After four years or so, Heavy Gear Assault has finally made its way to Steam. This is an Unreal Engine 4 reboot of sorts and is multiplayer only. The game itself has had a troubled history, as its crowdfunding campaign imploded and it sounds like the financial situation since has been sketchy at best. The bad news in all this is that this is not a proper final release of the game but instead an early access beta. I can understand why they have done this from a cashflow sense but these kinds of early releases tend to backfire pretty badly. In any case, we have a new Heavy Gear game to sort of play, so there’s that at least. If you want to play Heavy Gear Assault you will need to first register an account and then purchase one of the starter packs.

Update: Turns out the game is stuck in limbo until Valve get around to approving it.

For those that have been playing MechWarrior Online, it seems that the same studio Piranha Games has also been working on a new mainline game in the series. Titled MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries it’s now made the shift over to Unreal Engine 4, from MechWarrior Online’s CryEngine. In the latest reveal trailer (shown below), we get to see an old Shadow Hawk taken through its paces (shown above). This particular unit is also one not without controversy, as like many of the early BattleTech designs the Shadow Hawk was actually a straight up copy of the Dougram.

Now, when I interviewed Kunio Okawara, the designer behind Dougram, and Rysosuke Takahashi, the writer and director for the series, fairly recently neither seemed that fussed about this kind borrowing of material. However, Takahashi did make a point to say that it was really Sunrise’s call on whether anything should be done about the situation. That said, when I also interviewed Shoji Kawamori about his designs being used in BattleTech he wasn’t best pleased.

In short, even after all these years the BattleTech and subsequent MechWarrior games are still not free of this Unseen controversy. The fact that MechWarrior 5 went with the Shadow Hawk as part of its reveal seems a strangely unnecessary move, when they can clearly design something fresh and new instead (though this version of the Shadow Hawk has already been reworked quite a bit). This is also something of an ongoing issue with the MechWarrior series, as I covered some licensing issues back in 2009.

Personally, I am glad to see a new mainline MechWarrior game but after all the ineptitude surrounding MechWarrior Online I am not holding out any hope that this will be any good. Currently, there is no news of a release date or platform but I am guessing it will make its way to PC at some point.

The previously released Assault Suits Leynos remake on PS4 is now finally released on PC, via Steam. The remake was developed by Dracue Software, the studio that also made the excellent Gunhound games. However, this remake of Leynos is a mixed bag and while not as bad as the PS2 update to Valken isn’t exactly great either. If you’re an ardent PC gamer then you might want to check out Gunhound EX before delving into this Leynos remake.

Along with Hawken coming to Xbox One, the game will also be released on PS4. The latest trailer (shown below) also clarifies that the game will also remain free-to-play on consoles. Considering that whole monetization setup killed Hawken on PC, I had hoped they would have gone back to the game’s origins and do something more standalone. I still think the fact that Hawken wasn’t released as a straightforward downloadable arcade game on the 360 is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the last console generation.

The game is now being handled by Reloaded Games and 505 Games. Thus far, they seem to be doing a better job than Meteor Entertainment did, as they pretty much killed the community through overt greed and incompetence. I feel sad for the old team at Adhesive Games though, as seeing their work resurrected like this must be difficult.

That said, Hawken is finally getting a wider release. Let’s hope that this time the game survives a bit better and finds the audience on console it so badly needs.

Following the first Titanfall released back in 2014, we now have an all-new and shinier Titanfall 2 on the way later this year. While the first game mostly serviced Xbros, this new game will also be coming out on PS4. The game looks good though and this time around there’s an actual proper singleplayer mode and the new grapple mechanics give me major Lost Planet 2 feels. While the singleplayer mecha setup looks interesting, in terms of narrative, the mecha themselves still look like they handle akin to people in robot suits.

Admittedly, the whole “Titans aren’t mecha” hilarity is probably worth bringing up here but I know that members of Respawn read this humble site and seem to enjoy it, so it’s clear that one guy’s slightly nutty viewpoint on mecha doesn’t represent a whole studio.

If I am brutally honest, while I personally enjoyed the first game, the mecha were dull to play with. This was proven out by the fact that both Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III only copied the powered suit parkour from Titanfall and eschewed the mecha. It’s a shame as the Titans looks amazing but I just wish they had been more vehicular in terms of their control, rather than just feel like a slow and heavy dude.

The singleplayer and multiplayer trailers are shown below and Titanfall 2 comes out this October.

Last November; Indie developer Dreamloop Games released Stardust Galaxy Warriors to Steam, and… well. It seems hardly anyone noticed. Ourselves included.

