mechwarrior 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]

Over two years ago MechWarrior franchise owners Microsoft game a mod team called Wandering Samurai permission to go ahead with their free MechWarrior-based mod project for Crysis. Now at long last the mod team has released the first beta for the mod, titled MechWarrior: Living Legends.

Yes, even before the actual official MechWarrior game revival from developer Piranha Games is released you can try out this beta mod which requires the latest version of Crysis, the 2007 shooter from developer Crytek. In the meantime you can check out a launch trailer, which has lots of gameplay footage, from the mod, after the jump.

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."

While developer Piranha Games is working on a revival of the Mechwarrior game franchise, it's looking like the action-sim game series could be getting attention from Hollywood. Our sister site Joystiq, working with unnamed sources, is reporting that a Mechwarrior feature film is in the works.

The movie rights to the franchise are currently owned by The Tornante Company, which is headed up by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. According to Joystiq the movie version will have a screenplay from Michael Gordon. His previous credits include 300 and this year's G.I. Joe flick. It sounds like any Mechwarrior movie is still a long way from completion but with the financial success of the Transformers films perhaps Hollywood will be more interested in such a project.

PC gamers all over were happy to hear about a revival of the MechWarrior sci-fi action sim franchise earlier this year but now comes word that all may not be all wine and roses with this new version of the series. According to IGN Harmony Gold, the owner of the Robotech franchise, have asked IGN to remove the trailer that was used to introduce the new game series. That trailer has since been released out in the open and has been hosted on a number of sites including Big Download. As of the posting of this article, Big Download has yet to receive such an request to pull the trailer.

According to the story, Harmony Gold claims that there was content used in the trailer that are trademarked by them as part of the Robotech franchise. It's currenty unknown what specific content Harmony Gold objects to in the trailer and there's been no response from developer Piranha Games about this new development.