Best Mechwarrior game

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-03-15 01:35am

I recall there having been a thread about this, but I couldn't find it on the search.

So what's the best mechwarrior game in your opinion?

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-03-15 01:38am

2, by far. Its outdated now, but it was the greatest. ph34r Jade Falcon skillz. Mech 4 would be a distant second, but the lack of a torso auto-return pissed me off to no end.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-03-15 01:39am

Mechwarrior Mercenaries, based on the Mechwarrior 2 engine.

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-03-15 02:05am

Ghost Bear's Legacy, the MW2 expansion pack.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-03-15 02:21am

IG-88E wrote:Ghost Bear's Legacy, the MW2 expansion pack.

BLECH! With those annoying underwater missions!?

ben · Post by **ben** » 2003-03-15 02:25am

Mercenaries is great too. but then some damned bastard had to mess with the mech config. i remember being able to create some awesome mechs and replaying missions over and over again with different loadlouts just to see the differences and of course give some nasty surpises in multiplayer. can't do that now though it has become to perdictable what the other guy is packing and how he/she will generally behave.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-15 02:52am

Vympel wrote:Mechwarrior Mercenaries, based on the Mechwarrior 2 engine.

Hear hear!

Thought MW3 was quite nice. Definately much more suited to Mercs style gamplay than the MW4 engine. Bleah.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-03-15 12:03pm

The one that has tanks.

Oh, wait...

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2003-03-15 01:15pm

Mercenaries or Mechwarrior 2. The latter had a good soundtrack.

Edit: Howedar, all Mechwarrior games have tanks that blow up nicely

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-03-15 01:45pm

I recently started playing MW3 again as i've just bought a joystick and wanted to see if those games i sucked at are any better with the proper controls.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-15 03:22pm

Darth Pounder wrote:I recently started playing MW3 again as i've just bought a joystick and wanted to see if those games i sucked at are any better with the proper controls.

I played through MW3 with a Saitek X36 Combo setup, with a custom configuration to handle just about anything. It was totally sweet, though some issues with the pots on the X-36 (old serial version, not the new USB version or the latest one) made aiming a right bitch sometimes.

MW2: Mercs is still the king. MW2 was good, but Mercs was better.

MW4 Mercs looks to be decent. I might get it once it drops below $30. Those mech packs piss me off though. I was very disappointed with MW4 in general. MW3 was the last true MW game, sadly.

paladin · Post by **paladin** » 2003-03-15 03:54pm

Icehawk · Post by **Icehawk** » 2003-03-15 06:35pm

The one that has tanks.

Oh, wait...

Mech Assault for Xbox has Tanks.... They make VERY good target practice

My overall favorite is still Mechwarrior 2 after all these years. Although for pure fragging fun, Mech Assault is great as well.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-03-15 06:49pm

MechWarrior II, certainly. The fact that 4 has been touched by Microsoft makes it far less appealing, but anyway I've kind of lost my taste for the MW series.

How much of a difference was there between the PC and PlayStation versions of MW2, BTW?

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2003-03-15 07:17pm

Mech2, most definitly. Mech4: Mercs a close second. Mech3 sucked.

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-03-15 07:19pm

Vympel wrote:
IG-88E wrote:Ghost Bear's Legacy, the MW2 expansion pack.
BLECH! With those annoying underwater missions!?

Underwater MISSION, singular. And although that one did piss me off, they made up for it with the ones in space.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-15 08:44pm

Crayz9000 wrote:MechWarrior II, certainly. The fact that 4 has been touched by Microsoft makes it far less appealing, but anyway I've kind of lost my taste for the MW series.

MW 3 was done by Microsoft as well, and it was very good. MW4 isn't bad, but it wasn't all that great, and visually it was nothing to write home about. MW3 actually does some visuals better than MW4.

How much of a difference was there between the PC and PlayStation versions of MW2, BTW?

Quite a bit, as I recall. From controls to gameplay. I'd have to check again, but I'm pretty sure that it was almost a new game.

Plus there was no PS version of MW2: Mercenaries.

Arrow Mk84 wrote:Mech2, most definitly. Mech4: Mercs a close second. Mech3 sucked.

