How are these games doing? I played them both back in their betas, but I haven't since. Have they improved much/received any major content updates? Kinda in the mood for a good mech experience.
They are both pretty good. But I haven't played since beta either I am pretty sure Mech Warrior has a larger fanbase. MUCH larger. So it might have a larger development-budget.
MWO has some major balance problems that are still not being addressed only broken even more. Played some Hawken, but not enough to form a real opinion on it. Try both, but realize that with MWO you will most likely get stomped by a specific set of only a few mechs (daka daka daka mechs, PPC ***** island mechs, and everyone visits pop shot island).
Hawken starts out quite a blast. With the noob's mech, I pwn quite a few players real good. Some are also in noobs' mechs, some are not. Doesn't matter. If you have quick reflex and deploy some hit and run with flanking mindset, you will score some actions. If you're lucky and skilled, you gonna wreck quite a havoc.
Then I unlock a specialized mech, I guess I could call it that. I picked a Bruiser. Quite a Versatile Offensive mech, I suppose. With homing missiles and Mini-gun sorta gun. There are a few upgrades and unlocks available for new gears and such. But there's no higher tier mechs, which disappointed me. There are other specialized mechs to choose from, but there's no better mech with cooler features.
I think of it like playing Ragnarok Online, and I just switch from a Novice to a Thief. And that's that. No Assassin or Rogue. No Assassin Cross or Stalker. Just Thief. You can switch your mech to, say, a Technician, in the middle of the pvp match to counter enemy's plan, but I just want more. Better. Cooler.
If I play Mech Warriors, or even Mech Commander, I expect to start off in Commando or Firestarter. A Raven would be nice. A light mech, ya know. Then maybe after awhile I'd get a Highlander for its badass Gauss Rifle. Or a tough Hunchback. Later on I might get a rocketeering Catapult or the awesome Mad Cat or even Atlas. Progression, you see.
There's no new goal at the horizon, so it's now just a time-killing of pure carnage and glorious destruction.
The only thing I'm not liking about Hawken is that there isn't much to do but play Team Deathmatch. Tried the other game types and apparently no one queues for them. Would be neat if there was something like a conquest/map control thing going on, to give meaning to the fights.