Titanfall 2 - Playable tech test starts today

[edit] Playable tech test starts this Friday. Available on PS4 and Xbox One. It's an open test, so no download code will be needed.

Here's the trailer:

Original thread follows:

Titanfall 2 is all set for a full multiplayer reveal blowout later today. Many You Tubers have already recorded video that they're not allowed to post just yet, and the game is going to be streamed for the first time today. That's been known for a while, but what hasn't been known is when we'll get to try the game for ourselves. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like we'll need to wait very long.

We'll likely get a full announcement in the next 24 hours, but it sounds like the test will probably start sometime this weekend.

While we wait for more info, here's the best look at Titanfall 2 multiplayer that we have so far:

It's worth nothing that the Titanfall 2 playable tech test is not going to be on PC, much to my disappointment. The reasoning they give for this is basically because they haven't finished optimizing the game for PCs. To me on one hand it sounds like a copout, but then when I think about just what the gaming audience can be like I don't blame them. You could plaster warnings everywhere about optimization not being complete, but it still wouldn't stop the pages of angry threads about how someones super-duper PC can't run Titanfall 2 well.

They also gave a side reason about how they don't want SP content leaking out.

No pc? Is this one still xbox exclusive? I have a ps4 but would def get it on pc. Seems like they should wait for a tech test until yhe game is semi playable on all platforms.

@oursin_360: The full game will release on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, but the PC won't be getting the tech test like @adequatelyprepared said.

Nope. PS4 was confirmed from the first reveal.

@adequatelyprepared: True. Much easier to optimize for a machine you know everyone has the exact same specs on.

Looks a lot more fun than the single player. The level shown looks like some weird hollywood set though, none of the architecture or scaling looks all that convincing this was an issue in the first game too. I'm also still amazed at how well they manage to make every bit of movement and animation look exactly like Call of Duty to the point where it looks like a skin (a very expansive one mind you.)

It's probably going to be DoA in my region on PC anyway so I probably won't get it regardless.

I'm really excited for this game. I got Titanfall way after the fact (on sale for like $12) and really enjoyed the time I spent with it. If they can make the upgrade choices more robust and deliver a decent FPS campaign I think they can easily surpass COD this year for most popular arcade FPS.

I noticed a real lack of AI enemies in this video though. I wonder if they are scrapping that all together. I liked that they were in there to feed off of, but I could see an argument for having more "pure" modes without them in it.

I think if this game has much more variety than the first it could be one of the greatest multiplayer games of the year. All the movement stuff looks as good as ever.

Hoping this can get me back on the casual-to-semi-competitive multiplayer train. Last time I played one of these types of games was Black Ops and I enjoyed my time there.

@adequatelyprepared: that's why we can't have nice things.

anyway im super jazzed for this. the surprising amount of titanfall love around here warms my cold dead heart.

How could you not be jazzed for THIS:

I do believe that's a giant mech with a giant sword.

And it's now official. Open tech test starts August 19th. Get ready to try the game for yourself this Friday. New trailer has been added to the first post. Here's the official press release:

Today, Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) announced that the Titanfall® 2 Open Multiplayer Technical Test will be available across two weekends in August for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft. Fans will be able to get their hands on the fast, fluid, Pilot and Titan gameplay that is at the core of the Titanfall experience while helping the team at Respawn test the Titanfall 2 servers and backend systems prior to the games release on October 28th worldwide.

It all starts the weekend of Friday, August 19th, where fans will be able to play two exciting new Titanfall 2 multiplayer modes across two maps:

MODES

Bounty Hunt (5v5): A brand new mode that pits Pilots and their teammates against an opposing team as well as the Remnant Fleet. Earn bonuses by killing grunts and enemies, but make sure and deposit all your points at the bank between waves without getting killed.

Pilots vs. Pilots (8v8): Players can be the best Pilot on the Frontier and put their combat and mobility skills to the ultimate test in this classic 8 vs 8 Pilots only mode.

MAPS

Boomtown: A secret underground IMC facility where the latest in R&D is put to the test. In this facility Pilots can use the many peaked roofs to use as cover against combatants below. With tight lanes through the middle, Titans can also be easily ambushed.

