MECHWARRIOR ONLINE 2012

Television, Movies Games and Books Games & Toys
#1

reactor online
sensors online
weapons online
all systems (sic) online and nominal too! :smiley:

Second trailer up today:

PC GAMER: Exclusive: first MechWarrior Online trailer

Games Radar: MechWarrior Online exclusive trailer

And the pre-rendered CG trailer from last November:

//youtu.be/JVKHr9DL8FA

Free to play for Windows PC - “late 2012” no definite date yet. An increasing rarity, this is not a console port or developed in parallel with corresponding console titles. Dust off your Microsoft Sidewinder and put away those controllers.

Also announced last November: the game’s engine is CryEngine 3

Many, most, well some former mech pilots feel that Zipper’s MW3 and FASA’s MW4, both published by Microsoft with various assorted diddly expansions, blundered away from the classic gameplay of Activision’s more fluid, intuitive Mechwarrior 2 / Ghost Bear / Mercenaries series. Developer Piranha Games have been hinting all along they feel the same way. Mechwarrior Online is a reboot. The mech computer’s voice in the newer trailer above, for example, is a closely copied homage to MW2.

#2

If I could somehow get my Steel Battalion controller to work with it, I’d never leave my apartment again.

#3

You can uhh… “pay to beta” by dropping a wad on MWO’s pricey Founders Program. Such not-so-micro-micropayments are becoming common in free to play business models, but $30 a month for a premium account is the highest I am aware of. True, each dollar is converted into game currency with a 33% bonus. In a sense, you’re loading a Steam Wallet with more bucks at a time than you might care to. Unfortunately what benefits are granted by premium, what will be for sale in the in-game store, what is the equivalent F2P grinding time to accumulate game cash, are all unknown - at least I couldn’t find the information readily available and the media covering MWO do not know either. I don’t have a huge problem with buying in blind so to speak, since I and most grizzled gamers I know would happily spend $30 on the next FASA® endorsed Mechwarrior® title, whoever made it and whatever manner of retail game it happened to be.

Piranha hastily reassures mech pilots that MWO will never be pay to win. We’ll see.

The plan is to add all founders to the beta pool by August 7th with free open beta shortly to follow. Currently on round 12 which the official tweet claims were 2000 founders strong. So many thousands of returning mech pilots eager to jump back into this classic franchise.

Looking GOOD! And for a change, you should actually listen to the narration because planetary environments are crucial to game play. Hot environments mean hair trigger weapon overheats and weak IR signatures.

//youtu.be/YCYQtzfp9BM

#4

“And that is my mech cockpit. Thankyouverymuch.” :oops:

//youtu.be/kZZHd_dgslw

#5

That is awesome, it would be cool to do something like that for a space game, or even aircraft game. Kudos, Kudos

#6

Voice Your Attack Strategy: MechWarrior® Online to Deploy Vivox’s C3 Voice Integration

Previous versions of Vivox were implemented in Eve Online, DC Universe Online, Everquest 1&2, World of Tanks, Combat Arms. C3 is a full featured cross-platform (voice) chat client with channel creation and moderating functions like IRC. Supposedly members of your clan, or whoever is in your friends list, will be able to talk freely between Facebook, mobile phone/pads, from the Windows taskbar, all with MWO players in-game. No matter how MWO implements C3 in-game, everyone can manage voice outside of the game. Many voice enabled games (Steam games) out this year where you’re grateful for the inclusion of a mute button, and sometimes you don’t get even that. External control and the game overlay is what made open source Mumble so popular this year. Feature list: Vivox Introduces C3 – The Most Comprehensive Gaming Communications Platform Ever

As part of the licensing deal, you can try it now: [Mechwarrior Online invites you to The C3 Beta Program](Mechwarrior Online invites you to The C3 Beta Program) Game participation not required.

MWO Founder program ends tomorrow. I wouldn’t worry about not getting access to the Exclusive Founder Mechs™, eventually players will be to equip stock mechs as less specialized but superior equivalents. No date beyond “fall 2012” yet announced for the open beta. Who will win the race for open beta first? Planetside 2 or Mechwarrior Online? :slight_smile:

//youtu.be/5k7jP5ajh3k

#7

D000d, now I really want to build a custom gaming center. I’d go a different way, but that’s damn cool.

#8

OPEN BETA begins next Tuesday, October 16th.

#9

Ohnoitdidn’t! Public beta has been pushed back to TBA due to difficulties in optimizing CryEngine 3. Makes you wonder how Crytek’s own Crysis 3 is faring - scheduled for release in Q1 2013.

Piranha has announced the Founders program earned $5 million dollars, more than any Kickstarter game. So I’m thinking everything will get fixed since Mechwarrior Online is already well funded to be around for years to come.

#10

//youtu.be/ea3spOtjLmI

Catch up of the last year: Over one million registered for the open beta, if not necessarily actively playing. Promised features are still on the way, most prominently Community Warfare. Without that persistent meta-campaign in place, MWO is basically PVP quick matches. MWO has the usual F2P micro-transaction nonsense, not really any better or worse than any other F2P offerings accused of pay to win sins. Cryengine 3 is now simply Cryengine and will be for years to come in countless future games. Crytek completely rewrote the engine from the ground up, version number distinctions do not reflect this isn’t the same game engine as any previous Cryengine release. MWO is an early adopter of CryEngine, with many growing pains, many more to come. As such, you’ll still need a relatively new above mid-range PC for acceptable performance but don’t be afraid to jump in there with an older computer, with settings on low detail. The engines scales very well, designed at is for PC, consoles, everything, and ramps up and down significantly better than Unreal engine ever did. Like Unreal has been in many years past, this game engine (and competitors like Frostbite et. al.) are the future of performance gaming.

Is this as much multiplayer fun as Activision’s classic Mechwarrior games over NetMech and Kali in the primordial days of PC gaming? Once everything is in place, I would say a guarded yes. The sheer size of the community, and sustained revenue for at least several years to come, serve as an impetus for continued refinement and improvement. It will get better because the demand is there for it to be so. In that sense, MWO is unlike many other F2P that are destined to dry up and blow away.

Because the game is unfinished, and so many people are playing, new players will encounter lots of beta player griping. On the other hand, last summer, the developers and player community worked together to raise $10,000 in hours, $10 at a time, and ultimately $122,000 for cancer research in memoriam of five year old Sarah. We all know that much heart and soul shown by that many people is rare precious thing seldom found in online gaming elsewhere.

mwomercs.com/sarah