By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2012 at 2:00 pm.
Jump-jets and chainguns are going to be tested to their limit between October 26th-29th as Hawken throws itself into the oily maelstrom of closed beta testing. The sign-up thingum is here. At some point thereafter there will be an open beta, I believe, before the game of robot-combat becomes a fully-fledged free-to-play affair. If you need reasons to be excited about all this then I’d recommend having a read of Adam’s Hands On experience with the game, and watching this game footage.
Entirely unrelated Daft Punk track posted below.
12/10/2012 at 14:09 KikiJiki says:
Game is good, people should sign up if interested! I imagine the matchmaking engine will need a fair number of people for a good test.
12/10/2012 at 14:13 vonkrieger says:
Ah RPS, now not only deciding what games I should play but the music I should listen to.
I approve, and look forward to the next piece of frivolous agency you can amputate with your surgeon-pens.
12/10/2012 at 14:13 Clavus says:
I’ve been playing the closed alpha. Best mech game I’ve ever played (although that doesn’t say much). They somehow manage to combine fast-paced gameplay with bulky ravaging mechs. The visuals are pretty great too.
12/10/2012 at 14:54 x1501 says:
Is it really better than the original Mechwarrior games? I’m almost afraid to get my hopes up.
12/10/2012 at 15:29 haradaya says:
No. It’s not a simulator. It’s a fast paced shooter. But the mech aesthetics are very good.
12/10/2012 at 19:45 hamburger_cheesedoodle says:
I’m in both the MWO and Hawken test groups, and they are indeed very different games. MWO feels like a simulator, it’s got a lot of depth and richness to it as far as the developers thinking about it as you piloting a mech goes. Hawken is Unreal or Quake with a mech theme. That said, it’s very very fun. It’s just not really comparable to the Mechwarrior series, they’re not really trying to do the same thing.
13/10/2012 at 05:00 Sic says:
I’m a bit afraid to speak up, but no; it’s not anywhere near MW2.
It feels like Unreal Tournament without proper maps.
12/10/2012 at 16:02 JBantha says:
did the NDA died?! Are we free?! Can speak of our expectations and realities?! Finally?! Is this the smell of Freedom!?
12/10/2012 at 22:09 TechnicalBen says:
The Alpha NDA never dies AFAIK. You can only ever comment on the Open Beta when it released.
To which I add, having played the Alpha and keeping non-NDA breaking, GET THE BETA it’s gonna be great. That’s about all I can suggest. :D
12/10/2012 at 14:24 John Connor says:
If we already enlisted and got into the alpha, do we have to enlist again for the beta?
12/10/2012 at 14:29 Jeo says:
I would also like to know this, the launcher from the Alpha gives me an “Unable to download manifest” error.
12/10/2012 at 14:39 mrmalodor says:
The alpha is over. Those who played during the final alpha stress test will get into the closed beta.
12/10/2012 at 14:46 Muzman says:
TB played it for a while at PAX if people want a taste that way.
http://youtu.be/Pv5bOOg2pLE
It’s got an interesting vibe to it. Sort of not quite high-speed-old-school-DM (quite a bit slower really), but faster than ‘tactical shooter’ stuff. The mechs are fairly quick with jets etc but restricted in certain ways, so it’s not just slow Q3A with a mech look. You’re actually going to have to think about how you move around.
12/10/2012 at 14:47 Hunchback says:
Looks awesome, even though a bit too fast for a “mech” game. Still, will definitely play the hell out of this one day.
I wish MWO would take note of the out-of-combat interface these guys are providing and adjust theirs, tbh MWO’s “launcher/menu/whatever-it’s-called” is really shite.
12/10/2012 at 14:59 gulag says:
Agreed.
Both this and MechWarrior Online are really great, divergent takes on the same thing, but MWO really needs to pull its socks up regarding it’s pre-match/garage interface.
12/10/2012 at 14:52 Shortwave says:
I love this game way too much.
Everyone and their mother should probably sign up.
12/10/2012 at 15:07 HisMastersVoice says:
I do hope they’ll give us more than 4 days for the new build and maybe a few more servers too. Getting a game during Alpha 2 wasn’t easy.
12/10/2012 at 16:34 wodin says:
I played the Beta..cool game..but I felt something was lacking..not sure what.
12/10/2012 at 16:35 wodin says:
Oh and it isn’t that fast..not compared to COD anf BF3 etc etc. Maybe fast for a Mech game but I found it OK.
12/10/2012 at 16:49 Radiant says:
How are adhesive funded?
This seems like a very expensive game made without a publisher. I’m very curious how they got this project rolling.
12/10/2012 at 17:02 Hunchback says:
Wasn’t it just two guys coding this for lulz, at the start?
12/10/2012 at 17:24 emotionengine says:
PEDANTRY ALERT: Just because they may have had fun doing it doesn’t mean they were doing it “for lulz”. (Also. regarding the question at hand, I don’t have the foggiest).
12/10/2012 at 17:07 ilves says:
I found it sort of meh so far. Cool ideas, cool level of detail and UI everywhere, but just didn’t grab me. Got bored very quickly.
12/10/2012 at 17:48 zaphod42 says:
Same. Played the beta, Its cool, it plays well and looks GREAT considering the size of the team, but… eh.
Its a faster version of Mechwarrior Online. That’s cool, but I don’t really care that much about MWO right now either.
They’re both pretty cool, but I’ve got XCOM and Dishonored to play right now. So… maybe later.
12/10/2012 at 18:48 ilves says:
But I’m playing xcom and dishonored.. stop copying my gaming life!
12/10/2012 at 21:45 absolofdoom says:
Same here, I think it was the maps for me. They look nice but they’re awful. There’s almost no vertical aspect to them and they’re pretty small. Just got boring really quick.
12/10/2012 at 22:10 waaaaaaaals says:
It’s more like a first person Phantom Crash game than a Mechwarrior game.
This is a good thing.
13/10/2012 at 08:16 John Connor says:
Fuck that game was great. My love for that game is half the reason I’m so excited for Hawken. The only thing it needs is personality chips for your mechs…