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

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I do wonder what's up with this industry-wide obsession over making things multiplayer only. It seems to me like it's an excuse to do as little work as possible, making content as thin as it can be because they've rendered themselves incapable of really adding true variety due to wasting so much effort and money as stupid crap.

 

[kortin]

It amuses the hell out of me that people are so upset about Titanfall being multiplayer only

"BUT WE WANTED A TACKED ON SINGLE PLAYER" they scream from the rooftops, "YOU KNOW, LIKE CALL OF DUTY"


I do agree that it's too expensive though.

 

[kortin]

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.

You would have been killed much quicker by any other gun. Literally any other gun in the game would have killed you quicker. That's not a case of the smart pistol being good, that's a case of you just being bad.

 

[Terminate421]

The weird thing that I don't get is that it openly declares Multi-Player only (as in, no shitty single player in exchange it was a quality multiplayer) and yet people are complaining about it. Why bother commenting or hating on it?

All the criticisms of Titanfall seem less of quality and more of "Oh it doesn't have THIS". Yahtzee made it funny but he did not pick up more on the content being under "Classic Mode"

 

[Mad World]

People need to stop complaining about the lack of singleplayer. The developers clearly didn't have one in mind, and that could be a good thing. Games like Battlefield, in my opinion, should never have had singleplayer. It was bland, generic, and short. Just wasted time which could have been used instead for improving the multiplayer (which most know desperately needed further optimization). Unless, of course, a separate team works on the singleplayer; I suppose that that negates the notion that adding singleplayer takes time away from working on the multiplayer.

 

[The White Hunter]

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.

You would have been killed much quicker by any other gun. Literally any other gun in the game would have killed you quicker. That's not a case of the smart pistol being good, that's a case of you just being bad.

It's a case of I should have not bothered using the sniper rifle.

 

[Terminate421]

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

That is a pretty hard argument to break as the Hemlok is a fantastic weapon. Reminds me of the M16 from COD4, but without the bullet tracking.

Give it either the star-burst (Usually kills in one burst) or the extended mag and you're good to go.

 

[Makabriel]

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.

You would have been killed much quicker by any other gun. Literally any other gun in the game would have killed you quicker. That's not a case of the smart pistol being good, that's a case of you just being bad.

Yeah, I kinda question the validity of their comment of the smart pistol. Having leveled through it at least twice, I know you can't jump and use that thing with any usable accuracy. If the both of you are standing still and you don't know he's there? Yeah, you're screwed. But moving on both your parts? Hell, a grenade is more reliable than the smart pistol in that case..

 

[Racecarlock]

The only thing I am hoping Titanfall will inspire, is someone to make a better, more involved mech game.
That isn't trying its hardest to supplant Call of Duty, and doesn't require Origin or me giving money to EA.

Every game in the mechwarrior series should satisfy you. And mechwarrior 4 is freeware right now. Even has online multiplayer that still works.

 

[Magmarock]

Typical Escapist members will complain. Anyone who actually wants to play a multiplayer shooter would applaud the decision though.

Too bad few people here are likely to accept that there's any hypocrisy in calling Titanfall "half a game" since it's multiplayer only when they'd never even dream of saying the same of a game because it's singleplayer only.

That's because a single player games only needs one play to be enjoyed. This is kind of a no brainier. One player buys one game and gets enjoyment out of it. For TitanFall multiple players have to buy it and play together. Even MP focused games such as UT had bots which made for some good single player fun.

$80 for a g same that can't even be enjoyed on it's own, are you serious. Developers are taking the piss.

People need to stop complaining about the lack of singleplayer. The developers clearly didn't have one in mind, and that could be a good thing. Games like Battlefield, in my opinion, should never have had singleplayer. It was bland, generic, and short. Just wasted time which could have been used instead for improving the multiplayer (which most know desperately needed further optimization). Unless, of course, a separate team works on the singleplayer; I suppose that that negates the notion that adding singleplayer takes time away from working on the multiplayer.

People complain about the lack of single because there is a lack of single player FPS coming out of this industry. I agree that BF's single player was terrible and I think the the same about COD's single player too. But the market is being smothered with these multi player only/focused games and those of us who like our single player games weather it be Quake style or Half Life style are being starved.

All these MP focused games need is too things. 1. decent bots like UT (for those of us who are antisocial and want good arena action) and a smaller price tag.

On top of that the industry should make some more single player games to fix this balance.

Well, what is the last single player game that Valve has made? Because of the last six they've made five have been multiplayer only (TF2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Dota 2, Alien Swarm. Portal 2 being the game with single player)

True, I'd like to point out that those games could still be enjoyed to an extent in single player thanks to bots and stuff

 

[C14N]

I actually kind of like the idea of having multi-player only games. It means they can focus one what they're actually good at and not tack on a pointless, mediocre single player campaign that almost nobody plays anyway, even if this particular example does sound a bit sparse. Also, it makes it much easier for me to ignore it.

