Day 3: iReview: TITANFALL

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The Titanfall we received in March, 2014 is not the same Titanfall we play today. Today’s Titanfall is what we should have received many months ago.

Taking a few steps back in time here, Titanfall is Jason West and Vince Zampella’s new baby, developed by their newly formed company Respawn Entertainment after a fall-out with Activision over Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. They had a nasty, public break-up. Look it up.

West and Zampella left / got fired, along with most of the key Infinity Ward staff, and created Respawn Entertainment, decided to make a game in the genre they helped mold, and signed a deal with EA and Microsoft to publish Titanfall, an online only FPS, with humans and mechs.

I am Titan's favourite sidearm.

I am Titan’s favourite sidearm.

Titanfall is, at its most basic, a 6 vs. 6 team based first person shooter.

We play as a Pilot, a free-running foot soldier. We’re equipped with a primary weapon, secondary weapon, and an anti-Titan weapon, along with some other offensive and defensive tools, and perks. We’re also equipped with a jet-pack that allows us to double-jump, wall run and scale walls, all very fluid-like.

As a Pilot, we also have a handy companion in the Titan, an agile mech-style exoskeleton. The Titans are deployed into the battlefield from the sky at the request of their Pilot. The deployment is timer based, and the timer can be reduced through the in-game actions of the Pilot through kills. As the Pilot, we also have the ability to ride on friendly Titans, or jump on the backs of enemy Titans and shoot away at their core components. The Pilot’s class and load-out is fully customizable before the match starts.

The Titans can be AI controlled, either through a “guard” or “follow” command, or they can be player controlled once the Pilot steps inside. Pilots can get out whenever they see fit. It’s all very quick and seamless. When piloting the Titan, however, if the Titan is doomed, the Pilot can eject 100’s of feet in the air to escape the blast, and live to continue the fight. The Titan’s are equipped with an anti-personnel weapon, and anti-Titan weapon, as well as some defensive tools and core power-ups. The Titans are not as fast as their Pilot counterpart, but they’re not sluggish either. There are 3 classes of Titan ranging in size, speed and armour, and their load-out is also fully customizable before the match starts.

The battlefield is also scattered with AI soldiers running around, designed as human player competition and support. En masse, they’re a distraction.

Striving to push the genre forward, Titanfall has a nifty feature in Burn Cards. As a Pilot, we earn these disposable game-changers through unlocked challenged and purchases through the in-game store, which, thankfully, does not support real currency. These Burn Cards can be equipped in 3’s and are used once per life, then they’re gone, hence the name. Some allow for added agility to the Pilot, offensive possibilities for the Titan and Pilot alike, such as modified or boosted weapons, unlimited grenades, and some allow for more defensive perks, like upgraded mini-map, unlimited invisibility, or x-ray vision.

The gameplay itself is very fast paced, and a blast to take part in. With the Pilot’s ability to combine wall-running, gliding along ziplines, scaling walls, and vaulting over obstacles, it’s easy to lose track of the team you were following. Add in the distraction of the AI soldiers with you, or against, and Titans strolling through, it can be a lot to take in. I repeat, it’s very fun.

That being said, going back to my introductory statement – only with the addition of the 3 DLC packs (9 maps) and the newly added Frontier Defence (Co-op Horde mode), is Titanfall feeling like a complete title.

Out of the box we got 15 maps, and 5 game modes. In Attrition, teams compete for the greatest kill count, bots included. Pilot Hunter is similar to Attrition, but only Pilot kills count. Hardpoint Domination is a Capture and Defend objective-based mode. Last Titan Standing has everyone begin the match in a Titan; the team with the last Titan standing wins the round. And Capture the Flag – self explanatory.

The game also has a “campaign”, if you can call it that. There are two factions, Militia and IMC, obviously at odds with each other. In the campaign, we choose a faction and play through a series of maps and gameplay modes. Still online, still 6 vs. 6. The only difference is that each match has a few single-player story elements, such as cinematic sequences, and some narrator dialogue. Some key characters carry over from mission to mission to supplement the story.

Mind, THAT campaign is as it was in March. Now with the DLC out, the campaign is an afterthought. Factions and maps are randomly chosen when you enter the mode.

Just Call of Duty with Mechs

Just Call of Duty with Mechs

Graphically the game holds its own as a first generation Xbox One title. It should be considered as launch title quality, albeit 5 months late. The game is a minor step up on the previous generation’s hardware; however, as it runs at a very quick pace, some forgiveness can be given. Standard game textures, and static lighting are its biggest detractors, along with static maps with no level of destruction. Like the team’s previous Call of Duty games, there’s a lot of artifacts and debris that flies around, but that’s only for aesthetics.

