I've messed with other people's copies of Phantasma, AC2 and AC3 and never really liked them even though I normally enjoy mech games. I'm sure everyone will agree that the real fun of playing a mech game is in the tweaking, yes? That is where AC falls flat. Between the huge numbers of extranious(sp?) parts, the slow progress buying said parts, the lousy garage interface and the hideous load times, collecting parts and tweaking them just wasn't any fun for me.
Throw in awkward controls and lousy play balancing and I can't stand AC. Give me a Mechwarrior game any day. (I hope they make 5 soon...)
Oh, Kell, Skritch is at once adorable and menacing. Very cool.