While we're on the subject of old games going free, how about something a little more recent? MechWarrior 4: Vengeance and it's two expansions, Black Knight and Mercenaries, will be free to download sometime soon from this BattleTech fan site. But unlike Lucasarts' and Bethesda's recent releases, this is part of a plan to re-launch a brand. Specifically, the MechWarrior series of giant robot fighting games.

One facet of the Battletech sci-fi gaming universe is MechWarrior, which began as a role-playing game. MechWarrior has fallen out of favor as a videogaming property, and in the process, the rights have shifted to a new developer called Smith & Tinker. They're pitching a new MechWarrior game, which is still in its very early publisher-less stages, so don't expect anything imminent or even inevitable. Games often wither on the vine at this stage.

However, part of what Smith & Tinker are doing to build up anticipation -- and hopefully publisher interest -- is reaching out directly to players. For instance, this article and this interview on IGN. And also letting players have the last MechWarrior games for free. I haven't played one of these in a while, but they were a good compromise between sci-fi sims and action games (MechWarrior tried the shameless action gaming approach in the disappointing Mech Assault games for the Xbox). The graphics may not wow you, but I suspect the essence of heavy clanking robots beating the coolant out of each other is largely intact.

Not bad timing either. Giant robots are back in favor these days. Thanks, Michael Bay!