MechWarrior Online Message Board older than one year ago

Believe it or not, colossal 50-ton steel monstrosities that have to be careful they don’t accidentally crush poor, helpless rhinos aren’t nature’s most graceful creatures. They do not prance or saunter or gallivant or float from place to place as though held aloft by the wings of angels. They lumber. That is the thing that mechs do. As you might expect, this leads to a fair deal of complexity where movement is concerned. As MechWarrior Online developer Piranha says, it’s “kind of like piloting a giant walking tank.” And I concur, only replace “kind of” with “exactly.”

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*Idly Googles: “Things that weigh one hundred tonnes.”*

*Reads: “The tonne is a measurement of mass, not weight.”*

*Sighs.*

*Finds video of a 100-tonnes of explosives going off. Posts next to the video of the Atlas mech, below.*(more…)

The Jenner JR7 mech, seen above, is included in the Founder's Program for MechWarrior Online. The mech features a top speed of 118 km/h, a SRM-4 for firing missiles, and four medium lasers. Piranha Games describes the machine as light on armor, so using its speed and jumpjets to stay on the move is the key to victory for its pilots.

MechWarrior Online's Founder's Program is a three-tiered program in which players receive bonus content, early beta access, and in-game currency. The Jenner JR7 is one of four mechs exclusive to the Elite and Legendary levels of the program.

“Why walk when you can run?” I always ask. And why run when you can sprint? Any why sprint when you can suit up, clamber into a “light” 35-ton mech and mock the laws of physics at speeds of up to 118 km/h? These are all, of course, common philosophical questions that have echoed throughout classrooms and lecture halls for centuries. But the last one – perhaps the most common of all – is being made literal in MechWarrior Online. Dubbed the Jenner, this series standby is looking kind of incredible. And I’m pretty sure Piranha knows it.

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This town has a real serious mech-on-mech violence problem.

Hello, you. How have you prepared for the release of Mechwarrior Online? Anything? Nothing?! Well that’s a shame. Other people have been a bit more proactive, including this guy, who has built himself an entire mech cockpit for the experience, complete with surround sound and triple 28″ monitors. Video and impressive image below for you pop your eyes at.(more…)

It’s uncharacteristically warm in San Francisco today, so I think I – more so than just about anyone in the world – am best equipped to identify with giant robots. Specifically, MechWarrior Online‘s menagerie of metallic monoliths who’ve taken to duking it out on the newly revealed Caustic Valley map. It is, in case you hadn’t guessed, very, very warm. Mechs, meanwhile, tend to naturally become hot enough to spontaneously combust an egg on top of by way of, well, existing, so Caustic Valley requires extremely careful piloting. Otherwise, you’ll get all sweaty and nasty and gross and dead.

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In case you were worried, MechWarrior Online does, in fact, have giant robots after all. I know, I know: I didn’t believe it either. Now, though, there’s honest-to-Godzilla-sized-robo-behemoth proof in the form of a fully automated video reel. Will wonders never cease? It introduces the well-rounded, generally reliable Centurion and details two specialized variants: one that’s best from a distance and another that loves nothing more than to move in close for its particular brand of rock ‘em sock ‘em robots. It can do this because it has 11 tons of armor. I did not know things could have that much armor. I imagine its hobbies include long walks on the beach, heavy metal music, and fashioning your home into a festive hat. So, with pleasant introductions out of the way, let’s see it in action.

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I literally have no idea what this guy is talking about. But the mechs shooting other mechs part looks fun!

Videos for Mechwarrior Online seem to arrive in batches and there are two more for you to stomp on this evening. To stomp on with your eyes. The first is a dev diary, which talks about “the four pillars of gameplay” for the multiplayer mech ‘em up. The most interesting claim is that mechs of different sizes and capabilities will all have their place, useful in different situations or as part of a group. The goal, then, isn’t to get the biggest, baddest mech of all, because, hey, that little one over there might be even badder. The second video shows a new environment, the Frozen City. Perhaps this is one of the environments in which a lumbering turret of a mech would struggle.

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Learn about MWOs mechanized combat as developer Piranha Games explains the mechanics.

The vigilant newsbots at BluesNews have noticed that Mechwarrior Online is rolling out a program of “founders packages” for people to purchase in-game cash and privileges in the forth-coming free-to-play mech game. Full details and some comments, as well as a big chunk of recent game footage, below.

Mechwarrior Online has been in beta since the middle of May, and there’s no word on when that will expand, exactly. That said, this Founders’ Package stuff gets you access from August 7th, so perhaps not too long after that.(more…)

MechWarrior Online's Founder's Program offers bonus in-game content in three tiers: Veteran, Elite, and today's new addition, Legendary. Legendary runs $120 and includes early access to the closed beta starting August 7, an exclusive founder's tag, three months of a premium account, $80 worth of in-game currency, all four founder's mechs and recognition in the game's credits.

Elite costs $60 and includes early access, a founder's tag, two months of a premium account, $80 worth of in-game currency and a choice of one founder's mech. Veteran runs $30 and includes early access, the tag, one month of a premium account and $40 worth of in-game currency. The Founder's Package and closed beta is available in North America only.

All three ranks are available for purchase via the MechWarrior Online Founder's page.

Razer's E3 booth was fully stocked with both retail and prototype peripherals this year, the most interesting of which was the Artemis, an experimental controller array designed specifically for MechWarrior Online. The prototype, designed and built in a month, features a flight stick on the right, an array of buttons on the left and a 10 inch screen in the middle. Razer hopes to have a retail version of the peripheral ready sometime this year.