Following the release of the game, I had a lot more complaints that I do not still share today. To be honest, I don’t gravitate towards online multiplayer shooters. I prefer to stay content in the single-player package. This game strove to change me, to drive me out of the comfort zone. And for the most part it succeeded. I very much enjoy the Titanfall package available today with its DLC maps and additional game modes, and co-op element. Today the game feels like a complete package.

I would not consider Titanfall to be the “next big thing” that EA and Microsoft were selling, but it does invigorate the genre. Watching the Titan’s blast from space into the atmosphere and come crashing down to the Earth is, and will remain a thrill every time. The game is fresh and innovative in its parkour elements that recent shooters are only now mimicking.

The game is also exciting and very chaotic at times, especially when multiple Titans converge on one crossroad. The AI soldiers populating the map definitely give the game the feeling that a larger battle is happening, even though the AI themselves will slow you down no more than a bug does a bug-zapper.

Worthy of the praise, but it’s more a step forward, than a leap.

For those who like FPS’s, parkour, jet-packs, and getting stepped on by very large robots.
Also available on the XBox 360 (Ported by different Dev) and the PC.

Notable Achievements:

Death From above (Killed 5 enemies by dropping a Titan on them) – 15G
Look Around (Snapped the necks of 10 Pilots) 10G

Day 2 – iReview – FORZA HORIZONS 2

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Welcome to Horizon Europe!

Returning to the land of open-world driving with Forza Horizons 2, the sequel to Playground Games’ and Turn 10’s 2012 hit, was something I was very much looking forward to, especially since this was the first REAL next-gen racing title on the Xbox One, intentionally omitting Forza Motorsport 5, for those automobile obsessed out there. I’m talking about a “fun” racer.

Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Taking place again during the fictitious “Horizon Festival”, Horizon 2’s game world is located in southern Europe, focusing primarily on France and Italy. The game world itself is about the same size of Forza Horizon 1, but this time the drivable area has been increased three fold. Gone are the invincible fences protecting forests and farm land. Everywhere is accessible, and it’s a blast to drive off the side of the road, plowing through open fields filled with crops, while narrowly escaping huge bales of hay or random tree groupings. The telephone poles are still impenetrable though.

The game sports over 200 licensed vehicles from many different manufacturers, shapes and sizes. Forza 5’s Drivatars are back, as well as the custom tuning and liveries. Horizon’s in-game radio stations return, showcasing a very cool collection of tracks, and have the radio’s DJ come on everyone once in a while and tell us what’s going on in the world, or if it’s raining or not. Thanks, so the sky isn’t falling?

The game fits the same mold laid out in Horizons 1. We start out in the Horizon’s Festival as Mr. Nobody, and have to race to progress, earn money, buy new cars, and race more, until the festival hosts a championship race to name this year’s Horizon Champion. The road trip starts you in one city, and you get to choose the class of car, compete in 4 championship races, and then convoy on to the next locale. 8 destination cities in total, 21 championship events per city, 168 championship events in total. Sounds daunting and it is! That’s almost 700 races. Gracefully after 14 events they host the Horizon Championship, so it’s not actually too bad. You get a lot of added gameplay for the completionists out there, once you’re crowned as the champ.

Scattered about, and unlocked during the game’s progress are specialty events where you get to race against a locomotive, or some jets, or even 100’s of hot air balloons. These events are a nice distraction between driving from city to city, race after race.

Car vs. Cargo Plane

Car vs. Cargo Plane

Notably missing from Horizon 2 is the “Street Race”, the start to finish line – no checkpoint races. Due to the sizable drivable area I’m guessing. But that whole group meeting – lets race! feeling has been replaced with the Car Meets. This brings us to the online portion.

When you start up the game, you’re dropped right away into one of these car meets. This is Horizon’s online lobby. At this point you can either choose to play offline, in your own free-roam campaign, or you can join an online free-roam session or online road-trip session. Private free-roam or road-trip sessions are also supported.

Online free-roam hosts 16 people, where you can drive around, search for collectibles, participate in challenges, or initiate races. Race types include circuits, sprints, drag races, and cross country. Once a race has been started, anyone in the group can join it, and then once the race is done, everyone just gets dropped back into the free-roam world. Multiple events can be taking place at any given time.

Online road-trip is a little bit more structured, and follows the same path as the offline campaign. Again, supporting 16 people, everyone drives to a destination city, participates in 4 solo or team races or multiplayer events including King and Infected. The group then votes on the next city. Drive there, repeat.

