Titanfall: A Player's Review

By Robert, Week of 24th March

I just got Titanfall, on Friday.

Yes, it took bloody ages to ship, but I got it off Amazon for £36.70 shipped to Switzerland from the UK. Good deal.

So after the hype, where does Titanfall stand in the presence of the Big Three, Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield?

Titanfall has a chance. A big one. But the next release needs to cement the feeling of glory and power the first brings to the table, on Xbox One, PC, and soon Xbox 360. I own the Xbox One version, and damn, it's impressive.

 

 

Before we jump into the opinion, let us state the facts. Titanfall is 6v6 with up to 6 Titans and 12 AI on each team. I was initially sceptical about these numbers, but it turns out that 6v6 plays nicely with the current map size. It runs at 1408x792 progressive, which comes out at 1,115,136 pixels being rendered natively, with an upscale to 1920x1080p. The engine puts out 60fps 98% of the time, and when 4+ Titans are exploding or creating Electric Smoke, it can drop quite nastily to what looks like around 20fps. However, this is so rare it is not a problem. The graphics themselves are nice and all textures are on the PC's "Insane".

 

 

 

For comparison, Killzone: Shadowfall's Multiplayer, an exclusive optimised solely for PlayStation 4, runs at 960x1080 (a very bizarre resolution that, unlike 792p, is not 16:9, nor anywhere near it), and according to Guerrilla Games, uses interlaced scanning (progressive's ugly brother) to save bandwidth. It also has a highly variable FPS , averaging 50fps. It is then upscaled to 1920x1080i. Therefore, it is outputting 1,036,000 pixels on interlace, which is 79,136 less pixels using inferior scanning and with an inferior (mostly) framerate. And it is PS4 exclusive.

 

The gameplay of Titanfall is revolutionary. Wall running and double jumps offer a superior movement experience using the full three dimensions of the map that most other FPSs would be hard pressed to keep up with. Titans, as well as loadouts, are excellently balanced from Rank One all through the 50 ranks, and the next 9 generations. Titanfall is initiated, when you have earned enough time credit, or the timer has run out, by pressing the D-Pad. This will drop (or warp) your Titan into battle. Board it, or leave it to activate the (excellent) Auto-Titan AI. When your Titan is severely damaged, eject, and if you enabled Nuclear Ejection, you will cause more than a little trouble among the other team if you were close by.

 

 

 Titanfall's only...well...fall...is the campaign. It is cool and understandable, as well as playable from both sides, but it is very, very short. Not only that, but the actions of the players have no bearing on the story. Win? If you are IMC, you are still going to lose. Lose? If you are Militia, you are still going to win. Multiplayer campaign is a good idea, and all first-person, interactive cutscenes are a bonus, but ultimately it needs work.

 

Verdict: The twitchy but skilful mechanics of Titanfall ask you to perfect the old, and embrace the new. The Titans offer a second, very fun area for experimentation and to be part of a less stealthy, more explosive battle. The campaign lets it down, but to be honest, who was going to buy it for story?

 

Campaign Score: 5.5/10. Don't buy it for story, but it's worth one play through on each side and the missions are fun multiplayer matches.

Multiplayer Score: 9.5/10. Incredible, revolutionary, very few holes.

Graphics: 4/5. Good, shiny, lots of effects. Nothing super incredible like Ryse though.

 

Total Score: 19/25 (13.5/15 for Multiplayer, most of Titanfall).

Microsoft's E3=Games

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of March 17th 2014

2013's Microsoft E3 wasn't even much of a disaster. The hate didn't start until Sony threw mud at MS for forward thinking policies (10-friend sharing much?), and the internet began to turn Sony into some kind of idol. Hell, a few low blows and some rumour/misunderstanding mongering and the hack of a couple years ago (and subsequent hacks), not to mention the lowest quality online, are a distant memory.

Despite some depressing "win and loss" articles last year, MS is back on track to attack this E3, with GAMES GAMES GAMES being a priority. Phil Spencer has let us know we won't be seeing many executives on stage this year, and the 90 minute show is having content cut and moved to fit it all in. Sounds good.

So what are you looking forward to this year? I personally am looking forward to Sunset Overdrive and Quantum Break news, and of course more Halo.

So What is in the April Update?

Xbox One will be having its largest update yet across April, and us previewers have been told what to expect. No external support yet, but here's a full changelist.

What to expect in this update preview

For those of you that participated in last month’s (1403) update preview, this preview wave will be a little different:

• The 1404 update preview will run a bit longer than the 1403 preview. As a result, not all of the features listed below will be available in the first 1404 update. Some features will be enabled in 1404 updates that are rolled out later in the preview.
• Some of the features listed below will be enabled outside of a console update. Keep an eye on the forums for announcements and information on when new features are made available.

What’s new in this release?

• Game and app saves and updates. A game save progress bar will show you the status of your game saves. You will also be able to easily tell what games and apps are being updated or have been updated recently.
• Friends improvements. Notifications will be added to see when favorites and friends sign in to Xbox Live. This actually was one of the most frequently requested features from the first preview wave and we made it a priority to include it in the April update. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list. We’ll also add the ability to view friends’ most popular apps.
• Blu-ray 50 Hz video output support for content recorded at 50 Hz will resolve video playback issues some Xbox Live members in Europe are experiencing.
• Kinect voice and motion improvements will continue to fine tune the quality and reliability of Xbox One commands.
• Improved GameDVR video quality through compression algorithm improvements.
• Updates to Xbox One device management to address issues controlling TVs, set top boxes, and receivers that our customers have reported.
• New audio settings to tune how much volume is lowered when Kinect is used in communications.

