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Titanfall So Who In For Trying A New Game?

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Official Vid

 

Titanfall is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published byElectronic Arts as an exclusive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game was officially announced as Respawn's debut game at Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference, and is scheduled for release on March 11, 2014.

In Titanfall, players fight in online multiplayer-only matches set on a war-torn planet as mech-style Titans and their pilots. Its action is fast-paced, including abilities to run on walls and hijack mechs, and extended periods between player deaths. Respawn describes the game as bringing "scale, verticality, and story" to first-person shooter multiplayer gaming, incorporating elements traditionally used in single-player campaigns. The game uses Microsoft's cloud computing services to offload non-player activity to servers and optimize the home computer for graphical performance.

The game won over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards, and Best of Show from several media outlets. It also won official awards at Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show. Many reviewers predicted Titanfall to be the next step for the first-person shooter genre, and IGN's Ryan McCaffrey declared the game "Microsoft's killer app".

 

Gameplay

 

220px-TF_Lagoon_Pilot_Titan.jpg

 

Players fight either on foot as free-running "pilots" or inside agile mech-style walkers called "Titans" to complete team-based objectives[2][3] on a derelict and war-torn planet[4] as either the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) or the Militia.[5] The game is online multiplayer-only, but injects single-player elements such as plot, character chatter, andnon-player characters into its matches.[6] Bit-tech reported the game to have 15 maps, 33 weapons, and splitscreensupport for the online multiplayer, though the developer had previously denied the latter.[7] Respawn founder Vince Zampella described the game as bringing "scale, verticality, and story" to first-person shooter multiplayer gaming.[8]

Up to twelve human players[9] choose their pilot types and are dropped on the map, beginning the game.[10] A timer displays the time until a Titan can be deployed, which is reduced by killing other players.[10] Once deployed, Titans are protected by a forcefield for about 30 seconds, which protects the player-pilot as well.[10] Pilots are agile and accumulate momentum while running (similar to Tribes), which lets players run on walls and chain together double jumps.[8] There are multiple types of Titans, each with unique abilities and animations.[8] Pilot and Titan controls are identical except where the pilot's double jump becomes the Titan's dash,[8] as Titans cannot jump, crouch, or cover.[10] The mechs are not slow, but their movement is slower than the nimble pilots.[10] Titan game-balancing abilities include the vortex blocker, which stops and returns enemy ammunition in midair, and electrified smoke, which hurts and repels pilots climbing the Titan's back.[8] Pilot abilities include the Smart Pistol, which shoots around corners.[11] Player-pilots can eject from Titans that take too much damage, and the Titan replacement timer is reset upon the Titan's death.[10] Titans can also act autonomously when put in guard and follow modes, which directs the Titan either to protect their vicinity or to tail their pilot, respectively.[12] Games end with a race to the losing team's evacuation dropship.[10]

Respawn has unveiled three Titan classes: the agile Atlas, the ponderous Ogre, and the nimble Stryder.[13] The Attrition multiplayer mode pits hostage rescuers against defensive kidnappers.[11] The game's campaign multiplayer is separate from the game's "classic mode" multiplayer. It plays as multiplayer with single-player elements, such as scripted sequences and character dialogue. There are separate campaigns for the two teams.[14] The Militia are the civilian military of the Frontier and the resistance against IMC use of colony resources. Their most important members include Titan War veteran and former mutiny leader MacAllan, intel specialist and engineer Bish, and Marauder Corps leader Sarah.[15] The corporate conglomerate IMC specializes in natural resource extraction, and came to the resource-rich Frontier for business. Their major players are Frontier operations commander-in-chief Vice Admiral Graves, intel specialist Blisk, and artificial intelligence companion Spyglass.[16]

Development

 

Following Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's release, Activision fired Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella in March 2010 for "breaches of contract and insubordination".[17][18] Their departure resulted in a series of lawsuits[18] and a staff exodus.[19][20] Later that year, West and Zampella founded a game development company, Respawn Entertainment, with many of the former Infinity Ward staff.[18] Pre-production began in 2011, and the game was originally planned forexisting consoles.[4] The idea for the game did not come easily, and the team arrived at its multiplayer-only and human-mech focus after much internal debate.[4]Respawn artist Joel Emslie recalled starting with a human-sized suit as a "second skin", which the designers grew in size.[4] As Respawn didn't have the necessary computers, the artists resorted to kitbashing and model making[21]—Emslie prototyped by putting a figurine inside a plastic model kit.[4] Project influences includeBlade Runner, Star Wars, Abrams Battle Tank,[21] and Masamune Shirow of Ghost in the Shell.[22] At E3 2011, Electronic Arts Labels president Frank Gibeau revealed that Respawn's first project was a science fiction shooter published by Electronic Arts.[18] Two project leads left the company to begin their own studio in mid-2012, and West retired in March 2013.[18]