Homestead: The IMC have claimed Imminent Domain on a small commune’s plot of land. With a series of raised, rocky plateaus and a river running down the middle, Pilots are mostly safe from Titans among the rocks and trees but they also can duck into the caves and building when needed. However, the Titans control the large rolling fields.

During the second weekend of the Titanfall 2 open multiplayer technical test, all the content from the previous weekend will still be available, plus a brand new mode and map for players to enjoy:

MODE

Amped Hardpoint (6v6): A new twist on Hardpoint Domination from the original game; now defending a Hardpoint will let you amp it, giving your team double score. Team work is the key to securing victory.

MAP

Forward Base Kodai: Militia forces have taken over an IMC substation and set up a forward operating base. Pilots can find safety from Titans in the hallways and chambers of the main building, while Titans can walk over the roof to get a better view of the action.

During the open multiplayer technical test, fans will have access to two all-new Titans: Ion and Scorch, as well as a range of Pilot tactical abilities including Grapple, Holo Point, and Pulse Blade. Fans will also have access to a variety of weapons including a deadly horizontal spread shotgun known as the Masttiff and the Alternator, a dual-barrel SMG.

No PC though. :\

What they've shown looks good, but hard to judge console footage from the typical EA youtubers who normally don't play Titanfall and/or on consoles.

Tons of new gameplay video just hit You Tube. Here's 30 minutes of Titanfall 2 with no commentary:

@spaceinsomniac: @jjbsterling: cool thanks, guess i may see how the ps4 looks this weekend.

I guess I'll play a bunch of this on the PS4 then. The PC would be preferred, or at least I'll wait for release before I buy it on there, since that original PC port was such a mess that still hasn't been exactly redeemed that not showing it prior to launch is... troubling. One could argue that they're just optimizing it or whatnot but that's the reason most of the time when we don't see a poor PC port prior to launch.

The last Transformers movie also had mechs and giant swords, and the general consensus on that seems to have been negative.

Can't wait to give Titanfall 2 a try; I liked the idea of the original so much but all my gaming friends are on PS4.

Is there a sign up or is it available for everyone?

Open to all. No download code required.

Man it looks sexy. Too bad I can't play on PC.

Have not played a multiplayer FPS since Battlefield 3 but this and BF 1 have me very interested.

Man, that 30 minute gameplay footage just sold me like hell on this game.

Gosh, I can't wait. Titanfall is the best multiplayer game on the Xbox One. Respawn has shown no reason why Titanfall 2 shouldn't gain that title upon release.

@spaceinsomniac: So to take part in that tech test you just need a console? You don't have to sign up anywhere it's available for everyone to download off PSN or XBL on friday?

EDIT: Doh, just saw this answered two posts above.

It's kind of an important bit of info that you shouldn't have to read the whole thread to learn, so I just added it to the first post.

@spaceinsomniac: Well now my weekend just got a lot better. Not only do I start my 2 week vacation but now I got some Titanfall 2 to mess around with before Deus Ex consumes all my free time. As Vinny always says, it's the best time to be playing video games.

You can't play online for another four hours or so, but the tech test download is now available. While you want for the servers to go live, you can play the training mission, and get your controls and settings where you want them.

Hmmm. I can't seem to find the download on PS4. By what I've read it seems like it should at least be ready to download...

But maybe I'm just being impatient.

Edit: Found it on the actual store website after searching "titanfall 2". That same search on my PS4 didn't find it. Weird.

I'm looking forward to trying this tonight :D

wow @12gb dl'd for a tech demo on PS4

I can't even imagine what the DL will be for the full game on pc.....

Only played a few games and it's not the final build but respawn may have ruined TItanfall. There's less Titans in it, in the hardpoint mode you seem to only get one Titan per round. Also hardpoint has no grunts. The first Titanfall felt unique this is more like COD with mechs.

Hopefully it's something that can be fixed but respawn have made some bad changes.

There's still a thousand or so people playing the first game, granted that's low but it's easy enough to get into games.

I've played a couple of hours and honestly i'm not really into the changes they've made. The game feels slower and there doesnt seem to be as much going on. Granted there's only a couple of maps so it's not representative of the full game. (and it's "pre-alpha" whatever that even means anymore) But yeah not too happy. I'll keep playing it though maybe my opinion will change once I level up some more.

Also is there any way to turn off that network invite thing that obscures half the screen? I joined the european & uk groups because happy hour was 4am in the default one.

