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Titanfall review: Prime delivery
Titanfall is strictly coiled around the player. You couldn't excise even one piece without slackening it like a ruined kidnapper's rope. The serpentine level design, the liberating sense of movement, the flawless controls and yes, the enormous bipedal tanks dropping from the sky, are equally indispensable in this arresting shooter. Given the studio's splintered status as a former Call of Duty custodian, Respawn Entertainment has made a multiplayer game fit for those who have spent years peering through the eyes of a speedy killing machine – a seasoned six against six in battles for land or a higher kill count. A history with rapid-fire aim and fleet-footed 3D movement is not essential here, but recommended.
Respawn Entertainment's Jon Shiring on Titanfall and using Microsoft's cloud
Jon Shiring, Respawn engineer When in the development cycle did the relationship between Microsoft and Respawn form? Early on, we were trying to figure out what game we were trying to make. We had a good relationship with people at Microsoft from working on Call of Duty, so we got in touch with them. I was pushing really hard on dedicated servers for all platforms. I talked to Microsoft about that, and I talked to Sony as well. Microsoft got really interested in that idea, and that was pretty early on. I'd say I started to nudge them in late 2010. It was really 2011 when we were coming at Microsoft like, "What can you do? We can't afford this, but we want to have dedicated servers for everything because we're trying to do new and interesting things." Did you get the feeling that this was something it already had in mind? The feeling I got from it is that we kind of brought it up and they came back with an idea of how to do it because they weren't originally planning to do it. At the time, I think they were looking for interesting things to do for the Xbox One; they were trying to get a bearing on what would be a new, interesting way for Live to go. We hit them at the right time. How intrinsic is Azure to Titanfall? Having these servers with a significant amount of CPU power and bandwidth available is absolutely essential to our game: Having these machines that are regional and servers that have good ping -- that's huge. That completely changes the way we make games. Really, the biggest thing with that is that it has uncapped our designers and let them do things that were previously impossible to do. That far back, we were letting the designers run and just do whatever was cool and it was really, really key to making Titanfall what it is right now. What will a player notice that's different between Titanfall and another game that's using dedicated servers? There are other games like Battlefield that have dedicated servers, but they haven't gone in the same direction that we have with them, though. We have all of this AI and things flying around in the world; that has obviously let us build a different game than we would have if we'd have gone in with the constraints of it having to be player-hosted. All of these things that make it a much more lively world are actually the really big win. With all the platforms that are using Azure (PC, Xbox 360 Xbox One), was cross-platform play ever considered? Not really. Mostly, the reason for that is with the 360 version -- we're not developing it. My expectation (and this is an engineering answer) is that we're going to be patching all of these but we're not going to be the ones doing the patching on 360. We could get ourselves into a very bad spot where if we patched all the servers, the 360 people couldn't play for a while until Bluepoint (the studio behind the Xbox 360 version) applies the patch and gets it through cert. Just on a purely practical level with three different methods of getting a patch out there, it's not going to work. Just on a purely practical level with three different methods of getting a patch out there, it's [cross-platform play] not going to work. Then there [are] a lot of other problems you get, like if you were playing against a PC guy and you were looking at his player info. He's not on Xbox; I can't bring up the Origin info for him; you can't add him as a friend and send an invite to him. It's not one huge technical thing stopping us; it's a lot of little ones. What does the connection flowchart look like from a user's network access point to the servers? With Azure coming in, it seems like a chance for more ping or latency. In a traditional player-hosted game, you're still connecting to the player acting as a host, but you have to punch through all these networks to get there. I'm kind of getting into the gears here, but what I've found is that a lot of the latency in consumer broadband is at the edges: Getting to another user is a lot slower than getting to a hub and back again. Since we're talking to these servers in big regional data centers, the latency is a lot lower than what you would get if [the connection] was exactly the same, except it was a consumer on the other end of that pipe. We have somewhere around a 19ms to 20ms ping to this data center and it's up in San Francisco [from LA]. We're talking barely more than one rendering frame to get a message to the server and back again, which is outstanding. It has a lot of wins. Longterm, what kind of benefits do you think consumers will reap with the groundwork that Respawn has laid? Back when we started talking to Microsoft about it, everyone thought it was kind of crazy and a lot of publishers were terrified of even doing it. I've heard that since our beta, they've been pounding down the doors at Microsoft because they're realizing that it really is a real thing right now. We can scale high, and, if you do it