I beg to differ. Mech 3 was much better than MW4 in many respects. The inventory and salvage system were wonderful, the graphics were about the same in most places, MW4 having some advantages, and MW3 having some others. Weapons light the gauss rifle and autocannons would actually produce recoil that varied on where you put them on the mech. The lancemates in MW3 were fun and interesting, while the lancemates in MW4 were just kind of bleah. While the story from both was completely unbelievable (one lance vs. a whole freaking planet), MW3's execution was a bit more enjoyable.

<rant>
MW4 loses big points with the mech packs though. Seperate from the actual game itself, it shows the arrogance of Microsoft. No other publisher would try a stunt like slapping together four chassis, some new toys, and a map (which you could download for free online), then selling it for ~$13. That's right, for 8 new mechs, two free maps, and some more options in mechlab, they slap on an ADDITIONAL ~$26 in addition to the $40-$50 you already spent on their damn game (plus another $40-$50 for the "expansion pack"). Not even counting MW4: Mercs, to get the "complete" MW4 gaming experience, you've got to lay down $126 (plus tax) for the original game, expansion pack, and the two mechpacks, assuming you bought them all when they came out. What do you get?

Vengeance:
Full campaign (which was so bad as to make me lose interest rather early on)
21 Mechs
Various weapons/electronics/equipment
Multiplayer Maps/Multiplayer Modes Perhaps the most enjoyable thing from the game, especially the city maps. City maps were well done. One thing that I liked about MW4 were the city maps, primarily because no other MW game had such detailed and crowded cities.

What takes the most time and money in development, apart from the game engine itself? The singleplayer campaign. They hired actors, had to do the special effects for the various FMVs, scripting of singleplayer missions, etc. Game Balance has to be considered when making the singleplayer campaign, because if a change is made because of multiplayer testing (a weapon is found to be too unbalancing), they have to go back through all the relevant singleplayer missions and see if the change affects the campaign at all.

Black Knight:
Full campaign which apparently takes the entire storyline of Vengeance and screws it over. Since I didn't enjoy the original enough to actually complete it, this did not influence me to get the expansion
5 new Mechs (bringing the total to 26)
Some new weapons/electronics/equipment
New Multiplayer Maps and Modes.
Black Market (taste of MW4: Mercs, which was to follow)

Again, the biggest cost for this game was likely the singleplayer campaign. It has 20+ missions compared to Vengeance's 30+ missions. Map creation and testing of the new multiplayer modes undoubtedly took a considerable amount of time as well. In the end, they are justified in charging what they do for the expansion. Enough actual content has been added so that it would be a fair exchange at the price they set in the stores.

The Mechpacks, for $26 combined, add just three more mechs than Black Knight did, plus two new weapons and two new electronics options, not counting the maps (which were available for free). The biggest addition (and thus the largest cost) of the mech packs is the four new mechs each one adds. The exchange rate here is roughly $3 per mech. This is obviously total bullshit, since if this were the case, Vengeance would have been at least $65 the day in hit the stores, while Black Knight would have been only around $20. Even assuming that about half of the work and money from developing Vengeance went into the mechs alone we're looking at a mere $1 per chassis. Now apply that to Black Knight, and ask yourself why the charged full rate for a game that adds a fourth of the mechs of the original and two thirds of the campaign. You might be able to then explain it through the black market, but you'd be pushing it. The mech packs would be absurd, as they would be charging double for their work what they usually charged.

Hell, I remember when Cavedog put new units online for free with Total Annihilation.

So Microsoft gets away with bleeding the fans with the Mech Packs. Why? How is it that they could get away with this? No other gaming company would even think of trying something as stupid as that. They'd alienate their customers, who would then go and buy a competitor's product.

