 I'm David with The Verge and this is Titanfall. When we talk about this new generation of gaming, this is the title that comes up in every conversation. It's arguably the first true next-gen game for Xbox One, the one that was in all the console launch commercials, even though it wouldn't come out for months. Its most next-gen feature is the way Titanfall blends multiplayer and single-player games. The demo we tried was mostly standard kill-or-be-killed multiplayer, but Titanfall is designed to add some cinematics and AI directions to make the game feel more like a campaign, even when you're playing with other people. The developers think your Xbox One is always going to be online and connected, and the game takes full advantage. At its core, Titanfall is a team-based first-person shooter set sometime in the future. Essentially, it's about pilots and titans, hyper-agile human soldiers in the giant mech suits they can climb in and out of. It's like David and Goliath, if David had a jetpack and was a parkour expert, and Goliath used a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It isn't as one-sided as you might think, though. From the point of view of a titan, pilots are very small and out in the open. They're cannon fodder. But every pilot has a jetpack that lets him run on walls and free-run quickly through dense buildings. Pilots can attack from any angle, change direction mid-air, and each one has a rocket launcher or some other anti-titan weapon. The extra freedom and control is actually a little jarring at first, but it very quickly becomes second nature. The important thing, though, is that you'll never be stuck playing either a titan or a pilot for very long. Every few minutes, faster if you play well, players can call in a titan from the sky and start wreaking chaotic havoc with cannons and missiles. Like most modern shooters, you can customize the weapons and equipment for both pilot and titan. More options become available as you level up, and more weapon modifications unlock as you play. A lot of the customization feels like Call of Duty, and for good reason. Titanfall is the first game from Respawn Entertainment, a company founded by former heads of the studio that created Call of Duty and shepherded it through Modern Warfare 2. Really, most of the game isn't exactly breaking new ground, but where Titanfall excels is creating a sense of scale and balance. It never feels too unwieldy controlling a huge titan, or too erratic running around as a much smaller foot soldier, even though the whole world is climbable. The game is designed to keep you constantly engaged. Even when your team is getting crushed, there's a chance at redemption by ejecting from your titan or heading to the evac point. Titanfall is due out March 11th for Xbox One and PC. An Xbox 360 version from outside developer Bluepoint is due out two weeks later. Microsoft really needs this game to be the next Halo, the killer app that makes people go out and buy an Xbox One. We've only spent a few hours playing a multiplayer demo, but it really looks like this game might meet that goal. It looks incredible, it feels fresh, and with simple controls and forgiving aim, it's surprisingly easy to pick up and play. But still, there's a lot of Titanfall left for us to play, a lot of the world left to discover, and a lot of things to blow up from the cockpit of a giant machine.