Banging the Beta

[Arseynimz]

So I watched about an hour of some douche in the US streaming on XBOX One last night. He was pretty good in respect to aim, but tactically horrific. My observations:

• The beta will be two maps. The city one you will have seen (Angel City I think it's called), and a large more open one.
• The takedown of humans is very similar to BF, but the aim and recoil is Call of Duty-esque.
• Mastering the use of the environment is going to be pretty big in this game from what I can see.
• The cap points for Domination which this guy played quite a bit are very open. I see this as a good thing, cos no one likes a ninja capper.
• He played with that annoying voice on, but it didn't seem to annoy as much (or he turned it down) as when I saw it in videos.
• I noticed that when he was on foot, I was looking for human targets, but the minute he was in his or another Titan, your focus turned to other Titans. This will be an interesting dynamic to get around.
• He played very little inside the Titan, so not able to comment on that much.
• Movement on foot is very brisk, and definitely gives the feel of a fast paced game.
• The big question I have is over run and gun, and hip fire - and this will only really be obvious once you have the game on your machine.

[Clin]

Watched TotalBiscuits first impressions video on the weekend and the game seems like it could be a lot of fun. Seems to 'work' fine.

I agree when he says it's a demo as opposed to a beta, but with a few more maps it could be a good buy.



My Thoughts on Titanfall Beta

I still have no idea  how to embed.

[Clin]

oh wait

[Arseynimz]

Here's my thoughts from my casual play time over the last 24 hours.

Disclosure: I played Call of Duty 4 for over 2,500 hours. I played Battlefield 2142 for over 1500 hours (and was top 50 in the world for the gunship, and constant walker whore).

The game is a solid mix of CoD (Modern Warfare a la Infinity Ward versions, not Treyarch versions) and Battlefield. The futuristic scenario is awesome, and the freshness of the whole things is very enjoyable. The expansive nature of the guns, titans, and other features is going to give the game some play time that will make players try different things, and of course all the challenges in that typical MMO fashion will make players who are enjoying the experience play for even longer - this definitely reminds me of Battlefield's badge system (that has been copied all around the place now).

The mechanics of the game are of course the Quake Engine, and quite clearly so. I found it highly amusing that they're using the known wall glitch in the engine to their advantage and thus the wall running plays to that. Double Jumping and the mantle combinations make the whole Parkour system that Battlefield 3 introduced just as good on this game as it is in BF, albeit not as fancy with animations and the likes. The transition from ground troop to Titan control is very off putting at first, especially when you go to jump, and you slide, but overall it does come together nicely when you apply the logic.

The gun fire is a nice combination so far. I have found I can get away with hip fire if I shoot first, and the spread is CoD-like, while the scoped/sighted player will always win out with direct hits in that hip fire vs. sighted 1v1. Gun balance will always be something that needs work, but the smart pistol seems like a good idea, but is very limiting in it's use. Players who take that will always been outclassed long term by decent players - the only real use for it will be for that Assassin type player who lingers cloaked for an excessive period of time and targets up 4 grunts/spectres and you just happen to be amongst that same group accidentally. Speaking of grunts/spectres, they're just an annoyance/side game amongst the firefight and titan smash and crash that is the game.

I've enjoyed the hardpoint (domination) more than the attrition (TDM), and generally it's nice to be in an FPS that I like to play. Latency is an issue though. I'm connecting to US West, and consistently getting 160-190ms times. The net code makes up for some of this, but don't think you'll ever win a 1v1 where you perceive you've seen the guy first or at the same time. Also don't think that you'll be able to follow and take down a moving player. I played a few games before I worked out the issues here, and watching some replays of how I died I see myself shooting, and where I saw I was hitting every time, maybe one or two hit the mark before they turned, and smashed me.

I could say a lot more about it, but the beta feels purely like a demo of the game that tests the server infrastructure, and I always viewed this as the case. I'd really say that it will be good, but can't say it will be PC good. It's a console shooter, and I think it will go a long way if the PC community embraces that this is the future of FPS AAA title development; we're no longer going to see FPS games of old developed by the top developers as they'll all be CoD/BF cookie cutter games with lots of loadout options, lots of challenges, and lots of ways to play the game, but no key modes that grab everyone. Also, ultimately, console players have embraced a monthly sub (albeit for the entire console), and the support will go their way as Respawn have a distribution of the funds that Microsoft distributes for the Gold subscription to then develop for that platform.

Overall, I like it. If they had local server support, I'd love it.

[Speakman]

Will write some more up later tonight, but based on my first three rounds, new pants plz

[Dr. Acula]

Hit the level cap of 14 after only 1.72 hours of gameplay, majority of kills were kicks and neck-breaks. Smart Pistol fucked me off to no end, it's an absolutely skill-less weapon that needs to either be gone completely or nerfed to the point of where it's almost useless. Also, only used a Titan once throughout my time playing as I didn't see much of a use for it apart from the 'cool factor', since I could use my pilot to rodeo other Titans and take them down very quickly.

I agree when he says it's a demo as opposed to a beta, but with a few more maps it could be a good buy.

Completely agree with this statement, would have to see a few more maps before making it a definite purchase.


Edit:

The mechanics of the game are of course the Quake Engine

Thought I might add, the game is actually built using the Source engine.

[Lias]

Initial impression after 30 minutes or so of play.. I like it.. That like will not translate into a purchase at this stage as I feel it's basically unplayable without AU/NZ servers.

[Fredzz]

agree that it needs AU servers at least, fast action games aren't good pinging at around 200. I may like to annoy people but that smart pistol is obviously a dev that cant play to save themselves idea... so lame even I refuse to use it.

[Dr. Acula]

Pretty much, though I found it playable whilst playing on US West servers with over 200ms ping, AU/NZ servers would have to be up before even thinking about a purchase.

[Speakman]

It is definitely playable, it isn't the best but it does work. I've had worse experiences with lag on aussie BF4 servers...


Australasian servers are most definitely the selling point for me though, bring those along and they'll get my money and hundreds of hours of my time

[Lias]

Perhaps I should have said "unwinnable and unenjoyable" rather than unplayable. Yes you can play with 200ms ping, but your going to lose.. Lots.. I can play BF or CS on US servers as well, and it's _possible_ to play.. not to play well, or to consistently win.

Given players of the same skill, the player with the 200ping is going to lose a firefight vs the player with the 30ms ping virtually every time. I find that.. frustrating to the point of making it not worth playing for me.

Ping is king.

[Arseynimz]

I've played it a bit more on a more subjective basis and started to use the ping to change my tactics. I'm finding that if I run the cap points and play Hardpoint as it's meant to be played, I have much greater success on the leaderboards even with my shit ping. I'm getting KDR's of 5-5 or 6-5 or 5-6 typically with this, and a key tactic is using my Titan as the fodder and/or interference to me running around doing other shit.

Perhaps I should have said "unwinnable and unenjoyable" rather than unplayable. Yes you can play with 200ms ping, but your going to lose.. Lots.. I can play BF or CS on US servers as well, and it's _possible_ to play.. not to play well, or to consistently win.

Given players of the same skill, the player with the 200ping is going to lose a firefight vs the player with the 30ms ping virtually every time. I find that.. frustrating to the point of making it not worth playing for me.

Ping is king.

I agree with this absolutely. I can play it, and enjoy playing it, but ultimately I can tell I'm losing 1v1's where I would be quite confident I'd win if we were on an even ping, or moreso some 2v1's where I clearly have better tactics, but am not able to execute them due to the latency.


I'll persist with the whole hope we get something closer to home, but am not confident this will happen before the release time...