Battletech nerds rejoice? Mechwarrior 5 being worked on?

[Whacker]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/100/1001659p1.html Check the videos page.

I can't help but be excited.

However.

Mech5 was canceled back in the day in favor of those craptastic Mechassault games. Further, Wizkids really let the franchise go to crap, esp. with them pushing that Dark Ages abomination in attempt to compete with WH40k in the miniatures market. It's also become standard fare these days for major games to be primarily released on consoles with the PC usually a poorly done afterthought (see: Deus Ex 2, Halo, Bioshock). Mech3 was the pinnacle of these games, it was the closest thing to a mech 'sim' that we ever got, and closest to how they tabletop rules work within the confines of a PC game. The mech4 games were fun, don't get me wrong, but they were far more arcadish and played closer to an FPS than a walking tank sim. I'm not holding my breath, BUT I am getting excited here.

Please please please please please PLEASE don't screw this one up guys!

[Ramses II CP]

No way.

Wonder if any of the old MekTek guys got hired? I couldn't deal with MW3's net code, but MW4 was years of MP entertainment for me. I couldn't even stand to look at the MechAssault games, you could've replaced the 'mech' with a fluffy pink bunny without changing the game in the slightest.

I bet they screw it up. I bet they screw it up a lot. I bet they make it a MMORPG.

[Zenicetus]

Nahh, they won't make it a MMORPG, but they'll screw it up by making it multi-platform, so it won't have the control setup you'd have on a PC. I still remember how much fun it was to control my Mech with the same joystick, separate throttle and rudder pedals I used for flight sims, back in the day. Nobody (well, almost nobody) makes tactical combat sims any more, just "action" games for a wider market.

If it really was a cockpit-level Mech game for the PC, supporting multi-axis controllers, and all the other elements were in place (decent enemy AI, good terrain, good scenarios that weren't too heavily scripted, non-cheesy plot and voice acting).... I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

"Teaser" videos indeed! Let's see if there's any real meat on those bones.

[Whacker]

No way.

Wonder if any of the old MekTek guys got hired? I couldn't deal with MW3's net code, but MW4 was years of MP entertainment for me. I couldn't even stand to look at the MechAssault games, you could've replaced the 'mech' with a fluffy pink bunny without changing the game in the slightest.

I bet they screw it up. I bet they screw it up a lot. I bet they make it a MMORPG.

MURDER. YOURE. FAEC.

GOD I hope we are wrong. I seriously do. But I am not holding my breath.

I am willing to bet a paycheck that it will be multiplatform. I am reasonably sure that it will be somewhat arcadish and not a "sim" like I (we?) want, as Mech3 was. I some what doubt but would not be surprised if it turns out to be Dark Ages. Don't know about you guys, but I did not recognize either of the mechs in video 2 or 3, video 1 was just a stupid leg. Video 2 almost looked like a Warhammer, video 3 looked like a really messed up, agile looking Stalker. Who knows, we shall see.

We all realize what the holy grail is hidden in all this, right? Releasing the Mech3 source code as open source.

Meh. Failing that, I've got my eye on that Mechwarrior Living Legends mod for Crysis.

[Zenicetus]

What I loved about the Mechwarrior games was being able to map my PC flight sim controllers to control the mech. Joystick for weapons and targeting, separate throttle controller for speed and miscellaneous controls, rudder pedals to twist the torso for circling fire... yeah, baby!

If they're going down that road to a tactical mech combat sim, I'll buy it in a heartbeat (assuming the rest is good -- decent AI, useful terrain, non-cheesy plot and voice acting). If it's a multi-platform "action" game set up for console controllers, I'll pass. The telling point will be what they show of a cockpit view, if any. That was conspicuously absent in the trailers. Anybody can model an external 3D view of a mech these days. Putting the player inside the mech is on a completely different level of game design.

[Martok]

Cool. I might actually have to take an interest in this one.


My primary experience with the series was with Mechwarrior 4, which I know isn't supposed to be the greatest (either 2 or 3 seems to be the best, depending on who you ask). Still, my old roommates and I had a lot of fun playing it, especially in inter-clan matches....although our in-house (literally) skirmishes were quite enjoyable as well. I was never as good at the as the other three, but I did have a good time nonetheless. Would love to see another game like it return, especially as I'm also a longtime fan of the BattleTech universe (I played the pen-and-paper RPG back in the day).

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I never got into MW (tried the M4 demo but joysticks are ultimately too complicated for me).

Now a Mech Commander 3...

[Reverend Joe]

Y'know, you can release your nerd rage all over me if you want, but I always thought that Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries was the most fun (not the actual Mechwarrior 4; that one was kinda dull.) I mean, granted, playing with a real joystick is fun, but I never had either the money or the room on my desk for a joystick, so the second and third games were really hampered for me; plus I never got Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries. The fourth game just worked the best with what I had. Personally, I just wish that the Mercenaries missions had been more extensive and possibly sandboxier; I wouldn't mind playing a few hundred missions per game, even if it meant many of them were "stock" missions randomly created (hey, war is hell, and it can be kinda boring too.) I guess the 'Mechs could have also been "clunkier" as Whacker so eloquently put it.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

The IS does alright when they rip off clan stuff.

