Beta Impressions

[wittyscorpion]

Played the game for 2 hours, really enjoyed it.

Instead of echoing other bros' praises, maybe we can discuss a little bit of what we would like to see in the final game:

1) maps: people already found 14 maps in the beta file ( www.craveonline.com/gaming/articles/646829-14-maps-found-in-titanfall-beta-files ). Titanfall official twitter also stated that there will both smaller and larger maps compared to Fractured (

)
2) more weapon variety (weapon classes and weapon choices within a weapon class). In burn cards there is an "amped" LMG, so maybe will be a LMG weapon class?
3) game modes. I for one would like to see an AI free and/or Titan free game mode

[wittyscorpion]

BTW, if you are wondering when the beta would end, here is the latest info from twitter:

It was initially scheduled to run until the 18th. However it'll be extended. Stay tuned for more: bit.ly/1j14cbM

So expect at least until 19th Wednesday.

Regarding PC open beta: looks like they are really trying to make it happen. Meanwhile PC beta codes are still being emailed out.

[sirknumskull]

I haven't received my PC code yet. Thanks to my brother I was still able to play for a couple of hours on his Origin account.

My impression so far is very good, but I'm not totally sold on the idea that this is going to be the next big thing.

I prefer the pilot vs pilot combat much more than the Titan stuff, but if you want to score big it's much harder without jumping into your Titan. In my opinion the time and effort it takes to get a Titan out should be increased, after two minutes it turns into a mechfest. The scoring in Attrition would also benefit from a rebalance. A Titan is 5 points, a Pilot is 4 and an AI is 1. Farming AI with the Smart Pistol and then smashing them with your Titan is just too easy and much less effort then engaging in mech vs mech combat. The execution move is useless. A jump kick is much faster and yields the same reward.

I hope they keep the BS to a minimum in the final product. So far it seems balanced, the Nuclear Ejection comes with a warning, the Smart Pistol takes ages to lock onto pilots, sniping isn't easy mode because you have to hit fast moving targets. But it's the design team that brought us Frags x3, Deathstreaks and Commando - caution is advised.

Things that work very well without tweaking are movement and graphics. The movement is spot on, you can do amazing things if you put in some effort but you don't have to take classes to learn how to use that movement system. That's nice. The graphics might not be able to compete with the most advanced engines of today but I totally don't care because the art style is so well implemented throughout the game that I can easily overlook a lower poly count or the lack of destructive environments.

Overall: 9/10 would bang. Err, would buy. Actually did.

[Usagi]

Feb 16, 2014 10:59:03 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

As I mentioned above, Beta is now completely open for XBox One so code is no longer needed: majornelson.com/2014/02/15/xbox-one-titanfall-beta-opening-up-to-everyone/

PC beta could be opened up too, "possibly":

Good. I thought it was weird that they wanted to stress test their servers without letting everyone who is interested join.

[LeGitBeeSting]

The shotgun is dope, the rocket shotgun however is not.

[wittyscorpion]

Played this game for an entire day. Although this is beta and we've only seen a small fraction of what's in the final game, I still feel that it's safe to conclude the following:

1) This game is definitely going to be a hit among current and especially former CoD players. It offers something fresh, and yet familiar enough, to players who want an take a break (either brief or extended) from CoD;
2) This game is not going to be a CoD killer. For audience mentioned in 1), most of them still prefer to fight against human players on an equal footing. AIs as well as Titans just do not provide as much fun in comparison;

One thing that this game has greater potential over CoD is in the strategic and teamwork related aspects. This can't be seen in the beta because everybody is busy slaying, but could be offering much richer replay value. Imagine two organized teams face off with each other and are trying to win, players' focus could be shifting to the following areas:

1) teammates need to work together to establish and maintain battlefield dominance;
2) set up pilot/Titan formation that can cover each other's weaknesses;
3) call out priority targets and have everybody attack the same one at the same time;
4) different teammates pick different loadouts and burn cards to complement each other;

etc.

