What's so special about Titanfall?

[DoPo]

To be honest, I think you just want to jump on the 'All FPSs are generic and the same' bandwagon to look clever and above it. Just by looking at some gameplay, you can immediately see what makes it special. Sure, mechs have been done before, but as has been said, no game really has anything new by now, it's all said and done, but it's how you make those ingredients work together. Noone so far has included mech based combat with high mobility for the non-mech players, throw in some AI bots to thicken the mix and bind it all together with - from what I hear - beautifully smooth and lovely movement. Top that off with a balanced game and nice visuals and we have a good multiplayer FPS. The response to that should be 'look, a good multiplayer FPS, yay.' not 'oh well it's obviously just another generic FPS. Am I cool because I said that?'

Oh my god just stop. If I'd known people had complained about "generic fps" I would've never created this thread. I just wanted to hear about opinions of the people who played the game.

Then maybe you could have said that, instead of passing judgement for which you don't want to be judged.

In case you missed, I did. I asked what I asked. No ulterior motive.

What's the hype about it? Or what's so different about it that makes it interesting?

You also said, and I quote

It just looks like a generic FPS.

which you regretted later, and I quote

Oh my god just stop. If I'd known people had complained about "generic fps" I would've never created this thread. I just wanted to hear about opinions of the people who played the game.

So, this part in your OP is what you obviously should have dropped when initially asking. Which is what I referred to as, and I quote

passing judgement for which you don't want to be judged.

So we come back full circle - my previous post stands as it is, your other previous posts, too. I quite literally did nothing with this post except reiterate what both of us had said. I guess you just missed it.

 

[Maple Syrup]

To clear any misunderstandings: I am not at all judging anyone based on their game preferences, which anyone could totally see if they read my post without the "I am sick of haters" goggles on. Just like how it is in the music genre, there is no "good" or "bad" taste in gaming. Personally I play everything and I wouldn't want to make assumptions as to whether a game is bad or good without playing it. That's why before buying & trying out the game, I wanted to ask for people's opinions. I merely asked what made Titanfall so special. Please don't read too much into my post.

 

[Atmos Duality]

You know I don't get the hate for the EA origin thing, yeah I know Dungeon Keeper got butchered but that's different. Origin is painless as it is, it's by no stretch bad, but certainly room to improve in ways. I mean it has some stuff I wish steam had: Buy Physical Copy, Stream to Twitch. I haven't seen anything that made it bad...unlike Uplay, which even if you have steam and you boot a ubisoft game it has to boot some self contained stupid Uplay DRM that always needs to update.

Well, I won't presume to speak for anyone else, but I have a longer running beef with EA than just the last few years.
The short version: I don't trust them, and it's not for a lack of trying.

Slightly longer: I've tri1ed to give them a chance before; several, in fact. But every time I think they start improving, they turn around and regress back into doing something that I really don't like; and given that's been consistent for over 15 years now, I can only attribute it to something in their core business philosophy. (annual blockbuster releases for everything; what really made me mad was how they used to treat their employees, though apparently that has changed)

Even ignoring their longer history of buying out talented developers and running them into the ground, the horrible DRM schemes they've tried over the years, or the practice of charging premiums for small crap in full-priced games...

...More than any of that are the short timetables they impose on their developers to produce games. In fact, the latter accounts for most of the issues I've had with EA since the beginning; every EA game I've seen or played from then until now just "feels" fundamentally incomplete, or not matching up at all to the standards of quality that EA insists it produces.

So, while Origin itself may not be the technical boogeyman I feared it to be when announced, it's still tied to EA, so I will not support it. At least so long as EA continues to do things that bother me.

 

[Snotnarok]

You know I don't get the hate for the EA origin thing, yeah I know Dungeon Keeper got butchered but that's different. Origin is painless as it is, it's by no stretch bad, but certainly room to improve in ways. I mean it has some stuff I wish steam had: Buy Physical Copy, Stream to Twitch. I haven't seen anything that made it bad...unlike Uplay, which even if you have steam and you boot a ubisoft game it has to boot some self contained stupid Uplay DRM that always needs to update.

