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Crafting a story for 'Titanfall 2'
Titanfall 2 represents a huge opportunity for Respawn Entertainment. When the first game launched in 2014, the Xbox One was still in its infancy, and struggling from Microsoft's disastrous messaging. Titanfall received plenty of accolades for its human-versus-robot combat, but never found an audience befitting a veteran Call of Duty developer. The follow-up could be different, however, because it's headed to the PlayStation 4 in addition to the Xbox One and PC. The game will also feature a full-blown campaign -- a first for the franchise and something the original was criticized for not having.
'Titanfall 2' doesn't ditch Microsoft's cloud; it builds on it
When the original Titanfall launched exclusively on the Xbox One, Windows and Xbox 360 in 2014, it took advantage of Microsoft's Azure cloud system, which allowed developers at Respawn to add AI teammates and enemies in a low-lag gaming environment. It also meant that some regions, such as South Africa, never saw the game, because Microsoft's dedicated servers simply didn't exist in the country. This all changes with Titanfall 2.
'Titanfall 2' explores the human-robot link on October 28th
EA isn't waiting until its big E3 shindig to say more about Titanfall 2. The publisher has followed up leaks by posting a trailer revealing the first few details of Respawn's next robotic shooter, including its widely-reported single-player campaign. You take the role of Jack Cooper, a Militia soldier who links with a Titan after its previous pilot is killed in action. From all indications, that human-robot connection will play a central role in the story -- your Titan is as much a friendly helper as it is a relentless war machine.
The makers of 'Titanfall' are working on a 'Star Wars' game
Respawn is ready to break out of the Titanfall mold... and in a way you probably didn't expect. The game studio has announced that it's working with EA and Lucasfilm on a third-person Star Wars action/adventure. It's saying precious little about the title, which doesn't even have a release date, but it will run on the Unreal Engine (according to job listings) and "pay respect" to the series' universe at every step. Suffice it to say that this won't just be Titanfall with lightsabers and AT-STs. It's not a guaranteed success, but Respawn's early track record suggests that it'll take Star Wars seriously.
'Titanfall 2' will have a real single-player campaign
Respawn hasn't said much about its Titanfall sequel beyond plans for multi-platform support, but some details are starting to trickle out... and they'll be good news for fans of the robot-slash-infantry shooter. In a chat with Forbes, head writer Jesse Stern notes that Titanfall 2 will have a real, honest-to-goodness single-player campaign when it arrives either late this year or early next. That's not completely shocking given that the team didn't have the resources to flesh out its solo game the first time around. Still, it's reassuring if you were frustrated by the original's barely-there offline experience, which really just amounted to AI matches with a sliver of story in between.
'Titanfall' is going mobile
Titanfall, the mech-based multiplayer shooter from the creators of Call of Duty, will land on iOS and Android in some form in 2016. Titanfall studio Respawn Entertainment has partnered with free-to-play publisher Nexon and mobile developer Particle City in a multi-year, multi-game deal. There are no details about the mechanics or style of the coming Titanfall mobile games, but considering Nexon's involvement, it's a good bet that they'll be free with in-app payments. "Nexon's unrivaled publishing network and free-to-play expertise will allow Titanfall to reach new global audiences. And with Particle City, we are closely collaborating to create all-new standalone games with original gameplay experiences that expand the Titanfall universe to players everywhere," Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella says in a press release.
'Titanfall' is going free-to-play in Asia
Free-to-play games are big business outside of America and Titanfall is the next big shooter joining the ranks of Halo and Call of Duty in taking that route. Publisher Electronic Arts is working with Nexon (the company behind Maple Story and FIFA Online 3) to take developer Respawn Entertainment's mech-based shooter to China, Japan, Korea, Macau and regions of Southeast Asia including Cambodia and Thailand. Naturally, it'll only be a PC version of the game since that plays well in internet cafes, but any other details aren't known at this point. However, the F2P model could actually translate pretty easily considering the game's Burn Card system that rewards players with single-use power-ups is similar to how existing microtransaction-based games function. Stand by for Titanfall, Asia.
