There?s now a new trailer available for MechWarrior Online, the upcoming online game from Piranha Games. Like previous MechWarrior games, MechWarrior Online is set in the BattleTech universe, the setting for the venerable mecha-based tabletop war game of the same name.
MechWarrior Online will be an action/simulator game in which players pilot BattleMechs, the colossal bipedal war machines that dominate the battlefields of the 31st century. Players will be able to align themselves with one of the major factions of the battle tech universe- the aristocratic Great Houses warring for control of human space- and the outcomes of battles can have an influence on the game?s larger persistent universe. Piranha is promising an emphasis on team-based gameplay, with groups of players working together in specialized roles, and action that will be faithful to the way combat is portrayed in the strategy game.
There?s quite a long history of video and computer games based on BattleTech, going back to MechWarrior in 1989. (My own introduction to BattleTech was the Super Nintendo port of that game, released in 1993.) Converting a turn-based tabletop strategy game into a real-time computer action/simulation game is tricky business, but BattleTech has previously been shown to be able to translate between the formats quite well while still feeling like itself.
I have to say, I?m extremely impressed with what I?m seeing so far. It?s gorgeous to look at, and I thought its style evoked ?Mech combat as I?d always envisioned it quite nicely- brilliant light from banks of energy weapons, missiles flying in giant swarms, huge, inexorable machines hammering each other to pieces, frantic alarms sounding and HEAT WARNING displays popping up in the cockpit as the player struggles to keep pouring fire into the enemy without forcing his own overheating ?Mech into emergency shut-down. It?s extremely? well, BattleTechy, which is a good sign.
One of the differences between BattleTech and the way mecha are commonly portrayed in Japanese media is that in the latter (e.g. the Mobile Suit Gundam anime series or the Armored Core video games), mecha are often very quick and agile despite their size, and seem like aircraft or giant human warriors in the way they move. BattleTech?s ?Mechs, on the other hand, have always had much more of a sense of weight and mass- they?re bipedal tanks or artillery. Neither style is inherently superior, but I?m glad to see that Piranha is keeping to BattleTech?s root?s here.
I was a pretty big BattleTech fan growing up, due to the interesting and tremendously detailed setting. I wasn?t as big a PC gamer back then, which limited my exposure to the computer game adaptations somewhat, but I did enjoy some of the electronic adaptations of the game as well. (One of my fondest gaming memories was the time in MechWarrior 3 when I attempted to get around the rather slow firing rate of the game?s more powerful energy weapons by customizing my BattleMech to carry a huge number of them at once. Upon making contact with the enemy on my new ?Mech?s maiden voyage, I aimed center mass and hit the Enter key to fire all weapons simultaneously? which, since the big guns also produce a great deal of waste heat, produced such an enormous spike in my BattleMech?s temperature that it skipped the usual procedure of temporarily shutting down the reactor and instead simply exploded. On the plus side, there wasn?t any more left of him afterward than there was of me.) I?d love to see this turn out well.
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Source: http://www.gamingandtech.com/2012/03/14/new-mechwarrior-online-trailer-looks-great/
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