Virtual warfare

This could have been a pretty boring little video. Looks back at the past, ‘thank you’ videos, and the like usually are after all. I mean, when’s the last time you actually watched one of these?

If you don’t normally, and you somehow clicked on this story in error, you might be glad you did. That’s especially true if you’re a virtual reality gamer, because hidden away in this particular video is a look at Respawn’s new Medal of Honor VR.

Officially, the game is called Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. That’s just about all we know about it though, since it really hasn’t been talked about much yet. We don’t even know platforms, though PSVR and PC would probably be safe to assume.

From the looks of it, Above and Beyond is a traditional WWII-set MoH adventure. That would bring the series back to its roots, which is great to see. Honestly too, it’s awesome to get even a brief look at what could possibly be another of the scant few VR games worth some time. There just aren’t a lot of those. And while we don’t have a specific release date, we do know that the title is set for release later this year.

Aside from that, the above really does showcase how impactful Respawn has been since it’s birth in 2010, and first title in 2014. Vince Zampella’s studio has created excellent titles like Titanfall 2 and blockbusters like Jedi: Fallen Order and Apex Legends.

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It’s nice to have a Titan for a pal

So the biggest (probably) change from Titanfall to this new sequel is that there’s a campaign. The lack of one was, arguably, the biggest knock against the original. I know personally, it kind of killed it for me. And I know a few others that were turned off by it too.

So to have a fully fledged campaign in the sequel, is sort of selling me on the game already. That’s especially true since I’m already intrigued by the world of Titanfall. I mean, the concept is awesome, let’s be honest. Piloting giant AI-powered robots is sort of a can’t miss.

Here in the single player campaign trailer we get a good look at what that will entail too. Cooper, who you play as, can do all the wonderful things that a pilot in the first game could do. That includes wall-running and, from the looks of it, calling on your big bud for a little help.

That kind of begs the question of why these Titans even need pilots in the first place, but I digress. The point is, this looks cool.

Here’s the official breakdown of the narrative

In the single player campaign, players will experience the story and relationship between Titan BT-7274 and 3^rd Class Rifleman Jack Cooper, as they explore the mysterious planet of Typhon and discover the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation’s (IMC) intentions. BT is the first Titan built by the Militia to battle the IMC, who’s capable of using any Titan loadout and embodies the Militia’s Culture of teamwork, craftsmanship and looking out for each other.

Jack Cooper is a grunt with aspirations of becoming a pilot, whom Militia Captain Tai Lastimosa takes under his wing and trains in secret. When an investigation of a research facility on the IMC controlled planet of Typhon goes wrong, Lastimosa is killed in action, there is no other option but for the two to link up and work together to finish the mission BT and Lastimosa started. The more BT and Jack work together, the stronger the bond between Pilot and Titan becomes.

You can learn more about all of the above on the official Titanfall blog here, should you so desire. Also, if you’re going to be around in about a half hour, you can check out a special talk with Respawn head Vince Zampella on YouTube Gaming.

That kicks off at 5pm pacific time, right here. Zampella will be talking campaign and some of the new gameplay that wan’t in Titanfall 1. As for the sequel in question, you can look for that on the Xbox One, PS4, and PC on October 28th.

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The original Titanfall marked a successful debut for the newly formed studio Respawn.  The game received a largely positive response, although one thing that became clear was that a lot of people seemed to just move on to other things rather quickly, myself included.  Not to say it wasn’t fun, because it was.  But people just stopped playing at some point.  The sequel is just around the corner, and if the time we spent with it is anything to go by, Respawn have taken what was good about the first time and made it better.

Titanfall 2

The demo on show was for one of the new multiplayer modes, Hardpoint Amped.  Basically this works the same way as Hardpoint mode from the first game.  The aim is to control a set of points on the map for as long as possible.  The difference here is, once you control a point, you can stay there and built it up to an “amped” state, which when activated gives your team double points scored for as long as it’s active.

The actual mechs themselves seemed to be far less prevalent this time, with you having to rely more on your own weapons and traversal of the map, which is a good thing in my book.  You’re helped in this by the new grappling hook, which you can use to pull yourself up buildings and over gaps easier, and allow you to traverse bigger gaps than before.

