Titanfall ditches the Titans for "Pilot Skirmish," a new gameplay mode coming in Update Six

Have you ever played Titanfall and thought to yourself, "This is cool, but it would be even better without the Titans?" If so, then I have some fantastic news: Pilot Skirmish, the new Featured Game Mode coming in Titanfall's Update Six, is exactly that.

Pilot Skirmish is an 8v8 battle mode that completely forgoes Titans or AI combatants. Because it's restricted to just pilots, it sounds like the scaling will be different as well; the update announcement warns that Pilot Skirmish will not be available in Variety Pack playlists "due to the difference in player sizes with the rest of the game modes."

The update features a number of other significant changes, including the addition of Marked For Death as a permanent game mode, three new visual modes for colorblind players, black market daily deals for Burn Cards, and the elimination of penalties for joining a game late. Visual effects and matchmaking have also been improved, changes to the HUD and voiceovers have been made, and of course various bugs have been fixed as well.

All good stuff, no doubt, but it's the Titan-free Titanfall bit I find intriguing. Is this something that players actually want? I don't play so I honestly don't know, but a game about giant fighting robots without the giant fighting robots seems like a weird move to me.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.