However, whether players will be able to work together and unleash this extra layer of fun besides just run and gun will remain to be seen. It's very difficult for a team of randoms to do this.

[pupilofcod]

I'm enjoying the beta but it was weird to have level gated unlocks after playing ghosts. Until I unlocked pilot and titan customization I was mostly food for early testers already at the level cap. And yeah they may need to balance the magic/Pokemon cards "burn cards"...starting the match with 1 or 2 spawn a titan cards....or even the 80 second discount on titanfall is a big advantage. Love the rodeo maneuver though to mount and destroy titans with the pilot...brings back shadow of the colossus memories. Oh and prosthetic legs card, plus stim, plus battery boost...may be some of the fastest player movement in the game.

[Pegasus Actual]

Feb 16, 2014 23:48:01 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Played this game for an entire day. Although this is beta and we've only seen a small fraction of what's in the final game, I still feel that it's safe to conclude the following:

1) This game is definitely going to be a hit among current and especially former CoD players. It offers something fresh, and yet familiar enough, to players who want an take a break (either brief or extended) from CoD;
2) This game is not going to be a CoD killer. For audience mentioned in 1), most of them still prefer to fight against human players on an equal footing. AIs as well as Titans just do not provide as much fun in comparison;

I don't know, the AI grunts help solve one of COD's major problems. The corner camper. If you're not moving around hunting targets you're going to lose. I think the freshness of the Titan battles outweighs any inherent need for dudebros to need 'equal footing'. So maybe some campers with their ultra-tactical realistic playstyle won't dig Titanfall. I think the bigger issue is the huge chunk of the base where COD is at least in part "gun porn" and Military Channel shit in general. I imagine the sci-fi angle will rub some people the wrong way.

Still, it's hard to see why anyone would want to go back to COD after trying Titanfall. It takes most of the stuff that makes COD fun, and deleted most of the stuff that makes COD frustrating. Back when IW imploded, Respawn formed and COD went into full shambling corpse mode I figured whatever they did would have a very good shot at being the new lead dog in the FPS world. After playing the beta nothing really makes me doubt that. COD sales are on the downswing and this is the perfect game to help that along. Whatever COD gets released alongside a multi-plat Titanfall 2 is going to get crushed.

[wittyscorpion]

For players who are already tired of CoD, definitely.

However, there are still lots of people out there enjoying CoD. During typical peak time (weekend nights, weekend, etc), I can see 200K plus active players on XBox 360 playing it, all the time. I imagine the total number across all platforms will be around 500K+. These players are not likely to completely abandon CoD. Switch back and forth would be more fun.

It is also going to take a long time (if at all) for Titanfall to have yearly releases. By the time the next CoD is out, many players will be a bit tired of the current Titanfall and want something new.

What we do have here is a good competition. This will compel both titles to make faster and braver innovations.

[Aphoristic]

EA is in this odd spot where Titanfall is realistically more of a threat to Battlefield than CoD. Titanfall is not going to dethrone CoD or even take away a noticeable chunk of the player base. The vast majority of the people playing CoD only play it casually as one of a few games they buy in a year. They do not know that Titanfall even exists.

Battlefield on the other hand is not the everybody's shooter. The majority of people playing it are ones that do know about Titanfall. These people risk leaving Battlefield, and there will definitely be an impact to the player base.

Now, does it matter? Well if the game is good and catches on with the hardcore gamers then yes. Eventually we could see it whored out into another CoD, and only then it would finally spread to the casuals. If it just does okay, we are looking at another Battlefield series. It will still be there like how Battlefield currently is just there. And if it does bad, then it will be forgotten as fast as Brink.

---

Enough of that, now what do I think of the game. Well, someone has been playing League and/or DOTA. Adding the minions that act basically like minion waves in League is really awesome. They pose no threat to you 99% of the time, and that's exactly how it is supposed to be. I can absolutely see this idea being taken by a future CoD title. In fact, I will say that there is absolutely 0 chance that it will not be in Treyarch's next title. Maybe even in Sledgehammers if they can get it squeezed in before the release this year (but I doubt that a bit more).