right, the experience can be awesome. Working with Microsoft is great, but we're kind of taking a bullet with doing the pain of proving that it'll scale up, and finding bugs that every system has at launch. After Titanfall comes out, we're just going to have a lot more confidence that the early system-type problems are solved. From then on, it's probably a simpler solution than building something yourself. My expectation is that within a few years, this will be the new normal. Not necessarily Azure specifically, but a centralization of the hosting so it'll be big systems that are being used rather than all of these homegrown things that people have done in the past. At the Xbox One's reveal, Microsoft said the new Xbox Live has 300,000 dedicated servers, how many does Respawn have access to? We're trying to figure out how many people will be playing and trying to make sure the servers will be there for that. One of the really nice things about it is that isn't my problem, right? We just say [to Microsoft] here are our estimates, aim for more than that, plan for problems and make sure there are more than enough servers available. To go back to your development experience, how has Respawn's approach to multiplayer changed since Call of Duty? We're still client/server, but we re-approached every problem and solved it in a new way. Some of the high-level stuff matches up, like the client/server and the service that connects the clients, but everything else is very different from a network architecture standpoint. I've been making multiplayer games (Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2) for a long time. A lot of it is just people here and even people at EA having faith in us that we know what we're doing. That has led us to things that were new, different and crazy. What's the contingency plan in case the servers start melting? This is one of the things we made ourselves deal with during the beta. The way it ends up working is that peak time in Europe is going to be much ahead of the US. We moved some Europeans over to East Coast US data centers, which is not ideal, but it at least let them play. We don't look forward to doing that at all, but if we have a bunch of people sitting unable to play the game, then we're going to make sure that the experience is good enough -- maybe not ideal -- to get them playing. We do have capacity at these other data centers that are a little bit farther away. If we have a situation like that, that's going to be my fault. If we fill up every data center out there, then we'll be there at Microsoft -- they'll know the whole time that they need to bring more servers online. When Forza Motorsport 5 launched, it used Azure for the Drivatar system. By all accounts it shouldn't have worked: It was a brand-new feature running on new software using then-unproven Azure tech. If Titanfall launches successfully too, it could galvanize Azure's reputation. What I actually think will happen, is if we come out and it works great and people play the game and see that it's a really good experience, [developers] will have a lot of serious discussions about "my publisher has their own system for hosting, but I don't know if it will work. We have a lot of confidence in Azure because Titanfall did." Suddenly, the publisher solution becomes more risky than the cloud solution.
A closer look at Titanfall's not-so-secret weapon: Microsoft's cloud
While you were busy running along walls and throwing missiles back at your opponents during the Titanfall beta, countless data centers across the world were making sure that each AI-controlled Titan bodyguard had your back. Much of the frenetic action in Respawn Entertainment's debut game rests on one thing: Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure. Up until last November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's baby was mostly used for business applications, like virtualization and acting as an enterprise-level email host. With the Xbox One, though, the company opened up its global server farms to game developers, giving them access to more computing power than could reasonably be stuffed into a $500 game console. Since the Xbox One's debut, Microsoft has been crowing about how Azure would let designers create gaming experiences players have never seen before. Now it's time for the product to speak for itself.
Early Titanfall players won't be banned; preload now available on Origin
Those fortunate enough to score a pre-release copy of Titanfall can enjoy the game without fear of retaliation from Microsoft or developer Respawn Entertainment. This unexpectedly permissive news comes courtesy of no less a source than Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella. "About playing early: We won't stop or ban legit copies," Zampella tweeted, before warning early players that the pre-release gameplay experience may not be flawless. "It is prelaunch, so there may be interruptions in service as we prep servers," he added. On a related note, those who pre-ordered the PC incarnation of Titanfall from EA's digital distribution service Origin can now begin pulling down the game's necessary files. As with all preloading schemes, you won't actually be able to play Titanfall until its official, March 11 debut, but hopefully that wait provides enough time to download all 50GB of Respawn's giant robot shooter. [Image: Respawn Entertainment]
Watch Major Nelson explain Twitch broadcasting on Xbox One
