I've spent a considerable amount of time playing combined arms games in the last 8 years. From the halo series to Planetside 2. I feel like I know the trappings of the series. There is almost always imbalance in these games. Titan fall looks more in the vein of Planetside 2 with out the persistent world. This has me incredibly worried since even 8 months after launch on their second combined arms game, the developers of planetside 2 are still unable to strike the correct balance between infantry and vehicles. Both sides find it incredibly frustrating as the devs have created a situation in which any balance they try to incorporate or new edition they add is immediately over used and those killed by it feel frustrated. I fear that titanfall will be the same. A large number of people are going to be pissed off and quit this game when there titans are destroyed by 2-3 infantry that are hiding with rocket launchers, and infantry players are going to be pissed off at being farmed by a team that will pull titans as fast as possible.

I think the balance needed to make combined arms work is beyond a small developer like respawn. Its not about talent, its about having the ability and man power to research the effects. I honestly don't think they have that since and this game while no where near as rushed will just not be fun.

I'm also worried about the metagame. After planetside 2 I'm really tired of death matches. I want a persistent world where I can go anywhere and find a fight and I can either be focused on killing as many people as i want or I can switch to focusing on objectives. I DON"T WANT TO WAIT IN A MENU FOR A GAME TO LOAD and I don't want to have to choose between game types or have only one game type that everyone is playing so i have to wait for ever to play a certain kind.

Most importantly I just don't know if the player base will be there to make this game fun for more than a month. Maybe on PC, which is where I will play it, because like most people I'm completely turned off by buying a launch xbone. I think this game will be forgotten very quickly, and I just want to warn everyone who is preordering a xbone for this game. The great multiplayers games that will revolutionize gaming are coming out for at least 2-3 years I think, I hope, cause I'm tired of this recycled slapped on multiplayer that infests so many current gen games. I'm even more disgusted by the number of people in the press that are satisfied with this gens multiplayer. PS2 on PS4 should be a wake up call not only to future multiplayer of all kinds but a warning that these games need balance and need to keep you always entertained. Games are suppose to be fun. Anything that keeps you from the fun part needs to be left out.

@bigjeffrey: thats not a combined arms game. Infantry only.

@bigjeffrey:

Nailed it.

It seems like Respawn is well aware of the balancing issues that could arise in a game like this, and from hearing industry people talk about the crew that is working on the game this is just the kind of game I want from them. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and would based off the time I put into CoD4 and MW2, if I get even half of the fun times gaming with friends in Titanfall that I did in those games it's worth it to me.

I'm not convinced that it's a game I REALLY gotta play but Jeff and a bunch of other people seem to be praising it a lot. Then again Jeff likes really terrible things too.

Because this is the kind of game many people still want to play, including me.

I think more people need to just admit this style of FPS isn't for them, isn't intended for them, and just generally get over it.

I don't, but it looks like a lot of fun. Havent been a lot of fun to see at the last E3's, so we are all a bit easily excited I guess =)

@bigjeffrey

That's one of the finest thread finishers i've seen in a while, well done.

@chrollo said:

If someone is the kind of person who would pre order a game console for a new IP shooter, they're already common sense-proof, your warnings will be lost on them.

But you raise interesting points about the balancing conundrum and the persistent world. Personally I'm not bothered with the latter because I'm a Battlefield (conquest mode) player and I'm very satisfied with that experience. But the former point is interesting, how will the titans be balanced in a not-so-skill-heavy run and gun Modern Warfare spiritual successor?

I mean, if this were a more serious and taxing game, they could make the titans really powerful, the way they should be. Then make them scarce, and require actual teamwork to take them down. But we're talking about a quick rush type of game, so that kind of challenge would turn people off and make them switch back to COD Ghosts.

I guess we'll wait and see!

This doesn't seem anything like Planetside 2. It seems like they took infantry from Modern Warfare and the deathmatching mechs from Hawken and slapped em together in a different deathmatch game.

And given that the split is really just mechs vs infantry, it's not nearly as complicated as all of Planetsides different vehicles and different factions and faction weapons, etc. Instead it seems more like a two-class game where you only have a scout and a heavy.

It looks like they're doing the right things with mech vs infantry combat. You see a small group take out a mech relatively quickly in the stage demo, and the infantry is obviously able to zip around unlike the mechs. The biggest question I have is if there'll be a limit to mechs, because if everyone can use mechs all the time, I don't see why they wouldn't, even if just to have to AI take control of them.

If it's a killstreak-style thing then keeping it so that one team just snowballs to victory once the mechs start rolling in could be a problem. But since that's the only sort of class/vehicle relationship they need to worry about, I really don't think it's too big a task for Respawn.

Also I don't understand your gripes about no persistent open world. This isn't being pegged as an MMO, so complaining that it isn't is silly. There's absolutely a place for "menu" games in the coming "PULLBACKOHWAITIT'SMULTIPLAYERRR" storm.

I don't.

The last game that West and Zampanwhateverhisnameis made that I played was Modern Warfare 2. That game was a fucking disaster. It was unplayable for a time. You had at least 3 versions of the infinite care package/emergency airdrop glitch, the care package running glitch, the javelin glitch, the infinite ammo hack that turned the 105 howitzer on the AC-130 into a machine gun, and that's all I was exposed to although I'm sure there was more. Then we get to the balancing issues in things like One Man Army and Danger Close.

Remove the rose colored glasses and what you might see, as I see, is shit. A nice steaming pile of shit. Yes they made Call of Duty 4, but then they fucked it up. Boy did they fuck it up. And even when it comes to Call of Duty 4 they had ZERO support outside of a terrible map pack. That game still has bugs to this day.

