We got our first real look at MechWarrior Tactics today at GDC. The game fills a weird niche with some neat features. The free-to-play, turn-based strategy plays like something more akin to iOS treats Hero Academy or Words with Friends, with asynchronous or concurrent turn-based combat forming the heart of the game. It's a "core" title set in the BattleTech universe -- so, it's "mid-core"?

After each player makes his move in the one-versus-one, player-versus-player map, the game tosses all the turn-based pretense aside and replays the action in a spiffy cinematic. By the time MechWarrior Tactics launches later this year, developer hope to have the camera AI choose the sexy angles for maximum mech-exploding money shots. The camera is all about the long shots in the pre-alpha build.

At the end of a match, players are able to watch the whole match as one movie, and share it on their favorite social media platforms, like Friendster, YouTube and Facebook.

A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games and Infinite Game Publishing didn't go too deep into how the game's store will operate, but they did show us a booster pack which featured three armaments and a mech chassis. Like most of the current free-to-play games coming to market, money won't win the battle -- but it will speed up building the Atlas of your dreams.