Zero Punctuation: Titanfall - It's Got Big Stompy Robots

[Kyrdra]

All serious though, I played it on a friend's console. I asked if this was basically a single PVP map from any MMORPG. He said yes.

Actually that brings up a good question that Yahtzee didn't address. Is this a game with a map rotation, or is it just a single map like in DOTA-style games?

I'm sure there are 15 maps or something around that. At least I remember something around that. The biggest problem are for me that we have 5 standard playmodes and that is it.

 

[DrOswald]

Titanfall is the only multiplayer shooter I have enjoyed enough to play on a regular basis since the original Halo. I enjoy playing Titanfall, in limited amounts, more than I would enjoy replaying Super Mario World for the 15th time. On my scale that makes if pretty great.

Also, why is everyone complaining that this game has not single player campaign? We all rail against single player focused games shoehorning in a multiplayer mode, why do we demand a multiplayer game shoehorn in a single player mode? The shitty campaigns we usually get are not an actual value add. They are all bad and we know it.

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

Well, to be fair, the problem with a multiplayer-only title is that when the players move on to something else, the game dies. A single-player only game can be played 5 years from now, and it will still be the same.

Which is why I kind of support the idea of subscription-based multiplayer. The game is essentially free; you pay for access to the servers; your money goes towards the upkeep of said servers and constant patches and balance tweaks; if the playerbase dries up you can just stop paying; the threat of people no longer paying encourages the developers to keep maintaining the game and occasionally adding new features to keep people interested.

Yeah, that's more or less the World of Warcraft model. In theory, it's a great idea for the reasons you state - it incentivizes players to play and developers to support, and with the proper pricing structure it would be a good deal for all concerned. The problem with the World of Warcraft model is that it basically only seems to work for World of Warcraft. Nobody else has seen market success with that setup.

I like the idea of a subscription model too, there's an honesty to it. The game is a service rather than a product: we pay for it, they provide it. Especially when the alternative seems to be free-to-play things that rope you in with a free game, then nickel and dime you to death with microtransactions. So instead of the World of Warcraft model, we get the "schoolyard drug dealer" model.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I'm sure there are 15 maps or something around that. At least I remember something around that. The biggest problem are for me that we have 5 standard playmodes and that is it.

That's still one more mode than TF2 had at launch (attack/defense, 5 control point, capture the flag, territory control), and two of those had only one map apiece.

Yeah, that's more or less the World of Warcraft model. In theory, it's a great idea for the reasons you state - it incentivizes players to play and developers to support, and with the proper pricing structure it would be a good deal for all concerned. The problem with the World of Warcraft model is that it basically only seems to work for World of Warcraft. Nobody else has seen market success with that setup.

Well, cost has something to do with that, I think. World of Warcraft is what, $15 a month or something? $20-30 a year seems more reasonable. Less on consoles where you're already paying for online access (some of which, I believe, goes toward server hosting). And that should go down over time, the same way the price of a game purchase goes down as the game ages.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

snip

I don't buy anything related to EA cause I have no desire to support them regardless of the quality of their games. Don't know about other people though.

I have just seen plenty of cases of people that wanted Titanfall but didnt bought it because it was from EA.

That's just sad.

They should've bought it to encourage EA to release fully functional multiplayer rather than broken piles of wank like Battlefield 4.

I don't think that would encourage them either way, considering that most people who bought Battlefield 4 probably WANTED a functional multiplayer. All it encourages EA is to "release games."

So you cannot sell multiplayer only games for full price anymore ? Don't developers work on these just as hard as single player games ?

It's not whether you can sell it for that much, it's whether it's worth the price to people:
1. with bad internet connections
2. who don't like multiplayer only

Regardless, if the audience is there, people will buy it.

 

[Chareater]

Pretty much sums up what I think about this game. Fun for a short time then gets boring and repetitive and not worth the dosh


I'll stick to TF2 for my mutli-player shooter fix.

 

[The White Hunter]

snip

I don't buy anything related to EA cause I have no desire to support them regardless of the quality of their games. Don't know about other people though.

I have just seen plenty of cases of people that wanted Titanfall but didnt bought it because it was from EA.

That's just sad.

They should've bought it to encourage EA to release fully functional multiplayer rather than broken piles of wank like Battlefield 4.

I don't think that would encourage them either way, considering that most people who bought Battlefield 4 probably WANTED a functional multiplayer experience.

So you cannot sell multiplayer only games for full price anymore ? Don't developers work on these just as hard as single player games ?

It's not whether you can sell it, it's whether people with bad internet connections will consider it worth the price.

Good for you, I buy games that appeal to me and elave the publisher out of it.

Yes I imagine people did want Battlefield 4 to be functional, I wanted it to be functional, but it just didn't happen.