Well, I won't presume to speak for anyone else, but I have a longer running beef with EA than just the last few years.
The short version: I don't trust them, and it's not for a lack of trying.

Slightly longer: I've tri1ed to give them a chance before; several, in fact. But every time I think they start improving, they turn around and regress back into doing something that I really don't like; and given that's been consistent for over 15 years now, I can only attribute it to something in their core business philosophy. (annual blockbuster releases for everything; what really made me mad was how they used to treat their employees, though apparently that has changed)

Even ignoring their longer history of buying out talented developers and running them into the ground, the horrible DRM schemes they've tried over the years, or the practice of charging premiums for small crap in full-priced games...

...More than any of that are the short timetables they impose on their developers to produce games. In fact, the latter accounts for most of the issues I've had with EA since the beginning; every EA game I've seen or played from then until now just "feels" fundamentally incomplete, or not matching up at all to the standards of quality that EA insists it produces.

So, while Origin itself may not be the technical boogeyman I feared it to be when announced, it's still tied to EA, so I will not support it. At least so long as EA continues to do things that bother me.

Their DRM has been mild compared to ...well most of what's out there, minus Sim City of course but I'm not who's to blame for that, maxis or EA, as I've said I don't tend to put much water in who makes something unless it's been REALLY bad.
Ubisoft trumps in DRM as of recent years, limited installs, always online drm, then leaving it to steam and origin for a bit ...only to turn around and force Uplay in games that never required them before. That is something that really annoyed me personally, I'm fairly anti-DRM, Steam and origin, fine they just kinda are there but crap like always online or limited installs? That's unacceptable, I slap changing policies on there as terrible as well- since you bought the game one way, then they change it and that's okay? That makes me worry if they can do that, not much from stopping pubs all of the sudden turn around and update their games to have always online for everyone and every game. You know ...besides a riot out of their HQ

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

For my money it looks like a barrel of fun, but I cannot justify the price for a multiplayer only title. So come sale time, your're mine boy! Until then, Happy Titan stomping.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Their DRM has been mild compared to ...well most of what's out there, minus Sim City of course but I'm not who's to blame for that, maxis or EA, as I've said I don't tend to put much water in who makes something unless it's been REALLY bad.
Ubisoft trumps in DRM as of recent years, limited installs, always online drm, then leaving it to steam and origin for a bit ...only to turn around and force Uplay in games that never required them before. That is something that really annoyed me personally, I'm fairly anti-DRM, Steam and origin, fine they just kinda are there but crap like always online or limited installs? That's unacceptable, I slap changing policies on there as terrible as well- since you bought the game one way, then they change it and that's okay?

Actually Spore had Securom with limited installs as well.
Wilbur Wright's hopeful masterpiece; slashed to ribbons by incredible mismanagement, and the shreds thrown in the mud by EA's insistence of using Spore to spearhead that dreadful DRM system.

Though I admit, Ubisoft is indeed worse in terms of DRM, and I don't buy their games either for much the same reasons as EA; I don't trust them. Though with Ubisoft it's specifically because of the DRM issues and especially Uplay.
(it's not like Ubisoft is devoid of games I'd normally play; Blood Dragon looked awesome)

That makes me worry if they can do that, not much from stopping pubs all of the sudden turn around and update their games to have always online for everyone and every game. You know ...besides a riot out of their HQ

That, I think, is the greatest threat online distribution systems pose right now.
Companies that can, on a whim, alter the deal and impose new limitations, post-purchase, at any time for any reason.

(That's becoming true of consoles as well. The 3DS is built to self-brick if you try to do anything Nintendo disproves of, Sony showed that they could strip out features to suit their own needs on a whim with the PS3, and lets not forget the nightmare that almost was the pre-180 Xbone.)

Control and monitoring of users is such a huge issue, big publishers are pushing it all the time even when we don't see it.
This is evident even in Titanfall's design; it's implicitly always-online because it's online-multiplayer-only.
Not even Call of Duty, Titanfall's main rival and "inspiration" for the ground combat, has done that yet.

