Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Big Robots Smackity Boom

19:04 / 28.11.05

I don't know what it is, why it has so much appeal, but the giant robot genre has me hooked but good. Battletech, Heavy Gear, even RIFTS. With all the missles, lasers, and metal-shod fists pounding out punishment.

I think the notion of this sort of combat implies a nobility, a one-on-one combat made obsolete with our industrial-death warfare today. (Also, blowing up things, such as your opponent, is cool.) Thoughts on that?

So let's gossip. What's your favorite system? Your favorite Mech/Gear/Giant robot? Video game versions? I hope I'm not alone in my obsession.

All Acting Regiment

20:20 / 28.11.05

I used to play Mechwarrior 3-4 on the PC but found it rather trivialised things. I felt it should have been a more detailed sim, rather than first person shooter with heating issues, and because the games are old the graphics don't seem like much today, but the idea is certainly great.

Has anyone played the new Xbox Mechwarrior game?

Has anyone played the tabletop Battletech game?

22:33 / 28.11.05

I had the robotech battlecry game for the xbox before it got nicked plus battle engine aquila and then got mech warrior lone wolf too.

Think I liked robotech most of all once I figured out how to play it properly.
I would repeatedly get my ass handed to me on certain levels until I stared using all three forms of the bloody robot, but once I stared talking down zentraedi battle ships in the orbital bit I was in heaven.

Still there were a few minor niggle I find with a lot of these games, mainly its hard to give the feeling that your in a fecking huge battle robot.

The weight isn't there or something.

I've been hankering after a cheap PS2 for a while now for the armoured core series, anyone got any thoughts on that?

01:11 / 29.11.05

I've been playing the tabeltop version for a while, as well as the computer games as far back as Mechwarrior 2. How is that Lone Wolf series?

I find the video games enjoyable; I think if they were too 'realistic' you could get lost in the options, and sacrifice playability. The other aspect is that, particularly with the anime versions, the action is frenetic and quick, and that needs to be communicated into the gameplay somehow. I love Batteltech's setting, but it's game system requires weeks of practice before it gets easy, before you can resolve all the combat fast.

Incidentally, there's a open-source game, called MegaMek, which should be easy to find if you google it, that has most every mech designed, as well as handling all of the number crunching. Just played it last night, and it really brings forward how much was right about that game, and it's concept of giant walking tanks.

11:30 / 29.11.05

Are we all familiar with Steel Battalion? For those of you who aren't: big mech ("vertical-tank") game for the Xbox. Here is the controller:

Which is the only way to play the game. It's over-priced these days (Gamestation want more secondhand than it was new); the huge online-only campaign game is going to end shortly; you can even buy communicator helmets and chairs for it.

Realism was what it went for; if your VT gets destroyed, and you don't flip the plastic lid and hit the eject button, well, that's your savegame gone. If you do eject, that's a very expensive VT gone. Nasty, but the former would really sting.

If it ever gets down to a reasonable price, I'd be interested in picking one up - I mean, look at the controller! It's amazing! Many who played it loved it; a few got fed up. But if you're into Mech games, it's probably a must.

Anyone actually got a copy? And a controller?

All Acting Regiment

12:26 / 29.11.05

I haven't got anything useful to add to that, but, uh *drools*

13:00 / 29.11.05

I wanted it, but could never justify spending that much money on a game that, apparently, only rose above 'mediocre' if you were dedicated enough to really get involved with the online side of things. As they're killing the online campaign, it seems like a bit of a waste of time now. Mind you, second-hand copies should start to come down in price.

There's a button exclusively for the windscreen wiper, you know. And something like three or five that are only ever used in the launch sequence.

The problem with mech videogames, I've found, is that they never get the sense of scale right. Either they provide no decent frame of reference (lack of detail on any objects smaller than your mech being the biggest issue here), or else they fail to put across the sense that you're a person *inside* the mech, and instead turn you into the mech itself. That makes the whole experience rather pointless, I think.

Crux Is This City's Protector.

13:08 / 29.11.05

I want you all to know that this thread completely reawakened my Mechwarrior: Mercenaries (and to an extent, Heavy Gear 2) love of giant robots, tromping and firing missiles, and I just spent some time scouring the web for any recent awesome PS2 mecha games.

And this was all very disappointing, because there's bupkis out there. The Armored Core series continues to trudge along, and never really improves upon itself or modernizes. Even then, they never mastered, as others have mentioned, the sense of scope—the sense also that you were inside this very large machine, that is, surrounded by pipes and activators, and not just some funny looking metal man with hinges in his limbs—that I experienced in my Mechwarrior days on my PC. There's a kind of anime school, all stylized mecha flying around in the air and swinging huge energy swords, but that doesn't hold a candle to the badass feeling of the slow, sure steps of your 'Mech (they had apostrophes, didn't they?) as it crunched across some extrasolar landscape, swivelled its torso, and blew the crap out of some poor bastard 500 m away.

Sigh. I suppose we can always pray for a revival.

14:44 / 29.11.05

MUST...PLAY...MECHWARRIOR...

