in a way that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare did on previous generation consoles & PC.  To that end, Respawn Entertainment has melded a campaign-like story into a 6-on-6 multiplayer experience to try and shake up the typical feel of a competitive match.  This is accomplished by AI characters giving background to battles before and after they have done (usually during, too), which makes the experience seem less shallow and a bit more immersive.  However this entire “campaign” is exactly the same experience that you’ll face should you decide to run for what Respawn calls “Classic Mode”, which features the various gametypes for simply competitive matches without all the backstory being filled in.  For the story side, it’s kind of cool – a sci-fi future where rival factions are warring against each other over differences in humanity’s direction and who controls it away from Earth.  The only problem with this is that the story is nearly lost when you’re playing the campaign mode.  This is largely due to TitanFall being so action-packed that it nearly drowns out everything going on.  For those that care, you’ll likely want to avoid playing campaign mode with friends so you can determine what’s happening with the characters and worlds you encounter.  Otherwise, there’s just too much noise to focus.  But in a way it’s the thought that counts, and the campaign mode makes for some interesting play – especially when it’s mandatory to unlock other classes of titans within the game.  Lastly, you will play as both factions to observe the story from different angles – something that is a bit rare and adds a bit of interest to a game that makes no mystery over its focus on multiplayer.

As for the multiplayer, it’s honed.  You will be hard pressed to find a more approachable yet robust online experience anywhere.  Call of Duty thrived in the FPS world for years, but its reign may have just ended with the first iteration of TitanFall.  It’s because everything is so purposeful, whether that be the weapon balancing, player-to-titan balancing, titan options, loadout customizations, burn cards (similar to killstreaks in CoD).  It’s as if Respawn Entertainment slaved over the appropriate tone, pacing and intention of the game so that any player can pick it up and play it to at least modest success.  In Call of Duty, you can carry a team on your back as a lone wolf and rampage over an enemy team simply by being so much better.  TitanFall does carry a vague feeling of lone wolf rewards, but it certainly lends itself better to team play, especially when the titans start dropping.  There’s too much going on and it’s too easy to get flanked or assassinated from behind by enemies should you make the mistake of staying in one spot too long.  This makes the game constantly progress in its movement, and playing with friends heavily beneficial as you may not be the best in the business yet simply communicating and making some attempt at strategy would likely reward you with wins.

Since the game is basically multiplayer-only, the only lingering question is whether or not TitanFall can go the distance and remain relevant and loved six months from now or whether it will be more short-term in its effectiveness.  Players out the gate are praising it heavily, and rightfully so.  Yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that the substance could potentially thin out for fans that invest heavily into the game in its first month or two out.  To combat this, TitanFall includes 15 multiplayer maps at launch and a small handful of traditional gametypes.  There’s your Attrition (deathmatch-themed), Hardpoint (domination/territories), Capture the Flag, Last Titan Standing (round based with titans @ start, no respawns), Pilot Hunter (only pilot kills count toward team score, team deathmatch-style), and variety pack (random gametype selection).  Just like Call of Duty, you’ll have a level system that opens up weapons and abilities to help give you a leg up in certain situations as you progress.  The cap is 50, and there is a “prestige” option called “regeneration” which makes you a second-gen, third-gen, etc. pilot until you hit the cap of tenth generation pilot.  As you open up these new generations of pilots, you’ll be taken back to level 1 but with some bonuses.  You’ll earn XP faster – a lot faster.  The second generation pilots will double their XP intake.  Expect experienced players to probably run about 10-15 hours of play time or longer to hit the first level cap before regenerating.

Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts also are aiming to keep things fresh with future DLC and updates.  At this time we know that three expansion packs are due for TitanFall which will include maps and likely weapons and Titan addons.  Each segment of DLC will run you $9.99 if you purchase them alone, $24.99 if you invest in the seasons pass.  But don’t just expect the usual DLC content to come your way.  Respawn are going to watch their forums and get all the feedback they can to see how the game is being played and what people want going forward.  There will be free updates, according to Respawn, that will potentially add small and large game content to hone the playing experience and perhaps keep it from being put in a box.  At launch the game only supports 792p resolution on the Xbox One.  Respawn is not happy with that and have promised improvements in due time.  As they continue to learn the hardware of the Xbox One it is said that the game will either tag a 900p resolution with FXAA (smoothing effects) or 1080p resolution without FXAA (no additional smoothing effects).  The question is which will be smoother (consistently 60 FPS) as they get into the lifecycle of this now-released game.  There is also talk of increasing player caps.  The most extreme rumors tell of a 16v16 setup at some point.  Take that with a grain of salt, however we do see perhaps a 7v7 or 8v8 very likely.  Anything beyond 10v10 would probably be too chaotic for many of the maps, and it would only strain the GPU of all platforms it’s released on.  We bring this up in the review simply because Respawn have been so transparent about it, thus it’s important to take these improvements and additions into account now since they’re confirmed in one way or another.

For the time being, TitanFall is excellent.  It hits a lot of high notes and does nearly everything perfect from the beginning to end.  If the story could be a little more intentional we wouldn’t complain, and some launch bugs do exist although they seem to be mostly server-side.  Had Electronic Arts allowed this game to undergo another couple of months of development there could have been more in the mix.  Much like Windows 7 and Windows 8 during their prerelease development cycles, there was a deadline and TitanFall had to be good to go by then.  Respawn decided to do what the former Microsoft head of Windows Steve Sinofsky did – pull out what can’t be completed in time in favor of perfecting what must be available day-one.  It would be more convenient for gamers to get the whole package right away and it seems to be a trend from EA lately, pushing titles that aren’t complete to launch (resulting in some pretty buggy titles for months after launch).  But Respawn Entertainment is heavily invested in the success of TitanFall and have the expertise to make it grow in the future.  Since it comes just under four months after the Xbox One’s launch, TitanFall is a must-buy for any shooter fans with online access.  It really doesn’t stumble on what it delivers and offers the promise of a better tomorrow for gamers that are in it for the long-haul.  To see such a great title come out and know that it’s only going to get better is very exciting.

Grade: 9.0

T-Minus 12 Hours to TitanFall

Here we are on the eve of the release of the most anticipated game of 2014.  TitanFall is set to go live on Xbox Live’s Games Store and in game retail stores across the US at midnight, and in just 12 short hours (for PDT residents) we’ll all have a chance to pick up the game.  Metacritic is starting to roll out the editors reviews from all across the games industry, and so far so good.  At 26 critical reviews in so far, TitanFall is averaging a score of 87/100.  There will probably be a small handful of reviews to come in a little later, but this is a good indication that TitanFall is living up to the hype.  As Polygon’s Arthur Gies puts it for their review of TitanFall, “it’s still too early to tell if TitanFall will weave the same sea change in multiplayer shooters that Respawn has caused before (Modern Warfare/Modern Warfare 2), but the pieces are all there”.

If nothing else, TitanFall is guaranteed to take my money and my life for an undetermined amount of time.