The map design was pretty good as well, and getting around was quick, fluid and highly enjoyable.  Control points had plenty of vantage points for both attack and defence options, and there’s plenty of tactical options for you to employ.

From the looks of things, Titanfall 2 is shaping up to be another fun shooter.  Whether or not it will be able to hold people for a long time remains to be seen, but Respawn look like they’ve got another solid shooter on their hands.

Shown at EGX, Titanfall 2 is due out on October 28th for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

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By the end of that first weekend, my excitement for the follow-up to one of my favorite games from this generation was hampered (to put it mildly).

Things changed.  It was obvious.  But Weekend 2 has changed too, and with it, Respawn Entertainment has fixed numerous player gripes.

There’s still work to be done, differences to get used to, but the game now is at a much better place.

From the get-go, the changes from Titanfall the first are obvious.  Fans clambering for more titans has resulted in titans that are simply less customizable.  Gone is the balanced trifecta of Atlas-Ogre-Strider.  Weapons are locked to chassis, skills, and the all powerful cores, meaning there will be no mixing and matching here.  If you want to try the pilot-shredding Molten Shield, you’ll have to give up a dash.  The two titans on display have fewer of those, as a whole: one for the Ion and zero for the Scorch Titan.  Fortunately, titans get a perk that lets you add another dash, bringing the Ion to the Atlus’s two and the Scorch to the Ogre’s one.  With the faster dash refresh time introduced in the second weekend, Titans have regained some of their offensive presence.

Defense, on the other hand, is a different dance entirely.  Without a rechargeable shield, Titans are significantly softer, and even Pilots poking at you from across the map with grenade launchers are doing permanent damage.  This permanence is offset by the new battery system, which is itself a replacement of the old mounting choreography.

Players no longer rip off a piece of the titans’ skulls in order to shoot their brains, exposing themselves to electric smoke and enemy fire while unloading LMGs.  Instead, they pluck out a titan’s battery (or, once the battery is out, drop a grenade inside) for an automatic chunk of damage.  Player action is no longer required during the mount, and the animation and damage are so quick that a titan’s electric smoke barely has time to threaten the pilot.  And forget about dismounting to pick them off- by the time you’re out, the pilot is on their merry way, battery in hand.

That battery can be brought to ally titans to give them a shield and restore their health.  Jumping from titan to titan in a mess of a battle is exhilarating, and the added element of teamwork is enjoyable (the old option, shrieking at your teammates to get the pilot off of you, remains, though your partners will need to be much quicker).

In the interplay between pilot and titan, the pilots have definitely been given the edge.  With the grapple hook, a pilot can easily take down an entire titan by himself, leaping off and pulling himself back on several times without ever stepping on the ground.  Titans, be wary: if you see a pilot flying towards you, punch wildly, or suffer the consequences.

Of course, if you kill the pilot, you can take back your battery and a chunk of health.

Attrition, the most played mode from the first Titanfall, the one that pit players against players, titans against titans, the one that introduced AI into multiplayer in a uniquely creative way, is absent.  While I doubt it’ll be gone from the main game itself, it’s bewildering to find it missing from what is not just a technical test, but a chance to introduce new players (those who skipped on the first due to the lack of a single-player mode) to exactly what makes Titanfall so unique and fun.  Instead, the test features Pilots vs. Pilots (essentially a quick moving Call of Duty), Amped Hardpoint (the traditional 3-point capture- which at least has Titans), and Bounty Hunt (where players collect AI kills and drop off money at points on opposite sides of the map).

The last is the only one that actually puts all the pieces of Titanfall together (pilots, titans, and AI), but the neutral cannon fodder has truly become cannon fodder, and the distance of drop zones and drop off points means that, often, you’re blasting nothing but AI, while the opposing team does the same on the other side of the map.  While a fun mode in its own right, it lacks the furious energy of Attrition.  And the AI certainly doesn’t feel as alive when they’re not saluting you or thanking you, or otherwise being happy to have you wiping their butts.