15:44 / 29.11.05

I remember playing Mechwarrior 2 and it's expansion religously and continously, suffused with the honour and glory of clan heritage. When Mercenaries came out, it was even better. More difficult, because the Inner Sphere technology wasn't as developed. But the coolest aspect? When you blew off an opponent 'mechs leg, it fell over. Boom. Instead of the balancing act the Clan 'mechs performed, there's nothing quite so satisfying as watching your enemy fall over.

A really cool java version of the board game, is MegaMek. You can set it up for hotseat on the same computer, or against someone else, using their IP address to connect. There's even massive campaigns being run, though I haven't figured out how to get into them yet.

These guys have programmed just about every rule in the boardgame, as well as a slew of 'mechs. You can even design your own maps. It's kind of addictive, since it has everything I like about the boardgame, minus all the math...

So far, mostly we've been talking video games. Anybody played/playing/wanting to play the boardgame or tabeltop versions?

04:26 / 02.12.05

I recently picked up a couple Battletech books, but there's just so much reading involved...

Well, back to MegaMek.

08:16 / 02.12.05

I played the basic tabletop game a couple of times, but it never really grabbed me, but then I didn't really put a lot into it.
I guess the nearest I got was playing Space Marine, or what ever the epic Warhammer 40K with the titans was called back in the early '90s.
However I did enjoy playing Mechwarrior on the PC with all the stompy robot goodness, though it could sometimes feel a bit too flight-simmy.
Wasn't there a Mechwarrior LAN game at the trocadero in London? Basically a number of pods with a screen and controls connected together for deathmatch fun. This was back before every man and his dog had fast easy internet access.

18:24 / 02.12.05

Are there any other MegaMek users on the board? If so, I could use some help. I just discovered the program, but there's still things I can't figure out, such as how to do campaigns...

10:49 / 06.12.05

Mr Phox, I remeber reading an article in C&VG well back in the day about that mechwarrior LAN thing. The photos of it made it look like Steel Battlion x100, with a huge pod you sat in, with a headsetto communicate with the other players through the mechs "radio", that slid shut once you were in, completely locking you off from the "outside" world, apart from thge "view" out of your 'mechs front window.

So gutted I never got the chance to play it.I think that there were some in New york too?

The abscence of sense of scale mentioned is the lack of 'weight' I was posting about earlier. One game maker that may have this covered is sandlot.

I remember reading a review of "Tetsujin 28" somewhere and a quick google reveraled the rest of the games by this company, "Robot Alchemical Drive" & "Remote Control Dandy" (best name EVAR!)

In these games you're not "in" the mech.
You control it from a remote control in the hands of your 3rd person avatar in the game.

I think in "Tetsujin 28" you had to independently control the legs & arms of the robot while also making sure that the operator was kept safe from all the collateral damage from the mech fight.

I don't know anyone who ever played these games but they sound interesting twist on the big robots thing.

There a very positive review of Robot Alchemical Drive forps2 at gamespy (86%!!!)

lord nuneaton savage

14:20 / 07.12.05

"what ever the epic Warhammer 40K with the titans was called back in the early '90s."

Ah, Adeptus Titanicus. Now THAT was a sodding expensive hobby.

20:09 / 07.12.05

But, you have to admit, a frickn' cool idea. Enormous walking war machines, loaded with weaponry? Where it requires a whole crew, not just a pilot, and that the captain jacks into an artificial intelligence computer that assists in controlling the giant machine? So cool.

It's like someone mashed together cyberpunk, old-style naval combat, and the 'mech genre, and this is what came out of the grinder on the other side. So big and epic.

13:30 / 08.12.05

Adeptus Titanicus
Nuneaton, if you still have the rulebook get round to mine ASAP! We found that SPACE LEGO was the poor man's choice of Titan material, fully customisable 'mechs agogo. I could do with a Titan drinking game around Xmas time.

14:17 / 08.12.05

I believe there's a variety of Lego based 'mech tabletop rules out there on the interweb, I remember being quite impressed by a few.
As an aside I am always hugely impressed at the variety of wargames on the web using Lego, it's such a genius idea, and yet so simple I kick myself for not thinking of it.

14:41 / 08.12.05

Does anyone have some linky goodness regarding LEGO based wargames, preferrably of the thermonuclear variety?

lord nuneaton savage

09:53 / 09.12.05

Sorry Quantum It was my friend William Johnson - he of the obscenely large amount of pocket money for a 12 year old - who owned the rules. That also meant that he always won.

But I don't care 'cos I lost my virginity before him and that didn't cost any money at all. Ha. Well, not as much as a Rhino War Tank anyway.

14:45 / 09.12.05

Rhinos always were overpriced, and it's amazing what you can get for 50p and a pound of grapes

lord nuneaton savage

14:52 / 09.12.05

Are you accusing my prostitute of being a cheap Roman slattern?

10:46 / 12.12.05

Not so big robots smackity boom:

Trailer for capcoms new gaame lost planet with small to medium type mechs now up at Eurogamer.

Doesn't look too deep however...

http://www.eurogamer.tv/index.php?playlist=18&size=l

15:04 / 12.12.05

Digital Hermes: Brikwars is your essential guide to all your lego wargaming needs. Evil Steve's (Steve Jackson) pirate wargame is one I really want to try, and makes me wish I'd never given my lego away.
There's a couple of 'mech based games in their links page.