But what I find even more intriguing is how EA/Respawn is still aiming for the "PvE" crowd and promise a campaign.
This is an almost genius, backwards method of selling Always Online; start with the multiplayer model we're used to, but add the campaign to the multiplayer game LATER.

Overall, it sets a worrying precedent, where the publisher won't leave the player alone after purchase.
And I find that doubly worrying when the biggest companies pushing for it have a dubious history, at best.

These companies have embraced a PR line about "Reaching out to consumers and building relationships", and for a long while, I thought it just PR rubbish or code for "forced social features, because Facebook and Youtube are uber-popular and we want in".

But now, I'm convinced they're sincere. Not in the "We're your cool buddy who you hang out with" like they make it out to be, but more like "Roommate who only acts nice when you're buying".

 

[Snotnarok]

Their DRM has been mild compared to ...well most of what's out there, minus Sim City of course but I'm not who's to blame for that, maxis or EA, as I've said I don't tend to put much water in who makes something unless it's been REALLY bad.
Ubisoft trumps in DRM as of recent years, limited installs, always online drm, then leaving it to steam and origin for a bit ...only to turn around and force Uplay in games that never required them before. That is something that really annoyed me personally, I'm fairly anti-DRM, Steam and origin, fine they just kinda are there but crap like always online or limited installs? That's unacceptable, I slap changing policies on there as terrible as well- since you bought the game one way, then they change it and that's okay?

Actually Spore had Securom with limited installs as well.
Wilbur Wright's hopeful masterpiece; slashed to ribbons by incredible mismanagement, and the shreds thrown in the mud by EA's insistence of using Spore to spearhead that dreadful DRM system.

Though I admit, Ubisoft is indeed worse in terms of DRM, and I don't buy their games either for much the same reasons as EA; I don't trust them. Though with Ubisoft it's specifically because of the DRM issues and especially Uplay.
(it's not like Ubisoft is devoid of games I'd normally play; Blood Dragon looked awesome)

That makes me worry if they can do that, not much from stopping pubs all of the sudden turn around and update their games to have always online for everyone and every game. You know ...besides a riot out of their HQ

That, I think, is the greatest threat online distribution systems pose right now.
Companies that can, on a whim, alter the deal and impose new limitations, post-purchase, at any time for any reason.

(That's becoming true of consoles as well. The 3DS is built to self-brick if you try to do anything Nintendo disproves of, Sony showed that they could strip out features to suit their own needs on a whim with the PS3, and lets not forget the nightmare that almost was the pre-180 Xbone.)

Control and monitoring of users is such a huge issue, big publishers are pushing it all the time even when we don't see it.
This is evident even in Titanfall's design; it's implicitly always-online because it's online-multiplayer-only.
Not even Call of Duty, Titanfall's main rival and "inspiration" for the ground combat, has done that yet.

But what I find even more intriguing is how EA/Respawn is still aiming for the "PvE" crowd and promise a campaign.
This is an almost genius, backwards method of selling Always Online; start with the multiplayer model we're used to, but add the campaign to the multiplayer game LATER.

Overall, it sets a worrying precedent, where the publisher won't leave the player alone after purchase.
And I find that doubly worrying when the biggest companies pushing for it have a dubious history, at best.

These companies have embraced a PR line about "Reaching out to consumers and building relationships", and for a long while, I thought it just PR rubbish or code for "forced social features, because Facebook and Youtube are uber-popular and we want in".

But now, I'm convinced they're sincere. Not in the "We're your cool buddy who you hang out with" like they make it out to be, but more like "Roommate who only acts nice when you're buying".

I think when things get out of hand it'll be them that take the hit I'd like to think, I'd also like to think the public would keep them in check. As it stands? Things are shakey sure...

Funny enough they don't need any kind of real DRM for TitanFall, it was a ingenious move, all the bots in the game, including your titans AI are all server controlled, meaning the game is literally unplayable if you try and pirate it. It'd would take some really clever reverse engineering to get that to work.