What is it? It’s a casual, mecha themed shmup game featuring local co-op. It’s also sporting some great stage visuals, as well as an incredibly fun soundtrack which you can actually listen to here! It’s also available for purchase on Steam. You can choose from 4 different mecha, each with their own abilities, as well as selecting your weapon setup before launching. The game also boasts some light RPG elements, as you can choose different upgrades after beating a stage. This game certainly is fun, and if you’re the kind of person who likes to customize their experience; you can switch things up in the options. Giving you the options for things like enemy durability, fire rate, and more. The game can change as you want it.

With just 38 reviews on steam right now, this title really didn’t receive a lot of attention. Something I don’t quite understand. While researching the game in order to write this small article, I’ve found those who have played it seem to love it. The devs are nothing to turn your nose up at either it seems, as they’re quite passionate and really care about providing a quality product. As this Steam review I found highlights. I really look forward to seeing what Dreamloop has in store for the future. You can view the trailer for Stardust Galaxy Warriors below.

Remember Hawken? The game that promised so much, only to dash all of that against the jagged rocks of an abysmally implemented free-to-play business model. Well, Hawken still survives and while the companies behind the scenes have shifted around somewhat the game still limps on. However, the good news here is that finally Hawken is coming to console. As a Taiwanese rating entry lists the game as coming to Xbox One courtesy of 505 Games. Bear in mind though, Hawken was originally meant as a console game so it seems that it is finally coming home.

We always loved the Kow Yokoyama infused mecha designs, despite the fact the creative team behind it said that they weren’t mecha at all. Fun times. The game was good too and had a great arcade sensibility to it, it’s just a pity that the approach to monetization was completely awful. These days you can still play the game on PC but it will be interesting to see how Hawken will do once it finally reaches console.

If like me you saw Fallout 4’s power armour, and began to imagine the Gundam or mecha related possibilities in that through modding. Then like me you’re probably pretty disappointed, and a little confused at the lack of such mods. Even after almost 6 months since release, and more than a week since the G.E.C.K was released… Nadda, zip, zilch, and boy have I looked.

It’s not all bad news however, as mod author Artesia58 came up with a sound effects replacement mod named Ultimate Robot Sound that replaces the standard power armor sounds with ones from Mobile Suit Gundam. Not only that but an optional file also replaces the laser rifle’s stock sfx with that of the Gundam’s famous beam rifle, the V.A.T.S noise with the Newtype flash, AND replaces the “flames” paint scheme for the T-45 power armour with a Char’s Custom scheme instead. Over all I’m pretty impressed, and it works really well in game. It’s just tons of fun.

I went ahead and made a small video to demo the mod, which you can view below. So if you’ve got Fallout 4 and you really want a little more Gundam in it. I can’t recommend this mod highly enough.

Having completed the playable demo available via Steam, here a few of my first impressions for the upcoming indie mecha game Dual Gear.

No bugs encountered, just a few rough edges. As expected. Game play was pretty intuitive, and I didn’t really need to bother with the tutorial at all. Battle system is a real time, strategy/turn based hybrid with movement based auto counter attacking. So positioning will be key. AI is pitifully stupid right now. You can avoid most damage by using terrain as cover. The AI will attack you as if you’re out in the open. Graphics are pleasing, clean. Needs some refining, as I am seeing a lot of jagged edges even with all settings maxed on 1080p. Speaking of. The game doesn’t appear to be a graphical power house but it was really working my GTX970. Even experiencing some odd surges in power needed. In spite of this, it still ran above 60 frames per-second without issue.

The UI could use a bit of work. Just to make things a tad clearer. The info it displayed felt muddy, not obvious as to what it was telling me. The mecha featured were well designed aesthetically, and made me quite eager to see what the customization will add to that. The combat was fun to engage in. The missiles and long range cannon were really fun to use, and made short work of enemies. Melee was confusing at first. Looks like it’s a timing based attack(at least with the sword). The blowing off of limbs is fun to watch as well. You can free aim weapons, but it didn’t appear to me that you could specifically target areas of the body. As long as your reticule was on the enemy, you just fired center mass.

This demo was simply fun. It really does remind me of games such as Front Mission, Armored Core, and a bit of Sakura Taisen

Now, you must keep in mind. All of this is Pre-Alpha. So a it is very early build of the game we’re seeing here, all of this then is subject to change. Although it’s already shaping up to be a great new mecha intellectual property.

We’ve been keeping an eye on Dual Gear since its Indiegogo campaign was announced a while back. Using Unreal Engine 4 it looks to be an interesting blend of turn based strategy coupled with a more action based approach. While it’s sad to see the crowdfunding campaign not supported as fully as it could be, the game now has a demo on Steam. Visually it looks good too and we really appreciate the mecha design as well. Developed by a small team in Thailand, we hope this game gets the support and recognition it so clearly deserves.