MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf

Okay, you may never get tired of Halo 2, but this Mech action title will offer a nice change of pace.

If the original MechAssault was a fantastic trip to a massive Mech war, then Lone Wolf is an all-expenses-paid trip to a Club Mech resort. Developer Day 1 crafted a game thats fun to play and great to look at&and to change it up a bit, Lone Wolf takes a slightly different approach by reminding you that youre just a six-foot-high human piloting one of these lumbering 40-foot-high behemoths. Sometimes youre on foot for a missionan extremely vulnerable soldier in a world of giant metal menacesand in others youll abandon your Mech to jump inside another one.

Mech You Go Crazy

To further the excitement of changing Mechs, Lone Wolf also has enabled you to steal a Mech in certain circumstances. Latching onto an enemy Mech and matching a button sequence (in Simon-like fashion) neurohacks the machine into your control. This Mech-jacking not only takes away an immediate threat to your survival, but also gives you a different weapon set to use as you proceed. The rewarding single-player experience is heavily supplemented by deep multiplayer action. Up to 12 players can get together on the same playfield on Xbox Live and system link for frantic sorties in a variety of gameplay modes (including the standard Capture the Flag and Last Man Standing formats). Conquest modewhich almost becomes a separate gameoffers a persistent universe of 40 planets to fight over, with players needing to choose on behalf of which of the five houses theyll want to compete.

Ro, Ro, Ro Your Bot

Lone Wolf pushes the Xbox graphics envelope. While theres occasional pop-up and clipping, those glitches are trumped by smooth animation and incredible explosions. When an enemy Mech is trashed, the bright blast lights up the screen and ripples the surrounding terrain in the most satisfyingly way. And nearly everything can be destroyed, from rock formations to light towers to big buildings. While Halo 2 was the defining Xbox title in 2004, Lone Wolf is surely a strong second in Microsofts one-two combination. Youd be nuts not to bolt to the store and get in on the Mech mania.

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