Heavy Gear II is nearing completion, and this morning a hot new CD arrived on my desk containing new screens as well as an AVI. The AVI is especially interesting: my impression was Spec Ops but with Mechs! Don't take my word for it: you can download the 3.5 meg AVI by clicking HERE.

The AI in Heavy Gear II looks to be far beyond the original. Squad level tactics are modeled, and you can plan flanking manouvers and ambushes. Activision states that enemies are intelligent and will adapt to your tactics!

As you can see in these shots and in the AVI, environments vary greatly. You will fight in urban areas, volcanic areas, swamps, airless planets and arctic zones. Water and weather effects will be realistic.

Click to continue . . .

Dave Georgeson is the Producer for Heavy Gear II. While at Activision, Dave has served as the Producer for MechWarrior II and the Mercenaries expansion, and for Interstate '76. Dave was also the producer/director for Domark's Absolute Zero and several flight simulations.

System Requirements:

• WIN95
• P133 minimum, P166 recommended for 640x480
• 16 meg Ram minimum, 32 recommended
• DX5 or higher
• 150 Meg of uncompressed space
• 3D video hardware required
• 4x CD ROM
• LAN play requires one or more of the following: WIN95 compatible network; IPX network; TCP/IP network.

We hope to have hands on time with this simulation soon, watch for a full report! In the meantime the playable demo will be up on October 11. Look for the full release in November.