100% agreed, It fells like something is just missing from what made the first Titanfall special. The maps don't fell like they use the Piolots moment abilities to there full advantage either the parcore point just fell to far from one another for you to just move. I really hope they do something to make the game fell faster in between this test and the next one.

Disappointed, maybe the whole movement thing isn't as cool anymore because a bunch other games do it now, and I actually think it felt much better in Black Ops 3 compared to this, to me at least. Played a bunch of the first game at a friends house and loved it, not the same feelings for this one so far.

The maps also seem... not great. A game about movement and the maps doesn't seem to encourage that much, if at all. I want to chain crazy wall runs and tight jumps, but I am not really able to do that. As people have mentioned, it seems a little slow and controls doesn't seem as tight as I would like either.

It's definitely not bad, it's kinda fun but yeah, glad they had this test though because it made me kinda sure not to get it.

yeah, something doesn't feel right about it. I haven't played the original in years and the tutorial only teaches you basic pilot stuff and nothing about titans, so i had no clue what button did what. All the creeps are gone(or there aren't as many) so everything feels empty and everybody seems way more skilled than I am at this one, felt like i could compete in the last game at least. Hopefully the single player mode is good cause i don't see myself buying this one. I may give it some more time though, only played 2 matches so far. Oh yeah, the matches also seem way to long.

Man, this is just the weirdest complaint about Titanfall 2, but I can't stop thinking about it since I played a little bit earlier:

The first Titanfall fucking nailed the "Stand by for Titanfall" -> Embark sequence, at least from a cinematic perspective. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the way popular media likes to show launch sequences, but I played a lot of that game and I still got chills pretty much every time I called in a Titan. It was one line of dialogue and a few short animations, but it felt like Apollo 13, it felt like Interstellar, it felt like every good mecha anime, and it was the most memorable part of that game to me.

In Titanfall 2, this sequence doesn't do it for me at all. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what's different - maybe it's the fact that the game cuts to a third-person view for a second, maybe it's the military-ass-sounding dude who says the line this time, maybe it's just a timing/animation thing - but calling in a Titan just feels like a powerup in every other shooter this time, and that bums me out.

@oursin_360: I think the reason there are less creeps is because they're marked on the map whenever they appear and are the fastest way to get money that you can bank. So they quickly get killed and arent really a part of the battlefield, which is a shame.

Unfortunately i'm getting a Halo 5 Warzone vibe from the one gametype they've shown thus far that has mechs and bots/creeps. Which sucks because that was the most lifeless online battlefield type experiences in recent memory. Hopefully burn cards arent microtransaction fueled and tied to these bigger, less esports friendly gametypes.

There definitely seems to be a different vibe this time around and I don't like it.

The whole game feels... cheap? Almost like the design of the game has gone several foot steps back. The maps just don't feel as clever as any of the maps in the first one and the two that are available feel like the exact same thing. Remember that map with the weird dinosaurs in the background or the flying creatures that you could shoot at, or even just the ships in the sky lobbing shots at each other? They were all really fantastic back drops and combined with the AI creeps gave each map the feeling like you were participating in a battle and not just playing virtual paintball against 6 other people.

Now... this just feels like CoD with mechs that are occasionally thrown into the mix with AI that are literal cashcows which really messed with the feel of the game.

Plus, I think making the Titans class based was a big mistake... The guns feel more in the realm of science fantasy than science fiction, which was definitely not the case in the first one. Each Titan weapon in the first one just felt like an extension of what you could do on the ground with machine guns and rocket launchers, but having a gun that splits into three shots, a grenade launcher that has an AoE and a samurai just makes it feel more not real and getting the Titan feels more like a power up instead of a bad ass vehicle.

I kinda hope Origin does an "On the house" giveaway of the first one around the release of the 2nd one, because I will definitely pick that up for PC instead at least from my impressions of playing it so far.

yeah, it's just COD with mechs now. The creeps kinda made you feel like you did good even when you sucked, this I just feel over matched and am not having any fun.

Couldn't make it past 3 matches, maybe i'll try again tomorrow but now i will preload Deus Ex and play some grim dawn.

I just played a couples games on ps4, and having not played the first game or seen much of it I really am enjoying it. Although having heard the comparisons to the first game it sounds like that one might be superior and I will have to get it on PC soon to compare it. It is a "pre-alpha" or whatever too so hopefully they can take the criticisms into account from this and at least make it slightly better in the final version. But as of now I am totally enjoying it.