The rest of the booth was populated by the company's ambidextrous, 8200 dpi Taipan mouse ($79.99, July), a Battlefield 3-branded, helicopter-style Blackshark headset ($129.99, July) and the Blade laptop, all of which can be seen in the gallery below.

#hardware My very first E3 2012 appointment this morning was with peripheral company Razer. At the forefront of their booth beneath a glass case sat this thing. My first question for the team: "What the hell is that thing?" More »

When your game involves giant robots with massive rockets, lasers and high-tech HUDs, you don't need epic rock music drowning out the sound of metallic hellfire and thundering footsteps, as MechWarrior Online demonstrates with the above teaser trailer.

You also don't need dubstep, but that's only because no one ever needs dubstep. That's right, not even you.

These new video previews for upcoming persistent battler Mechwarrior Online – via IGN – show off the different roles for the light, medium, heavy, and assault mechs. I’ve posted them all below. Just see the light mech race about and “act as the eyes and ears of the lance” gives me cause for robo-excitement, so you can imagine my delight as seeing the assault mechs stomping their way into battles and savaging the other mechs with big, big guns. I’m ready to play this game now, thanks.(more…)

2012 just might be the year mechs come back in a big way. After almost a decade Piranha Games is reviving the MechWarrior franchise with the CryEngine 3 driven, free-to-play MechWarrior Online. The first officially licensed MechWarrior game since MechWarrior 4, Online brings back the slower, more methodical combat fans of the previous MechWarrior titles came to love -- and have sorely missed...

Part of the fun in playing a MechWarrior game was customizing and upgrading your mech chassis. This is still a big feature in the upcoming free-to-play MechWarrior Online, and today's developer blog provides new details on how this works...

So you’ve read about John’s encounter with Mechwarrior Online, but how about seeing it in action? Head below for a battle in a riverbed. An interesting contrast with Hawken, I would say. This really is the year of the Mech.

And lasers!(more…)

It’s been ten years since the last MechWarrior game. Which seems odd, since the idea of stomping around in giant robots is such a popular one. But now the license has been put in the hands of Piranha Games, and it’s going online, and MechWarrior Online is going free to play. I saw it in action at GDC, so read on for my report.(more…)

Specific details about MechWarrior Online's free-to-play machinations are still months away from being discussed, but here's some of the gameplay we got to check out at GDC 2012. As fans are sure to notice, the game looks like an updated MechWarrior, which is exactly why we're overheating with anticipation for more info!

Up until today all I'd seen of MechWarrior Online was teaser trailers, concept art and a series of developer blogs on the game's official site. Now, having seen it running, I think MechWarrior Online will change perceptions about what it means to be a free-to-play game. This isn't a cheap looking game aiming to cash-in on nostalgia built up by the MechWarrior franchise. This is a mech combat game that takes what we all loved about the old titles and builds upon it...

#mechwarrior I'd love to be able to tell you this debut trailer for MechWarrior Online gave us a first look at how it plays, but of course, it doesn't. It gives us a first look at a man climbing into a giant walking tank. More »

A healthy mech is a happy mech.

Reactor: online. Sensors: online. Weapons: online. All systems: online. Here we go! MechWarrior Online, the upcoming free-to-play PC title, will be demoed at GDC next week and promises "epic gameplay battles." We just want to turn a mech on and off so we can listen to the reboot VO over and over again.

2012: what a funny old year. It’s one in which we get remakes of both X-COM and Jagged Alliance, and now it looks like there’ll be multiple mech games too. First there was MechWarrior Online, then there was MechWarrior Tactics, and now there is Reign of Thunder. Coming from the steady but Xboxen hand of MechAssault pilots Day 1 Studios, RoT is a free-to-play affair due for launch later this year. No confirmed platforms, but ‘free to play’ and ‘PC’ seem to go together like dogs and lamp-posts (no, I don’t know which one equals which) so I’d be very surprised if Reign of Thunder didn’t walk this way. Our first glimpse of it marches through the storm below. Wow, that was a horrible, mixed metaphor-blighted sentence if ever there was one.(more…)

I don’t know exactly what Mechwarrior Tactics is, but it has a countdown on the webpage that ends on Monday. Two things happen at the end of countdowns: either a thing will be revealed, or a ex-cop will snip the wire on a bomb, saving the orphanage. I’m presuming that it’s choice number one, because its from the same people currently making the free-to-play reboot of the original game, MechWarrior Online. You can go to the site and sign-up, ensuring you protect your commander name from the rabble, while I ponder what it could be.(more…)

While we still don't have much of an idea about what MechWarrior Online looks like, the latest developer blog does give some early details about how it will play. Outside of the obvious, that is; it's a free-to-play mech combat game, but the blog emphasizes the importance of information...

While we still don't know that much about the newly announced Mechwarrior Online, we at least know what technology is behind it. The PC-exclusive free-to-play title will be powered by CryEngine 3, Crytek boasts in the press release past the jump. Developer Piranha Games' president, Russ Bullock, says the engine is "the best choice for us."

Mechwarrior Online is set in the year 3049 during the "early stages of a massive interstellar war," firmly planting the butts of players in a BattleMech, the "most powerful war machine to ever walk the field of battle." And here we thought the best war machine out there was the human mind!