Titanfail - Respawn Updates Titanfall PC with LESS Content, Not More

So this past week, Respawn Entertainment released Titanfall's first piece of DLC.  Three all-new maps for ten bucks.  FPS players are no stranger to overpriced map packs offering "more variety" to their experience, and while I could go on at length about how map-packs used to be community-generated content, and ways for developers to support players, and their game, instead of scummy sales tactics and cash grabs, I'll let that go by the wayside so that I can bitch about what I came to bitch about.

Released alongside the "Expedition" DLC was an update for Titanfall that had more than its fair share of bugs, that are currently being hotfixed and worked on.  What wasn't a bug is this: Capture the Flag and Pilot Hunter game modes have been REMOVED as options when selecting "Play Multiplayer".

Respawn cites these modes as "not being widely used on PC" and having "overlong wait times to find other users, and it was making for a poor experience". (If you're so inclined, you can read the rest of that blog post here.)

This Week in Gaming - March 31st - April 5th

Tsaikotyk and myself have talked regularly about doing news wrap-ups in the past, and I figured it was about time that we do one.  There's not much from March that we haven't covered (besides D3: Reaper of Souls), so it's a pretty good time to get a jump on what's going on in April.

ANNOUNCED
Divekick Addition Edition hits tomorrow, April 4th, and has in store a BOATLOAD of changes. Not one character went untouched in this revision, and The Baz even got completely redesigned. In addition to this, the menus have been redesigned to work with directional pads, bugs have been fixed, and the style gem has been updated. For a complete list of changes, check out this list on Shoryuken.


RELEASED
Ashly Burch, famous for the webseries "Hey Ash Whatcha Playin" and her voice role as Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2, has just landed herself as the host in a new Geek and Sundry web-series.  Titled "Unplugged", the series takes two YouTubers and pits them against each other both in-game and the real world.  Contestants will have to battle it out in a predetermined game, but that's not the fun part.  After competing on the digital scale, players will then go head-to-head in a real-world competition that is as closely-related as safety allows to the game that they just completed.

Always glad to see the Burch family getting things done outside of HAWP, and I'm sure having Ashly as the host of Unplugged will do great things for both Geek & Sundry and Ashly herself.

PATCHED
Titanfall got its first major patch this week. After about a week of beta testing, Respawn has initiated changes in the way the matchmaking works.  The change is currently only in effect for Attrition and Hardpoint game modes, but is designed to put skill-matching above speed and level-matching.  After a few rounds, if the computer notices a clear difference in skill, it will make an attempt at remixing and re-balancing the teams. This should make games far more enjoyable and remove the frustration of being repeatedly dominated with no hope for new opponents.

The Big Releases of March 11th, 2014: Titanfall Review, Dark Souls II First Impressions

Having played as much of Titanfall and Dark Souls II as my tight schedule allows, I figured it was time to post my thoughts. Titanfall, being the bigger release, has gotten the bulk of this time, so a full review follows, whereas the sadly neglected Dark Souls II only gets a brief look at my first impressions with the few hours I've spent with it.

Review: Titanfall - Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

Last week I had the (dis)pleasure of being available for the midnight release of Titanfall on PC (via EA's Origin).  Now I know what you're thinking: "But Latency!  You told us you weren't going to be caught dead anywhere near that bug-ridden, server-crashing, lag-inducing piece of filth for the first week!"  Well, you'd be right except that money talks, and so when Tsaikotyk threw $80 at my PayPal and told me to go pre-order the digital deluxe edition, who was I to argue?

I probably should have though, because the launch was about everything I expected.  I spent roughly five hours in the game client and about one and a half actually playing.  The developers publicly acknowledged on launch night that there was a 'glitch' that caused the game to 'initialize' when searching for a server connection.  This didn't mean anything except that the client was now stuck diddling itself and didn't care much for connecting you.  Fucking called it.