More like CoD...what?

I thought the first felt like CoD but much better because of the mechs and mobility. I thought maybe Advanced Warfare would steal the movement but it didn't feel anywhere near as good from the bit I played of it.

That's a shame. I started downloading it and got half way and the download got corrupted somehow. It's only for Saturday and Sunday right? I may just pass then. Internet sucks so it takes too long to d/l stuff just to play it for a day.

@handlas: It's for 2 weekends. Still worth giving a shot.

Even on the matches where I have done well I feel like I am getting my ass handed to me, it feels like CoD where I am dying every 30 seconds and then respawn and repeat, played some of the first matches after the Demo went live and there's always one asshole who is just so much better than everyone else, just like CoD, I was really excited for this test and now I feel super deflated. I like the movement stuff way better than what little I played of Black Ops 3 but...something feels off.

Seems a bit too ofdutyish (though I enjoy playing Black Ops 3 at my brother's house well enough) for me, also low player count is generally pretty shitty outside of Uncharted, when Call of Duty was good it was with 32 players on PC.

@handlas said:More like CoD...what?

I thought the first felt like CoD but much better because of the mechs and mobility. I thought maybe Advanced Warfare would steal the movement but it didn't feel anywhere near as good from the bit I played of it.

That's a shame. I started downloading it and got half way and the download got corrupted somehow. It's only for Saturday and Sunday right? I may just pass then. Internet sucks so it takes too long to d/l stuff just to play it for a day.

I don't really know how to explain it but i loved the first game and I do not care for COD (i did enjoy a bit of the Blops3 beta). The first game felt like i was in a huge ass battle with enemies everywhere, this feels like the 5 on 5/ 8 on 8 that it is. In the first game i felt like i got to move around a lot more and get shots off, this feels like I'm pretty much outclassed and die every 5 sec's. In the first game even when i played bad I had fun, this game just feels frustrating how COD used to feel to me. Just kinda feels like another one of those games, the first game now that i think about it had a more casual feel like Overwatch this seems like it's geared back towards the hardcore only.

*edit* for comparison i played on pc with a gamepad and was competitive in the first game.

these opinions all seem a bit odd because they all kinda sound like complaints that were leveled against the first titanfall when it came out

Really taken back by all the negativity in here. I've personally never played a second of the first Titanfall, so I don't know how different this game is to that, but I've been loving everything I've played of this one.

First impressions I have are super negative. I mean I loved Titanfall despite really disliking aiming down Iron Sights and taking the time to aim. Especially when I got to the late game and unlocked a trait called "Run and Gun" which meant I could just run at people and spray bullets at them without breaking stride. Really great stuff. I don't think I can go back to this though. I played a whole game and got no kills because killing in this game (atleast until you get run and gun?) is contingent on aiming down sights and actually aiming. It was cool when I got the Titan (which was always the more tactical health pool oriented side of the game) but that was literally after the game ended so... not very impactful. Also it's contingent on seeing people. How the fuck do people see other people in these games so fast? Pilots are so small and easy to miss in the clutter of a map. Also also how the fuck do people track others so good? I watched a death recap of a guy who fucking tracked me as I ran perpendicular to him across a wall. The fuck?

Honestly, I think this is yet another game Overwatch has fucked over by existing. Overwatch has all the mobility (and more!) with health management, healers, teamwork, clear and recognizable profiles, and no goddamn aiming down the sights unless you're a sniper. When I wallrun I think "Lucio is better than Titanfall Robot". When I sprint and shoot I think "Soldier 76 is better than Titanfall Robot." When I grapple I think "that's weird, it didn't just work like it does for Widowmaker." This game just pales in comparison.

Titanfall continues to be the best controlling fps out there. The movement in the game is so damn good. Played 2 matches and really enjoyed it. Still not sure about each Titan being it's own character but the new abilities are cool.

Oh, shoot. I didn't realize titan classes were going to be a thing; I thought that was just for the sake of the test. I really wanted to be able to customize my mech, but classes make sense for balance. Still a bummer, though. Anyone know if pilot customization is gonna be a similar schtick (like, tactical determines your aesthetic, as in the test) or no?