mektek-studios 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.

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]

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.

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]

Today's official announcement that a new MechWarrior game is in the works is big news just by itself. But there's another totally unexpected revelation that fans of the game series will be happy to hear. The franchise's current owner Smith and Tinker have revealed that the last PC game in the series, MechWarrior 4 will be released for free in the near future along with its expansion packs.

The game, released in 2000 by Microsoft, will be repackaged and released via Mektek Studios via the Battletech.net web site. It's all a part of the 25th anniversary of BattleTech, the sci-fi board game which is the basis for the MechWarrior series.