Mechwarrior Title announced and Mechwarrior IV for free!

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

So, thanks to a friend of mine I was made aware that there is a new Mechwarrior title coming out by Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUj0U8caR8]YouTube - MechWarrior PC Game Trailer[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktptUSi9g54[/ame]
Same video with some commentary and rewinds from IGN.

Also, MekTek.net is planning to - in honor of the 25th birthday of Battletech - release Mechwarrior IV including its expansions for free!
MekTek.net Honored To Distribute MechWarrior 4 - BattleTech: 25 Years of Heavy Metal Mayhem.

 

[Kaodi]

Holy crap that was a sweet video!

I already have MechWarrior 4, but neither of the expansions. I have always wanted a chance to take a look at the full Mercenaries.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

An interview on the new Mechwarrior Title.

IGN: MechWarrior Q&A - The First Details

Sure sounds ambitious and interesting. Unfortunately, at this point in development, they don't have a publisher yet, so that leaves a lot of questions open.
Interesting Stuff
- Resource and Information Management will be important. The video implies this already with the sensor drone and the comment that all satellites are down. Heat will not just cause a possible shutdown, but also have intermediate effects that make it more difficult to run at high heat levels.
- RPG elements will also appear - basically a player can specialize on different Mech categories and even specific Mechs.
- The role of the individual mech types will become more visible - for example, Light Mech for scouting (see Information Management).
- Tying into a lot of the above - apparently a lot of combat will be in urban environments.
- Coop Mode for the campaign is also an concept they are working on.
- In the end, re-playability will be achieved by the Mech category differentiation and the Coop mode, probably not via a branching story-line.
- Some kind of Online Network games will exist, possible with persistent aspects. I think they mention Call of Duty a lot (but I don't know about that game).
- The game is set after the 3rd Succession War. I don't know what that means exactly, since I am not a BattleTech expert, but one thing it means is that we get to see old favorites like the Warhammer mech. ("Unseen" as I learned today).

 

[Vocenoctum]

As an old battletech fan, this was like a godsend for me.

To be clear, Jordan Weisman IS battletech. Reading the interview, you could tell that both of them had a solid grasp on what made battletech great, and I think they have a good vision of how to make it right with modern technology.


As for the 3015 timeline, the original game was set in 3025, and the 3015 part means it'll be during some of the fighting. It also avoids all the "clan" stuff of the 3050 era, and avoids the Federated Commonwealth of the war of 3039. It makes it a more simplisitic setting to really focus on the small squad combat.

It's all said VERY well in the interview, so if you liked btech, read that interview and pray that the game gets a good budget and comes out quickly.

(In original btech, a lance (4 mechs) were kings of the battlefield. The War of 3039 brought more regiment based stuff, and the clans brought large scale war.)