You can get out of the vehicles in Blast Corps.
I recently mentioned this in a different thread: It's becoming more and more apparent to me that people focus on entirely different parts of games, in terms of what they call the 'defining features.'
To me, Blast Corps is an exploratory game based on various types of 'vehicles' and movement, which makes it pretty much a predecessor to GTA3. And I think comparing the exploration of Blast Corps to the exploration of GTA3 (and onward) is a bit disingenuous.
I can see why you might, instead, compare it to a platforming game, or a Godzilla-esque game, or any number of sub-genres.
And I can see why you wouldn't agree with even those caveats, because it's a pretty darn unique game, but it seems like a pretty obvious thing to me.
I don't think it's that far-fetched to say that GTA3 is a big reason we don't have any more Blast Corps, or Vigilante 8, or Crazy Taxi, or Twisted Metal, or other similar vehicle-based games.
I wouldn't say it's the only reason, but it surely plays a pretty big part. Those games would basically just be run-of-the-mill mods for GTA5, at this point.
But none of that really matters, because we pretty much agree on about 95% of the topic.
I think mech games, in general, have a gigantic potential. Everything from realistic Chromehounds stuff, to full-on anime stuff could be popular, and it's honestly a bit weird that more devs don't tap into an obviously-popular genre.
Warhawk could basically be the perfect combination of Planetside and Star Citizen, but actually doable in terms of performance and cost. It could seriously be a generation-defining endeavor, if a developer actually gave it the proper effort and time.
Blast Corps could still be really fun, but I just don't think it compares to the same level of complexity as the other two.
