Seyla!

Warning! Incoming got-absolutely-nothing-to-do-with-EVE content! If you're one those people who have problems believing there are games other than EVE out there, might as well stop reading now. On the other hand, if you're into various Sci-Fi universes, love blowing the crap out of stuff, and/or recognize the title of this blog post and know where it comes from, please keep on reading.

On April 21st, the Mektek development team made an announcement that brought tears of joy to the fans of the BattleTech universe, of which I am proud to be a part of. The first announcement was made in July 2009 when it was announced that the Mektek team had successfully negotiated with Microsoft for rights to distribute Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, along with Mektek's awesome MekPak mod, for free. Nada. Null C-bills. Zero ISKies. This news was released at the same time as a trailer called simply "Mechwarrrior", which is called Mechwarrior 5 by us fans, showing some urban 'mech warfare, complete with buildings crashing down under weapons fire and an Atlas assault 'mech turning a Warhammer into plasma. Sweet eye candy. Although we haven't heard anything about this iteration of the BattleTech story, happening during the Succession Wars way before anyone knew anything about Kerensky's Clans, the Mektek guys have delivered. Today, on April 30th 2010, Mektek has announced that the waiting is now over, and Mektek MekPak 3.1 has now become Mechwarrior4 Free. And the BT fans go wild !!!

So in essence, what does Mech4Free have that Mech4Mercs doesn't have? Clicking the "Mech lab" button answers that question real quick: 'mechs. Tons of 'em. In fact, almost all of the 'mechs of the Battletech universe from the 3025 era up to 3067, a few years after the annihilation of Clan Smoke Jaguar by Task Force Serpent, and just before the dissolution of the newly-formed Star League, are included in the mod, as well as battle suits (read Clan elemental) and even infantry. Take a look:

• 105 different mechs ranging from 20 to 100 tons.
• 9 Battle Armor
• 6 Infantry
• 32 Beam Weapons
• 43 Ballistic Weapons
• 44 Missile Weapons
• 7 Electronic Components
• 3 different types of armor

But the mod doesn't stop there. The multiplayer feature is a vast improvement over the original, and does away completely with Microsoft's Gaming Zone in favor of Mektek's own MekMatch system. And here you have access to more game types, and many, many more maps than the original ever had. From foggy jungles to steaming lava planets, from tight 1v1 Solaris arenas to gigantic battlefields, everything is there.

So what more can I say? If you love the BattleTech universe as much as I do, you must go now to MekTek's website and download what every other Mechwarrior is probably downloading (btw, the announcement came as I was writing this blog) and start firing up those ER PPCs, Ultra AC20's and Gauss rifles!

Trample all that stands in your way

o7