Oh, wait...what competitors? Since the release of MW4, there has not been a single PC mech simulation game on the market (at least none that have threatened MW4 sales). There are no PC mech simulation games slated to be released any time soon, either. There are a few offerings for consoles (Tekki/Steel Battalion...for X-Box...), but none that threaten the already established PC mech simulation market. There is no alternative to MW4. They can charge whatever the hell they want to charge, because they are the only game in town. I'm not saying that it's an intentional thing, but they are taking advantage of things, and screwing their customers while they've got the chance.
</rant>

MW4 Mercs looks fun, but I refuse to get it until it's bargain bin, along with the mech packs. Part of it is that I don't like their business practices, but the primary reason being that there is simply just not enough content to warrant my shelling out over $76 for the "full" MW4: Mercs experience.

Coaan · Post by **Coaan** » 2003-03-15 09:07pm

Oh there's no doubt about it...The majority are in the right here.

Mechwarrior two and the follow on addon packs like Mercs and Ghost bears were undoubtibly the best mechwarrior games to date..

There's something about blazing through a city in your own personal Atlas that appealed...

Or when you stole the Kodiac...

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2003-03-15 09:16pm

My problem with Mech3 is that controls were not as good as they could have been and they took the Mech2 interface and made it chunky. However, that could had just been my computer at the time. Mech4 could have done without the cheesy actors, though.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-15 09:16pm

Coaan wrote:Mechwarrior two and the follow on addon packs like Mercs and Ghost bears were undoubtibly the best mechwarrior games to date..

Small nitpick, but MW2: Mercs was not an expansion pack, it was a complete standalone game. It did not require MW2 at all, nor did it require GBL.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-15 09:22pm

Arrow Mk84 wrote:My problem with Mech3 is that controls were not as good as they could have been and they took the Mech2 interface and made it chunky. However, that could had just been my computer at the time.

MW3 controls were always good to me. But then I always edit the control config for all my games given the chance. As I said, I used a Stick/throttle combo to simulate the Tesla Pod experiences, and I had a blast. Even with just a stick, it was excellent. I suppose if you were limited to a mouse and KB setup, you might have some issues with control, since I never bothered with that much. However, if you did use a mouse and keyboard, you had an insane advantage in aiming compared to someone with a joystick. It was (and still is in MW4, I think) insanely easy to hit your target if you aimed with the mouse.

Mech4 could have done without the cheesy actors, though.

Every Mech game has had actors, cheesy and not-so-cheesy. This was just the first time (aside from Mechcommander) any of them got actual screen time as opposed to just doing voiceovers.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-03-15 10:27pm

People play Mechwarrior with a joystick?! That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-03-15 11:36pm

Vympel wrote:People play Mechwarrior with a joystick?! That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

I take it you've never played Battletech in a Tesla Pod then?
Pity. Those things are damn fun. Huge screen, plus individual weapons/status screens, joystick, pedals, a throttle, and tons of buttons you can press to alter power levels, coolant flow, etc. Plus the speakers and subwoofers make sure that you know it when you get hit.

As far as I'm concerned, Joysticks are just about the only way to play 'Mech style games, with the possible exception of Heavy Gear and Heavy Gear 2.

Strafe · Post by **Strafe** » 2003-03-16 12:55am

MW2 is easily the best. I literally spent hours reading all the background info they put in the game in the info libraries, the text between missions, the battle reports etc etc.

Mercenaries (MW2 variety) is a close second, with that last battle in Luthien against the Smoke Jags and Nova Cats being a true test of stamina.

Not to mention MW2's mech lab was the closest to the actual battletech game.

MW3 was good if you had multiplayer as the graphics were pretty sweet. Single player was ridiculous tho. Lance vs several Smoke Jag clusters...uh-huh...

Never played MW4

Mech Assault is fun for multiplayer, but too arcade like for me.

Strafe · Post by **Strafe** » 2003-03-16 12:58am

MW2 is easily the best. I literally spent hours reading all the background info they put in the game in the info libraries, the text between missions, the battle reports etc etc.

Mercenaries (MW2 variety) is a close second, with that last battle in Luthien against the Smoke Jags and Nova Cats being a true test of stamina.

Not to mention MW2's mech lab was the closest to the actual battletech game.

MW3 was good if you had multiplayer as the graphics were pretty sweet. Single player was ridiculous tho. Lance vs several Smoke Jag clusters...uh-huh...

Never played MW4

Mech Assault is fun for multiplayer, but too arcade like for me.