Titans are okay. I really am not liking the weapons they have, but hopefully I'll like one in the full game. They are all a bit underwhelming. The best is by far the 40mm one. The rocket thing is trash, and the machine gun needs to reload a bit too often for my liking.

Last thing, the auto pistol is awesome. I cannot wait for everyone to rage about dying to a stupid lock on gun.

[torrero]

Has anyone leveled up the autopistol enough to unlock the upgraded aiming function/attachment (forgot what the actual name is)? I am pretty close to getting it unlocked, but wont have it until this afternoon. Im curious to see how much of a difference it makes. If not, I will post my thoughts of it once I have it later today.

[Pegasus Actual]

^I think it still more or less sucks. Didn't really notice the faster lock. I'm sure it is faster but still painfully slow compared to just aiming. I think the autoaim are shrinks horizontally so it ends up being more of a square shape overall.

[sirknumskull]

I have all the unlocks. Enhanced Targeting is not really useful, unless you have major problems aiming at stationary targets. The Smart Pistol is excellent at hunting minions, but every other primary weapon is better at killing pilots. Pilots get away far too easy, unless you get an elevation advantage and they are in a somewhat open area. The range is surprisingly good.

[torrero]

Yeah, after using it for 2 rounds I ended up dropping it. I have found myself most effective overall with the AR using the E-Mags and the Holo sight (the middle level zoom one). I find this is be a good all purpose do anything combo.

The smg is definitely usable, I tried with the rapid fire and it worked great inside buildings, but given all the long sightlines and open space, I found myself having to give up on taking shots that I just couldnt make, and ended up dying at times trying to close distance.

[torrero]

Sorry for the double post - but I also was able to call in a stryder titan and I thought you guys would be interested to hear....

Basically they are sfragile, definitely made for flanking or taking pot-shots at pilots. You do not want to be caught in a head to head fight, especially in the Angel city streets with little room to move.

It does seem faster, and comes with 3 boosts standard instead of the 2 on the atlas. I did manage to build up to the core ability, and activating it gives you unlimited boosts for a period (same amount of time as the damage core I would guess). If you just smash on A button, you basically boost nonstop whereever you want to go, Could be very helpful to get yourself out of trouble, or if in an open space and you were skilled i guess you could boost circles around other titans.

Loadout seemed the same from what I could tell, same weapons I had equipped for my Atlas Titan, same vortex shield and rocket launcher and 40mm.

[wittyscorpion]

Regarding Titan primary weapons, I like all of them:

1) Chain gun is great for killing pilots (and AIs, but they can be easily trampled so why bother). For attachments I really love the accelerator. With it, the weapon fires very slowly at first and accelerate to much faster rate over time. This is great because it does both of the following well:

a) against pilots: even with the slow rate of fire this is still very easy, and you can conserve ammo;
b) against titans: the much faster fire rate at the later stage makes the weapon a lot more effective. Also, surprisingly the weapon does not need to get reloaded too frequently as I originally feared.

2) 40mm cannon is fun to use due to its powerful "sniping" feel. It's very satisfying (although not as easy as the chain gun) to snipe a pilot out of the rooftop, and it's more powerful when fighting against titans. Attachment wise I like the burst fire, making killing pilots easier.

3) quad rocket is the best option for fighting against titans. It's most useful in the "last titan standing" game mode, or when you are at the stage of the game when killing enemy titans is your top priority.

[sirknumskull]

I just found out that the Smart Pistol with enhanced targeting can aquire six locks, making it possible to kill two pilots with a single trigger pull.

Like this:


Won't be useful that often, but it's possible.

