TannisRoot on 8/5/2015 at 16:05
Whatever happened to western mech (slow, lumbering giant robot) sims? Why did they fall out of fashion?
There's Mechwarrior Online ('13) and Hawken ('12). Are those still popular? Do people still use joysticks for these games? :p
Is there anything exciting on the horizon? Something with a single player campaign?
van HellSing on 8/5/2015 at 16:14
Don't know about Mechwarrior Online, but Hawken isn't really a sim. More like your regular fps where you happen to be a mech.
Also, the same thing happened that happened to all sims.
Tony_Tarantula on 8/5/2015 at 18:36
They don't fit on a gamepad, and companies decided it was easier bucks to target the teenager audience by marketing Call of Duty 1/2/3/4/5/BL1/BL2/BL3/FC and it's knockoffs?
Pretty much the same thing that happened to any genre that wasn't "dudebro FPS" during the 360/PS3 generation.
Fortunately the trend seems to be reversing given the enormous amount of hype that's been generated for upcoming sim type games.
van HellSing on 8/5/2015 at 18:42
That's also true, the resurgence of PC gaming and related genres is big right now. I guess it's not long before a mech sim gets successfully kickstarted/pitched.
henke on 8/5/2015 at 19:10
I played a very good alpha version of a Oculus Rift mech game recently called (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA1dSJ3j-9o) Vox Machinae. I'm not a huge mech head so I couldn't compare it to other games in the genre, but the feeling of weight and momentum in this lumbering mass of death was great. Also it played great on a gamepad, so nyah!
Oh, and Lost Planet 3! Loved the mech in that one because it's not the kind you usually get in mech games. It's a utility vehicle, not a war machine. Which of course only makes it cooler when you do have to use it for (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQCd_K-Yxfg) fighting aliens with. But mostly I like it because it's just so... personal, and cozy. Outside the harsh winds of EDN III are blowing, but inside his rig Jim Peyton sits comfortably, listening to the mixtape his wife sent him and sippin' on a cup o' joe. Like he says at one point
"I've got three things in this world. My wife, my kid, and my rig. Guess which one I'm depending on to provide for the other two." Have I said lately how much I liked Lost Planet 3? I really liked it.
henke on 9/5/2015 at 07:08
You know what? This thread got me thinking that I, as an indie dev, really should do my part in bringing mechs back into gaming. If I ever do a big update to Stilt Fella it'll include a new unlockable character: THE MECH WARRIOR. I mean it'll basically just be Stilt Fella with a big cardboard box draped over him, but it'll still be pretty cool.
Yakoob on 9/5/2015 at 20:49
I did see a new mech game in development while at the Gdc but the name totally escapes my mind right now. Tried Googling bit didn't have much luck. It was at the gdc play section iirc
icemann on 10/5/2015 at 07:56
Not sure what happened with Mech sims. I absolutely loved Mechwarrior 1 and 2. Much more so with the second game + it's expansions (Mercenaries FTW).
I didn't play the 3rd game in the series until MUCH later (3 years ago I think), but I did play Heavy Gear 1 & 2 which worked off the same game engine as MW 2, and those game were excellent.
On consoles you had the Front Mission rpg / strategy series (depending on which entry you play), plus numerous others.
But yeah, I'm not sure what happened.
henke on 10/5/2015 at 14:11
Actually it seems like mech games have been doing fine on console. From Software have made a bunch, mainly the Armored Core series, but also the only-ever-released-in-Japan XBox game Metal Wolf Chaos, which uh... looks kind of amazing.
[video=youtube;7CWshYtxTe0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CWshYtxTe0[/video]
icemann on 12/5/2015 at 07:06
They are quite different though. Western style Mech games vs Japanese style. Western goes more Battletech direction generally with really detailed back stories (try sitting down and reading the entire back story of Mechwarrior 2 in the in-game database, you'll be sitting there for the rest of the day), and Japanese style which goes more in a Voltron / Power Rangers and Gungnam direction.
Also the Western ones I've played have tended to be based all over the galaxy and not focused on a singular planet, where as the Japanese ones have all centered on Earth for the most part.