Rather than addressing technical constraints with code optimization and a tight release near the end of those consoles' life cycle, the team decided to focus on the next console generation with more time to try new ideas.[4] Zampella announced that Respawn would show at E3 2013 via Twitter on February 25, 2013.[23] Their planned announcement leaked early through an erroneous early release of Game Informer's July 2013 issue on Google Play, which revealed their first game's title, premise, and release date.[24] Other advance public information included the company's trademark filing for "Titan" in April 2013,[25] and an April 2013 Kotaku report of the game's Titan mech gameplay and Xbox One exclusivity.[26] The game was officially announced during Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference, with expected Windows PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One releases in Q1[24] 2014.[27][2] The Xbox 360 version was announced as in development with Respawn's support at another studio,[2] Bluepoint Games, whose name was not released until January 2014.[28] Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen later added that the Microsoft exclusivity agreement would last "for the life of the title"—that other consoles, including the PlayStation 4, will not receive a Titanfall port.[29][note 1] The team's small size—less than a quarter of similar triple A studios—also contributed to the game's exclusivity.[4]

 

220px-Respawn_Entertainment_team_photo_at_E3_2013.JPG

The 65-person[4] development team experimented with different gameplay before consolidating to three goals: "player mobility, survivability, and the merging of cinematic design with fast-paced action".[31] They identified contemporary first-person shooters as restricted to "a single plane of movement", the cardinal directions and hiding in place, and considered new features to increase mobility, such as a three-story-high jump.[31] Final mobility features include wall running and the pilot's jump kit, which allows for double jumps.[31] Additionally, the game does not cordon off parts of the environment.[31]Concerning survivability, Respawn chose to populate the environment with dozens of computer-controlled characters to give players the reward of consecutive kills while reducing the player deaths necessary in return.[31] The team spent significant time balancing the "cat and mouse" combat between pilots and Titans.[4] They also annulled advanced sniping techniques known as "quickscoping and no-scoping".[9] Thirdly, the cinematic storytelling segments associated with single-playercampaigns were merged into the multiplayer mode.[1]

The decision to combine modes allowed Respawn to conserve resources traditionally split between separate teams.[4] Player count changed weekly and was playtestedoften, more as a question of design than technical feasibility.[4] Early Titanfall playtest players did not realize that they were playing against human opponents for over 45 minutes.[4] Respawn originally tested teams of eight, 12, and various decreasing sizes before they decided on teams of six[12] as a matter of game design.[9] Lead designer Justin Hendry said that more human players make the game "uncomfortable" not due to overcrowding but to the intensity of maintaining one's surroundings against many points of entrance.[12] Producer Drew McCoy wrote that the non-human artificial intelligence (AI) players were not bots meant to replace humans, but "a different class of character in the game".[32] Each team supports up to 12 AI players alongside the human players' autonomous mode Titans, for close to 50 active characters per game.[12] The AI players were designed to enliven the battlefield environment with a greater sense of scale and drama, and to increase the game's complexity with new opportunities for strategy and cannon fodder for Titans.[33] McCoy said the team's foremost goal was to make the game fun.[4]

Respawn chose to build Titanfall on the Source game engine early in their production cycle due to their developers' familiarity and its ability to maintain 60 frames per second on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.[4] In an interview, Respawn software engineer Richard Baker said the company chose Source since Portal 2 performed well on the PlayStation 3 with it, and the console was "the riskiest platform in current gen".[4] The company built upon the engine during development in features such as lighting, rendering, visibility, networking, and tools pipelines.[34] The game also uses Microsoft's cloud computing for multiplayer servers, physics, and artificial intelligence.[24] Offloading this non-player activity frees the local console for visual rendering tasks and better graphics,[4] and the developers for game development (instead of backend maintenance).[35] This arrangement also determines world events in the cloud instead of locally, so position and movement data is downloaded simultaneously by all player-clients.[4] The studio's cloud server access is considered vital to the game's viability,[35][36] and Respawn artist Joel Emslie said they would not have attempted this game without the cloud support.[4] Respawn felt that Kinect support did not suit the game and chose not to support the peripheral.[37] The development team reported considerable interest in support for esports competitive play, and while such features were not prioritized for the initial release, Respawn indicated that esports accommodations were under consideration for future iterations.[38] Audio

