Titanfall Beta is Live!

So I finally got my beta key for Titanfall for PC after receiving one for Xbox One which I did not apply for. EA were nice enough to let me keep it aswell as the PC key. I was super excited and logged straight into Origin (it's no steam, but hey this is Titanfall) and what do I see? A 12.8GB download for the Beta! Wow this is huge. After the download completed (about 2 hours) the next hurdle appeared. No servers. A bug had been found and Microsoft, Respawn and EA were all working to get them live again. I patiently waited a few hours for the problem to be rectified. Hey, this is why we beta test. Was I annoyed? Yes a little but not as annoyed as I was with the games that I had payed full price for and that had failed on release day. (Diablo 3 and Sim City) 

Did I get in? Yes I did. Once servers were live again I got straight into the game and started on the training simulation. I had some issues with my controller (not sure if it was the game or my PC) so I played with the keyboard and mouse. Controls were good enough and the training simulation was quick and effective in showing all the features of the pilots and the titans. 

Next came an actual game. I played Attrition on the Fracture map. Attrition is kind of the equivalent to a team deathmatch in other games. Just kill anything on the other team. Each team is made up of pilots which are actual players and also grunts which are AI soldiers. Then come the Titans. The more you kill of the opposite team the quicker your Titan will become available for you. This is where the fun begins. I entered my first Titan and quickly came into a firefight with another. I stayed and tried to go head to head with them. Bad move... Your Titan does have a shield but once that is depleted you start to take real damage until you get away and allow your Titans shields to reload. The thing I liked most is that before your Titan blows up with you in it you have a short window to eject. When you eject you are shot into the air where you are able to have a quick overview of the battlefield. This can also spell your demise as the other team are trying to play duck hunt with you as the target. 

Finally one thing that was good was at the end of each game there's an epilogue. This is where the losing side must make it to a drop ship and escape the battlefield in a limited time, while the winning team hunts them down. This is a great way to finish a game off and I thoroughly enjoyed the little extra.

There was a little bit of lag, but this is to be expected as I was playing on South East Asian servers. Hopefully by release we will see some Australian servers but I will not be holding my breath for these.

In terms of graphics the game is quite beautiful. The environments are massive and quite detailed aswell. The frame rate was a little lacking but once again this is only a beta product.

All in all from what I have played of Titanfall it will definitely be a PC purchase for me on release. 

Thorncliff