Titanfall update brings co-op to Xbox 360 next week
The Xbox 360 version of Titanfall will receive update number eight next Monday, December 1, Respawn Entertainment announced. The update adds Frontier Defense to the game, Titanfall's cooperative multiplayer mode that arrived on PC and Xbox One just over one month ago. Frontier Defense puts a team of four players in charge of defending a "vital objective" from waves of enemies, which increase in difficulty with each mob. Like the update last month, next week's patch also introduces ranked online play to the first-person shooter, which features Rank Chips that act as "expensive pedometers," measuring players' activity in Titanfall and occasionally doling out rewards. Rank Chips can be turned off at any point, so the ranked play system isn't map-specific. The update also adds new Titan insignias and a full-screen mini-map option to the game. [Image: EA Games]
Star Citizen aims to redefine avatar death, combat realism
Remember way back in February of 2013 when Chris Roberts posted his Death of a Spaceman concept? It was a high-level look at how character death would function in Star Citizen, and it broke from gaming industry norms by aiming for an immersive system with strategy and consequences rather than the typical run-and-gun and die-and-respawn mechanics common to MMOs, FPSs, and most other games. This week Roberts and company have released another extensive design doc called Healing Your Spacemen, which greatly expands the original concept. "In the end, the team decided to run counter to the standard FPS mechanics of regenerating health and instantly respawning on death to make every fight a calculated decision that can have ramifications that impact your character and place in the 'Verse," Cloud Imperium says. Character health involves a limb-based system featuring four levels of health for each limb, and the system deliberately avoids "the current trend of hiding behind cover for blood to clear off your screen and jumping back in the fight ready for more." The post also explains how characters may be dragged to safety and how the spaceflight portion of the game will include "a robust rescue system" that complements the character death and damage mechanics. Read all about it via the official site links below! [Thanks Cardboard!]
Titanfall update gets cooperative, adds ranked play
The next major update for Titanfall will land tomorrow on Xbox One and PC, Respawn announced today. The patch is the "biggest update ever," according to the developer's blog, which revealed the inclusion of new modes in the update. For starters, Titanfall players will have a new "Frontier Defense" cooperative multiplayer mode in which teams of four stand their ground against waves of AI enemies, getting assistance from stationary turrets and loadout crates. The other major addition is ranked play, which will be in beta through the end of the month. Respawn's dedicated discussion on its ranked play system for Titanfall notes that players will receive "Rank Chips," which act as "expensive pedometers" that measure players' prowess in the game. Players will have the ability to turn off their Rank Chips as well, so ranked play in Titanfall won't boil down to a separate set of maps or playlists. The update will introduce a multitude of other fixes and improvements, such as the ability to go full-screen with the mini-map, a "sudden death" addition to Capture the Flag mode and seven new Titan insignias. [Image: EA Games]
Titanfall orders IMC Rising DLC onto Xbox 360 next week
Xbox 360 owners of Titanfall have been left waiting for the metal gear of "IMC Rising," but they can get their revengeance next week when the third and final piece of season pass DLC arrives on October 21. Pilots can buy in for $10 or get it as part of the $25 season pass. IMC Rising, which came to Xbox One and PC last month, includes three extra maps in the form of Backwater, Zone 18 and Sand Trap. Backwater is a mix of open fields, underground grain storage facilities (there's an experience grain joke in there somewhere) and railways up above. Zone 18, meanwhile, is a robotics facility full of passageways to sneak along and rooftops to drop onto. Finally, Sand Trap is a mix of big open areas and tiny little wall-gaps perfect for wall-running and wall-flailing-and-falling-to-your-doom. [Image: EA]
Rejoice: Loot Cave 2.0 surfaces in Destiny
Decided to blow up our Loot Cave, Bungie? Our precious, treasure-dumping respawn point in Destiny? Fine then, we'll find another one. In fact, PS4 Trophies did just that in a new video, detailing a new legendary farm point in the game's rocket yard area. Get it while it's hot, people!
