Category: Xbox One

After the lackluster multiplayer test for Titanfall 2, I was going to hold off getting Titanfall 2 until it was cheap.  Luckily for me (unluckily for Respawn Entertainment) they launched Titanfall 2 within a week of the most anticipated Battlefield game in quite some time, so the prices dropped quickly.  I have not had a chance to play the multiplayer yet, but I have completed the single player campaign, and it is incredible.

The story is has a run a of the mill, young recruit being forced in to heavy action and turning out to be the greatest soldier that ever lived, thread, but what makes the story special is the interaction between Rifleman Jack Cooper and his Titan, BT-7274.  They play off each other so well, and even better they let you pick Cooper’s dialog.  You press up or down deciding how snarky you want to be, so it is not a complex dialog tree, but it does engage you just a little bit more in their tale.

While the story is nice, you play first person shooters for their action, and this is where Titanfall 2 truly shines.  The shooting mechanics are flawless.  The free-running allows you to come up with creative ways to take out the bad guys, and then when you are in BT, you feel completely unstoppable.  Even when you are not shooting, the free-running puzzles are a ton of fun, and the collectable ‘pilot helmets’ are always challenging to find and get, but not overly so.  Also almost of all the of the achievements are for the single player and easy to obtain, so it should help out your Gamerscore.

The only downside to the single player that I have found is that the graphics, while detailed, are not up to the standards set by other games, and worse you can tell the resolution is low and being up-scaled because everything is a little fuzzy.  Thankfully when you are running and gunning as fast as you can you don’t notice these issues all that often, but you do notice them.

Considering you can find this game for $30 or lower these days, Titanfall 2 is worth the price of admission for the single player alone.  I am sure there is some fun to be had with the multiplayer as well, but that is just gravy on top of all the fun I had with the campaign.  This has been a good Holiday season for video games, but a disaster for my wallet.  Though I have been having too much fun to care that I am broke.

After thoroughly enjoying Battlefield 1’s single plyer campaign, I have now been able to dip my toes in Battlefield 1’s multiplayer pool, and?  It is still pretty much just Battlefield.  It has been tweaked and the player progression is a bit different, but in the end it is still the massive battles you have come to expect from Battlefield except the weapons are a little different.

When you level up you will now get war bonds.  You use these war bonds to buy guns and equipment.  As you level up while playing different classes, you slowly rank up those classes as well giving you the ability to buy different/better guns.  There are still ‘battlepacks’, but now you get them a whole lot less often, but they generally have better stuff in them.  Pretty simple, but it feels like I am unlocking guns at a much slower rate than in Battlefield 4.

There is a new pigeons mode, but it is pretty much just center-flag/oddball.  Grab the pigeon, hold the pigeon for a set time while not getting shot, and then release the pigeon to score a point.  Though if you release the pigeon when there are a ton of enemies around they can shoot the pigeon down.  A fun twist, but nothing ground breaking.

Another new addition is that when you are playing Conquest and a team is loosing they will get a super weapon to try and turn the tide.  These usually come in the form of a zeppelin or an armored train.  While annoying if you are winning a close game, for the most part they can be ignored while you continue to take and hold points.  Whatever you do, just don’t let a guy who loves to honk the horn drive the train because it is awful to have to listen to for ten minutes straight.  You may help destroy the train even if you are on the same team as him (or her).

It may sound like I am not overly enthused about Battlefield 1’s multiplayer, but that is not the case.  It is very good, and I plan on playing a lot of it.  Just don’t expect it to be a grand departure from what they have done before because it is pretty much a refinement of the games that have come before it.  Very good, but in a tried and true sort of way.  That’s all for now, maybe I will see you on the Battlefield!

Thanks to none of my friends being online when I am, I have only played Battlefield 1’s single player.  Which is odd for me since usually it is the other way around, but I have to say this has been the best single player campaign that EA Dice has ever come up with.  Sadly that is not saying a lot, but it is truly an amazing experience.

The campaign takes place over six different stories that you can complete in whatever order you want (except for the first one that you have to do to start the game).  With each story following a different hero.  They all have a different focus: In one you are a fleet-footed Australian running messages back and forth to the front lines.  In another you are an ace English pilot battling back your German foes.

I love that they are all unique and show you something different about The Great War.  My favorite by far was the stealthy mission across the desert as Lawrence of Arabia’s right hand woman.  The least entertaining was the tank story.  It starts off fun, but then it has you get out of the tank and protect it.  When I am driving the tank it is an unstoppable killing machine.  When the AI is driving the tank it is a useless and motionless box waiting to explode. It does get better again at the end.

The only real negative I have is that it is over way to quickly.  It only took me about five hours to complete, and while I could go back and find all the unlockables, I probably wont.  I just want more stories.  This is the first Battlefield game I have played that I hope the DLC is more single player missions.  I am sure the multiplayer will be fun, and I will give an update on my experiences with that at a later date, but so far the single player in Battlefield 1 has been totally worth the price of admission.

It took me a while to get to it, but I finally completed the first season of Hitman.  For the most part I have loved it.  I didn’t review Colorado individually, but having four hits and a post hit objective gave it a lot of length, but it lacked character.  It was just a muddy farm.  It seems to me that if you are in Colorado you should be at a ski resort or something, or if it had to be a farm at least make it a weed farm!  Stay topical people!  Oh well, Hitman’s tried and true gameplay saved the day.

The last Hitman mission takes 47 to secret hospital for the extremely wealthy.  You have to take out two targets, and while that seems like a step back from the four in the previous mission, one of the targets is well protected, so it takes some time to get him if you are trying to be stealthy.  Also the Hokkaido mountain local is much more visually interesting.  If the whole season has been building to this job, at least they saved one of the best for last.  It is challenging and funny, and it has a few throwback options for long time fans.

So the question is was the series as a whole worthwhile?  I think so.  The story is nonsensical, and if you just play the missions straight through and don’t play around a little, it may be a little short, but if you take your time and use all the various mouse traps that Hitman gives you it is a game that is easy to get lost in.  I was skeptical if the episodic release of levels would work for Hitman, but in the end it ended up being one of my favorite things about it.  Getting a new mission every month was something to look forward to, and it forced me to go back an replay some of the older missions while I waited.  I hope they are hard at work on season two because I need more Hitman!