Titanfall 2

[Blitzvogel]

Today's Source engine has been upgraded a ton since the Half Life 2 days. And Respawn also does their own work on it. Pretty sure the main thing they use Source for is the network code.

But how does it look dated? From video I saw the single player campaign looked gorgeous.

Improvements to Source for Titanfall 2

The original Titanfall ran on the Source Engine. Is Titanfall 2 running on the same engine or has it been moved to something like Frostbite?

On Titanfall we started with the Source engine; we replaced the renderer, we replaced the audio system, we replaced the net code. What we have now is very different from that. We have stuck with the Titanfall engine, but we did a lot of rendering improvements. We have physically based rendering, we have this really cool texture streaming system we wrote, HDR, bloom, depth of field. Hopefully you can see the results of all that hard work we put in that the game looks really different.

We also have a whole new audio system again. This time we have audio environments. Audio-wise, if you compare the two games again, it’s a huge leap. We have sound occlusion and reverb happening. There has been a whole bunch of areas where we make big changes to the engine, so there’s not a lot of Source left; we continue to rip out chunks and rewrite chunks and make it do exactly what we want to get out of this engine, and get the performance what we’re looking for.

IIRC the first Titanfall (and probably the second) sort of maintains Source's quip of being extremely system RAM heavy, but otherwise very CPU and GPU efficient. Runs great on a Radeon 7750, and runs even more impressively on a Radeon 5850 1GB.

Respawn is very good at optimization, and Source was a very good place to start, plus it doesn't help that the IW Engine in all it's iterations is just a super customized Quake 3 Engine, where Source has it's roots. I have yet to play Titanfall 2, but the first felt nothing like a Source Engine game. It felt like a super-charged Call of Duty for the obvious reasons.

 

[sweenish]

People getting bent out of shape over what engine is being used seem to just not know a whole lot.

That, or they take the car analogy too seriously. Which ties back to not knowing a lot.

 

[drbrock]

Origin dropped the ball on not making this a trial game like they did with Battlefield 1. I pay for Origin/EA Access and plan on purchasing BF1 after playing the trial. Would not have bought it otherwise.

 

[EXCellR8]

Completed the campaign on hard in under 6 hours... it was okay but certainly not the main attraction. I'll play through again, but I'm on to the online now.

As for the Source engine... if you finish the game and watch the credit reel the shortcomings are noticeable. The choppy character animations (human) and limited facial expressions throughout. They aren't bad, and it can be very difficult to create smooth, life-like animations without direct human rigging. But... for all of this "reworking" that they claimed to have done... I'm just not as impressed as most other people I guess.

If you've ever fired up the Source SDK and/or the Hammer level editor, you could definitely appreciate the work that they did. Having said that, though, look at Portal 2 which was released in 2011. Seven years after HL2 the engine was clearly updated, and Valve did a great job of making the most out of their aging code. Compared to the gem that was the first Portal, the sequel was much more polished and tuned. The result was an absolutely great game... and still no HL3

I'm a long-time fanboy of Source, I'll admit that, but Titanfall 2 seems like a remaster of something that was released nine years ago...

 

[Blitzvogel]

I'm a long-time fanboy of Source, I'll admit that, but Titanfall 2 seems like a remaster of something that was released nine years ago...

I can certainly see that, and I sort of felt the same way with the first Titanfall. But both games are designed around 60 FPS. The super smooth general player movement, without any head-bob reminds me of much older games, but then you get into a Titan, and movement feel is alot more pronounced.

 

[TechBoyJK]

TF2 was built to play smooth. Smooth gameplay was the priority. Apparently it wins big points in that regard. So it's expected that it shouldn't be the most shiny game.

Look at the problems with Star Citizen. ANything like that on a game like TF2 would sink it.

 

[DeadFred]

The first one was too arcadey. I might pick it up when it gets cheap. However does it still have the same awful lobby system? I felt like I spent more time in the lobby than playing the game last time.

Aint that the truth!!!

I only paid $5 for the first one and still felt ripped off.

 

[sze5003]

Wanted to play this as I heard the campaign was good but I'm still busy with bf1.

Is the campaign any good?

 

[Chocu1a]

Wanted to play this as I heard the campaign was good but I'm still busy with bf1.

Is the campaign any good?

Played about an hour of single player. So far I really like it. I recently started multi player and it is fun too. Getting my ass handed to me. I am getting the hang of wall running and grappling.

 

[sze5003]

Played about an hour of single player. So far I really like it. I recently started multi player and it is fun too. Getting my ass handed to me. I am getting the hang of wall running and grappling.

I would play it for single player but it's too bad it came out at the same time as battlefield 1. I don't like playing multiple multiplayer games at the same time. I think I will pick it up when it goes on sale.