I just think it looks extremely cool. I don't care for CoD at all, having only played the first Modern Warfare which I thought it was fine.

It's fast-paced shooter with fucking mechs! I like how there is infantry instead of all robots, it opens up a lot more options than just crashing around shooting at each other. The parkour seems interesting, jumping on top of the mech to destroy it is awesome, it just looks so cool.

Judging from the demo it looks like there will be quite a bit of indoor fighting that completely rules out the Titans.. so there's your balance. Infantry indoors for control points.. and if you need to go outside it's going to be a risk. Maps will probably be designed in a way that forces infantry to run outside to access important areas, so it will be up to your teams own Titans to clear a path or lay down covering fire.

Mechs. Nuff said. Actually Titanfall look exactly like the kind of game those guys should be making. Their style of single-player campaign has been done to death so giving them the free reign to concentrate on a solely multiplayer experience seems like the best decision. It also looks like a bunch of fun.

@bigjeffrey said:

All you forgot is a mic drop.

I don't have any reason to NOT trust these guys. Sure the game could be terrible but we've seen a single gameplay demo of it and it looked rad from what they showed. It's way too early to start talking about why the game is going to suck. Waaaaay too early.

@bigjeffrey: I'm not going to quote the image because it's enormous, but I just realized that the helicopters in the top of the cover art are literally copied and pasted! :O They're just flipped.

Sorry, continue the discussion. I went completely off-topic.

@bigjeffrey: Bravo.

That and you have jet packs.

The simple things like an eject button for the Titans and the fact that you can snipe the Pilots who eject have me pretty excited for this game. Shooters, by and large have the same principles, I think that's why games like Titanfall and Destiny look so appealing for a new console generation, they're introducing different things to a familiar genre.

What about straight up ripping a dude out of his titan and throwing him at a wall? Or hoping on a titan back and shotting his power core? OR the animation sliding under a titan and it grabs you putting you inside?

You know, coincidentally, the thing that is gonna make or break this one is the amount of DLC churned out. There definitely needs to be some quality in each MP map, and then DLC, but is it enough for a season's pass worth? Will EA seriously even do a proper season pass??. Yea, that part I wanna know!.

Better not be a $50 pass..

If the XB-1 doesn't gain a gamer base, because it is pitching to living rooms, how many people that will end up with a console to play it will even know the Respawn guys made COD4?

Call of Duty: excellent.

Call of Duty 2: nearly as excellent.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: excellent.

Modern Warfare 2: nearly as excellent.

Becuase it looks solid, I figure it will be like Gears to me in the way that Halo and Battlefield will be my primary shooters that I put hundreds of hours into, but this will keep me entertained for a month or so,

Also Mechs are nice to see again, I wanted Mechassault so bad though.

@the_laughing_man:

It's everything I could conceivably want out of a FPS/Mech game.

This is why you don't put questions in the thread title. People will ignore the contents of the post and will reply to the title.

Because mechs man and you can catapult yourself out of them.

The OP kind of reads like a yelp review.

Why do people without avatars always post crazy stuff.

Indeed.

MECHS.

all the things they showed look awesome from animations to parkour to the titans, although i don't understand the magnetic shotgun attack looks like really bad dps. WHAT im worried about is the way they balance the dps of guns and damage. If they go simple i will find it boring if they go complex it will be more interesting with some hooks but I think it will also be incredibly imbalanced and i will probably just stop playing out of frustration.

Zampella is one of the core people behind modern warfare.

and i dunno that team and zampella seem super humble and not at all pretentious about their game, i can respect that.

its just a shame they arent doing the pc and 360 versions though,

Well, now the beta is out. To answer the question of whether or not they can balance pilots vs. mechs.

Looks like they have. Titans have an edge against a single pilot, but pilots can still take do meaningful damage in the right terrain and with some distraction. Honestly, I feel more vulnerable in a Titan than on foot, the extra firepower and durability comes with a big fat target on your back.

I played it at eurogamer. It was "hella fun".

Jeff and I stand alone in our love of Syndicate!!!

Titan Trust Falls.

Titanfalls

ehehehehehe

I played it, I liked it, I think is great, that is why I know it's good.

There is nothing Planetside about this game. Shows how little you know.

It is very much an even more fast paced, option filled version of CoD.

This is a reply to something from 7 months ago, but let me just say, I thought the new Syndicate was excellent - detractors are soulless people that know not how to have fun.

@bigjeffrey said:

Put that old dusty disc on my 360 the other day, that game still holds, it is pretty much The White Album of FPS.

level design never been better

Titanfall.

• 729p (why this doesn't run at a constant 60fps at 1080p is down to the developers or the Xbox One crappy hardware)
• 6 players
• no destructible environments
• no single player
• no shooting through walls
• $60

Who in their debatable sane mind would buy this?

ugggg...

Modern Warfare 2 still left somewhat a bad taste in my mouth. Multiplayer was good, but then there was the whole lack of dedicated servers, one host left and then it was this 3 minute disconnect and stall..... that annoyed me about "Infinity Ward knows what's best" philosophy. I still feel titanfall might have something like that.

I was about to ask this guy where the fuck he came up with the subgenre "combined arms", but apparently this thread is seven months old.

For the record, there is no subgenre of multiplayer shooters called "combined arms". Also, just watching Jeff and Brad play this earlier made it look like a lot of fun, and that's coming from someone who never really played a ton of multiplayer and hasn't really played anything multiplayer, outside of a few matches, in a year or more.