mechwarrior-4 posts

Over a year ago it was announced that developer Piranha Games was developing a new Mechwarrior game after a hiatus of several years for the sci-fi action game franchise. Now comes word that another developer, MekTek, that helped to bring us a free version of Mechwarrior 4 is developing its own game set in the same game universe.

That game, as revealed at IndieDB.com, is Solaris Assault Tech, a multiplayer-oriented game where the 50-foot mech battle each other in arena-style combat. The game is being developed by using Epic Games' UDK engine tools. MekTek says it is working directly with MechWarrior's owners at Smith and Tinker on this game for a commercial release. The studio has also consulted with Piranha Games, saying, "We learned that our project will not interfere with commercial development as their title is not an Arena game." MekTek hopes Solaris Assault Tech could serve as a commercial expansion to Piranha Games' project.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

The Mechwarrior series is one of the better in gaming. Based upon an old board game, they have consistently put players into the cockpits of complicated war machines and told them to, plainly, "figure it out." While the second is one of the most revered classics on the PC, there have been four main series games to date. The last is Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, and while it may have not received the attention that Mechwarrior 2 did on release, it's grown considerably in appeal as time has gone on. The folks at MekTek have partnered with Microsoft and the remnants of FASA to bring this excellent game to everyone for free, and with it being free, there's now no reason not to play it. After all, it's a large, commercial-quality game that runs beautifully on modern systems.

After a pretty rocky launch, the official Mektek Studios web site is back online as is a new version of their MTX download software for the free version of MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries. The web site got overwhelmed right after the game's release last Friday due to the mass amount of traffic to get the free version of the 2002 sci-fi action-sim title.

The new version of the download client is no longer dependent on the web site to work which Mektek says should allow the software to work better under heavy traffic. The client was released to "serve the many updates we have planned in the near future" which apparently includes more MechWarrior titles. However the studio does plan to release a stand alone installer for both the game and the MTX software "very shortly." They state, "We realize MTX caused grief for many folk and we apologize. We hope our 100,000 guests that crashed our server this weekend will return and not be too disgruntled."

Update: Looks like the Mektek web site is down once again.

Update 2: And it's back up.
Download the MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries MTX Installer at Big Download

Last Friday, after nearly a year of waiting, the free release of Microsoft's 2002 action-sim game MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries was released by Mektek Studios. Looking back, perhaps they should have waited a little longer. The web site, which hosted a client that downloaded the full 1.8 GB title for you, went down within hours of releasing the client after getting hit with tons of traffic. The site is still down as of the posting of this article

The game can still be downloaded according to Tateru Nino, one of the writers for our sister site Massively. She has figured out a way to get the game and install it on your PC. However the procedure seems to be fairly complicated, especially for a game that's supposed to be free. So tackle this task at your own risk. We plan to contact Microsoft and MekTek at the beginning of the new week to get their comments on this botched release and if they plan to try again.

Update: There are reports that if you can get the game to download via the client software the multiplayer servers are up and working again although the Mektek web site is still not working

Download the MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries MTX Installer at Big Download

It took nearly a year after it was first announced but today gamers get to download and play the full version of Microsoft's action-sim game MechWarrior 4 for free. Actually the game that's being released is MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries, the stand alone expansion pack that was released in 2002. The MekTek Studios web site, who has been in charge of developing this version of the game, has now released the title via its own download software which you can grab at the MekTek web site.

The client downloads the free version of MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries along with a ton of extra free content that's been made by third party developers. In addition to the game itself, there have been some improvements from the original release of the game including added security and multiplayer features.

Download the MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries MTX Installer at Big Download

Just a few weeks ago it looked like the planned free release of the sci-fi action-sim game MechWarrior 4 wasn't going to happen for a long time. The project, which was announced in the summer of 2009, had been held up by Microsoft's legal eagles. Now the MekTek Studios web site has announced that Microsoft "has given the all clear for the free release of Mechwarrior 4."

While a date has not been announced for the game's re-release as a free title, the web site states it is "imminent." The game was originally released in 2000. It's currently unknown if the game's expansion packs will be a part of the free version.

[Via Blue's News]

Just a couple of days ago, we reported on some hopeful news on the planned free release of Microsoft's MechWarrior 4. The plan to release the action-sim game for free was first announced last summer but has been held up on Microsoft's end. Now MekTek, the group behind the porting of the game to become a free title, reports that its release is still in question.

According to their web site, " ... the Free Release is held up at Microsoft and it is unknown to us and our Studio when the Free Release will be given the final go ahead." They added that their own costs are going up including , oddly, insurance prices. They state " . . . we were forced to insure our Studio at a premium rate to meet the Microsoft standard. Our insurance policy is a one year lease and we are unable to tap out of this policy until next fall." MekTek is taking donations to offset server costs as well. In the meantime, MekTek has released a new MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries mod pack that for free but still requires the original game be installed

Last November we reported that the promised free release of MechWarrior 4 was being held up by the game's owner Microsoft even though the actual work to turn the game into a free release was basically done. In a recent post on the MekTek web site, the people behind the free conversion have given a brief update on their progress.

In essence, the update states that the MekTek team have been in touch with Microsoft about the free release of MechWarrior 4 and "we hope to have some good news soon. Stay tuned." The free release of the game was announced at the same time as Piranha Games' plans to develop a full revival of the MechWarrior franchise for the PC. However since that announcement in July there's been no word on the game's progress.

Last summer fans of the MechWarrior franchise were excited when news hit that a free version of MechWarrior 4 would be released. However its been some time since that announcement was made and there's been no real updates on what's happening on that front.

This week, the team behind the freeversion at MekTek posted up an update on their site declaring that "the release is ready". So what's the hold up. In a word: Microsoft. According to the site the game's developer and owner Microsoft "has endured several administrative changes which currently impede the release." However meetings are scheduled to be held later this month and MechWarrior's current owners Smith and Tinker believe that after those meetings take place "it will only take 1-2 more days before permission is granted."

It's been a little while since it was announced that the mech action game Mechwarrior 4 would be released for free. However it's taken a little while longer to get that game out to the masses. A recent update on the Mektek Studios web site says the release is coming "very shortly" but that they have some hurdles to deal with.

Some of them are technical (removing the game's DRM, replacing the online matchmaking service and creating a more streamlined patching system) but some are on the legal side as well. Ultimately the free release of Mechwarrior 4 seems to have been a much bigger undertaking than the volunteers in charge of it thought it would be and they state, "We hope the community will continue to support us during this very busy time to ensure we have the best possible hardware in place for this release."

[Via Blue's News]