 

[Magmarock]

This video perfectly encapsulated how I feel about Titan Fall. $80 for a multilayer only game without bots or anything is kind of a jock, and I'm not laughing. It seems that Vavle too looking to go down this road of abandoning singleplayer all together. This industry is on the verge of collapse

where did you find out Valve is going multiplayer only? just asking because after having read what you said I'm considering abandoning my trust in Valve.

You know I was just Googling to kind a little bit more information on exactly what Valve said but not only did I find that Valve is very much wanting to abandon single player games, but that Gabe himself refers to single player games as movies staring restarted and autistic people as the lead character. Not gonna lie, I was kind of offended. I was was about to start a bit of Half Life 1 but I think I'll pass for now.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Good for you, I buy games that appeal to me and elave the publisher out of it.

Wasn't attacking you man.

Yes I imagine people did want Battlefield 4 to be functional, I wanted it to be functional, but it just didn't happen.

My point was that your comment about encouragement didn't make sense.

 

[Vigormortis]

Surprisingly positive review, considering Mr. Croshaw's usual disdain for online multi-player.

But then again...Titanfall is a fantastically fun game. Respawn nailed a near-perfect blend of game-play mechanics. The game is easily one of the most fun online games I've played in years.

Still wish Respawn would hurry up with getting the private lobby system integrated. As well as in-game mute options. (instead of just lobby mute)

(smart pistol is still for scrubs and the SMG's are still way too accurate but the games industry is never going to learn so fuck it).

I would argue that the decked-out shotgun and the starting rifle are far more "scrub friendly" than the Smart Pistol. It's far easier to rack up pilot kill after pilot kill with those than it is with the Smart Pistol. Especially on maps with a lot of cramped corridors.

Though none really compare to the ludicrousness of the CAR with the Run-and-Gun kit...

That shit needs to go.

I didn't know they were asking $60 for this. That's absolutely ridiculous!
And people were pissing on Kojima for Ground Zeroes?
Why does Titanfall get a pass? It makes no sense to me.

Perhaps because Ground Zeroes is a $30 game with literally 10 minutes of game-play?

Spoiler: Seriously...

 

[Johnmcl7]

I think it's a sensible choice to have a multiplayer-only game if that's what it is meant to be rather than wasting resources on some single player campaign most people will spend a few hours on and then sell the game or onto multiplayer. While there's not many maps I don't find that's an issue as there's quite a bit to learn in them given your pilot's extensive movement abilities. I can't really say I really understand people calling this CoD with robots either as the gameplay is quite different, I find the mech stuff fairly boring but find the pilot gameplay quite lot of fun with leaping up and long buildings, along walls, jumping between rooftops then ambushing an enemy mech - I've never played a CoD game that's remotely anything like it, if anything it reminds me a bit of the original UT game just because of the speed you tear through the buildings at. Also unlike the CoD the weapons are relatively simple as are the bonuses for levelling up, there's no vast array of powerful perks keeping the main game a lot simpler which I much prefer.

That all said, I'm finding it a difficult game to get into - I don't mind the lack of campaign but do think there should be a horde style mode or a single player mode with AI enemies to give you a chance to get the feel of the game in a consistent environment. The other issue that they're apparently improving is the terrible matchmaking, despite the large player pools the matchmaking system seems to go for the quickest match possible rather than a good match so frequently the teams are ridiculously mismatched which is just frustrating and makes for very inconsistent gameplay. Occasionally when by luck the teams have been well matched, it's shown the potential of the game but most of the time it's completely unbalanced which isn't enjoyable regardless if you're on the strong or weak team.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Perhaps because Ground Zeroes is a $30 game with literally 10 minutes of game-play?

Spoiler: Seriously...

It's apple and oranges anyway.
10 minutes of "gameplay" is a misnomer considering the replay-ability that Metal Gear games allow. The correct phrasing there would be "minimum completion playtime"

I don't support Konami's decision though.

 

[The White Hunter]

(smart pistol is still for scrubs and the SMG's are still way too accurate but the games industry is never going to learn so fuck it).

I would argue that the decked-out shotgun and the starting rifle are far more "scrub friendly" than the Smart Pistol. It's far easier to rack up pilot kill after pilot kill with those than it is with the Smart Pistol. Especially on maps with a lot of cramped corridors.

Though none really compare to the ludicrousness of the CAR with the Run-and-Gun kit...

That shit needs to go.

The CAR is quite obnoxious indeed, functional at ludicrous ranges, outdoes the sniper and marksman rifles handily. My main gripe with the smart pistol is when you can be murdered with it from a good 50 metres away by an abnoxious twat who jumps around in a small space screwing your sniper shots. My lesson learned was not to try snipe in titanfall.

The shotgun is iffy, I've used it quite a lot, and whilst it's utterly devastating up close, that's kinda the point of it, and it's firerate isn't great and it's range drops off quickly. It's more about timing your shots than anything else, it's very satisfying to use and definately has the prime advantage once you're in corridors and tight rooms, but if you're caught in an open area you're pretty fucked.

