'Titanfall' Is The Most Addictive Game Ever
Here's
why
Because Titanfall’s multiplayer
matches are cloud hosted, developers no longer have to make tough choices—like
whether to add players or artificially intelligent background characters—to
save processing power. “Other AI running around makes the world much more
interesting,” says Respawn software engineer Jon Shiring.
Courtesy Respawn Entertainment
On March 11, Electronic Arts will
release Titanfall (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC; $60), an online first-person
shooter that promises to reinvent shooting-your-friends-in-the-face technology.
Developed by Respawn Entertainment, it comes with a notable pedigree. Respawn
co-founder Vince Zampella created the Call of Duty franchise before
leaving Activision, and his team has the best track record in the business for
creating preternaturally compelling games (the CoD series has sold more
than 100 million copies). With new gameplay concepts and technology, Titanfall
will be this year’s shooter to beat. Here’s why.
Expert Manipulation
Zampella’s team devised CoD’s
grabbiest feature, an awards system that gives players weapons based on
experience points. It’s an extremely effective method for keeping players
engaged. Titanfall adds several twists, such as “burn cards,” single-use
items that provide a quick stat boost or extra muscle.
Bodies
In Motion
Most shooters are played on the
ground, but Titanfall lets players move like parkour athletes—running on
walls and taking massive leaps. “People start playing it normally,” says
Zampella, “but after a certain point it clicks: ‘I can jump over that fence.’
Now, when I play a game without wall running, I feel like something’s missing.”
Better
Connector
Network-induced delays in
multiplayer sessions (a.k.a. “lag”) are instant immersion killers and the bane
of a gamer’s existence. All Titanfall games will be hosted on
Microsoft’s global network of servers, Xbox Live Compute, which promises to
make multiplayer scenarios less susceptible to interruption.
This article originally appeared in
the March 2014 issue of Popular
Science.