With game developer Respawn Entertainment's very highly anticipated first-person shooter Titanfall available for both the Xbox One and Xbox 360, eager players have no doubt been pouring in countless hours of their free time into the fast and action-packed multiplayer of the title. Some of you may have been enjoying it that much, you may have gone as far as owning a copy on both the 360 and the One, and dare I say completed the One's version already!? Players who can't get enough of the mechanical madness will be pleased to know that a new DLC pack has been revealed along with a few details on the story behind the new maps.
Announced at the recent PAX East event, the upcoming "Expedition" DLC is set to feature three new maps — Runoff, Swamplands and Wargames. Unfortunately, no screens or videos were released with the news but there is a bit of a back-story to check out:
In the wake of the Battle of Demeter, IMC Expeditionary Forces travel deep into Frontier space to recover from their recent defeat. On an uncharted world, the IMC begin construction of a new fleet operations base, using newly acquired water collection and filtration plants to support the new base. When drainage operations reveal ancient ruins and artifacts of an unknown origin in a nearby swamp, Spyglass activates an archaeological team to investigate the site. To maintain battle readiness at the new base, IMC Pilots use simulation pods to train for anticipated Militia raids, based on lessons learned in Angel City and IMC Airbase Sierra.
In the "next steps" for Titanfall, the team behind the title will be aiming to keep the community happy and regularly informed as they look to improve on what they like to call "update tempo". Of course, speed is great, but of more importance will be the quality and execution of the upcoming updates and news the team will bring to us. Steve Fukuda, Game Director for Titanfall promises to keep the community "better appraised" as to what the team are up to and we will also hear from other developers from the title, allowing us to gain more info on upcoming updates and projects from a variety of "disciples".
Steve Fukuda provides us with an example of what we can expect to see in future updates as well as examples that have already been applied to the title:
Updates to Titanfall contain a variety of changes:
• First, we tend the garden and keep the weeds out. The focus here is on the current game, rather than adding new features. One category here would be minor tweaks and fixes, such as our recent adjustments to the Gooser challenge, more generous Hardpoint scoring for attacking players, and weapon balance tweaks to the Titan 40mm and Quad Rocket. Our ongoing improvements to matchmaking also fall into this group. This is all about the core health of the game.
• Next, there are "convenience features" - these are not huge infrastructural pieces, but they will make your life more pleasant in Titanfall, and they tend to be related to things you use or do repeatedly. For example, our most recent update introduced the requested Party Colors feature, allowing you to easily identify fellow party members both in game and in the lobby. The next update will bring more convenience features such as: the ability to rename your custom loadouts and to make custom loadouts specific to each game mode, a way to filter your Challenges by criteria such as 'closest to complete', and displaying the final scoreboard from your previous match in the Last Game Summary so you can review the scores at your leisure in the lobby.
• Then there are the "infrastructural features". One example of this is the recent beta release of Private Match. In future updates, we'll be bringing you the first wave of custom Private Match options, allowing you to personally tweak your Private Match experience in a variety of ways. Whenever possible, we want to get these kinds of features out early in beta form, in order to get your feedback and arrive at the best possible result through multiple iterations. Competition-oriented and what we call 'competitive spirit' features also fall into this category. More on that in future updates.
Map packs won't be the only thing added to Titanfall; fans will also be able to get their hands on new Burn Card sets that can give players a slight edge in battle when applied and used correctly. New "Nose Art Insignias" have also been mentioned, which will allow players to give their Titan a unique look, and new game modes and various game mode variants will also be on the way to keep the variety of matches nice and spicy.
Titanfall's upcoming "Expedition" DLC map pack is currently without a confirmed release date. We do know that this map pack, and the next two to be released further on in the future, will each be available for $9.99. Those looking to purchase all the packs can save a bit of money and pick up the game's Season Pass for US$24.99 / £19.99/ €24.99 / AU$33.45. No pricing has been confirmed for the map packs individually outside of North America.
Thank you to all of the members of the community who sent this news in!