Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries Free Rerelease

[JEV3]

Just in case you weren't yet convinced that 2010 was the biggest year in gaming... the Mechwarrior series resurfaces with a free rerelease and update of its latest and most popular game.

The new owners of the Mechwarrior franchise, Smith and Tinker Inc, teased a reboot last year while also making plans with the Mektek modding community to release Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries for free. Unfortunately, Microsoft raised all kinds of legal concerns for the new owners of the domain and it seemed as if it would not happen.

Mechwarrior 4 Rerelease

Mechwarrior was an old series which fell somewhere between a first-person shooter game and a simulation game where you take control of a giant Battlemech and take part in an intergalactic war.

Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, the latest of the series, introduced a nonlinear campaign along with an arena subgame and a multiplayer scene with quite a bit of potential. To expand on its popularity, they released two expansion packs for twenty bucks apiece to add more 'mechs into the game.
Not to be outdone, the fans at MekTek contributed their own "MekPaks" filling the roster and adding many new weapons and features. Unfortunately none of these new 'mechs were available in the campaign, and the multiplayer servers were no longer officially supported.

Until now.

The rerelease allows the use of the new 'mechs in the campaign, includes several new servers, adds plenty of its own polish, and also includes the 'mechs from the Clan and Inner-sphere Mech Packs.

And they've done this for free. A game with a nonlinear campaign, over 100 'mechs, over 100 customizable weapons and it will cost you nothing but download time and hard drive space.

EDIT:

http://cue.srb2.org/stuff/mechwarrio...17.mtx.torrent (yes that is a legal file, it's the torrent file that the client actually uses, I believe)

Here's the file it downloads, *.mtx is a synonym for *.zip, so just change the extension and extract it.

If you have crashy problems when you click 'New Profile', then you'll need to use /gosnovideo as a command line parameter (same idea as SRB2).

Yay, no more awful MTX client.

---Later Post---

.0017 -> .0020 patch:
http://www.filefront.com/16321561/MechPatch.rar/

Higher Resolutions (use at your peril):
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com...opic.php?t=426

A patch has been released; for those who downloaded the game through Cue's torrent link, here's a link to the latest patch:

http://rapidshare.com/files/38682012....0021.mtx.html

Don't let a buggy distribution platform mess up your opportunity to play this. =D

 

[Eidolon]

Downloading.

Now.

 

[K.S.]

That's great.

Now, find me a download link that doesn't force me to install some other extra arbitrary program (that sucks and freezes so damn often and never does anything useful) and then I'll be interested.

 

[JEV3]

It would appear that they force a torrent option on their digital distribution thing. Unlike uTorrent, this doesn't open the port for you... which is going to make it a tad harder for those of us that can't seem to forward any ports. Hopefully they'll make the web access available later down the line.

 

[Cue]

There's a http download, you know...

Except it's slow as hell.

And of course, an update to that stupid client has dropped it and AssaultWarriors or whatever from the very short list. Typical.

 

[Autosaver]

Downloading.

Now.

That is great. =p

Is this game impressive.. in terms of graphics?

 

[Kyasarin]

Is this game impressive.. in terms of graphics?

You couldn't just look it up?

This game looks good, I guess. I might download it when I get around to doing so.

 

[Project Dark Fox]

Now, find me a download link that doesn't force me to install some other extra arbitrary program (that sucks and freezes so damn often and never does anything useful) and then I'll be interested.

Saying it sucks and not actually reporting their problems (because it is a very new program, and they'd enjoy some feedback!) is why people like you disgust me.

It would appear that they force a torrent option on their digital distribution thing. Unlike uTorrent, this doesn't open the port for you... which is going to make it a tad harder for those of us that can't seem to forward any ports. Hopefully they'll make the web access available later down the line.

There's a http download, you know...
Except it's slow as hell.
And of course, an update to that stupid client has dropped it and AssaultWarriors or whatever from the very short list. Typical.

First, another person saying it's a 'stupid' client. These men worked hard to bring this client to allow far easier updating of the software; in the past you had to find the patch by yourself.
Second of all, this is a server which is hurting BAD BAD BAD for donations, struggling every month with the staff paying out of their pockets just to serve you.

Is this game impressive.. in terms of graphics?

As of 8 years ago, I guess, but I think said graphics have aged particularly well. Why should you actually be asking about the graphic potential of something this old?

 

[Naga]

First, another person saying it's a 'stupid' client. These men worked hard to bring this client to allow far easier updating of the software; in the past you had to find the patch by yourself.
Second of all, this is a server which is hurting BAD BAD BAD for donations, struggling every month with the staff paying out of their pockets just to serve you.

It is stupid. For not working. You don't release something or decide to use something and make it mandatory if it flat out does not work. Yes, it's a beta, but shouldn't beta testing be optional, especially if you want the game that otherwise doesn't require it for anything else?

