Wrestlevania

Hawken, or: Fuck Me, Mech Games Are BACK!

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God damn if that game doesn't look and sound incredible, when that huge ship flies in it's damn impressive and those turret animations look awesome.

I can appreciate that it's still in development, but I really hope they a lot more work into the HUD/cockpit, it looks kind of awful. I also can't understand why you get a heartbeat when you get low on health if you're a mech.

Apart from that though, that game looks beautiful and the gameplay seems like it could get insane in larger battles.

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I AM MOIST

It still doesn't feel mechy, it moves way too fast for a mech.

True. Everyone knows there's only one kind of mech anyway. :blink:

I also can't understand why you get a heartbeat when you get low on health if you're a mech.

Builds tension in the player. I think it's quite a clever little interface trick, personally.

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I quite like how this game looks hyper fucking amazing.

As for the heartbeat, isn't the point that there's a little man inside, pulling levers?

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yeah ok fine, have it your way.. so it is mechy

I really like the enormous level of detail in the levels. When paused the image almost looks like it was drawn. I hope they didn't spend all the time on just one level. Also, apparently it was made using Epic's UDK.

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I hope I'm wrong, but years of working with mods and looking at indie game submissions gives me the feeling they're showing almost everything they've got right now.

Really looking forward to it though :tup:

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True. Everyone knows there's only one kind of mech anyway. :blink:

I think it's understandable that people are getting mixed signals on the mechs themselves, given the disconnect between the look and movement we see in the trailers.

Builds tension in the player. I think it's quite a clever little interface trick, personally.

Can we make the assumption that the pilots nervous system is hooked into the suit/mech?

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It is a way better way of building tension than a flashing health bar or a booming robot voice saying "OUCH. MY DIODES". I suspect for every person nitpicking it, there are many more not.

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Or how about the man is in a metal walking coffin and shooting that coffin would of course release adrenaline.

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"OUCH. MY DIODES"

[Runs onto pitch, blows ref's whistle, gestures wildly towards penalty box]

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Even if there is one map I am fine with it as long as it is a good map. I played roughly 600 hours of TF2, 300-400 hours of that time was in tc_hydro I love learning every intricate detail and layout of a map. And the one map we have seen seems to have detail in droves with plenty of high and low spots for ambush.

Also more built in hud in games is a good thing.

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It is a way better way of building tension than a flashing health bar or a booming robot voice saying "OUCH. MY DIODES". I suspect for every person nitpicking it, there are many more not.

Mech.jpg

I can understand that the game uses a heartbeat sound effect to build tension in the player, it just doesn't make very much sense to me in the world. It was simply something that stood out to me at the time; i'm not saying "GO BACK AND REMOVE THAT GOD DAMN HEARTBEAT SOUND EFFECT, IT RUINS THE GAME IDIOTS!!" that would be ludicrous.

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The structural integrity emergency claxon in the Earthsiege games always did the trick for me. Damn that noise was terrifying.

I have to admit that the in-cockpit view has improved my opinion somewhat. Still too fast-moving (like Unreal Tournement fast) but I shall keep an eye on the mod.

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As a person who grew up playing all the Mechwarrior games, Heavy Gear, Starsiege, all those, it has been positively thrilling seeing mech sims somewhat in vogue again.

Mechwarrior 5 may be in limbo, but Hawken looks fantastic, and Armored Core V looks astoundingly awesome. (And it seems to be taking the best parts from the greatly underrated Chromehounds.)

And as the biggest WTF, there's also Trenched from Doublefine.

That that new Steel Battalion game looming on the horizon, but who knows what will come of that Kinect-tied weirdness.

Giant robots! Wooo!

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Interview with Hawken's developers over on EDGE Magazine's website.

It sounds like these guys have a good grasp on what they need to do, they're talking up a lot of the right things. The stuff he's saying about trying to find a balance between the two extremes of the genre... (Though I... Wouldn't really consider Virtual On a mech game, it's essentially a fighting game.)

Some of the details about how they're balancing it i find interesting, having boosting/dodging/jumping limited by a fuel gauge, and them playing around with recovery frames to discourage abuse of the jump.

When i first saw Hawken, i was afraid it was just going to be something like Mech Assault, but it sounds better and better.

I still want to see more details on what they're doing for mech lab elements though, it's obvious from the trailers that at least the weapons loadouts are customizable.

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http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/02/watched-like-a-hawk-hawken-dev-diary/

This looks pretty fantastic.

The customization options sound like they'll be pretty sparse, which i find disappointing.

The RPG-points thing he was talking about sounds like what Section 8 does, just having a set number of points to build up specialized attributes.

The core game mechanics look pretty great though, i see a lot of things that remind me of MechWarrior and Armored Core.

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It does look amazing.

Also, apparently somebody is trying to make a movie based on this, i found that rather silly and amusing.

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I am excited about this game.

Also, Sno, you just dredged this up from my unconscious:

Lktoanpc1VY

That trailer goes properly mental by the end.

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Haaaah, i loved that movie as a kid, it's so endearingly awful.

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Whoop, the closed beta was just announced! :clap:

...but the official launch date for the finished game is December?! :eek:

Anyway, you can sign up here. And yep, this is my personal referrer link - it should help improve our chances of getting into the closed beta if we sign up as a team. :woohoo:

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I was told they've announced a freemium model?

I have instant disinterest towards this project.

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I was told they've announced a freemium model?

I have instant disinterest towards this project.

Why?

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I'm just not really interested in playing a freemium game, with the connotations that often carries.

I'm not one of those people who is irrationally dismissive of the idea, but i'm going to put the impetus on them to show me a model that doesn't sacrifice fair and balanced game design.

MWO has made big promises of a model that takes balance seriously, so i'm still interested in that.

A level playing field is important to me, is all.

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