The maps (especially Homestead) aren’t quite as accessible to wall-running as, say, Angel City, and they work well enough.  Homestead, unfortunately, suffers, especially in a mode like Bounty Hunt, which demands players put themselves in titans’ way without proper cover if they want to earn quick money.

There are oddities to Boom Town as well, where you’ll be in the center of the map and warned that you’re out of bounds.  Awkward geometry stands in the way of what seemed like natural routes, and a poor jump may find you disoriented by foliage and bullets from all sides while, a couple seconds later, you self-destruct for leaving the battle.

The map introduced during the second weekend, Forwardbase Kodai, is the strongest of the three, balanced so that pilots and titans both can be effective, with plentiful routes to wall run and a bounty of windows with which to play with your opponents.

Pieces are missing from the Titanfall 2 Technical Test.  There’s no Smart Pistol (which was largely detested, but hugely fun to use, and helped to differentiate Titanfall’s weapons from the genre).  Burn Cards are missing entirely, and with them the addiction of collecting and using the right ones at the right time.  I can still remember, in the later months of the first game, when the player base was smaller, running into clans we’d faced before.  Close matches inspired the use of the greatest burn cards by both sides, and matches would begin with twelve titans on the field as both clans vied for dominance from the get-go.

Without Burn Cards, there’ll never be a feeling again of putting everything on the line in one glorious firefight.

I’d also prefer if entering your titan was kept in first person, as the rush of getting in is largely gone.  For a game about the relationship between titan and pilot, it seems strange to pick away at the immersion for animations that look no cooler for being removed from the player’s perspective.

But this was a Technical Test.  Respawn has already shown they’re eager to hear player feedback and implement it into the game.  Time will tell what the final product will look like, if it’ll have Attrition, Smart Pistols, or Burn Cards, but one thing’s for sure:

I’ve got my preorder locked in and am standing by for Titanfall.

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While Battlefront is the sole Star Wars game out there on the market as of right now, that shouldn’t lead you to believe that that’s the only game coming from EA based in the galaxy far, far away. In fact, the publishing giant has a few titles in development right this very May the 4th, including one from Respawn.

If you’re a gamer who digs action games and shooters, then chances are that you know who they are. Made up of former Infinity Ward staffers (you know, the guys who made Modern Warfare?), Respawn has so far turned out the fun, but relatively legless Titanfall, and are currently working on its sequel (which sounds great).

On top of that though, EA now says that the developer is crafting an all-new, third-person action/adventure game set in the Star Wars universe, and that the project will be headed up by Stig Asmussen. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, but try not to get too excited.

From the wording in the press release, where they specially note that this game is “all new”, I doubt this is going to be anything influenced by the cancelled Star Wars 1313. That game was cancelled when Disney took over the Star Wars license, and would have featured Boba Fett as he hunted quarry in the depths of the Imperial homeworld of Coruscant. Still though, there’s plenty to get excited about since Respawn did do a pretty terrific job with Titanfall, and there’s no doubting the talent level of the guys and gals who’ll be working on this new game.

There’s also a little stealth announcement in this release. EA’s Patrick Söderlund (Executive Vice President of EA Studios) mentions that “Visceral Games, DICE, Capital Games, BioWare, Motive and more” are all working on Star Wars games right now. So, basically, there’s a deluge coming, that’ll probably hit every genre you can imagine. Of particular note there is BioWare… fingers crossed on that one.

To read the letter that Söderlund issued to fans in its entirety, click here. And click here to read up on what the director of Respawn’s Star Wars title, Asmussen, has to say about the project. He doesn’t give away much, as you might have already imagined, but it’s worth a read.

Oh, and uh… May the Fourth be with you.

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Not a lot to go on there really. but so far so good with EA and developer giving us an all-too-brief look at what we can expect from Titanfall 2. A jungle setting is shown in the trailer above, though there’ll probably be a bunch of different places to wage war in in the final game, a game that will have a solo campaign by the way, something that the first installment eschewed.

