Rocket-powered robots to shoot other robots in Hawken beta this month

The coolest mech game this side of the 23rd century will get its first beta test by the end of October.

Hawken, from developer Adhesive Games, is a free-to-play first-person robot shooter for the PC. It plays a bit like Call of Duty, only with players controlling 16-feet-tall armored suits instead of soldiers. Publisher Meteor Entertainment, which plans to release the game December 12, has run two rounds of closed alpha tests. This initial closed beta runs Oct. 26 – 29.