Return Of The Mech: MechAssault 2 Jacks Your Xbox

We get a lot of Xbox games here at the office, but you'll notice that we don't do a lot of Xbox reviews. The reason is simple: a lot of them are crap, and we don't want to waste your time. Thus, when we bring an Xbox title to your attention, you can feel pretty confident it is because it has distinguished itself from the rest of the drek. In other words, because it rocks.

MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf is one of those rare titles, and we aren't just saying that because a few of us at the office are old school Battletech fans. For those who don't know, Battletech was the name of the miniature-based game from which the RPG Mechwarrior was drawn; both then became the basis for MechAssault. I won't provoke any hate mail from rabid fans by trying to explain it beyond that simplification. Also, to be honest, you don't have to know who founded The Word of Blake - hint: it wasn't a man named Blake - or what a Kearny-Fuchida Drive is, to enjoy this game. What you do need is an Xbox Live account, a competitive nature, and hours of time to waste.

When Xbox Live was launched in November of 2002, the original MechAssault was one of the titles Microsoft used to really sell the service. Any flaws in the single-player campaign were basically ignored by most fans, since the focus was on the top-notch multi-player experience. Microsoft made a smart choice here, because it really was a great game.

Able to control the towering manned robots of the Inner Sphere and the Clans, you could shoot up your friends with PPCs (Particle Projector Cannons) and Flamers till your heat sinks burst. It was quite addictive to run around in those huge Mechs, the walking tanks of a grim future, and blast people all over the country. So it came as no surprise when Microsoft announced that the developer of the original MechAssault, Day 1 Studios, was working on the sequel.