 

[supastar1568]

Ya, I'm with you man. I can usually only handle one multiplayer game at a time. However, I did end up picking up Titanfall 2 for the Xbox so that it doesn't mess with my muscle memory for Battlefield 1 on the PC. Figured for nights when I feel like chillin on the couch I'll play some Titanfall. Battlefield will always be my primary though.

 

[Red Storm]

Didn't the multiplayer community for the first one die out pretty quickly? I would be wary of buying the 2nd. Wait for deals both for lower prices as well as to see if the community is still alive.

 

[sze5003]

Didn't the multiplayer community for the first one die out pretty quickly? I would be wary of buying the 2nd. Wait for deals both for lower prices as well as to see if the community is still alive.

Yup it did die out pretty quickly. I remember I stopped playing it before that. At least on PC it did, I'm not sure about the consoles.

Seems like I should rent it for my ps4 or Xbox from Redbox and just play through the campaign.

 

[hondaf17]

I'm liking the game. However I am also concerned about the community. Only about 10,000 PC players on in the evenings, US time. I think people are focused on BF1....some of my buddies are already getting tired of BF1 though and we played TF2 last night.

Let's talk strategy.

What is your favorite tactical for pilot? I run cloak most of the time.
What is your favorite Titan? For some reason I suck at Titan. My Titan always seems to die easily and I can never kill another Titan. Frustrating.

 

[Rifter]

when its $10 on steam ill get it. Doesnt look to me like the MP will last too long, so this game will be all about the SP anyways so no point in paying full price.

 

[sze5003]

when its $10 on steam ill get it. Doesnt look to me like the MP will last too long, so this game will be all about the SP anyways so no point in paying full price.

Agreed, and then single player is about 5-6 hours so definitely a wait for a sale or rent if you must play it now.

 

[Chocu1a]

Really enjoying multiplayer now. Getting the hang of the flow of being a pilot.

 

[zerocool84]

I'm probably gonna pick this up up today. It's on sale @ Walmart for $30 for PC and PS4.

 

[sze5003]

I'm probably gonna pick this up up today. It's on sale @ Walmart for $30 for PC and PS4.

What really? Might as well get it then too. Didn't realize they started the sales already. Does the PC actually come with a disc or is it a download card?

 

[balloonshark]

I'm probably gonna pick this up up today. It's on sale @ Walmart for $30 for PC and PS4.

I also picked it up for the pc today. It looks like the price is back up but still $30 for the xbox one and ps4. Amazon also matched the price for the xbox one. It think we were lucky to get the pc for $30. Black Friday prices are the same at a few places but not sure about the PC version.

P.S. The PC version is an Origin download key in a dvd box. Download size is 27.22GB if I remember correctly.

 

[steelodon]

Apparently Walmart has this for $30 yesterday and I missed it. I doubt this will be the last time we see the PC version on sale before Black Friday.

 

[Andy T]

I picked up the game based on the positive feedback about single player and mp compared to COD:IW and wish I didn't. Things I noticed:
The graphics do look dated. However the upside is that the game is maxed at 60 FPS at 3440x1440 on GTX 1070.
The single player story/game is OK. But nothing earth shattering. I find that I enjoyed COD: AW single player more.
I don't think the Titan aspect adds much to the game. It just feels like you get different weapons, but the Titan doesn't feel that different.
MP is OK. but I haven't spent much time in it, and not sure I will. It also took a few tries to find a game to join.

 

[Chocu1a]

Didn't the multiplayer community for the first one die out pretty quickly? I would be wary of buying the 2nd. Wait for deals both for lower prices as well as to see if the community is still alive.

Right now there are tons of people playing at all times of the day. Really depends on the game mode, though. Attrition is basically tdm. Bounty is kinda sorta not really like Counter strike, sorta. Those are the 2 most populated game modes. I have no problems finding a match early in the morning, mid-afternoon, or late evening. Tons of fun. I have played every major Battlefield release since 1942. After playing both Battlefield 1 alpha & beta, I was not really impressed. I did not appreciate the step backwards. I was really hoping for a 2142 sequel, especially after the Final Stand map pack hints.

 

[sze5003]

Origin has this for $39 with another coupon to save 20%. I was thinking of buying it to at least play single player.

 

[codyray10]

Origin has this for $39 with another coupon to save 20%. I was thinking of buying it to at least play single player.

I bought it at BB yesterday, they had all platforms on sale for $32.99. Being a GCU member I got it for $27. Didnt touch single player yet, read its good. I played a handful of rounds of multiplayer, 1 guy was blatantly aimbotting. Hope that doesnt become a theme. So far it feels like an improvement over the original.