FASA Died

[Nutritious]

Yeah, it's couple-week-old news, but it looks like Studio FASA is officially gone now. Linky

The only reason I found out about this is I pulled out my old Mechwarrior PC games for nostalga recently and was looking around online for mods/patches.

I've been a fan of the PC Mechwarrior games since I bought MW:2 from a friend for $5 over a decade ago since he couldn't figure out the game. I bought the games up to Mechwarrior 4 in '02 (not nearly as cool as 2 & 3, Microsoft meddling). Mech 5 was in development but was eventually cancelled, so who knows if there will ever be another game in the series.

Not sure if anyone cares so much, but I think it would be pretty cool to have a 5th incarnation of the game - IF it brought the game back to it's roots in storytelling.

[sephfire]

Their last release, Shadowrun, is incredibly fun. The fact that no more updates will be coming pains me greatly.

[OverCoat]

I've been really wanting a new mech game for the PC. Something more like a simulator and less like a shooter [which is what I guess MechAssault is].

I tried getting MW2:Mercs to run but it just doesn't. I still have MW3 and 4 though. And Starsiege. But that's not FASA

I'm looking for good simulators too. Flight sims seem to be rare these days too, either that or I just don't hear about them.

[Nutritious]

I tried getting MW2:Mercs to run but it just doesn't.

Is it the DOS or 95 version? I was able to get MW2 DOS version to run with DOSBOX and some Hex Editing to get around a bug. I don't have mercs though.

[Dhsu]

A bloody shame. I still consider Mech2 to be one of the best simulation games ever, if not one of the best PC games ever. We seriously need to get some ReMixes up in tha hizzy.

BattleTech is also very fun, and I highly recommend it to MechWarrior fans. The games are long, but satisfying.

[Darth GourryGN]

Too bad about FASA.

Mechwarrior games are awesome. Mechwarrior 2 was the best. I enjoyed outfitting my mech solely with jump jets and machine guns in Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries because that game let you zoom around like a Gundam (so maybe I was playing it wrong) and with 8 machine guns you could chop off a leg in no time.

I wish a port of MW2 to DS would happen. MechAssault is okay, but not the real deal.

[Moguta]

I'm looking for good simulators too. Flight sims seem to be rare these days too, either that or I just don't hear about them.

Do space flight/combat sims count? There's a good remake of an old classic out, and still in development:

Wing Commander Privateer: Gemini Gold

That said, I too am disappointed in the lack of piloting games these days, whether it's spaceborne or airborne craft.

[BardicKnowledge]

Speaking of flight sims, a new LucasArts flight sim would make me happy.

This is sad news -- I never owned Mechwarrior, but played 2 at a friend's house a lot.

[Razumen]

Truly sad news, but not really all that surprising. FASA has been on a downward spiral since their acquisition by MS. MW4 and onwards were pretty good games though (excluding Mechassault), but they just didn't have real compelling plots and missions.

Hopefully we'll see the licence find capable hands in the future, but there are some fan creations that may prove enjoyable, such as Mechwarrior: Living Legends (http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/content/view/49/73/), a TC for the upcoming game Crysis.

Also, Mektek (http://mektek.net/joomla/index.php) has released a free expansion pack for MW4 that's added ~29 new mechs, plus other things. I haven't had time to check it out myself, but It does look interesting.