MECHWARRIOR FREAKING 5?!!!

[Fayde]

AFTER 10 FREAKING YEARS OF FREAKING WAITING FOR ANOTHER MECHWARRIOR GAME TO BE RELEASED, IT NEVER HAS FREAKING COME. NOW FINALLY JORDAN WIESMAN (Founder of FASA and co-creator of Battletech) HAS BEGUN TO CREATE A NEW FREAKING MECHWARRIOR GAME AFTER BUYING THE RIGHTS BACK FROM MICROCRAP!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I do understand from the interview I read, the game will be set in 3015 during the start of the forth Succession War, focusing on a frontier planet on the Jurita/Davion boarder. The game is a sort of "prequel" to the other Mechwarrior games, as the first game was set in the Refusal War that took place between clans Jade Falcon and Wolf in 3058.
The game supposedly takes on a more character based story of a man who is the heir to on-planet royalty caught in between the warring rival houses who helps house Davion take on Kurita. Sounds awesome to me, as this is one of my favorite eras in the Btech universe (and probably the most detailed).
Here is the video/trailer of the demo. It's just the typical mech vs mech combat, but it shows some details of how the game will run, as well as the graphics and possibilities. I can't freaking wait.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl4eI3htAuA

Gotta love the crappy voice acting when he sees the Atlas, lol.

Anyway, there are some interesting possibilities with this game. I just hope they get it right this time. Although the 4th MW was of the funnest to play, it felt totally unrelated to the Btech universe, and much more of an arcade game with Btech mechs in it.

BTW: MekTek is going to be releasing a free version of Mechwarrior 4 and it's expansions for free sometime soon (dunno when) in honor of Battletech's 25th birthday. Hopefully some of us can grab that and play online! Fun fun.
Anyway, enough Btech rambles for now.. Now time to pull out my minis and pet them.... lol.

[Waspman]

Game looks pretty cool.
Too bad none of us can probably run it.

[Fayde]

Indeed. I will be selling my computer and buying a new one by the time it comes out anyway (in the next 10 years), so I'll be able to play it >: )

[Fayde]

Apparently they are running into some legal problems (again) about the design of the Warhammer in the game looking to much like the Robotech counterpart.

In case you're not aware, one of the reasons FASA (the original company who owned the intellectual property of Battletech) went down and died was from a law suit for many of their original mech designs being very close copies of Robotech mechs. They of course look almost identical, but they changed the designs of all of these mechs.
In Mechwarrior 5, the Warhammer that is shown is of the old design, with some minor changes that only Btech buffs have picked up on.

The old Design:
www.solaris7.com/Files/Members/602/Warhammer.jpg

The new design:
www.topshelfgames.com/v/vspfiles/photos/TSGIWM20233-2T.jpg

A crappy screen of the Warhammer:
blog.pricegrabber.co.uk/buttonsmasher/files/2009/07/mechwarrior.jpg

The Robotech mechs (Warhammer is on the left side in the middle row):
favoritetoons.com/wallpaper-robotech_1024x768-2.jpg

For some laughs, here are some of the old designs of some Mechs. Reference to the above picture, they're not hard to find.

Rifleman (then):
www.techno-hut.com/thp/minis/images/rifleman.jpg

Rifleman (now):
www.theminichopshop.com/webImg/gallery/battletech/hd_rifleman/mvc-061f.jpg

Archer (then):
farm1.static.flickr.com/198/518073105_238a11f4a1.jpg

Archer (now):
www.topshelfgames.com/v/vspfiles/photos/TSGIWM20211-2T.jpg

Crusader (then):
aw0l.homestead.com/files/AJ_s_Crusader.jpg

Crusader (now):
www.theminichopshop.com/webImg/gallery/battletech/hd_crusader/mvc-476f.jpg

Cool thing is, I have all of the original miniatures that were made before the law suit and the design changes.

[Waspman]

Holy cow, they look practically identical. I can sorta see why there would be legal troubles.. that Robotech company is a pain in the arse, though. They're way too overprotective of the franchise. Even going as far as preventing the original Japanese versions from being released in the United States.

[Fayde]

Now that is just silly. Why wouldn't they want it to be released in the US? Very odd...

Well, I can see the reasons for the law suit. However, wouldn't have just been easier to ask them to stop making it and redesign new ones? Law suits are stupid. 99% avoidable.

[Waspman]

Nov 5, 2009 23:45:16 GMT -8 Fayde said:

Law suits are stupid. 99% avoidable.

LOL www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMH8Tof69SE

[Fayde]

BEST THING EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Waspman]

FYI, MechWarrior 4 is available free for download on MekTek now. Although the site seems to be down right now. Probably crashed from everyone flooding the servers.

[Fayde]

I'm honestly surprised I didn't post about that. They did that last year in calibration of BattleTechs 25th anniversary.
I'm still ticked about that. 40 bucks and it ends up being free later, lol. Great game though, if for nothing else, the Solaris proving grounds.
I wonder if it's multiplayer? You'll have to grab that.

[Waspman]

I'll definitely download it but there's still a lot of crap I need to download first.
From my understanding it does have online multiplayer, but it's not compatible with the old retail version. You actually have to download the MekTek version, from what I read.
Anyway, it's back up: mtxgear.mektek.net/MW4/download.html

[Fayde]

I'll download it if you do! Let me know if you do end up getting it... it'll be awesome to plug in my old joystick (which is absolutely essential to play it). Such a fun game. I wonder if any of the mektek mods will work for it. They added like, 25 or some new mechs to it, as well as year 3060 weapons and technology. Almost it's own expansion pack actually.

[Waspman]

May 6, 2010 11:10:45 GMT -8 Fayde said:

it'll be awesome to plug in my old joystick (which is absolutely essential to play it).

Do you think a PS2-style gamepad would work? Or am I just better off using the keyboard?

[Fayde]

Depends on how many buttons your controller has really. There are a lot of different keys you can use to make the control interface a lot cleaner. Actually piloting the mech would be MUCH easier on a controller than keyboard. Keyboards really suck when your playing the game. It takes a lot of the fun out of it (just feels like a slow-paced shooter rather than a mech sim)
The speed control is pretty complex compare to a normal game though. It's not "move forward, move backward. It's done in incremented number keys (1-10), depending on how fast you want to maneuver. (you would typically use the scroll wheel on a mouse or joystick to do this quickly), which may be a bit hard to do on a PS2 controller.
I would try it out though on both. Which ever is easier for you. Keyboard may be easier, but takes half the fun away, and the controller may be funner, but isn't as practical. Joysticks really combine the best of both worlds, and it adds a lot more of a simulation feel to the game, which at it's heart, is just a mech simulation.

Here's a list if things I typically have programs on my joystick:

Torso Twist (left and right)
Re-center Torso
Fire primary weapon group
Change weapon group
Next Target
Previous Target
Nav Location Toggle
Lights/Optic Toggle
Speed Adjustment (typically done with a scroll wheel, or numbers 1-10)
Look Vertical
Look Horizontal (turning direction)
Jump Jets
View Change (3rd person/1st person. You will switch between these often)

I hope that helps!

If you want to get a joystick, I'd go to Bookman's or something. I still use a joystick I got there for 5 dollars. It's not super complex and doesn't have a lot of buttons, but it makes the Mechwarrior experience.