[Pegasus Actual]

Feb 18, 2014 17:58:50 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Regarding Titan primary weapons, I like all of them:

1) Chain gun is great for killing pilots (and AIs, but they can be easily trampled so why bother). For attachments I really love the accelerator. With it, the weapon fires very slowly at first and accelerate to much faster rate over time. This is great because it does both of the following well:

a) against pilots: even with the slow rate of fire this is still very easy, and you can conserve ammo;
b) against titans: the much faster fire rate at the later stage makes the weapon a lot more effective. Also, surprisingly the weapon does not need to get reloaded too frequently as I originally feared.

2) 40mm cannon is fun to use due to its powerful "sniping" feel. It's very satisfying (although not as easy as the chain gun) to snipe a pilot out of the rooftop, and it's more powerful when fighting against titans. Attachment wise I like the burst fire, making killing pilots easier.

3) quad rocket is the best option for fighting against titans. It's most useful in the "last titan standing" game mode, or when you are at the stage of the game when killing enemy titans is your top priority.

I pretty much agree with all of this. Quad rocket is definitely a Titan smasher. I wasn't digging the rapid fire mode. I've been going with extended mags on it even though it's only +1. Put 5 rounds of quad rockets plus the rocket salvo into a titan at close range and gg. You just got to remember not to ADS or you get the ridiculously useless slow travel rocket mode. Not sure what good that is. Neither mode seems very useful for dealing with pilots though.

I've been using chaingun extended a lot as well and really like it. I had the accelerator going for a while and seemed like I was dealing with too many players that were disengaging making it less useful than it could be. Extended mags is +30 on top of the 60 which can keep you shooting a long time. It's easy to keep chaingun on target while dodging the more powerful weapons with well timed dashes. I'm finding it to be my go-to weapon on Xbox at least since the 40mm cannon requires just a bit more precision to be useful against pilots than I can muster out of a gamepad. Plus it's much better for dealing with pilots that are peeking over roofs. And since you can put rounds on target at pretty much any distance it seems like I last long enough to get the all-important damage core much more frequently.

[wittyscorpion]

Regarding the configuration for Sprint (never, delayed, always): I experimented with this setting on XBox One but it does not seem to work for me. I still have to push left stick forward all the time when I want to sprint.

Any other bros have the same issue? Or maybe I misunderstood how it is supposed to work?

[n1gh7]

Feb 19, 2014 16:23:31 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Regarding the configuration for Sprint (never, delayed, always): I experimented with this setting on XBox One but it does not seem to work for me. O still have to push left stick forward all the time when I want to sprint.

Any other bros have the same issue? Or maybe I misunderstood how it is supposed to work?

Yeah the auto sprint makes you sprint when you are moving forward. So if you aren't moving... then you don't sprint.

[qupie]

You guys realise the accelerator on the chain gun increased the ammo with 150%? I was shocked when I noticed. Even if your chaingun is only up to normal speed after firing 30 bullets or so, you still have 120 rounds to go! Once I realized I never dropped it again, and it served me well. On the bigger map the 40mm did also very good. Did not really like the Quad rockets, to easy to counter with the vortex, and I miss allot with them because of slow projectile speed.

What did you guys think about slaved warheads vs rockets? I used slaved warheads allot, because they warned me when my ordanance was ready to go again.

I played on PC (don't own an ONE) but I sucked! yesterday I finally started doing okay and going positive most of the time. I am normally a console player. What I noticed is that non titan firefights in this game are extremely hard! because everybody moves around all the time. Did you guys find the same thing? even when playing on the platform of your preference? I guess what I want to know is, did I just suck very hard on PC, or did you guys also have problems with the pilot-pilot firefights? because of all the movement.

I like what they did with the AI. It sure makes the game more interesting. (assuming equal skill level of both teams:)
COD TMD --> if one team hides in a corner in the back of the map, the other team will have to go and get them (or in pubs, get shot in the back while walking by). And they will never recover from that lost point, because the other team will keep on hiding/tactical loitering. IF you have ever seen MW2 gamebattles on that big grassy sniper map, you will know what I mean.
Titanfall TDM --> your teams IA will be obliterated if you camp in the back. You cannot unsure that the enemy team scores no points, as you can't control the IA. Sure it will still be a boring game, but not as boring as COD TDM can be when both teams really want to win. You still have to defend the 'objective' sort of (the IA's)
I think that is a very good thing! Don't get me wrong, I still like COD. But the fact is that defensive teams in TDM were often hard to counter. And Titanfall could have found a solution for that problem.

