# Anyone playing Hawken?



## Warren_Paul (Dec 13, 2012)

As the title says: Anyone going to be playing the open beta of Hawken today? Currently getting the client here, so would be good to know if there are other chronites out there I can team up with ingame.

Don't know what Hawken is? Go here:  http://www.playhawken.com

Pretty much, it's an online mech combat FPS game where you can buy and upgrade mechs to fight in Battlefield like matches on alien/futuristic worlds. Looks pretty sick so far.


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## nubins (Dec 17, 2012)

I will probably give it a go, but im hooked on Planetside 2 at the moment so no other game is getting a look in.


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## TheTomG (Dec 18, 2012)

Sounds and looks pretty awesome, especially with the word "free" added in there! If I ever get done playing Black Ops II, Guild Wars II, Okami HD, Dishonored and a few others, then maybe I'll give a go!


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## Warren_Paul (Dec 18, 2012)

Well I've been playing it a bit. The game itself is quite good - although I wish there were more maps - but because every mech and upgrade costs real money - unless you want to grind missions for months on end every day - it becomes a bit Pay 2 Win. The people who want to throw hundreds of dollars at it and unlock the top mechs and all their upgrades are typically going to rise to the top of the charts because everybody else is still running around with the beginning mechs. Rockets pretty much beat machine guns, but the starting mech can't use rockets.


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## nubins (Dec 18, 2012)

I've heard there are some balancing... "issues" in Hawken's F2P model like this. 

Planetside 2 has a couple of anomolies, but they are not glaring (the aircraft can be upgraded with air 2 air missiles or air to ground rocket pods - these are straight upgrades, but most of the time things that can be bought for cash or sidegrades or cosmetic). However, you can actually get these upgrades with points earned in game, but it would probably take a week of normal play to unlock them that way. Everything you can buy with money that is useable in game can also be earned in game, so you pay to speed the process up (50% xp booster or just buy the weapon unlock). Most of the guns you unlock are not "better" than other guns though, just different (different recoil, ammo count, effective range, rate of fire, reload speed etc.) so they seem to have gotten their f2p model about right. Amazing game though, unsurpassed scale and when you stand on the outskirts of a raging battle at night, watching the tracers and explosions, headlights of vehicles and the aerial dogfighting going on.. it can be really breathtaking too.


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## nubins (Dec 18, 2012)

Anyone played mechwarrior online? I played that a bit and enjoye dit, how does Hawken compare?


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## TheTomG (Dec 18, 2012)

Pay to be better than the competition is always a problematic model. Sure you can earn the stuff in game, but if you are being slaughtered by those who bought it, this slows down your earning of XP and the like that would earn you the stuff in game. Would have to see how bad this imbalance is in Hawken I guess.


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## Warren_Paul (Dec 19, 2012)

Yeah, you can still earn the same items in game, mostly, but it takes a very long time to earn the amount of points needed. In the meantime you're getting bashed around by the P2W players.

I've never played Mechwarrior Online. I didn't even know it was out yet. Might have to go look it up.


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## nubins (Dec 20, 2012)

It's been in open beta for about 6 weeks.


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