We also see a pretty massive sword wielded by a Titan in the video, which I believe is new to the series as well. Even though I liked pretty much everything about the esthetic, I personally never played Titanfall (I was put off by the online-only nature of it), but from what I saw of it I don’t remember seeing anything about swordplay being in there. So that could potentially be something new as well.

Stay tuned, there’s plenty more Titanfall 2 news to come with the first solid info landing during the EA Play event (their alternative to E3) on June 12th.

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Well this is a very nice surprise indeed. One of the biggest problems I had with the original Titanfall was that the game had no real campaign. Sure there was a story to be told, and it could play out for gamers by playing through the multiplayer mode map by map, but I like a good old fashioned single player campaign, and the game had none of that.

I know I wasn’t alone either, as several of my friends skipped the game (which otherwise looked great) because it really couldn’t be played offline. Apparently there were plenty more gamers who felt the same too, since Titanfall 2 will have a solo experience.

The lead writer for the title, Jesse Stern, said as much in an interview with financial mag Forbes recently, and also elaborated on a very interesting direction for the series. Now, I didn’t play Titanfall, but it was pretty obvious that it was all about firefights and big pieces of machinery, with the mechs (called Titans) taking center stage.

Titanfall 2 though will be a bit different. According to Stern, the new game will have a mix of technology and… magic. Stern said that although the game will still be gritty and grounded in reality, there will be scenes where sci-fi and fantasy do indeed come together.

Very interesting indeed. We’ll have more on Titanfall 2 as it’s announced.

Source: MCV

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Do people still play Titanfall? No, right?  I feel like these multiplayer-only games (like Titanfall and Evolve) get a pretty limited run in the sense of actual playtime.

Anyway, and personal thoughts aside, it’s been long known that there would be a second volume of the online multiplayer, mech-shooter Titanfall at some point. The game was pretty popular at launch as an Xbox One exclusive after all, and publisher EA made it plain that there would be another one coming.

They also made it known that a second run at the new IP might not be a Microsoft exclusive, but could appear on Sony’s platform as well. And now it looks like development might be underway, or will be soon in any event.

Respawn has posted a bunch of openings for both a Titanfall game and an unannounced project on its careers page. It’s unknown what that ‘unannounced’ project might be of course, but it’s cool nonetheless to see Respawn not getting pegged solely as the ‘Titanfall guys’ by EA, since that was a complaint for the team’s main players when they worked under the Infinity Ward name with the Call of Duty label.

That’s kind of besides the point of course, as the story here is that we’re getting a new Titanfall sooner than later. Depending on what you thought of the first game, that could be a very cool thing.

Source: MCV

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Not released all that long ago (March), Titanfall had made a pretty big impact in the multiplayer shooter arena with it’s pilots vs Titans gameplay and story-based multiplayer action. According to EA, the game actually has become the “best selling new IP on the Xbox One” in that time, which is pretty sharp.

Also in that time, developer Respawn has added in a bunch of new features and ways to play the game. So much in fact, that the comp[any has created this handy little video to tell the tale of all the ‘new’.

All of the above is, of course, included in the Deluxe Edition, along with the aforementioned DLC packs (Expedition, Frontier’s Edge and IMC Rising), which add in another 9 maps to the ones included in the base game. We loved Titanfall when we reviewed it on the PC earlier this year, and with the added value of all those maps and upgrades, it’s as good a time as any to dive in if you have yet to play.

Titanfall Deluxe Edition is available right now digitally on the PC, and will hit the Xbox One on November 25th.

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All in all, the Expedition map pack is looking pretty sharp for what’s become one of the most critically acclaimed FPS’ in quite a while. Titanfall Expedition adds on swamps, an industrial city-scape, and the cool Tron-like Wargames simulation.

Each one is radically different, as you saw in the trailer, and really gives gamers something fresh to do in the multiplayer-only shooter. Expedition is the first of three planned packs for the game and will cost you $9.99 USD separately, or $24.99 USD all together as a part of the Season Pass, which does save you about $5. You can expect to see Expedition on the Xbox Live and PC servers for the Xbox One and the PC sometime this month, as for Xbox 360 gamers, you’ll be able to climb inside a Titan once again starting in June, which isn’t all that far away now actually.

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