So are you excited? You better be. I'll get screenshots when it downloads to my Xbox One. I'm especially excited for better quality DVR with better bitrate. Also, friend notifications will be great, as my first IRL friend got an Xbox One and I want to play Forza and Titanfall with him. :D

In a less immediate comment, I am SO ready for external support in the next next update, as I want it rigged up before I run out of space.

So what are you excited for? Tell me in the comments below!

Watch Dogs is out May 27

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of March 3

Watch Dogs is out on all platforms except Wii U on May 27th. The visuals haven't been downgraded according to Ubisoft and the developer is still looking for parity in visuals and physics. They are also considering The Cloud to help calculate physics and graphics on Xbox One.

The above picture is from the original PS4 demo at E3 2013. Check out the low-res textures. As much as Ubisoft thinks they are controlling next-gen, in reality I think this game will flop. Flop like a fish.

The Biggest Game of 2014 (So Far) is MS Exclusive-Why is that a big deal?

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of March 3

Titanfall is not coming to PS4.

Nor is the extremely highly-anticipated game coming to PS3, Wii U, or indeed any other devices except Xbox One and PC on March 11th/13th/14th, with an Xbox 360 port due on March 24/25th.

But why is this a big deal? According to the Sony Defense Force, the game is "CoD with Mechs". Well it's actually CoD with Mechs, Wall Running, Hackable Opponents, Drop Pods, Frigates, Two opposing armies (The Militia and IMC), Futuristic Weapons, and on top of all of that, Multiplayer Campaigns. Two of them. 

Doesn't sound much like CoD really, does it?

Maybe that's why it's being hailed as the CoD killer, the big FPS of this generation, and is praised for having super-fast gameplay and innovative mechanics while staying true to the FPS formula. And lo and behold, it isn't on PS4.

I mean honestly, what AAA games do PS4 gamers really have to look forward to apart from The Order: 1886 and inFamous?

Nor can PS gamers play the resolution card any more. It was recently announced that Killzone: Shadow Fall's Multiplayer runs at 960x1080p at an average of 50fps. Yep. Sony lied. It ain't 1080p, nor is it 60fps. Hell, it's less than the 792p the Titanfall Xbox One beta ran at, and only just beats out 720p, which is supposedly so hated by PS players.

That means that the PS4 has not a single AAA running 1080p 60fps apart from multiplats. Xbox One currently has Forza running at 1080p 60fps. Hmm.

So let's get back to exclusive FPS'. Killzone's Multiplayer renders a total of 1,036,000 pixels at an extremely variable framerate averaging 50fps. It is upscaled to 1920x1080p.

Titanfall, at its release resolution of 1600x900p, renders 1,400,000 pixels at a solid 60fps. It is upscaled to 1920x1080p. Sucks to be you, SDF. 

But at its heart, Titanfall's gameplay is something we haven't seen for a long time: Innovation in an FPS on console. Sony have, according to "insiders" (take this with a colossal mine of salt), been chasing up Respawn and EA to get Titanfall 2 on PS. Microsoft, meanwhile, have been working to make the entire future portfolio of Titanfall exclusive to Xbox and PC after seeing the hype train go flying towards the cash cow. It's a battle worth fighting.

But why did Titanfall end up MS exclusive?

The SDF has assumed that Microsoft paid off EA, and EA looked only at the $$$ leaving Respawn in the dust. But that is wrong. It is so wrong. So very, very wrong.

When Respawn went looking for places to host their games, they pitched to both Microsoft and Sony. Sony said they would be happy to let Respawn and EA publish on PS for a cut of the profits, which is standard procedure. However, EA/Respawn would have to provide their own servers to do the AI calculation and Multiplayer hosting as Sony's few servers were reserved for First-Party games.

Respawn and EA quickly dropped Sony and concentrated on the MS pitch. Happily for all parties involved, Microsoft offered up their net of 300,000 Azure servers as a scaleable farm to run Titanfall, and all calculations, on. For free.

EA and Respawn jumped at the prospect, and without a payout of any kind agreed exclusivity for the high-quality servers the game would run on. The game would run with minimal lag, do AI calculations and send them down the line to the Xbox, and still release on the premier FPS platforms. It was a win for everybody except Sony, who are currently desperately trying to get Titanfall 2 for PS.

We won't see Titanfall on PS until servers akin to Azure show up there, and even so, I doubt Microsoft will let this one slip through the net. 

So the (so far) biggest FPS of this generation, and (so far) the most hyped game of this generation, will not be showing on PlayStation, and Microsoft has got the kudos for it. Well done Microsoft, you even managed to show up Sony on resolution and framerate on the "inferior" machine, which I am very happy with.

Keep on the straight and narrow, stay in school, be a good biscuit today, and Standby for Titanfall on the 11th (US), 13th (EU), 14th (UK), 24th (360 US), or 25th (360 EU and UK) of March. 

Thief on PS4: Sacrificing everything for 1080p

Perhaps the PS4 is not as powerful as some would like to think. Crappy AA, slow loading and poor quality textures and a pathetic framerate all show up on Thief, and for what?

1080p.

Most people don't even know what 1080p is, yet they are willing to lose all of the far more important aspects of visuals (Anti Aliasing, Good Textures, Good Framerate) for a chunky number.

Don't believe me?

Does Sony have some sort of 1080p mandate on? If so, things are looking smooth for the Xbox One. All the Xbox One suffers from on this game is a 900p resolution (don't worry, it's upscaled) and a slightly dodgy framerate.

What's next on Resolutiongate? 1080p with no effects is better than 900p with the full works and HD textures?

I can see it now.