MechWarrior 5 announced with trailer

[Rasix]

No, it's MP only. Fair point :)

Yeah, since you asked.. that would be what killed it for me.  I'm 35 and my reflexes suck compared to most of the online FPS/ twitchy teens and 20 somethings.  No single player = no play.

Any time I've bought an online only game outside of a MMO, I've ended up disappointed in my purchase.  My natural skills put me just above cannon fodder, but I'm unwilling to put in the time to get to higher level of play.  Why MMOs work where FPS types don't, is because I can ignore people in MMOs.  In a FPS or RTS it's difficult to ignore the guy that's killing you and yelling SHITCOCK into his mic.

[Draegan]

I never got involved in Mechwarrior stuff other than saying cool.. big robots with guns and played a shitty xbox game once.

Where do I start?

http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=text&page=Game_Universe Is a pretty good synopsis.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page Is also pretty comprehensive.

Cool.  Mechwarrior and Battletech are the same?

[Trippy]

MechWarriors are the BattleMech pilots. BattleTech is the game universe.

[Draegan]

Got it.

[WindupAtheist]

The Clans were dreadfully boring Space Mongols. Not quite as odious a "fuck lets shake this shit up" attempt as the Vong in the Star Wars books, but still pretty bleh.

[Ratman_tf]

MechWarriors are the BattleMech pilots. BattleTech is the game universe.

The computer games:
Once upon a long time ago, there was a Battletech turn based RPG named "Battletech". So when the sim game came out, they had to call it something else, to avoid confusion. Thus they called it "Mechwarrior". Totally ass-backwards, but there ya go.

[Ghambit]

I'd always thought the term "MechWarrior" only came to being due to the Clans and their warrior-esque culture.  The IS simply called their mech. drivers "pilots."

[Lantyssa]

The term MechWarrior has been around for a long time.

[Ghambit]

Well, I wont swoon and gasp until they do a BattleTech version of WW2O (hell, they could make it turn-based even).  Until that time, pretty much all these games are nothing but watered-down arcadey sims.  To me, none of the Mechwarrior games really captured BattleTech, not even close....

I understand they want to preserve the tabletop IP, but there comes a point when it just becomes ridiculous.  All the while these shytty anime mecha game reduxes make me ill.  Someone needs to come along and just make the definitive BattleTech PC/console game and be done with it.

[Ironwood]

 

[Tale]

Yeah, since you asked.. that would be what killed it for me.  I'm 35 and my reflexes suck compared to most of the online FPS/ twitchy teens and 20 somethings.  No single player = no play.

As a 39-year-old who has no trouble competing in online FPS/twitchy games, I'm calling your reflexes excuse soft.

And anyone who wants to make a good MechWarrior game just needs to remake MechWarrior 2 and its expansion(s). The trailer for MechWarrior 5 looks worryingly like "interactive movie" gameplay. I want to be in control of the mech, with freedom to wander and fear of the enemy, and an atmospheric soundtrack - they could reuse MW2's soundtrack, as it was an audio CD.

[Ghambit]

If they really had balls they'd use one of these new handy-dandy neural interfaces for a new Mechwarrior game.  Something like the Emotiv EPOC perhaps.
Your state-of-mind would determine the Mech's balance and movement whilst the stick controls everything else.

[d4rkj3di]

Sorry I'm late. I was digging out my Steel Battalion controller so I could sleep with it every night until this game comes out.

Oh, and they've been using that "shitheel noble kid needs to save his planet after it gets invaded" story since Crescent Hawks Inception.

[Fordel]

It is pretty much the Mechwarrior version of "We all met at a tavern" or whatever you want to call it.

[patience]

Well, I wont swoon and gasp until they do a BattleTech version of WW2O (hell, they could make it turn-based even).  Until that time, pretty much all these games are nothing but watered-down arcadey sims.  To me, none of the Mechwarrior games really captured BattleTech, not even close....

I understand they want to preserve the tabletop IP, but there comes a point when it just becomes ridiculous.  All the while these shytty anime mecha game reduxes make me ill.  Someone needs to come along and just make the definitive BattleTech PC/console game and be done with it.

THe definitive Battletech game would essentially be an MMO and who wants MMO devs to mess up another IP?

Sorry I'm late. I was digging out my Steel Battalion controller so I could sleep with it every night until this game comes out.

Oh, and they've been using that "shitheel noble kid needs to save his planet after it gets invaded" story since Crescent Hawks Inception.

True true but why retread old ground so quickly?

MW CH - You covered that
MW2 - Two factions disagree on resuming the invasion to conquer the IS and go into a full blown war leading with one faction "defecting" to the IS.
MW Mercs - You're low on cash, you own a war machine capable of demolishing cities. What's man got to do to make a living?
MW3 - The IS decides instead of waiting for the Clans to fully recover during the Truce attack them to settle the war.
MW4 - Never played it but I roughly remember being the same plot as MW the Reboot.
MW4 Mercs. - To my understanding it continues on the MW4 plotline but the good guy you played in MW4 became an evil tyrant you had to kill off as another character in 4 Mercs. (Imagine if that happened in Mass Effect 2  )
MWR - Retread of 4 and possibly MW4 Mercs.

[Samprimary]

I never got involved in Mechwarrior stuff other than saying cool.. big robots with guns and played a shitty xbox game once.

Where do I start?

Mechwarrior the boardgame (battletech) has been around since time immemorial and actually captured a pretty good feel for giant walking tank combat and was actually pretty bloody fun.

Someday they really honestly need to make a new computerized version of the boardgame, since mechwarrior is pretty old hat at this point and equipping yourself for boardgame fun is kind of a big investment, socially or otherwise.