Would it really be hard to allow for a decent http:// link that doesn't require a client? It isn't like patching is ridiculously hard, or anything. This client alone has put me off getting this at all.

Cue, link the direct download.

 

[Project Dark Fox]

It isn't working because the server keeps crashing. HTTP is probably not going to work much better for you at this time.

ED: I have one of the more draconian networks I'm under, that being a hotel of all things, and I got MechWarrior Mercenaries downloaded and playing just fine and under MTX. If it isn't working, you should register on the mektek.net forums and tell them what's going on, instead of saying "this sucks."
Should they have forced MTX on us? Probably not, but I accepted their reasons and really don't mind running this software.

 

[K.S.]

PDF, the fact that they force a download of their client that I'd probably never use otherwise simply to download what I want in the first place is enough of a problem.

I understand they probably wish to use torrents to help the load on their server some. Then, why don't they give us the .torrent file in the first place so we can use whatever torrent client we want, hm?

I see absolutely no reason to require the download of their client whatsoever.



(Oh, and before you try to make an analogy to Steam, let it be known that I was at first also hostile to installing Steam.)

 

[Autosaver]

You couldn't just look it up?

This game looks good, I guess. I might download it when I get around to doing so.

Nah, I really wanted some opinion from one of these guys.
But now, I'm stumped. I downloaded the MTX thing, I launch it and says "Install a game to start playing" I look at the "Games you can install" and there is nothing there. X_x

 

[Project Dark Fox]

Alright then, it's your loss.

 

[Senku Niola]

Oh neat, too bad I bought my MW4:M year ago, still got it though.... just i barely play it. :<

 

[superflip96]

Um, where could I find the system requirements for this game?
I need to know if this will kill my PC or not.

 

[Project Dark Fox]

Um, where could I find the system requirements for this game?
I need to know if this will kill my PC or not.

I want to say a Pentium III with an integrated video card is good enough to run Mercenaries on 800x600.

 

[Rob]

Too bad this MTX thing doesn't actually let you download the game. :\

 

[Cue]

Saying it sucks and not actually reporting their problems (because it is a very new program, and they'd enjoy some feedback!) is why people like you disgust me.

First, another person saying it's a 'stupid' client. These men worked hard to bring this client to allow far easier updating of the software; in the past you had to find the patch by yourself.
Second of all, this is a server which is hurting BAD BAD BAD for donations, struggling every month with the staff paying out of their pockets just to serve you.

As of 8 years ago, I guess, but I think said graphics have aged particularly well. Why should you actually be asking about the graphic potential of something this old?

I'm afraid to say you don't understand how these things work, if you're going to release this, you ensure it's tested thoroughly first, else you give an alternative (and even then . You should not make it an explicit requirement to use it, especially when I could be using a torrent client that doesn't appear to upchuck every time I try to run it with bloatedness and crap.

There are plenty of other ways of patching games, you certainly don't need such a bloated piece of software to do it. Hell, you don't need such bloated software to do the downloading.

http://cue.srb2.org/stuff/mechwarrior4mercenaries.all.to.51.03.01.0017.mtx.torrent (yes that is a legal file, it's the torrent file that the client actually uses, I believe)

Here's the file it downloads, *.mtx is a synonym for *.zip, so just change the extension and extract it.

If you have crashy problems when you click 'New Profile', then you'll need to use /gosnovideo as a command line parameter (same idea as SRB2).

.0017 -> .0020 patch:
http://www.filefront.com/16321561/MechPatch.rar/

Higher Resolutions (use at your peril):
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=426 * Use Mektek.net\MechWarrior Mercenaries as opposed to Microsoft\Microsoft Games\MechWarrior Mercenaries

Yay, no more awful MTX client.

 

[JEV3]

Thanks Cue. Hopefully MTX will work before they release anything else. Someone should ask them for an alternate vehicle for release so more people can play it. I agree that MTX is a problem, but I don't believe they deserve to have this ruin their release.

Oh neat, too bad I bought my MW4:M year ago, still got it though.... just i barely play it. :<

Oh, so did I. But this has a ton of 'mechs added. I'm sure you don't have the Clan and IS Mech Packs... you may have the Mektek packs, but I'm not sure if you have a version where they are playable in the SP campaign.

Um, where could I find the system requirements for this game?
I need to know if this will kill my PC or not.

This game was released quite a while ago. In all likelihood your computer can run it. It's probably only a tad more demanding than the original and that was what, six or eight years ago? I have yet to play this on a computer that cannot handle it.

 

[Autosaver]

you ensure it's tested thoroughly first

SRB2.0 and the sigsev....

Too bad this MTX thing doesn't actually let you download the game. :\

So wait.. how do we download the game? X_X