Pistols are all but useless I've found.

Oha nd electric smoke could do with a nerf vs titans imo, I seem to die faster to it in a titan than I do on foot. ¬_¬

The matchmaking is also iffy, as others have said, it tends to be a landslide victory or an absolute curbstomp in my experience thus far.

 

[Vigormortis]

It's apple and oranges anyway.
10 minutes of "gameplay" is a misnomer considering the replay-ability that Metal Gear games allow. The correct phrasing there would be "minimum completion playtime"

I don't support Konami's decision though.

Well, of course. But the same logic of "replayability" applies to a multi-player only game like Titanfall. Perhaps doubly so.

That's all I was getting at. Though, in my opinion, Ground Zeroes' price is still a bit more ludicrous than that being asked for Titanfall.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

It's apple and oranges anyway.
10 minutes of "gameplay" is a misnomer considering the replay-ability that Metal Gear games allow. The correct phrasing there would be "minimum completion playtime"

I don't support Konami's decision though.

Well, of course. But the same logic of "replayability" applies to a multi-player only game like Titanfall. Perhaps doubly so.

Of course.

That's all I was getting at. Though, in my opinion, Ground Zeroes' price is still a bit more ludicrous than that being asked for Titanfall.

And I hold the opposite opinion. Looks like the companies are smarter than I gave them credit for.

 

[Vigormortis]

The CAR is quite obnoxious indeed, functional at ludicrous ranges, outdoes the sniper and marksman rifles handily. My main gripe with the smart pistol is when you can be murdered with it from a good 50 metres away by an abnoxious twat who jumps around in a small space screwing your sniper shots. My lesson learned was not to try snipe in titanfall.

They've actually nerfed the Smart Pistol here and there since release.

Frankly, I'm not sure why, beyond the bitching of the player base. It was barely above "shit tier" to begin with, save for it's effective range. Now the lock on times are ridiculous and hip-fire damage is negligible at best. Hell, in the time it'd take me to lock onto two non-cloaked players at once (and hoping they don't move or turn to see me) I could down both of them, three times over, with a few quick shots of a shotgun.

And while I agree that sniping is mostly useless in Titanfall, once one unlocks the second sniper rifle, and plays on certain maps, sniping can become somewhat useful.

Though, I think we can both agree that the starting SMG and the Hemlok are utterly useless. In every regard.

The shotgun is iffy, I've used it quite a lot, and whilst it's utterly devastating up close, that's kinda the point of it, and it's firerate isn't great and it's range drops off quickly. It's more about timing your shots than anything else, it's very satisfying to use and definately has the prime advantage once you're in corridors and tight rooms, but if you're caught in an open area you're pretty fucked.

Pistols are all but useless I've found.

I feel that the shotgun could actually use a slight effective range nerf. Especially when the leadwall is equipped. Otherwise, I agree.

However, while the auto-pistol is worthless, the other two are pretty fantastic. They're surprisingly accurate and do almost equivalent damage as the smgs. The Wingman is a staple of most of my loadouts. Especially my sniper loadout.

Oha nd electric smoke could do with a nerf vs titans imo, I seem to die faster to it in a titan than I do on foot. ¬_¬

Quite. I also feel like the Stryders could do with a bit less armor. They seem almost as tanky as the Atlas.

Don't get me wrong. I love piloting a Stryder. It's just...it doesn't feel quite as challenging as piloting an Atlas or an Ogre.

The matchmaking is also iffy, as others have said, it tends to be a landslide victory or an absolute curbstomp in my experience thus far.

Indeed it is.

Hopefully, the inclusion of private lobbies and the new matchmaking system currently in beta help to alleviate these issues.

 

[Vigormortis]

And I hold the opposite opinion. Looks like the companies are smarter than I gave them credit for.

Smarter than many of us have credited them for, it seems.

And, I wish you many fun hours in Ground Zeroes. If it's a taste of what's to come in V, then I wager MGS fans are in for a real treat.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Yea, I have a bad feeling that we're going to see a lot more multiplayer only games now that both the ps4 and xbone charge monthly for playing online. That's why everyone wants it to be a success. Then they can point at it and say 'look all the next gen players want multiplayer only games. Make more.'

any next gen game that charges monthly for playing online I'm not playing online and if its online only I'm not buying it pure and simple.

I hear ya but it's not just the games, all the consoles (except the wiiu) themselves require a monthly charge to play online now. I understand Sony has a lot more interesting features integrated into the online experience (like video capture, which is pretty cool) but they should lock all that behind a paywall instead of online play. If they did that, I might actually consider buying a ps4. Hell, I might even consider subscribing to plus if I don't feel like I'm being bullied into it.

 

[Tradjus]

It's too bad that E.A and Microsoft tried too position this game as Xbox One's killer app, it's just not worth it's dollar price for the amount of content you get and that was noted in almost every review.