The imminent addition of Twitch broadcasting to the Xbox One has prompted preternaturally winsome Xbox spokesman Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb to narrate the above walkthrough of the service. Those familiar with Twitch broadcasting on the PlayStation 4 will notice that both services share a core simplicity, though the Xbox One incarnation of Twitch offers one major advantage over its Sony counterpart: broadcast archival. Whereas footage broadcast from the PlayStation 4 vanishes into the ether immediately after it airs, Xbox One users will find that Twitch stores their past broadcasts. To drive the point home, Hryb invites players to visit his own account, where they'll find footage from a number of recent gaming sessions broadcast via Twitch. While no single date has been pinned down for the debut of Twitch on Xbox One, Microsoft plans to launch the service at some point next week, just in time for the debut of Titanfall. [Image: Microsoft]
No Titanfall in South Africa
Once upon a time in South Africa, a young video game journalist named Ludwig Kietzmann collapsed for no apparent reason, falling to the floor in a heap of stylish dark-wash jeans and almonds. Seconds later, he awoke and knew something was desperately wrong. Something horrible was coming, and there was only one thing he could do to avoid catastrophe. He had to get out of South Africa. EA South Africa will not launch Titanfall in the region, attributing the decision to poor internet performance rates. The post on EA South Africa's Facebook reads as follows: "After conducting recent online tests for Titanfall, we found that the performance rates in South Africa were not as high as we need to guarantee a great experience, so we have decided not to release Titanfall in South Africa at this time. "We understand this is a disappointment for local fans and will keep fans posted on any future plans regarding the release of Titanfall in South Africa." In February, EA delayed the Titanfall beta in South Africa, but overall it marketed the game as per standard protocol. Reviews of the South African beta noted a ping in the 200ms range, but added that the game's built-in latency tolerance worked well and made it playable. [Image: Titanfall]
Buy an Xbox One, drive away with a free digital copy of Forza 5
Come next week, Microsoft is kicking off a promotion designed to make an Xbox One purchase that much more attractive by including a gratis copy of the console's flagship racer, Forza Motorsport 5. Omnipresent Xbox spokesman Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb unveiled the offer on his blog earlier today. "Starting at select retailers next week in the U.S., a digital copy of Forza Motorsport 5 will be included with purchases of Xbox One for the retail price of $499.99 for a limited time," Hryb wrote, before launching into a hyperbolic, if not inaccurate description of the racer. Our own review of the game awarded it four of five stars, with Ludwig praising the game's functionality and attention to detail, but lamenting its anemic selection of vehicles and tracks - an issue that has since been partially amended by DLC additions. Unfortunately, according to Microsoft, this promotion does not apply to Xbox One consoles purchased as part of the upcoming Titanfall bundle. [Image: Microsoft]
Titanfall's ode to 8-bit gaming is proof that robots make everything better
Need further evidence that robots improve just about everything? EA and Respawn are more than happy to provide it. They've launched Titanfall Arcade, a promotional gaming website that thrusts Titanfall's namesake giant machines into classic 8-bit Atari titles. The only working game at present is an Asteroids remake, but it proves the point -- the typically nerve-wracking space shooter becomes easy once a Titan's weaponry comes into play. Tributes to Centipede and Missile Command are coming in the future. The arcade is primarily meant to whet your appetite ahead of Titanfall's release next week, but we'd say it's worth a visit even if you don't plan to buy the game -- it's a nostalgic gaming experience without the frustrating difficulty levels that often come along for the ride.
Titanfall Arcade kicks some Asteroids
What do you get when you mix the titans from Titanfall with Atari's popular retro game Asteroids? You get Titanfall's titans in Asteroids silly, what else could you possibly have expected? Respawn Entertainment recently thought it fitting to launch a small, free retro game portal dubbed "Titanfall Arcade" to promote its upcoming FPS, starting with an Asteroids clone. The browser-based flash game plays exactly like it sounds: After dropping a titan into a flat black space setting, players point with their cursors to shoot the classic outlines of space debris, racking up a high score after firing off charged beam shots. The game makes for a fun little excursion while your boss is looking away, to be sure. The other two Titanfall Arcade games that will be available to play sometime in the near future are spoofs on Missile Command and Centipede, the former sounding all too appropriate for a mech to be involved in. Titanfall launches next week on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. [Image: Respawn Entertainment]
Titanfall season pass confirmed [Update: $25 for three map packs]
Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella confirmed Titanfall is getting a season pass, in news that isn't giant-mechs-dropping-out-of-the-sky levels of surprising. Speaking to GameSpot, Zampella revealed there are plans for a variety of updates, both free and paid. "We're going to do paid DLC, we're also going to do free updates," Zampella told GameSpot. "There are things that we want in the game that we didn't get to ship in the final game. So we'll add private matches and things like that for free. There will be some paid DLC. We're going to do a season pass just because if you buy it up front, it's a deal. We're not going to do microtransactions. So a season pass is just buy it up front, and you get a better price." Respawn's multiplayer shooter combines the studio's FPS heritage with a big dollop of mechanized walkers to pilot and tear stuff up with. It's coming to Xbox One and PC on March 11, while the Xbox 360 version outsourced to Bluepoint Games is due on March 25. Asked if Xbox 360 players can expect the same longevity other platforms will receive in terms of upgrades and patches, Zampella said, "We'll have to sit down with EA and talk about that. My assumption is yes, but I don't know if I'm the best person to speak for that." Update: Respawn announced the Titanfall season pass is priced at $25, and represents a discount of $5 on three map packs. The packs may contain other content additional to the maps, but Respawn said that's "still to be determined and will be announced as we get closer to their release." The season pass is confirmed for all platforms, and PC players can opt in on a $80 Digital Deluxe bundle that includes the game on Origin and the pass. [Image: EA]
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Titanfall gameplay launch trailer prepares you for a mech drop
With Titanfall's launch just one week away, we feel the only proper course of action is to watch every video for the game that's in reach. That includes this gameplay launch trailer for the game, which combines an appropriate amount of drama, mech-like titans, explosions, bouts of slow-motion and guys getting punched in the face. Well, we could do with a little more face-punching, to be certain. If you're looking for more moving pictures related to the game, be sure to check out our video preview and our "beta massacre" special, in which six Joystiq staffers took on the game's PC beta as a team, meeting their digital demise collectively. Titanfall will launch on March 11 for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. [Image: EA Games]
Report: Xbox One adds Dolby Digital optical support in March update
The audio options on the Xbox One are about to grow a bit more diverse, according to a Polygon article. Despite the Dolby Digital audio codec being one of the world's most popular surround sound specifications, the Xbox One currently offers no Dolby Digital support when transmitting audio via optical cable. In November, Microsoft's director of product planning Albert Pennello apologized for this and promised that an update would add Dolby Digital support at some point in the future. While new functionality is a positive for everyone, the real winners here are Xbox One owners hoping to use headsets that rely on optical connections. This includes popular models from manufacturers like Tritton, Astro and Turtle Beach. There's no specific date attached to the release of this Xbox One update, but Polygon claims it should be available prior to the March 11 Xbox One debut of Titanfall. [Image: Astro]
Titanfall launch party at SXSW includes devs, Childish Gambino
Microsoft is hosting a launch party for Titanfall at SXSW in Austin, Texas, from 9PM CT on March 10 to 2AM CT on March 11, the moment that shall forever on be known as The Day The Titans Fell. Festivities will be held at Microsoft Studio on Congress Avenue and it's all first come, first served. Developers from Respawn, including founder Vince Zampella and Community Manager Abbie Heppe, will be hanging out, along with Xbox Corporate VP Yusuf Mehdi. Childish Gambino, the musical persona of Community writer and actor Donald Glover, will perform at the party. Get a taste of his style here (Warning: NSFW, witty lyrics). Twitch will stream the celebration live on the Xbox channel or through the Twitch app on Xbox from 10PM CT to 2AM CT, with scheduled appearances from Twitch's Jon Carnage, the Rooster Teeth team and Geoff Keighley, plus the Respawn and Microsoft folks.
Titanfall collector's edition is titan-sized, sadly doesn't include jump jets (video)
For half the price of an Xbox One, you can have your very own titan mech! Well, an 18-inch "Atlas Titan statue," care of the folks behind Titanfall. And yes, that means it doesn't move. And no, there aren't any jump jets in the massive "Collector's Edition" box, which holds the aforementioned statue, your copy of Titanfall, a big fancy art book and a poster. Dammit! Again, to be clear, that's $250. Take a look at a video from Respawn Entertainment tearing apart the "very limited" edition of Titanfall just below; it's available on March 11th in North America, March 13th in Europe.
Xbox One gets gameplay broadcasting in March update (update)
Xbox One owners eagerly awaiting Titanfall should be glad to hear that the Xbox One's gameplay broadcasting functionality will light up ahead of the game's March 11th launch. Included in the second half of the first big Xbox One update is Twitch gameplay broadcasting, enabling users to share gameplay via Twitch.tv (similar functionality already exists in Sony's PlayStation 4). That update is expected just ahead of March 11th (and Twitch functionality is listed as coming directly on March 11th itself). Gameplay broadcasting on Xbox One was one of the tentpole features touted at the console's unveil event last year -- the service was delayed ahead of launch, with Xbox lead Marc Whitten telling us at CES to expect it before gaming's big trade show in June. No real reason is given for the delay; Xbox marketing lead Yusuf Mehdi told the AP that Sony's version of gameplay broadcasting is, "too limiting," and Microsoft wanted to take its time to get it right. It's not clear what that actually means in practice just yet, but rest assured we're asking Microsoft for more info. Update: Microsoft detailed the service a bit more this morning. Twitch on Xbox One has at least one feature unavailable on PlayStation 4: the ability to archive streams right from the console. There's also a video showing the service in action (that we've dropped below the break).