Built on the already pretty Forza Motorsport 5 engine, the game is tuned down to a competent simulation/arcade racer, while keeping the gorgeous visuals, keeping the licensed vehicles, but throwing away the licensed tracks. Forza Horizon 2 is a racing paradise. Extra praise has to be given to the game’s dynamic weather system and day/night lighting. Playing in rain, at night, in the driver seat camera view is a thrill.

All commendations aside, I did have a few, very minor issues with the game. Firstly, and most prominent issues involve the car physics. Now, given the fact that this game is open-world, and potentially extremely off-road, the vehicle physics are brilliant when on the road or off-road depending on your car. But if you happen to hit a ditch or bump, and find your car rolling, it becomes very floaty, as if the car didn’t weigh more that its lovely paint job. This can be very frustrating at times while racing online, without the rewind feature or vehicle reset option.

Second gripe, barely worth mentioning, is that you have to go back to the Horizons hub to change your car at the garage. Minor, but annoying at times.

For gamers who like the perfect blend of Simulation/Arcade racing.

Notable Achievements:

All Your Race Are Belong To Us 2.0 (Complete all 168 Championships) 50G
Super Meet Boy (Grab a livery, tuning setup, buy a car, and enter a Showdown at any Car Meet) 10G

Day 1 – iReview: Batman Arkham Origins

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After deciding to review 12 games before Christmas, I started listing off the games I actually played this year, and then narrowing it down to 12 worth mentioning. Do I start off with a negative review or a positive review? How do I pace these out.

Sooner or later I decided on Batman: Arkham Origins, which actually came out last year, but it’s the freshest game on my mind, as I’ve just wrapped it up. Plus it’s Christmas themed, coincidentally.

You should've known trying to kill me was a waste of your time.

You should’ve known trying to kill me was a waste of your time.

Batman Arkham Origin is a unique beast of a game. It’s part of a very successful and well-reviewed Arkham universe but it’s also more of an origin story. Warner Bros has a lot of expectations riding on this title. Warner Bros is the publisher and they handed the reins to their internal team while Rocksteady is hard at work on their next gen Batman sequel. Origin is built off what Rocksteady had already established, and using the engine and gameplay that’s already been perfected.

The story is Christmas Eve, Batman intervenes during a jailbreak led by Black Mask and we learn that Black Mask has hired a group of 8 assassins to compete for a $50 million bounty. That bounty is Batman’s head. Killer Croc is our first assassin, who actually spills the beans.

Continuing along the Black Mask trail, next up is Deathstroke and Electrocutioner.

As we start investigating more into Black Mask, it turns out to be Joker, who has captured Black Mask and assumed his identity and initiated this bounty. We’re introduced to and quickly dispose of Copperhead.

At this point the Joker is getting quite upset with his useless assassins, kills Electrocutioner and disbands the rest. Save for Bane. Knowing Batman will track down Joker in the near future, he decides to wait patiently.

The remaining assassins take it upon themselves to wreak havoc around the city. Firefly trying to blow up the bridge is really the only one of note. Shiva and Deadshot and Anarchy relegated to side missions and quests.

In the finale, we fight Bane. At this point we discover Joker’s devious plan. Bane is wired up to heart monitors, and Joker is sitting in an electric chair. Either we choose to kill Bane, or let him work on us enough that his heart rate monitor activates the electric chair, killing Joker. Will Batman make the sacrifice and kill someone?

The gameplay is identical to the previous games, the Batclaw and Batarang, all the Bat-tools return. The combat is near identical as well, if but a little dumbed down for the counter attacks, and limiting in the animations. I seem to recall the ability to counter gun wielding and shield wielding enemies in awesome ways, in Arkham City.

The grappling hook traversal also seems more constrained this time around, with less attainable buildings and fewer objects to swing to. Otherwise the city is very pretty, less dense, and the Christmas Eve theme is very pleasant, with the music and snowfall.

Technically the game is sound. The city’s vistas are stark and gloomy, in all the way’s Gotham is known for. Batman wears a very similar suit, with some additional padding. His suit does have an origin feel, bulkier, probably more cumbersome. But does it protect us against dogs?

Graphically the game is very good looking, utilizing the Unreal 3 engine to its full potential, on aging hardware. Again, it feels like Rocksteady handed over all the assets from Arkham City and told the team at Warner Bros to just add some polish and snow. Now into their 3rd generation, the Arkham titles have continued to outdo their predecessors. That being said, in my case, I was constantly on the look-out for Riddler (Enigma this time around) packages, and upcoming brawlers, so the majority of the game gets viewed through the detective vision, which is a shame. I am appreciative that certain sequences force you out of the detective view so that the game world can be appreciated.

