MechWarrior Online Announcement and Features

I'm not sure about you but MechWarrior was one of my first multiplayer games for pc. I spent a ton of time building mechs and going into epic battles and then MechAssault came out for xbox just as xbox live launched way back in November of 2002. That game had me hooked for a long time. Soon after, the developers decided to make a MechAssault 2 which in my opinion killed the franchise and it hasn't been back since. Well, all that is about to change!

This summer we will be getting a brand new MechWarrior game from Piranha Games. This new MechWarrior will be focused on a lot of the same aspects as the older games, but built on modern technology. You'll be able to do build your own mechs and use them in different game types to lay waste to the enemy and the environment. Another great thing is that this game is being built on the Cry3 engine that has been made famous by the Crysis series. Now, lets get into a little info about the game.

The first and what I think is the most exciting thing is that this game will be Free2Play. What does that mean to you, a lot. That means that this game will be free. There is no purchase price and there is no monthly fee to play. How will the company make money, you might be asking. Well in the game you can use real world money to purchase anything from in game currency to camo and decals to new mech variants. With most free to play titles, they end up making more money from transactions like that than they would have from game purchases. This truly is a great model for both the gamers and the developers.

So you're probably wondering when you'll actually get some info about the game. Well here it comes so hold on tight. First of all, as the name states, this game will be played online. Like with most online games, you'll start off by creating a character, your pilot. Part of this process is choosing a faction to play for. Once that is done you can start building your mech. Take a look at this mech building video that Piranha posted recently.



Once you have your mech, you can get into the game. As you play you'll earn in game money and level up your pilot. You'll be given points to spend on your pilot to give him new abilities. You'll pick those abilities from a talent tree. As for the actual game play, it's been described is like this. You're part of a persistent world similar to Eve Online. Your faction will be fighting against other factions for control of planets and resources. I think this will add a huge level of tactics to the game that has been missing from previous titles. Once you decide on a planet to attack you jump into battle.

So far they've talked about a few different game modes. The first of which is TDM (team deathmatch). This is a last man standing game mode. When you die you're done for that round. The second game type will be called Dropship. This is a limited respawn game. When you die you'll be placed in a new mech aboard a dropship and you'll be dropped back into combat. Piranha has mentioned that so far you'll be given three respawns for a total of four mechs or lives. Within these two game styles you'll have a couple different options for objectives. You can either play a game to eliminate the enemy team or to take over their base. We don't have any other details on that at this time but it will be coming soon.

MechWarrior Online is currently in a closed beta and you can sign up to take part in that HERE. Closed beta isn't your thing? Well the open beta will be starting this summer as well so feel free to jump into that when it becomes available. No dates have been announced yet besides one. Piranha is selling what they're calling a "Founders Pack". One of the many perks you get for purchasing this is early access to the game. They just announced the early access date today and it is set for August 7, 2012. If you're anything like me you're jumping up and down in your chair right now because you're too excited to sit still. That may just be my ADHD but I'm still really excited!

I've been waiting for this game for about ten years now and I'm extremely pleased with the way it's coming along. I love that we're finally going to have a proper online MechWarrior experience. There is only a few more weeks to wait before we can all get access and start building our mechs and planning out battle strategies for when the game goes live. I look forward to hearing your opinions about this game and hopefully I'll see some of you on the battlefield.