Iron Giants: I Think I've Fallen For Titanfall

Robots. Jetpacks. Guns. Men. Parkour. I can't believe no one put it together sooner. The formula for the ultimate videogame. Then just stir until your giant wooden spoon explodes from 37 different camera angles, and you have a multiplayer shooting delicacy that's sure to get tongues wagging. I know mine is. Respawn's put out another Titanfall trailer, and it's pure robo-blasting bliss. Also, we get a really nice look at how infantry combat's shaping up, and it's basically Prince of Persia with jetpacks. And rockets. And sky-high turbo-leaps that'd make satellites think twice about looking down. And and and and and

That's just... I mean, look at all of that. I don't usually get so animated over multiplayer shooters, but every otherwise rather well-worn piece snaps together magnificently here. Even the level, a fairly standard concrete playground called Angel City, is given new life by Titanfall's bounty of options - as is "attrition mode," which appears to be survival by another name.

The mechs look as savage as ever, but infantry combat really stole the show for me this time around. I'm really digging the fleet-footed vertical movement - bounding between suffocating cityscapes and open courtyards alike, skittering around like rats between the ankles of giants - and the sheer sense of scale. I also like how mechs aren't just inherently superior. Sometimes, you might need to hop out of your cockpit, set your loyal pup of a screeching machine beast to "follow," and scrub some enemy grime from hard-to-reach corners with your own two hands.

I doubt the story Respawn's trying to shoehorn in between/throughout matches will be anything to write home about, but who really cares? This looks utterly wild.

Titanfall will be out early next year.