A fan project to resurrect the classic Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries reaches fruition, and nearly dies from its own success!
The earth shook from the stomping of 100 tonne mecha over the weekend, as the MekTek team finally released Mechwarrior 4 Free.
The project has been in limbo following issues with the game's former publisher, Microsoft, but those troubles are passed and the final full package - including updated multiplayer, all the add-ons, and a mess of new features and inclusions is out for download.
And, like it says on the tin, this labour of love is completely free.
And, like many free projects built on love... the launch was a little jerky. Over 100,000 people tried to download the game, and since its install is server-based, the entire system crashed. But it's up and running now. After announcing the server uptime, here's what the MekTek team had to say:
Please remember that we are not being paid to bring you this game, at absolutely no cost to you. But please realize,that there is considerable cost to us, not only in time, but also financially. Between the costs of server upgrades, insurance, lost time from our day jobs, and sleepless nights attempting to bring you this game, we have paid a considerable price. All we ask in return is a little bit of patience.
And fair enough - we're going to download the game tonight, and we're fully expecting it to completely tear us away from our current gaming habits (Bad Company 2, Torchlight and the odd spot of Star Trek Online).
Keep an eye out for a report in the coming days.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012