 

[Dandark]

Titanfall actually looks pretty good from what I have seen. Its just that I don't want to pay full price for a multiplayer only game when other good games are around the corner like Dark souls 2 which is about to release in Europe. It also requires me to use Origin which I would rather not do so i'll probably just wait a year for the inevitable Titanfall 2 which will be near exactly the same as the first game but hopefully without Origin this time.

It actually reminds me a bit of my favourite FPS of all time that was sadly unsuccessful, Section 8: Prejudice. Easily my favourite multiplayer FPS but it wasn't successful enough and the servers shut down, it also had mechs and jetpacks which I enjoyed.

 

[Maple Syrup]

Titanfall actually looks pretty good from what I have seen. Its just that I don't want to pay full price for a multiplayer only game when other good games are around the corner like Dark souls 2 which is about to release in Europe. It also requires me to use Origin which I would rather not do so i'll probably just wait a year for the inevitable Titanfall 2 which will be near exactly the same as the first game but hopefully without Origin this time.

It actually reminds me a bit of my favourite FPS of all time that was sadly unsuccessful, Section 8: Prejudice. Easily my favourite multiplayer FPS but it wasn't successful enough and the servers shut down, it also had mechs and jetpacks which I enjoyed.

Upon reading your post I googled Origin (I'd heard some stuff about Origin but didn't really know what it was) and this showed up on their website:

This seems very pointed.

 

[42]

I would argue Titanfall's 'innovation' is more a gimmick, TDM with mechs already exists, CTF with Mechs already exists. TDM and CTF and Territory control with Mechs and Platforming and verticality have existed for more than a decade now, but the Call of Duty fan base probably didn't notice. Doing it with a triple A marketing budget doesn't make it innovative in the slightest.

I'm genuinely interested. Which titles are these? For example.

If he quotes you MechWarrior Online, I will heartily laugh at him. that game is complete pants. pants with a general disease that prevents you from putting them on.

 

[Dandark]

Titanfall actually looks pretty good from what I have seen. Its just that I don't want to pay full price for a multiplayer only game when other good games are around the corner like Dark souls 2 which is about to release in Europe. It also requires me to use Origin which I would rather not do so i'll probably just wait a year for the inevitable Titanfall 2 which will be near exactly the same as the first game but hopefully without Origin this time.

It actually reminds me a bit of my favourite FPS of all time that was sadly unsuccessful, Section 8: Prejudice. Easily my favourite multiplayer FPS but it wasn't successful enough and the servers shut down, it also had mechs and jetpacks which I enjoyed.

Upon reading your post I googled Origin (I'd heard some stuff about Origin but didn't really know what it was) and this showed up on their website:

snip

This seems very pointed.

The only reason anyone uses Origin is because their was a game they wanted that was exclusive to it. Most people probably got it for Battlefield or Mass effect so its not surprising that they are going to try and push it as the only place to get Titanfall.

The Xbone is doing the same thing, rather than a video game console its being pushed as a £500 to £600 Titanfall player.

 

[softclocks]

It's the AAA relaunch of Section 8, a game that actually had a little heart.

And since it's the only game on the xbox worth playing, I guess that makes it special...

 

[TomWiley]

I can think of a number of reasons why people are so cynical about this game...

-It's an Xbox exclusive, which has been mocked and ridiculed since day one.
-It has no single-player, which should isolate the reception somewhat.
-As an online-multiplayer FPS, it can and will be shallowly compared to every other shallow online-multiplayer FPS.
-It's been hyped so much, a lot of people think the worst of it.
-I've also seen a number of strips mocking the fact you don't immediately get a mech every time you spawn, so gameplay isssues.

And I can think of a number of reasons why people would love it so much.

-It's an Xbox exclusive, which should finally come as a relief for all its poorly treated fanbase.
-It has mechs and jetpacks, which are instant deal-makers to a lot of people.
-It's the first FPS in a while to come along and shake the formula up a little bit.
-It's carried a pretty good marketing campaign since it's been first announced.