[wittyscorpion]

Chain gun with accelerator does give me a feel of seemingly "bottomless" mag size. I rarely had a need to reload during a gunfight.

As I said above, IMHO Quad Rocket is best used in Titan vs. Titan fight. I only played 2 "Last Titan Standing" games, and I ended up as MVP with 8 Titan kills in the 2nd game by using Quad Rocket + Slaved Warheads combo.

Regarding fighting pilots: I am a mediocre CoD player on console (Ghosts KD = 1.37) and I did not find Titanfall harder. My "vs. players" KD stats at the end of beta is 1.7, whatever that means. My best game is 10 pilot kills, 0 death, the only game that I managed to get double digit pilot kills. My typical "did very well" game is like 7 - 8 pilot kills, <= 2 deaths. My typical "did very badly" game is like <= 3 pilot kills, ~ 6 deaths.

AIs do have their pros and cons. In general, it is an interesting experiment into the FPS formula. We will see how well it goes after the full launch.

My biggest issue so far is the low encounter rate with (non-Titan) human players, due to large map size, AIs, and pilots in Titans half of the game. I feel that I would enjoy the game a lot more if the encounter rate can be significantly higher. However, since I am planning to switch back and forth between Titanfall and CoD, this is not a huge deal.

[qupie]

Feb 20, 2014 16:20:17 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Regarding fighting pilots: I am a mediocre CoD player on console (Ghosts KD = 1.37) and I did not find Titanfall harder. My "vs. players" KD stats at the end of beta is 1.7, whatever that means. My best game is 10 pilot kills, 0 death, the only game that I managed to get double digit pilot kills. My typical "did very well" game is like 7 - 8 pilot kills, <= 2 deaths. My typical "did very badly" game is like <= 3 pilot kills, ~ 6 deaths.

Good to hear! My vs pilot KD was 0.25 while I have a 3+ KD in ghosts... So I guess it is fair to blame the mouse (no, not you mousy) and keyboard One clip in my SMG/AR was almost never enough to kill a pilot, oh I sucked...

I played 10 hours of the beta, and my best game was 5 pilot kills, 3 titan kills and 2 deaths, but I still had fun all the time! I think that states how fun titanfall is!
What I also like is that not everything needs a counter, you just get something else usefull! COD is to much about the counters these days IMO (blast shield counters explosives, etc etc). While in titanfall you get Stim instead of cammo, very different, not a counter, but also a way to balance stuff. I sure hope not everything gets a counter in this game.

Looking forward to getting it on 360. I am afraid most of my friends will buy a ps4 instead of a Xbone, so I hope the next itteration will be on both consoles! Any idea how I could convince my friends to get a xboner?
Biggest arguments are the 100 euro and the fact that XBOX is only available end this year in the Netherlands. And I would not mind buying a PS4, if it will have Titanfall in the future! Oh I hope so...

[sirknumskull]

The encounter rate would be much higher if it wasn't so easy and quick to get your Titan. It would make the game much more enjoyable.

I found it fairly easy to hit pilots even while they were doing the parkour stuff, because their movement is usually predictable to a certain degree, very few people utilize strafing or other changes of direction in mid-air. I'm also a Q3A veteran and play WarSow from time to time, so I'm used to people zipping through the air. As a result my KDR vs. pilots in the Titanfall Beta was more than double my Ghosts KDR.