I do have to say though that $80 sounds like a lot more than what I've seen. Not sure what the currency conversion to Aussie dollars is but I've gotten emails offering this to me for ?25-30.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't know what a canoly is, but I can think of plenty of other things I'd like to shove up EA's ass; starting with a flagpole and going up from there.

 

[IrisNetwork]

Did I hear music in the background at 2:10 minutes in?

 

[josemlopes]

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.

So even if they actually start doing good things you still wouldnt buy anything from them because of what they once did? Why not just not buy when its tied with bad practices? Why all the time?

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."

If people hadnt gone into the pre-order bandwaggon and actually avoided buying Battlefield 4 because of how it was then maybe the lesson would go through. They care about money so if we dont give it to them when they fail they will learn not to fail. Titanfall wasnt a fail.

 

[mariomario]

The cancerous point of Dark Souls fanboyism is when they start butting the game into conversations that had nothing to do with it. Clear to see where Yahtzee is now.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Every game in the mechwarrior series should satisfy you. And mechwarrior 4 is freeware right now. Even has online multiplayer that still works.

Actually, Mektek lost the rights to provide MechWarrior4 when MechWarrior Online came out and it hasn't been free for over a year now.

...I still have my copy of Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries regardless, but I've worn that out.
(I've made something like 200 variants, with lance assignments.)

Apart from the MW series, there really isn't anything that isn't Online-Only.
Which makes me very sad indeed.

 

[DaViller]

Titanfall is the first truly fun shooter I have played in years and I applaud that. You have freedom of movement that rivals the golden age shooters like unreal or quake and the awesome feeling of stomping around in a big ass mech. Seriously killing other titans with an ogre mega punch is the most satisfying feeling I get out of any modern shooter.

I would gladly pay 60 bucks for that if I had an Xbone(only played in a friends house so far). Seriously why is this even a big issue?

There are more then enough people, me included, who play street fighter only for it's online mode and it's worth every buck I have spend on it (sf4 40 bucks, ssf4 30 bucks, ssf4 ae 15 bucks, fight stick 50-60 bucks and I am gonna get the ultra upgrade). Multiplayer games offer the same, hell in many cases more, longevity as singleplayer games and are crafted with the same care and effort (well the good ones at least are). I see no reason not to shell out the same amount of money for titanfall as I will for bayonetta 2.

 

[Vigormortis]

That is a pretty hard argument to break as the Hemlok is a fantastic weapon. Reminds me of the M16 from COD4, but without the bullet tracking.

Give it either the star-burst (Usually kills in one burst) or the extended mag and you're good to go.

I mean...you can rack up some pilot kills with it, but in every instance wherein I've used it I always found myself wanting the R-101C, the Shotgun, or even the Smart Pistol instead.

I'm not saying one can't use it, I'm just saying there isn't a single instance I can think of where one of the other guns wouldn't do the job better.

I might be wrong and just need to spend a bit more time with it. But from my experience this has been the case.

 

[octafish]

From a purely content + variety point of view, Battlefield 4 completely blows Titanfall out of the fucking park offering vastly more weapons, vehicles, maps (bigger maps too), modes AND a 4-5 hour singleplayer campaign (shitty, but a campaign nonetheless).

Titanfall is an neat little game that's definitely fun to play, but it should NOT have cost more than $20-30 max because it comes across as more of a mini-game or a pet project with no long-lasting appeal.

The worst thing is that Titanfall has set the example that a multiplayer-only game lacking in content can sell for $60.
Watch what EA do with this. Just fucking watch.

Hopefully they will abandon the waste of resources campaign in all future Battlefield games. I don't buy Battlefield for a Campaign, nobody should buy Battlefield for a campaign. Even ignoring that it still seems like BF offers more content for your money. I'd be interested in Titanfall if it offered more variety in its multiplayer, and if BF4 wasn't still holding my attention. One day DICE/EA will wise up and we will get a Multiplayer only BF2143, and all will be right in the world.

Leave the Arse. Take the Cannoli.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

So even if they actually start doing good things you still wouldnt buy anything from them because of what they once did? Why not just not buy when its tied with bad practices? Why all the time?

Their company is tied to bad practices. If they change their practices, I'd buy from them again.

If people hadnt gone into the pre-order bandwaggon and actually avoided buying Battlefield 4 because of how it was then maybe the lesson would go through. They care about money so if we dont give it to them when they fail they will learn not to fail. Titanfall wasnt a fail.

Here's the thing, if Titanfall HAD been a fail, it wouldn't have mattered. They would have gotten their money and nothing would have changed. People jumped on the Titanfall pre-order bandwagon just as much as the Battfield 4 one.

The two situations aren't comparable, cause you are blaming the customers for something they couldn't have realized.

The cancerous point of Dark Souls fanboyism is when they start butting the game into conversations that had nothing to do with it. Clear to see where Yahtzee is now.

He made one mention in ONE video.