220px-Stephen_Barton%2C_composer.jpg

The game's music is composed by
. He had previously worked on
Call of Duty
soundtracks and with
Metal Gear Solid
composer
.
Titanfall
's soundtrack was recorded at
in London,
with some specialty ethnic instrumentation recorded in Los Angeles.
Barton joined the project in early 2013. The game's E3 demo had sparse, placeholder audio and did not feature any final mixes, which were expected to be completed by November 2013. Barton sought to make the soundtrack "distinctive", with several main themes that build through the game.
The music was designed "as commentary", to not compete with the action.
As a multiplayer game, Barton produced a large number of tracks to avoid repetition. The sound ranges from "a very abused
to heavy electronics" to "
-esque
".
Barton emphasized "taking sounds out of their context" to match the game's lawless futuristic setting.
The two opposing
Titanfall
teams each have their own musical fingerprints.

Release and marketing

 

Titanfall is scheduled for release on Xbox One and Windows PC (via Origin[42]) in North America on March 11, 2014, in Europe[5][43] and Australia on the 13th,[44] and in the United Kingdom[5] and New Zealand on the 14th.[45][note 2] The delayed Xbox 360 release developed by Bluepoint Games is scheduled for release in North America on March 25, 2014, and in Europe on March 28, 2014.[47] The PC version will not include modding tools at launch,[9] though it will support the Xbox 360 controller.[48]The game was feature complete as of December 2013, and the Respawn team continued to address game bugs and balancing issues before launch.[37] Respawn ran aclosed beta test with an open registration in February 2014.[49] An Xbox One patch to bring support for Twitch streaming video was designed to coincide with Titanfall's release.[50]

After the game's release, Respawn plans to offer both free and paid downloadable content (DLC) with a season pass discount for pre-purchasing. The free updates include features such as private matches that were left out of the original release for time restrictions. The game will not use micro-transactions.[51] Electronic Arts designed the game's digital strategy to coexist with their other shooter, Battlefield 4.[52]

A collector's edition is slated to include a Titan statue set in a LED-lit diorama, an art book, and a poster.[5][43] A limited edition Xbox One wireless controller designed after the game's C-101 carbine weapon will launch alongside the game. It was built to feel like "a piece of military spec hardware transported from the universe ofTitanfall ... into players' hands".[53] An Xbox One console bundle will be released simultaneously with the game, and will include a digital copy of Titanfall and a month of Xbox Live at the price of the standalone console.[54]

K'Nex announced a toy marketing tie-in for 2014.[55] Respawn announced other marketing tie-ins in late January including apparel, Jinx clothing, Mad Catz peripherals(keyboards, mice, mouse pads, headsets), posters, Prima strategy guides, a Titan Books art book, Turtle Beach Xbox One headsets, USB flash drives.[56] Before release, EA and Respawn unveiled a browser game collection of three Atari games (Asteroids, Missile Command, and Centipede) with an added Titanfall theme.[57]Respawn also announced forthcoming Titanfall live action content from a partnership with Canadian postproduction studio Playfight.[58] Reception

 

220px-Titanfall_at_Gamescom_2013_%289591148650%29.jpg

Titanfall took over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal,

[11] including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards: Best in Show, Best Original Game, Best Console Game, Best PC Game, Best Action Game, and Best Online Multiplayer.[59] The game also won Best in Show from IGN,[60] Destructoid,[61] Game Informer,[62] and Electronic Gaming Monthly.[63] Reporting for Polygonat E3, Arthur Gies praised the "dynamism" between the Titan's brute force and the pilots' objective-based stealth as the game's greatest asset.[4] IGN's Ryan McCaffrey declared Titanfall both "Microsoft's killer app" and multiplayer gaming's "next big thing", adding, "You will buy an Xbox One for Titanfall, and you should."[64] Forbes's Erik Kain similarly predicted the game to be a "huge selling point" for the Xbox One.[65] The game won Best Next Generation Console Game and Best Xbox Game at Gamescom 2013.[66] The game was introduced to Japan at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show,[67] where the response was "overwhelmingly positive"[22] and it won a Future Award.[68] Titanfall won "Most Anticipated Game" at VGX 2013.[69]Many reviewers considered Titanfall to be the next step for the first-person shooter genre.[64][65][70] Reception

In response to fan upset over the announcement of six-player teams, Ben Kuchera of Polygon defended the size as "just where it needs to be".[73] The Verge's Vlad Savov wrote that wall running "hasn't felt this good since ... the Prince of Persiaseries".[11]

Edited by Clifford "No!" Kinkade
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