I have no brand loyalty. To be honest, brands don't deserve my loyalty. Just because I bought a PS2 doesn't mean I wanted to buy a PS3. Brands have to continuously wow me if they want me to spend my money on their newest products. If I'm not thrilled with the next iPhone, I'll switch to Android without blinking an eye.
So when it came time to pre-order my next-gen system of choice, I went with the PlayStation 4. So what if I did most of my gaming on the Xbox 360? I liked what I was hearing from Sony's camp more. I liked their design and hardware better. I liked the PS4 more than the Xbox One.
Then Titanfall happened.
Now, I'm 100% honest with whatever I write. I'm not going to pretend I like a game when I don't. I try to be positive, because it is games we're talking about, but if a game I preview is a turd, I'm not going to hype it as the next game of the year. All of gaming media have been drinking the Titanfall kool-aid since E3 2013. For me, I just wasn't into it. Like many other gamers, I thought it was Call of Duty with mechs. While that's not too far from the truth, there are some things that Titanfall does incredibly well.
Does it deserve as much hype/praise as it has been getting? That's hard to say, but since I've had extended time with it during the beta, I've had more fun with it. It's a fun game – not without its problems, but still fun. While Titanfall has its positives and negatives, I did ultimately decide to get an Xbox One to play it. Here's why…
Titanfall does a good job of making you feel awesome. Even if you can't kill other Pilots (human players) because you're just not good at first-person shooters or they're better than you, you can feel like a badass taking out squads of grunts (NPCs). That's the beauty of mixing NPCs with real players – it makes the battlefield feel more populated, and those grunts serve as a nice distraction to players. It doesn't feel like it's only 6-on-6, which is still a hot topic for Titanfall; why should a next-gen FPS only have 12 maximum players on a map? The amount of players playing at once aren't a big deal for me as long as it's a good gameplay experience, and it is.
Ironically enough, this footage is from the PC Version, which I have no interest in playing
Another big personal game changer for me is the parkour-style running, jumping and wall-climbing/running. It takes the twitch-based, fast-paced action of Call of Duty and pumps more steroids into it than Alex Rodriguez. BUT, the action is still just like Call of Duty. Even when you're in a Titan, thanks to its human-like movements, it still feels like Call of Duty. So yeah, if you like Call of Duty, odds are you're going to like Titanfall. But I hate Call of Duty. I played three minutes of Ghosts and never played again. The game has become stale, rehashed, and boring. Every year they try to add a new gimmick, and I remind myself to not get suckered in.
Is Titanfall the new Call of Duty gimmick? No, I don't think so. Why? Mainly for the reason I already stated – the Grunts and Titans makes me feel like there's a lot more going on than I ever felt with Call of Duty. It also makes me feel like I'm contributing, even if I'm not having the best game.
As for why I bought an Xbox One to play it…
I feel that if the Xbox One is the exclusive console for it (outside of the last-gen port) then it's meant to be played on the Xbox One. I played it on PC, and even with settings on high, the textures were less-than-stellar (I'm using a 1GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 550 Ti). Battlefield 4 looks better on low and medium graphics than Titanfall did on high. So my hope was that by playing it on the Xbox One, I'd see an increase in textures and graphical fidelity.
In the end, Titanfall is starting to achieve things for Microsoft that they hoped it would when they announced it as an Xbox One exclusive. It's a reason for people to buy an Xbox One. Game of the Year? Probably not. The definitive next-gen experience? I'd like to think we have more amazing things coming our way. But here I am with an Xbox One, and it's because of Titanfall.
You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at [email protected]
