Something like the Goliath combat walkers from StarCraft or the AMP Suits from Avatar I think we'll likely see in the very near future, and will become a mechanized infantry staple. Something not overly large that can follow infantry over any terrain and provide heavy fire support. Although carrying around supersized guns like the AMP Suits seems highly unlikely and impractical compared to built in weaponry like a Goliath.
Something like our giant beloved BattleMechs though? No. Maybe a long time from now, in some very limited application that I can't think of. But otherwise, no. They would be horrendously impractical, extremely expensive to maintain, and the profile they present to the enemy is pretty much the antithesis of the entire reason tankers fight hull down whenever possible. The only place a BattleMech could possibly be useful is on terrain like Afghanistan, when you're 100% sure you own the skies. Even then, your typical patch of earth isn't as strong as you think. You stick an Atlas on most non-rocky terrain and those 100 tons of weight focused into the comparatively small areas under his "feet" mean the pressure he's putting out is extreme and he's likely to sink into the ground of his own weight. Once again, even in the rare cases they'd be useful, they're most likely to be light to medium mechs at MOST. Even then there's no real good reason to go larger than a real-world counterpart to a Goliath CW.
I won't say never, but it seems pretty unlikely.
Edited by CaptFrost, 25 June 2012 - 02:35 AM.