GameStop UK pitches Titanfall Xbox One bundle at £370
GameStop's UK branch is selling the newly announced Titanfall Xbox One bundle at £370 (around $617), some £30 less than the suggested £400 tag ($667). In effect, GameStop is doubling the difference of Microsoft's suggested price drop - the company launched the console at £430 in the UK. GameStop has precedence here; it's also been selling the PS4 at £330, which is £20 less than the system's recommended price in the UK. Other major retailers like Amazon, GAME, Zavvi, and ShopTo are selling the Titanfall bundle at the suggested £400. The Titanfall bundle hits the UK alongside Respawn's shooter on March 14. North America boards the meteor-like mechs a few days earlier on March 11, but the Xbox One price drop remains limited to the sovereign isle, where it'll go into effect on Friday, February 28. [Image: Microsoft]
Twitch Xbox One streaming drops alongside Titanfall next month
Twitch gameplay streaming is coming to the Xbox One next month, according to the Associated Press. The report says the feature, which was available on the PS4 at launch but not on the Xbox One, is scheduled to be patched in when Respawn's Titanfall is released in North America on March 11. According to the AP, Twitch on Xbox One also allow users to archive games streams and initiate streaming broadcasts via voice commands. We've reached out to Microsoft to confirm the details. "It's complete integration," Twitch CEO Emmett Shear told the AP. "It's exciting because we've never had the ability to broadcast from a console like this with such a deep level of integration. The concept of being able to join a broadcasters' party is really cool, and it's another step in the direction of interacting more closely with broadcasters." "That's a very certain type of experience," said Xbox chief marketing and strategy officer Yusuf Medhi of Twitch on PS4. "For us, we thought that was too limiting for what our fans would want. Our fans really want the full next-gen service, so that's why we decided to take our time, do it right and have it come out in this fashion." Yesterday saw Microsoft unveil a new Titanfall bundle for the Xbox One, alongside a UK price drop for the console that brings it down from £430 to £400 (around $716 to $666). [Image: Twitch]
Titanfall beta ropes in 2 million unique players
The Titanfall beta on Xbox One and PC last week attracted 2 million unique players, Respawn Community Manager Abbie Heppe told Polygon. Engineer Jon Shiring said in the same interview that Titanfall is completely reliant on the new Xbox Live Compute platform, Microsoft's cloud and scalability service: "If it's down, nobody can play." Titanfall did go dark for seven hours during the beta, as the team attempted to scale up the game for more players. Shiring called that one "human error." "People need to understand that when you write a whole bunch of new code, there's bugs in it," he said. "We have to find those bugs. That was the goal of the beta. We know it's not going to work right. We don't want to find out on launch day. Let's find out now. We found probably 10 real things that we worked on and fixed. That's 10 things we don't have to find on launch day. We still might find some new things on launch day, but at least those ones are not there anymore." We tried our best to master mech mechanics in the Titanfall beta last week, live and on-air, and our most memorable moments are saved for all eternity in this Joystiq Tiny Stream. [Image: EA]
Xbox One gets its first price drop, now £400 in the UK
The Xbox One hasn't been selling as well as the PlayStation 4 on a global level, and that's partly due to pricing -- in the UK, Microsoft's system costs a lofty £429 ($713) versus Sony's £349 ($580). That gap is about to narrow, though, as Microsoft plans to cut the Xbox's price to a slightly more reasonable £400 ($665) on February 28th. The company isn't leaning solely on that lower price tag to attract gamers, either. It's also releasing a special Titanfall Xbox One bundle (shown here) that includes both a download code for Respawn's shooter and a month of Xbox Live Gold for the same price as the regular console. Americans can expect this limited edition system to ship alongside the game on March 11th, while Brits should get it on March 14th.
Xbox One packs in Titanfall, drops price in UK [Update: Pre-orders open]
Microsoft will bundle Titanfall with Xbox One consoles starting March 11 in the United States. Additionally, the Xbox One's price will drop in the UK from £430 ($716.08) to £399.99 ($666.10). The price drop will go into effect this Friday, February 28. The Titanfall bundle will cost the same amount as the Xbox One system typically does in North America, $499.99, and can be seen on Microsoft's website. Players picking up the bundle next month will receive a download code for Titanfall packed in to the box, as opposed to a boxed, retail copy of the game. The bundle will be available for "a limited time only" at select retailers. Titanfall is the first game from Respawn Entertainment, the developer created by former Call of Duty veterans Jason West and Vince Zampella in April 2010. West left the developer in March 2013 after the duo settled with Activision in its Infinity Ward lawsuits in May 2012. Those looking for more Titanfall action should look no further than the six-person beta massacre our daring Joystiq editors took part in. Update: Players can pre-order the bundle through Amazon and the Microsoft Store. [Image: Microsoft]
