Gaming

How I fell in love with Titanfall 2 – Reader’s Feature


Titanfall 2 – never say never

A reader explains his unexpected love affair with Titanfall 2 and how video games offer the best value for money of any form of entertainment.

From the concealment of an air conditioning unit I scan the near horizon to spot a figure scuttle from cover across the rooftop. I raise my trusty G2 assault rifle and frantically squeeze off half a dozen shots aimed roughly in their direction. Miraculously, my shots hit home and they go down. For my marksmanship skills I’ve finally managed to fill up my Titan meter, so I call in for Titanfall and my preferred choice of robotic mayhem – Tone – comes crashing to earth in a pillar of dust.

I scramble from safety and speed across the rooftops to my awaiting Titan in anticipation of dealing even greater carnage with Tone’s 40mm cannon and tracker rockets. Unfortunately for me, just as I’m getting on board enemy Ronin and Legion Titans round the corner, peppering my beloved war machine with bullets and sword strikes. Before I even have a chance to fire back I’m auto ejected, as my Titan explodes in a ball of flame and shrapnel. All is not lost though, as I fall to earth I fire off a rocket from my rocket launcher before landing on my nemesis and tossing a grenade down the hull – BOOM! Legion becomes a smoking pile on the floor.

Victory for my team flashes up on the screen – it seems I’ve dealt the final blow and managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to win. A short while later the scoreboard comes up and I give myself a little mental fist pump after discovering I was the second highest scorer in the game. That’s pretty good for me; I rarely come second and coming first is rarer still. Nevertheless, not bad for someone who doesn’t really play multiplayer games.

You see, I purchased Titanfall 2 in an Xbox Live sale a couple of years ago for the princely sum of £4.99. At the time it was a punt because I’d heard the campaign was good, if brief, and I wanted to give it a go but had shied away from the full asking price because as a campaign-only gamer I was never going to play the multiplayer, which seemed to be the game’s primary selling point.

Consequently, I completed the short campaign, thought it was pretty good, and was going to uninstall the game when I decided to quickly fire up the multiplayer element just to pique my curiosity, as I’d read it was a bit different from the usual run and gun multiplayer games.

Two years and 1,500 multiplayer games later I’m still playing. In that time, I’ve nearly won as many games as I’ve lost, still haven’t got the hang of the majority of weapons and Titans, and loose almost every close encounter I’ve run into. But more importantly I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

It seems to me that, more than any other entertainment medium, gaming offers some serious bang for your buck. Single-player games frequently offer 15-30 hours of campaign – more if you want to explore every inch of the world and collect all the gumph. If you’re into multiplayer games you can play for as many hours as you can stomach. Heck, some of the most popular games are completely free to play, provided you resist the temptation of loot boxes and cosmetic items.

To put it into perspective; I paid nearly £6 for a pint in some ‘trendy’ bar in London the other day. Compare this with my purchase of Titanfall 2 which, based on the number of games I’ve played, has cost me approximately 0.003p per game! There can be no denying that’s some serious value for money. It often feels I’m fleecing EA rather than the other way around.

When arcades were still a thing I remember feeding a local Killer Instinct arcade machine with 50p coins (£2 in today’s money) way back in 1994 to play a game which would invariably last no longer than 10 minutes, if I was lucky. I’m not complaining but how did modern gaming with all the advanced graphics and hours and hours of gameplay become so comparatively cheap? I realise you also have to purchase a computer/console to play the games on but that really is the only barrier to entry and thereafter you have access to a cornucopia of games offering countless hours of fun.

So, my question is: what games have you played that have gone on to offer great value for money? Did you, like me, accidentally stumble across a game you still play to this day or are you simply a Call Of Duty die hard that’s played more online matches than you care to remember? Perhaps you simply love Bloodborne and have honed your skills to perfection replaying and replaying the game until you feel you know the game like the back of your hand.

It would be great to hear of people’s most played/best value for money games. Perhaps it may inspire others, myself included, to try something they never thought they would like and go on to enjoy countless hours of entertainment.

In the meantime, I might just meet you on the battlefield of Titanfall 2 – just hopefully not from the business end of your assault rifle!

By reader Heinz57

The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.

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