Mech plans: Titanfall gets 'Expedition' DLC this week
Titanfall gets its first DLC on Thursday, May 15, when the Expedition map pack sets off for Xbox One and PC. As detailed previously, the content isn't coming to Xbox 360 until June. Expedition introduces three maps to the Respawn shooter, each with its own distinctive flavor. Swampland lets you explore the great outdoors in all its natural glory, and by that we mean fly-kicking fools into marshes. Runoff is a down-and-dirty industrial complex, while Wargames takes players into a digital-looking virtual simulation, where they get to ride light-bikes and race each other to the death (okay, that last bit's not true as far as we know, but maybe it should be). If you fancy a weekend Expedition, the DLC is priced $10 standalone, and it's part of the $25 season pass that covers two more upcoming DLC packs. [Image: EA]
UK Charts: Titanfall stands tall
If Lionel Richie was infatuated with giant mechanical killing machines rather than ladies, he'd be singing an ode to Titanfall right now. Respawn's shooter is once, twice, three times the UK No. 1 in a row - that's four times in total if you include its debut week in March. There's not much else to say about this week's UK charts; the top ten is made up of the same games from last week, except for Battlefield 4 replacing Trials Fusion. As for Titanfall, it's dominated most of April and it has the chance to keep that run going in May, at least until the arrivals of Wolfenstein: The New Order, Watch Dogs and Mario Kart 8. [Image: EA]
Behind-the-scenes 'Final Hours of Titanfall' app now available
The Final Hours of Titanfall, an in-depth look at the development of Respawn Entertainment's first game, is now available to download on iPad, Windows Surface as well as PC and Mac via Origin for $1.99. Versions of the app are also planned for Android and iPhone, and both a text-only version for Kindle as well as an audiobook version are being considered. Created over a four-year span by Geoff Keighley, the app is a 25,000-word deep-dive on Titanfall's development and the legal issues that Respawn co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella settled with Activision in May 2012 pryor to West's departure from the developer in March 2013. Keighley conducted interviews with over 80 people to chronicle Respawn's beginnings, which cover the "toxic mix of office politics and creative struggles the build the next great videogame franchise." It also features concept art and videos from the early days of the game's development. This isn't Keighley's first foray into longform app development, as the behind-the-scenes "Final Hours" series includes an episodic webseries on Square Enix's Tomb Raider reboot, an app for Portal 2 and one detailing the creation of Mass Effect 3. [Image: EA Games]
Titanfall State of Service: Final Verdict
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Friday, April 11 | Final Verdict Overall State of Service: Good Summary: Stable server performance. Isolated issues on PC. In its first month of availability, neither the Xbox One or PC versions of Titanfall have run into debilitating or pervasive problems. Apart from a few brief outages, Titanfall's performance has been stable, with developer Respawn deploying a handful of updates, including a special matchmaking pool for cheaters and improved matchmaking in general. Yesterday, Respawn also added the ability to play private matches and issued a number of balance tweaks and bug fixes. Joystiq staffers have encountered no serious problems with either the PC or Xbox One versions during Titanfall's launch month. Some users have reported technical problems on PC, though these seem to be isolated and most have workaround solutions. We've spent some time with the Xbox 360 version since its launch on Tuesday and, while it's visually less impressive and its frame rate isn't as solid, online play appears on par with what we've experienced on PC and Xbox One. In short, the online-only warfare of Titanfall seems to be running as intended, and we're comfortable declaring that its overall State of Service is Good. The quality of online play has been consistent, and Respawn seems committed to delivering updates and listening to its community.
