Hawken
 

http://www.playhawken.com/

Hawken is a f2p mech game that just went into closed beta. Hawken obviously can't touch the pace of FF, but for a mech game Hawken is like some light speed warp drive shit. It's the warsow of mech games I guess when it comes to speed.

It's not a straight FPS because they are mechs. There's a bit of actual piloting going on, but it's still much closer to an FPS feel than any other mech games.

It's absolutely gorgeous. Really just pretty to look at. I guess it's coded in UDK.

What I've played of it has been really fun. There's no movement skills like bhop or anything like that. But there are some tricks and mechanics for keeping your movement fluid without loosing any momentum.

Basicly you got your mech. It has a decent walking pace and it accelerates to a point as you continue moving. That's a part of where the movement mechanics come in, if you don't know how to strafe right you'll loose speed switching strafe directions. But it's real easy, it's nothing really skillfull to maintain your speed between strafes. All the mechs have boost and it works in a few different ways. You can jetpack to gain height advantage. Climb on top of buildings with it and what not. You don't want to be doing this in the open as just jetpacking makes you sort of a sitting duck. There's a forward boost that's pretty fast, you can zip along maps and get where you need with ease. Can't use your guns while you're boosting forward. And then there's side dodging, it quickly boost you left or right, and makes dodging missles and such pretty easy.

All that stuff provides for pretty fast and interactive DM while still feeling like you're piloting a big powerfull mech.

The maps I've seen so far fit the gameplay perfectly. I think it's going to make team based modes very strategic ala CS, but still provide the fast paced DM we've come to love from fortress or quake titles.

It just went into closed beta today and there is no longer an NDA, so I'll see if I can't record something nice in fraps to show you all.

Looks pretty cool.

It really is. I can't stress enough how surprised I am by the pace of the game. I'll try to fraps something but I don't get the best frame rate when running fraps.

That.... that looks badass. Keep us posted.

First time in a while I have lamented my shitty laptop.

this is very fun if played as a team

its in open beta now, try it
its about 2gb

Tried playing this on my computer, but it barely runs it. I can do the training mission no problem, but I can't for the life of me play any multiplayer match without my computer just taking a dump and dropping me down to 2fps.

I could definitely see myself enjoying this game whenever I upgrade my computer.

Its good fun but I've already learned not to play on a weekend.

Hawken's a cool guy.

Graphics matter with this game. I can only run it on medium. The experience is nice on ultra.

Is it just me or does the game feel kinda clunky?

What are your specs, Anshinritsumai? I'm only on a 470GTX and an i3 OC @ 4.20Ghz. I get 40 to 100+ fps.

CPU: Core2Duo E6600 @ 2.4ghz
RAM: 6gb DDR2
Video: GTX 550 Ti


The processor is a first gen dual core, so this is what's killing me. It was good for practically everything up until 2011 came around and shit on it's grave. The ram probably doesn't help either since it's DDR2.

The video card though, is being borrowed from a friend since my 8800GTX died a few months ago.

Yeah, the Core2 is holding you back :(

This actually looks pretty cool. It's been a long time since there was any FPS where DM fights lasted more than 0.1s . Unfortunately I have a worse computer than Anshinritsumai so I won't be playing any time soon. =[ If i upgrade I'll take a look though.

One thing I might worry about is all the FX and HUD getting in the way of seeing whats going on. It looks a bit busy.

actually im kinda addicted to it lately.

im not a big fan of mech warriors, i have tried mech warrior online as well which is a bit more like a simulation but hawken is much more fun. and i dont really give a shit if a game is realistic or not

the only thing that bothers me about hawken is the mouse speed cap. where you get alot of negative acceleration if you draw your mouse fast. they claim to have this as a realism element, that mechs cant really look around that fast in reality. that doesnt really make sense tho, the game is quite arcade and theres another mech warrior game that is more realistic anyway. but they dont really let this be argued about anymore on their forums...

instead of removing speed cap, there is an easy way that lets you to a 180 which is pressing s + shift.

other than that, its still alot fun to have pvp's and teamwork
i'd still suggest any1 to play it

I complained about this a bit. And I just have to clarify, that there is literally no negative mouse acceleration. As in, moving your mouse faster, does not make it go slower. It seriously feels that way, but no matter how fast you move your mouse, it will cap out at that speed.

I refused to believe that, as I was certain there was negative accel goin on there. But I played around with it a bit and really payed attention. And well I had to swallow my pride and realize that there wasn't and never was negative acceleration going on.

That being said I like that there's a turning cap. If there wasn't, it'd just be an FPS with mech skins. It's not that I'm a stickler for total realism, but it does feel like you're piloting something, and I like that.

The quick 180 is all you really need anyways.

It seems like they've done a lot in the way of optimization since the first time that I played. So if anyone was on the edge spec wise and thinking about playing, it may be worth a shot to try. Game runs much smoother for me that it used to. It's got more options in the graphics panel now that you can turn down as well.

Hawkens no FF, but I have to say I've really been enjoying it lately. I think my favorite thing would be how the movement affects the game. At it's base hawken can be pretty clunky. But if you're good at the movement it becomes very smooth. And when you're playing real smooth like that is when you really start to accel at DM and objectives. So basicly your "piloting" skill goes a long way in how well you actually play the game which I really like.

It's also kind of fun managing all your resources. There's a lot of multitasking to do. I feel like in FF there are a few spread out key moments where you really have to multitask and hit a bunch of keys. But in hawken it's more of a slower but constant thing. In DM scenarios there's always a handful of things you have to pay attention to and manage well.