Perhaps no game impressed more at E3 than Titanfall. The super-intense, futuristic FPS from Respawn Entertainment plays like a cross between Call of Duty and Guillermo del Toro’s forthcoming (robots vs. aliens) blockbuster, Pacific Rim — if you took out all the Kaiju, of course.
That’s no surprising statement, considering that Respawn is flourishing with some-40 former developers from Infinity Ward, the company in current control of the C.O.D. franchise. No one — not even the arguably most elite multplayer shooter on the market, Battlefield — has been able to touch Infinity Ward’s behemoth by a long shot. Leave it to Respawn’s GM Vince Zampella, producer Drew McCoy, and lead artist Joel Emslie to spark a new, exciting rivalry. It shouldn’t be hard to feel the team’s good vibes after watching Titanfall‘s exhilarating closed-room demo at E3 last week.
I just wish the t-shirt schwag size wasn’t relegated to a XXL.
With rapid cat-quick animations, handcrafted technology, superior sci-fi infantry, and seemingly untouchable multiplayer, Titanfall is certainly the game that dreams are made of. In addition to the 24-foot mechs — Titans! — that run-and-gun (with explosive artillery) and even dodge with the best of them, your Militia Pilots can also jet-kit, fast-cloak and wall-ride on their enemies. Just because you’re not in a giant chain-lighting-gun-toting robot doesn’t necessarily mean you’re at a disadvantage, either, since your spec-ops soldier can command Titans to guard, gather ammo, and even catapult your ass towards the top of unattainable areas and rooftops!
Titanfall is also very grounded in its science fiction presentation. Environments look more or less modern, with wondrous amazons, old-town harbors and shops, and run-down industrial plants. This “District 9” approach to these landscapes allows for greater impact when the Titans and their fantastic dropships arrive for battle.
“So, I know it’s another first-person shooter multiplayer and all, but what’s so fantastic about the campaign?”
The multiplayer is the campaign! The campaign is the multiplayer! Respawn figures there’s no sense in logging hundreds of man-hours on levels that will mean completely nothing to the typical FPS fan who’d rather log most of their time online. Titanfall is more concerned with universal world-building than a tiny story you can beat in 6-8 hours. Thus, expect the game’s plot elements and storyline decisions to become fully immersed with various co-op functions, sort of like that of E3’s other top games, The Division, Watch Dogs, and Destiny.
I’m afraid the game done changed — and Xbox One’s Titanfall looks to be just the one to lead that next-gen race this spring.
EA SPORTS… IT’S IN THE WAIT!
It’s hard not to be impressed looking at the new EA Sports line-up for the next-gen. Unfortunately, the sports gaming god’s massive — and quite beautiful — conference space didn’t sum up to anything great, or anything ready this side of the 360/PS3.
It’s understandable.
If the Xbox One and PS4 systems are months away from launch, then what the hell would you expect from their third-party developers?
Everything at EA looked promising, as the company edges their focus on “revolutionizing” sports games with the the Ignite engine. FIFA‘s going to play more physical. Madden‘s going to utilize offensive line-play to the extreme, UFC will offer a seamless string of wrestling and jiu-jitsu techniques, and, yes, even the rebirth of NBA Live will offer innovative dribbling.
Aside from those points witnessed during the already-seen-at-Microsoft-press-con, I was only able to run with Adrian Peterson on the new Madden 25 against the Redskins in an empty FedEx Field. The good news: AP strikingly rumbles down field like his real life counterpart. The bad: the offensive line didn’t make many adjustments, like you’d expect during a pass play — and I wasn’t able to pass.
I was also able to play a full quick game of FIFA 14 against another E3 attendee, yet without sound. If you have ever played any FIFA, then you know damn well that sound is the best thing about it! During a back-and-forth battle of wills, my opposition and I discussed the great amount of potential witnessed in the next-gen version of the most popular sports game this side of Madden. And, granted, the Xbox One controller felt awesome. After a while, I was able to pass and switch defenders more fluidly.
I still lost 2-1, though.
- Bethesda! A few hours after playing a somewhat unimpressive Wolfensten: The New Order demo on the Skyrim/Fallout company’s showroom floor (sorry, Brad, maybe I’m just tired of killing Nazis…), the Moodster was treated to a lengthy live demo of The Evil Within. If you remember from our wonderful PrE3 discussion, this was Cardinal Gary’s one to look for…and, after witnessing all the horrifying brutality 30-minutes, I can certainly share in his sentiments of excellence.
- The Evil Within is exclusively all survival horror action, which is great news for the countless disappointed with fellow horror-franchises-turn-FPS-bombs, Resident Evil and Dead Space. There’s enough brooding behavior and unsettling moments to keep our heads twisted. Oh, and Elder Scrolls Online is now coming to both next-gen consoles. But, with over 1,000,000,000 hours of gameplay, I’m not sure I care… Rainbow Six: Patriots recently announced that the long-awaited tactical shooter is coming to nex-gen consoles — hence the delay, pulls from stores — and Fallout 4 was nowhere to be found. Gotta save some goodness for E3 2014, right?
- If I had any regrets at E3 this year, it was not looking for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which, not all ironically, ended up IGN’s Gamer’s Choice Winner for E3 2013. And, to think I had spent 2 extra hours playing Disney’s Infinity and Ducktales HD instead… I was a major fan of Witcher 2 — despite never getting to finish the game due to some Xbox 360 hard drive issues — so this was definitely on my list. I just had no idea they’d be at the conference, and, honestly, The Witcher was not all that greatly advertisted. Keza MacDonald of IGN UK refers to the award-winning fantasy RPG as “sharply written, morally ambiguous, and gigantic, with fluid real-time sword-fighting.” Sounds like the Hollywood Happy Ending E3 Podcast we got coming for ya…at least the last part.
- Finally, the most fun I had at E3 was playing Yaibi: Ninja Gaiden Z. It’s a button-mashing, ninjazombie-killing, Ryu Hayabusa-starring LIVE ACTION COMIC BOOK with bosses galore! Nuff said…