I haven't played the game and I probably will never play it. But if I were to purchase and Xbone then this would probably be a good selling point. What would really wear me out would be the lack of single player eventually. I don't like multiplayer very much.

Actually, it's out on PC as well. Granted, it's Origin exclusive, but still it's something.

OT: Quote above pretty much sums up my opinions on the game. I don't think it'll have the longevity it wants, but it seems like it'll be all over Youtube for quite a while. I've not played it, however, so I may be wrong.

Actually, that's hardly even relevent. To the core console customer segment, PCs don't exist. It's not a factor that even plays in. To these kids, there are two platforms, one of which has Titanfall.

Excuse my slowness (just came back from work) but what does your comment have to do with what I said? All I did was correct Novgorod, and agree with his list of points.

That's not to say I don't somewhat concur with what you said, the relevance just eludes me at this moment.

I'm pretty sure I quoted the wrong person...

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

It is really addictive, that's what it boils down to. I suck at multi-player online shooters and I'm routinely on the receiving end of losses, but I'll be damned if I can put this game down. After each round I want to get out there and have another crack at it, and I think that has to do with it not feeling cheap like a lot of FPS. I can't say I've had a death let that had me crying "bullshit" like a lot of games.

 

[Nomanslander]

I will still see myself as playing it mainly because it isn't one of those types where the veterans beat newbies 100% of the time.

Sounds ideal, but give it some time. I mean... the game just came out. So how would there be veterans playing already? I say give it a couple of months for the no-lifers to skill up enough to where everything will go back to being business as usual.

:/

 

[ShinyCharizard]

It is really addictive, that's what it boils down to. I suck at multi-player online shooters and I'm routinely on the receiving end of losses, but I'll be damned if I can put this game down. After each round I want to get out there and have another crack at it, and I think that has to do with it not feeling cheap like a lot of FPS. I can't say I've had a death let that had me crying "bullshit" like a lot of games.

Yeah it is so damn addictive. Every match is just insanely fun carnage and I never want to put it down. Been playing it with a few mates, we start playing around 7pm, and next thing you know it's 3am and we just keep saying "one more match".

OT:

Whats so special about it?

Well to begin with. It has the best controls I've ever experienced in any FPS. It has the most satisfying shooting I've ever experienced. It's incredibly well balanced considering the different play-styles of pilots and titans. The map design is fantastic and well varied. It doesn't go crazy with killstreaks, unlockables and other such nonsense.

It is just non-stop fun. When you are wall-running around as a Pilot while massive Titans duke it out all around you, or fighting an epic battle of Titan vs Titan, it's an amazing adrenaline rush.

And it is the kinda game where it isn't frustrating and doesn't matter if you lose. The matches are so damn fun, the score at the end doesn't mean anything. All you wanna do is just play another round.

 

[mrdude2010]

It looks like the first FPS in a while that might depend primarily on skill, like the good arena shooters, rather than blind luck and weapon choices, like CoD.

 

[Strelok]

It's like Battlefield Bad Company 2 (not sure about the others) but instead of vehicles you can pilot giant robots.

So Battlefield: 2142...

On Topic: It's not bad, I am having fun with it, and I have never played a CoD game for multi-player. Still prefer Hawken, but this is not bad at all.

 

[frobalt]

I will still see myself as playing it mainly because it isn't one of those types where the veterans beat newbies 100% of the time.

Sounds ideal, but give it some time. I mean... the game just came out. So how would there be veterans playing already? I say give it a couple of months for the no-lifers to skill up enough to where everything will go back to being business as usual.

:/

In this case veterans most likely means veterans of shooters in general.

The skills of shooting tend to be transferable between different shooter games.

 

[PhoenixRoss]

Honestly, and I know this sounds really childish, but for me it was the giant robots.

Do you currently play any other games that feature giant robots? If so, which ones? If not, what aspect of the other giant robot games make them unappealing to you?

Genuinely curious here.

Titanfall and Lost Planet are the only ones I've played for any real length of time. Both were enjoyable. The mechs in Titan Fall move more fluidly, but Lost Planet was a lot of fun.