Hands-on With the MechWarrior Online Closed Beta

[Guest]

I have played MWO for a while now.
IMHO --Mechwarrior: Living Legends-- is by far the better game currently.
MWO still has alot of work to do.

 

[KT_WASP]

The last mech game I played on a regular basis was MW3 (learn to lag shoot or die, lol). I bought MW4 when Microsoft took it over, but I remember thinking "These are not mechs, these things look like Fisher-Price toys".... After that I kind lost hope for the mech game universe.

I remember seeing a preview from a couple of years ago from Piranah about this game and got so excited. Then life caught up and I forgot all about it until I just read this.

This is something I will defiantly have to check out. Personally, I would rather pay $60 for the game itself (disc please.. I'm old school and like physical items for my money, lol) and get the ability to customize from the get-go, rather than free and have to pay a premium... even though it amounts basically the same thing, it is psychological or something, lol. Then again, come to think about it, I don't think I ever played a free-to-play game (don't game much anymore) and have no clue how something like that works, so my assumptions of what to expect are probably way off base.

 

[john_4]

MW was great until M$ bought it out, just like what EA and Activision do to game companies.

 

[dingo07]

@borisof007 - you completely took what I said about the controller for Steel Battalion (Xbox) out of context. In no way did I say the controller made the game what it was - it simply sealed the deal on realism, which in turn exemplifies the gameplay and overal experience.

 

[Guest]

Looks okay so far, still have my fingers crossed for this game at release time. I'm so glad the Mech Warrior franchise is out of M$'s greedy hands... It is.... right?

 

[SinisterSalad]

I just got into the Hawken Alpha 2, but haven't had more than 15min to myself to play that. I wasn't really into the mech games back in the day, but these upcoming ones may change that.

 

[spartanmk2]

Gauss Cannons ONLINE!!!RAWRRR!!! 😀

 

[hythos]

Just to note - the game isn't actually going to be "released" (as in "this is our Gold-version / best thing we can produce so we're going to release it" version) for some time - yet it may "Open" beta, from it's current "closed beta" state... This will happen when it's ~98%+ stable (proven by Closed Beta testing), and has an amount of features that Pirahna is satisfied with.

What makes MWO significantly different than other "MMO's" is that the content is intended to be a continuous flow (virtually indefinitely) following a Lore already cemented in Battletech. Features will be added over time as well, WITHOUT "expansion upgrades" that the player must pay for. Because of the dedication by the developer, I would hope they DO make enough money to maintain operations, but those economics are up to their management to decide. It basically becomes OUR (the players) responsibilities to kinda keep it going by buying time (Premium status) - just like we would do on other MMO's, though you have an option to not - and continue playing without restricted status (as with WoW, EQ, LotR, etc).


SO, for this mean-while, until MechWarrior Online actually switches to Open Beta (I don't think they even linked it here... but just for good measure: http://www.mwomercs.com) - there will be a touch of 'balance' occurring, and continued bug-fixes.
As for where the game has come in just the past few months - and where it will go:
*September added a new 'Mech (Raven), and a new map, a default 'voice-comm' function (C3), and a lil bit of a change to their UI.
*October will be about the largest patch yet - upgrading the CryEngine3 to v3.45(? I think), improving stability/play-ability on dual-core processors, and adding significant content that will revolutionize combat (even more from what it has been, and ironically, was also the case in the Battletech universe: IE, Endo Steel, DoubleHeatSinks, etc.)

While the short-term forecast has many more attractive elements coming soon, it is the long-term prospect that holds the most appeal - something that *I* haven't felt since the early days of Star Wars Galaxies - though I believe Pirahna and their game-model, will have the ability, longevity, and insight to make it all happen.

 

[Guest]

Wow, you must be playing a different MW:O closed Beta than I am.

For one thing, there is NO lore, NO story in MW:O. The lore, the story, that comes from BattleTech itself. There is nothing in MW:O other than a combat engine and a very flame-heavy forum -- or at least, that's what there was as of 2.39pm Central US time.

Did they pay you to write this or something?

I'm about the most die-hard BattleTech fan ever. I played every form of the game from BattleDroids in 1982 on up to today's incarnation of MW:O.

Having played the "closed beta" and helped test it, I call nonsense on basically your entire article.

My advice? Actually sign up for Beta and get into it, and see what it's like in these early developement stages.

 

[borisof007]

Alla, if you're a die hard BT fan then you should know about the COUNTLESS amount of books and stories written over the years for the BT universe. The game will include community warfare come spring, which will involve the IS houses battling for control over planets, Mercenary groups fighting for money, and the clan invasion as well.