[Usagi]

Feb 21, 2014 5:37:33 GMT -5 qupie said:

Feb 20, 2014 16:20:17 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Regarding fighting pilots: I am a mediocre CoD player on console (Ghosts KD = 1.37) and I did not find Titanfall harder. My "vs. players" KD stats at the end of beta is 1.7, whatever that means. My best game is 10 pilot kills, 0 death, the only game that I managed to get double digit pilot kills. My typical "did very well" game is like 7 - 8 pilot kills, <= 2 deaths. My typical "did very badly" game is like <= 3 pilot kills, ~ 6 deaths.

Good to hear! My vs pilot KD was 0.25 while I have a 3+ KD in ghosts... So I guess it is fair to blame the mouse (no, not you mousy) and keyboard One clip in my SMG/AR was almost never enough to kill a pilot, oh I sucked...

I played 10 hours of the beta, and my best game was 5 pilot kills, 3 titan kills and 2 deaths, but I still had fun all the time! I think that states how fun titanfall is!
What I also like is that not everything needs a counter, you just get something else usefull! COD is to much about the counters these days IMO (blast shield counters explosives, etc etc). While in titanfall you get Stim instead of cammo, very different, not a counter, but also a way to balance stuff. I sure hope not everything gets a counter in this game.

Looking forward to getting it on 360. I am afraid most of my friends will buy a ps4 instead of a Xbone, so I hope the next itteration will be on both consoles! Any idea how I could convince my friends to get a xboner?
Biggest arguments are the 100 euro and the fact that XBOX is only available end this year in the Netherlands. And I would not mind buying a PS4, if it will have Titanfall in the future! Oh I hope so...

My CoD K/D is ass but by the end of the Titanfall beta i had almost a 2 vs. pilots and 5+ vs. all the things.

[qupie]

I think the low encounter rate can actually be one of the strenghts of the game! As even lousy players (like me on PC) don't feel obliterated. It is fun to play it while sucking. I think that cannot be said about COD.
For players like us it might be good to have higher encounter rates, but for the overall player base, I think it is a smart move! As an influx of new players is always good for a game. They are having fun killing grunts and still earning their titan, while the better players have more fun in stomping the new players. Everybody wins. I know farming noobs is not the definition of fun for some people, but I think for the major part of the (COD/FPS) community it actually is. And that is where the sales come from! not those 0.01% of players who actually want to be challenged by the opponents

[wittyscorpion]

Feb 27, 2014 5:00:38 GMT -5 qupie said:

I think the low encounter rate can actually be one of the strenghts of the game! As even lousy players (like me on PC) don't feel obliterated. It is fun to play it while sucking. I think that cannot be said about COD.
For players like us it might be good to have higher encounter rates, but for the overall player base, I think it is a smart move! As an influx of new players is always good for a game. They are having fun killing grunts and still earning their titan, while the better players have more fun in stomping the new players. Everybody wins. I know farming noobs is not the definition of fun for some people, but I think for the major part of the (COD/FPS) community it actually is. And that is where the sales come from! not those 0.01% of players who actually want to be challenged by the opponents

From game design point of view, the move of adding AI (and the "smart pistol") does have great appeal to new FPS MP players who feel that CoD style shooters are too unforgiven. I have no doubt that this will attract more "casual" players into the genre. Furthermore, they are encouraged to move around actively to get into encounters, so camping is not going to be much of a problem (except for Hardpoint, which I guess can be quite campy).

Another good thing from this is that the spawn in Titanfall is very good. Newly spawned players won't need to worry about getting spawn killed, and people who are going around the map finding other pilots can use AI red dots as compass.

However, on the negative side: for veteran CoD players (of all skill levels) the encounters with AIs are very unfulfilling. 1) killing AIs does not feel very complishing, and 2) to make things worse, the AIs in Titanfall are too dumb to offer any fun. Personally speaking, I don't mind having AIs in the mix if they are interesting like Grunts in Halo . The AIs in Titanfall on the other hand are merely serving the purpose of filling spaces.

[givemelight]

After watching some of the gameplay, I am looking forward to picking up Titanfall for X360 when released. The parkour type wall-running aspects look like fun, along with being able to change direction mid-jump with the jump-jets.