I did come across a few clipping issues, and holes in the game world. I walked through a door at one point, three-quarters through the campaign. When crossing the threshold, the floor didn’t load and I fell through into the abyss. Normally not a huge issue, but in this case, it also instigated a checkpoint save. Attempting a restart from the last save point would spawn me under the world, only to fall endlessly or float around. Not to be deterred, I continually kept trying to reload the save, restart my Xbox, etcetera, until finally after about 10 minutes of futility, all of a sudden everything worked fine. Crisis averted.

I came upon a 2nd instance as well, in the final battle with Bane. He punched me clear across the room, clipping through the wall and game world, to find myself in the darkness once again. Good thing Batman prefers the night.

Granted, the feat itself was impressive and I applauded Bane, but I feared another checkpoint glitch happening, potentially ruining any chance of actually completing the campaign. Luckily my fears were unwarranted and I was able to continue the fight as normal.

Clipping aside, my only real complaint about the game was the story itself. It had its highs with the relationships between Batman and Alfred, where we see Batman’s eagerness to fix Gotham’s problems, his willingness to sacrifice everything, and Alfred’s hesitation and concerns for Bruce Wayne. He’d plead throughout the night for Bruce to come home, and let the GCPD do its job. Additionally, the conflicting relationship between Gotham’s Dark Knight and Captain James Gordon is unique to the series. It shows Gordon’s fears and lack of trust in this unwanted hero in his city.

The lows were in the whole assassins’ concept. Touted as this one long night where Batman would have 8 master assassins all fighting for a 50 million bounty and the seemingly impossible task of Batman surviving this evening soon becomes a non-issue. Luckily each boss fight in itself was unique, and a blast to play. Nevertheless, what is supposed to be 8 assassins turn out to be 5 during the campaign: Croc, Deathstroke, Copperhead, Firefly, and Bane. Electrocutioner is a non-fight, and the other baddies, Shiva, and Deadshot are relegated to side quests, along with some other additions, in Anarchy, Penguin, and Mad-Hatter.

It's not what I'm doing... It's what I've done.

It’s not what I’m doing… It’s what I’ve done.

For a lofty concept of 8 assassins vying for one prize, I was hoping for a little more anarchy in the city. More spontaneous clashes! Or even some team work among the assassins or internal conflict. Instead, other than the initial fight with Croc, Batman is actually the one tracking down the assassins. Comparatively, the epic trailer showcasing Batman and Deathstroke’s fight only lead to in-game disappointment when the advertised battle couldn’t match expectation. It was early in the campaign, and wasn’t even multi-tiered.

Overall, the game is a nice addition to the Arkham series, provided that it’s a placeholder while you wait for Rocksteady to complete the trilogy they started. The addition of more investigative case files, and playing Detective Batman was fun, but the disappointing realization that The Joker is, again, instigator of all headaches, was disheartening.

For gamers who like Batman, bats, fluid combat combos, and more Batman.

Also, unmentioned was the multiplayer element. This was intentional. I didn’t try it.

Notable Achievements:

Point Counter-Point (Defeat Deathstroke without failing a single counter) 10G
Thanks, old friend (Hear everything Alfred has to say) 10G

Let’s Blog it Out

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To get something out of the way, I always buy games new, but I typically don’t play them new, or get around to them new, unless this is dictated by another party, ie: multiplayer game or co-op game that my friend and I purchased together. An example of this is Destiny, or Halo Master Chief Collection. Otherwise it sits on my shelf, sometimes for months, before I ever get around to playing it. It’s a huge fault of mine, but it’s because I play a lot, A LOT, of games, and I don’t have the time to get to all of them, complete them, in the timeliest of fashions.

Most egregious of these is probably the AAA titles that really should be played around the same time everyone else is playing and talking about them; to avoid spoilers mainly. Lately I don’t feel so bad, as a number of recent games have been suffering from bugs and network issues, rendering some nearly unplayable. Currently sitting on my shelf, unopened, on the 360: SplinterCell Blacklist, on the Xbox One: The Evil Within, Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Lord of the Rings – Shadow of Mordor, and Dead Rising 3. And that’s just AAA titles.

Anyways, for the month of December I’ll be visiting the games I’ve played this year, these not necessarily games that actually came out this year, as some came out last year, and I’m just catching up. 12 key games to be specific, I’ll throw in a couple notable mentions, and touch on the games I’ll be getting to next year. Again, I procrastinate, so these are late reviews, probably after the game itself has lost most of it’s appeal.

Stick around!
AR