But if you were lucky enough to be able to play it with friends over the past, oh, two decades or so, you would have gotten hit with the mech bug. Perhaps getting hit with the mech bug would have coincided with the release of Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries, which was a wicked fun game that most captured the idea behind battletech. There's a few other decent offerings slotted here and there. But mainly it's M2M. M2M makes it as a vid franchise.

Of course after this point comes the slow domination of the franchise by Microsoft Game Studios. By Mechwarrior 4, what the system has become is mostly generic pablum fare. Nothing really worth getting excited over. Maybe Mech Commander 2. Elsewise it's all just meh. By the time we reach MechAssault, you are basically playing stuff that is essentially mechwarrior in name only. Sure don't have the same feel.

But there's always sort of a hope it can come back. You just love it despite its penchant as a franchise for horrific voice acting. You want to jump into a giant fucking mech and, after a decent slugfest, blow someone's torso off with a PPC that makes your screen shake when you fire it.

[NowhereMan]

One of my first experiences with BattleTech was one of these places. Way too expensive for a kid to really get into but I just remember the sheer awesomeness of getting to play in one of these things. Sadly I didn't really have the interest to follow it up by looking into the board game as at the time I was a WH40K player and could no way afford another hobby on pocket money and parental sufferance.

[Samprimary]

Yeah I guess I have to give credit to Battletech. Investment and lore wise, at least it isn't warhammer 40k.

WH40k is like that kid who when you're playing ninjas starts whining that his ninja can also fly, shoot fireballs, move faster than light, and has an invincible force field that repels all damage.

Battletech left a lot more to relate to.

[Ghambit]

One of my first experiences with BattleTech was one of these places. Way too expensive for a kid to really get into but I just remember the sheer awesomeness of getting to play in one of these things. Sadly I didn't really have the interest to follow it up by looking into the board game as at the time I was a WH40K player and could no way afford another hobby on pocket money and parental sufferance.

Here's the original intro vid. for that:
http://www.youtube.com/v/MHSmuBxqlG4

And here's today's version of those sims:
http://www.mechcorps.com/html/index.php (houston area - these guys actually LARP it out sometimes)
http://www.virtualworld.com/

[NowhereMan]

Heh, that was the one

[Hoax]

Yeah those POD simulators (they had some down in Walnut Creek when I was a kid) and the novels were what did it for me.  The table top game wasn't a lot of fun.  Very slow, lots of paper to keep track of and generally it never was as cool as the 'mech battles in my head.

[Lantyssa]

http://www.mechcorps.com/html/index.php (houston area - these guys actually LARP it out sometimes)

They must have bought the pods.  D&B's recently got rid of theirs, so I thought things in Houston had shut down.  Good to know.

[Modern Angel]

http://megamek.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=developersguide

[Fordel]

They have what seems to be the full source books for the big 5 Successor States at http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=downloads

Only House Davion has pictures though :( .

[Merusk]

http://www.mechcorps.com/html/index.php (houston area - these guys actually LARP it out sometimes)

They must have bought the pods.  D&B's recently got rid of theirs, so I thought things in Houston had shut down.  Good to know.

Yeah I was disappointed to visit the D&B here in Cincy last year and discover theirs were gone.  The awesome part was having played MW PC games before, I knew you could reconfig your weapons.  All it took was a little fiddling with the pods and "Hey look, I'm not alpha striking every trigger pull with a 20 second weapon cool down.  Buahahha."

Many unsuspecting D&B patrons died to my Timberwolf that day.

[WindupAtheist]

I got started with the books. Then the SNES Mechwarrior, which had pretty terrible combat compared to the PC games but surprisingly nice mech tinkering.

[Strazos]

Man, anywhere in the NJ/PA area to play Mechwarrior?


Also, buddy of mine got into the tabletop game recently. I like it enough, but even for a DnD vet, the amount of tables and raw info is pretty obnoxious.

[patience]

Since I used to play the game with Megamek (the computer representation of the PnP) I can't relate to that issue, so I suggest trying to use that to weed out the paper factor.

[Lantyssa]

Once you're playing for a bit most of it is pretty easy to remember.  Missile tables were the only thing I really needed an aid for after playing a while.

[Jain Zar]

This is good news. 

And dyall think which mech I want to play? 

[Azazel]

The term MechWarrior has been around for a long time.

You keep doing that! (getting in before I do), but yeah, both terms come from the tabletop/pen-and-paper days of gaming. I had 1st-ed Battletech but only played it a few times with the card "miniatures". I pretty much bought it because of the Robotech (Macross) designed-mechs. Probably the same "in" that Jain Zar had, back in the day. I never played Mechwarrior but always saw it in the various FLGS.

Crimson Skies was also quite a good tabletop miniatures game before it became a videogame IP.

[gryeyes]

Ive never read any Battletech based fiction. Any recommendations on whats worth reading, I dont care in the least bit if its complete pulp.

[Falwell]

Ive never read any Battletech based fiction. Any recommendations on whats worth reading, I dont care in the least bit if its complete pulp.

Stackpole's stuff, imo, was the best of the bunch. The Blood of Kerensky trilogy is probably what I'd recommend for starters. It covers the initial clan invasion, gives brief overviews of the different houses and is, in general, a decent starting point.

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Kerensky-Vol-Heritage-Battletech/dp/1555600913


From there, if you like what you read, you can dip back into the succession wars etc. The clan invasion is probably the biggest event in BT lore so it's why I'd say start here and then work your way back.

[Chenghiz]

Inner Sphere mechs look like People Wearing Boxes. This is why I like the clans better.

[Sheepherder]

I am also of the opinion that most of the IS mechs look retarded.