Titanfall State of Service: Week Four
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, April 8 | T-minus 2 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Moderate Summary: Matchmaking update deployed. Some users experiencing longer than usual matchmaking times and connection issues. On the whole, Titanfall's online service appears to be running just fine after four weeks on PC and Xbox One, though some Titanfall players have been running into problems. Since the recent matchmaking update to Hardpoint and Attrition modes, some users have reported very long matchmaking times – anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes – or connection issues. Respawn itself has noted that matchmaking will take longer as a result of the more selective system, but enough users have encountered issues that the developer has lessened the effectiveness of the update in order to speed up matchmaking while it irons out the kinks. Respawn is also taking feedback on the matchmaking update in the Titanfall forums. For its part, Joystiq staff members haven't encountered any noteworthy issues since the matchmaking update was released. We'll be monitoring matchmaking performance over the next two days. Finally, after a recent delay, the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall has arrived as well. We'll be spending some time with it this week, and will incorporate some impressions into Titanfall's final State of Service update this Thursday. If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Titanfall State of Service: Week Three
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, April 1 | T-minus 9 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: PC version experiencing limited issues. Matchmaking update in the works. Anti-cheating system enabled on PC. Apart from a brief server outage last Tuesday, and an issue with Australian servers in particular, Titanfall appears to be humming along on both PC and Xbox One. Servers for both versions went down during the afternoon on March 25, apparently as the result of broader problems with Xbox Live. Servers were back online that evening. Meanwhile, Australian players encountered an issue in which servers would return a ping of -1, making them unusable. The problem was "sporadic," and it was corrected as of March 31, according to official Titanfall Twitter account. Joystiq staff members have been playing both versions with no significant problems to report. In other service news, Respawn is working on an update to Titanfall's matchmaking to keep weaker teams from being consistently dominated by stronger teams. Furthermore, the PC version has been updated to combat cheating. Cheaters detected by the game are subsequently only allowed to play with other cheaters, where they will enjoy what Respawn calls "the Wimbledon of aimbot contests." If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Other retailers follow suit with $450 Titanfall Xbox One bundle
Other outlets including the Microsoft Store are following Walmart's lead by reducing the Titanfall Xbox One bundle to $450. Target, Microsoft and Amazon (with the promo code XIAMAZON) are all offering the Titanfall bundle with the $50 discount, and both Target and Microsoft have the same price on the Standard bundle that includes a Forza 5 code. The Microsoft Store denotes the bundles as "limited time discounts," so don't expect the reduced price to hang around for long, even if the console got a permanent price drop in the UK. On a side note, our pals at Engadget spotted Amazon getting a bit overexcited this morning after the retailer briefly marked down the Forza Xbox One bundle to $400 with the XIAMAZON code applied. It looks like it was an accident, though, since the bundle is back up to $499 and the code no longer works with it. [Image: Microsoft]
Titanfall on PCs will soon support 4K and NVIDIA's latest graphics tricks (updated)
Many gamers already argue that the PC version of Titanfall is the best-looking of the bunch. Pretty soon, though, it won't even be a contest. Respawn plans to update its robotic shooter to handle both 4K displays as well as a host of technology from NVIDIA's GameWorks program, including full support for multiple GeForce cards, improved antialiasing and more realistic shadow effects. The upgrades aren't all that surprising. Some modern video hardware is powerful enough for 4K gaming, and developers have already used GameWorks to spruce up flagship titles like Assassin's Creed 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Still, the visual improvements are bound to make a big impact -- Titanfall is one of the most important games of the year, and a good excuse to pick up a new gaming rig. Update: Right now however, Titanfall is getting some tweaks on its servers that will change how it plays on PC and Xbox One. The updates will roll out over the next day, but you can see a changelog on Respawn's forums here. There are a number of fixes and updates included, and among them it appears the controversial Smart Pistol is having its effectiveness reduced, with slightly lower accuracy from hip fire and decreased damage when it's not locked-on. A troublesome glitch that allowed Burn Cards to be duplicated has also been fixed, and point values for certain actions in Hardpoint and Capture The Flag games have been adjusted.
