Hawken publisher Meteor Entertainment has raised another $18 million in its second round of funding. New investors in the game include Rustic Canyon Ventures and Chinese company KongZhong, which plans to publish Hawken in China. This brings total funding up to $28.5 million.

The funding was largely garnered from impressive looks at the free-to-play game Hawken, but Meteor isn't pouring all its resources into one project. CEO Mark Long told VentureBeat that the company has put another title in the pipe, and has its eyes on using the money for an acquisition. He says the funding could be used as a war chest "to acquire another title that could be on the same quality level as Hawken."

Investors are attracted to the free-to-play model because, since the games are ongoing revenue producers, it requires a smaller investment up-front. "It doesn’t take a $50 million or $100 million budget to do this," said Rustic Canyon managing partner Nate Redmond. "You can now invest more heavily after the game launches and you see how it is a success and the game mechanics are working properly. We look at a lot of possible game investments. It continues to be one of the most interesting sectors of digital media."

Hawken is scheduled to release on December 12, and will eventually get support from the Oculus Rift VR system. If a month seems too long to wait, you can check out the latest round of videos.