Like my baby, the Bushwhacker. ^_^

[Mailman653]

Get MechWarrior 4 for Free Soon

[FactionHeir]

I quite liked Mechcommander. Too bad that was discontinued.

[caravel]

I quite liked Mechcommander. Too bad that was discontinued.

Despite being based around the IS, Mechcommander was a decent game. It's probably one of the games that I was always surprised to find myself replaying. I've never played any beyond the first one though.

[Vladimir]

Watching these videos made me so nostalgic.

[Martok]

Crap, crap, crap. Some bad news regarding the license(s) for certain Mechs:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

“Sometimes things just don’t go as you want them to.”

That’s always an auspicious beginning to anything, isn’t it? Well, in this case it’s true. A few weeks back, we came out with some fantastic news. We were bringing the ‘Unseen’ back! We reviewed documents, talked to a great many people, and spent time with some lawyers. We felt we had a solid position.

Sadly, some of the information we acted upon turned out to be inaccurate. Twelve of the ‘Unseen’ images previously used within the BattleTech universe were involved in a court case in the 1990s: Archer, Longbow, Rifleman, Warhammer, Wasp, Stinger, Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Marauder, Stinger LAM, Wasp LAM and Phoenix Hawk LAM. This we knew. But at the end of that court case, as part of a confidential settlement, it was agreed that the sole and exclusive world-wide right to these images (outside of Japan) would rest with another US company.

It is for this reason that we have chosen to revise our plans to publish these specific images in current product.

Though we spoke with a number of individuals before making our initial decision, no one involved in Catalyst was aware of this agreement. Still, the owner to these images has been very cool with us about the whole situation. They are a good group of people, and we will continue our attempts to work with them as we look toward the future.

I hope you all know, this was something we attempted out of a true passion to bring you everything you have wanted out of BattleTech over the past 25 years. This was one of those big holes we thought we could patch, and sadly we were wrong. I know there are times where it’s easy to see Catalyst as “The Powers that Be” for the games we make, but let me use this as an opportunity to remind you that we are also huge, huge fans (just in case you didn’t already know that from my years of blogs). Over the past two years there have been several projects behind the scenes that we’ve been working like crazy on because WE want to see BattleTech be a great game from every angle. We want it approachable for beginners, and compelling for veterans. More than anything we want to be able to share as much as we can from 25 years worth of story and products… and this was a big piece of that puzzle. Yet we simply can’t in this one case, and for that we as fans and game designers are truly saddened.

So after all of that, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies. Though we’re still able to use many of the unseen designs, these core twelve remain some of the most beloved. I hope you understand it was entirely out of our own passion for the game that this entire situation has unfolded as it did.

The BattleTech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction PDF has been adjusted accordingly, as has the printed product

Thank you all for your support over these past few years. It’s what has made even set backs like this all worth it as we continued forward making a great game even better.

Randall Bills, Managing Developer Catalyst Game Labs

So in short, most of the mechs I would've wanted to play as are not even going to be in the game. For me, that alone is practically reason enough to not get it.

[Veho Nex]

couldnt they just tweek them slightly in the cosmetics department and change the name?

[Krusader]

Yeah, wasn't happy myself. Of the earliest Mechs, the Warhammer is among my favourites. But when it comes to Battletech rights and licenses, its just one big snafu. Microsoft owns video game rights, Eisner movie rights and some third company other rights again.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Wait, what is this "unseen" thing they're talking about?

[Reverend Joe]

Crap, crap, crap. Some bad news regarding the license(s) for certain Mechs:




So in short, most of the mechs I would've wanted to play as are not even going to be in the game. For me, that alone is practically reason enough to not get it.

They've already been used in the other games, if I remember correctly. I believe this applies only to the tabletop games.

[Ramses II CP]

The unseen mechs, or the ones that don't suck anyway (The LAMS, I'm sorry to say, are lousy art and ripped off from other stuff anyway), are in the expansions to MechWarrior 4. If I recall correctly the Longbow was a stock Mercenaries mech too, so it was put in by MS/FASA before Mektek got involved.

That doesn't mean they'd be in a new game necessarily, but it does imply that Microsoft has or had some access to the rights.

[Vladimir]

No land-air mechs? What a shame. They always rocked in tabletop battles.

[Papewaio]

The Warhammers can be seen in some ports of Japanese Mecha to American... sometimes with rather interesting joining of different series into the same universe/arc.

From memory they are in the same series as the LAMs. And are kind of a ship defense unit that stays put (doesn't fly off) and do a fair amount of damage just walking on the surface.

[mountaingoat]

anyone every play on a battletech mux?