Get Down For Gear Up
Sadly not containing the untz untz tank
I don't think I've seen a trailer quite so excited about itself as the one that follows for free-to-play multiplayer tank battler Gear Up. It's aggressively in your face about how up-beat and colourful it is. Thankfully it also does a good job of showing off the build 'n' fight core and the impressively massive selection of customisation options available for your angry house. Like some sort of twisted, awesome future Robot Wars, it has walkers and tank treads and mortars and cannons and, uh, antlers. Yeah. Have a look.
As is always pleasant when discovering an entertaining trailer, the game underneath is rock solid too. I gave it a quick shot over on Steam and it's markedly more polished than standard Early Access. It's simple - just a few maps playable with deathmatch and point-capturing modes - but the speed and charm of it is undeniable. Even the starting tank is able to dish out enough damage and whizz around the compact levels fast enough that five seconds won't pass without something happening.
Doctor Entertainment, who made Puzzle Dimension back in 2010, have won me over with the payment model and art direction. All the tank parts can be earned through play, but with a limit on how many can be kept at one time. All these limits can be removed and all the parts unlocked in one go for £6.99, rather than any sort of microtransaction deal. On the art side, the blocky, caricatured guns and turrets make differences easy to tell at a distance and there's enough variety that it feels properly personalisable.
You can try it yourself at only a gig to download. If you find yourself enamoured, now might be a good time to go all-in, as Doctor plan to increase of that insta-unlock as they get closer to launch.