That would be so sick if that was the gameplay.

Why not just call it MechAssault 3? I was unsure if it was the same series until I saw the name "Atlas" pop up on the opposing mech.

Because mechassault sucked, and was never really true to the Battletech universe which all this stems from. I honeslty pray to whatever deities are up there that the mechassault nametag is never used or revived ever again.

Mechwarrior started a long time ago on the amiga and NES consoles.
It was also kept around on the PC, and has been largely a PC gamers FPS-Sim style game ever since. The only exception to this that I can currently recall is Mechwarrior 2 for the PSX/1 about a decade back.

The last Mechwarrior game was back in 03/04 with the Mechwarrior 4 series, which culminated in the Mercenaries stand alone game, with a few "Mech Packs" produced by Microsoft. Ever since, it has been up to the mod community to keep the game alive and running, as regards computer games, although the more recent mod Mechwarrior Living Legends for Crysis (MWLL) should probably be more familiar to you, being someone more recent.

I will also note that in the last decade or so, there have been the two Mechcommander games which are RTS's.

The probable reason that this game will not get the Mechassault nametag is because that series A) sucked, and there are a lot of gamers and Battletech fans who simply do not like the game whatsoever, And B) The game is due to appear on PC as well as the consoles, and on PC the series has always been known as Mechwarrior (as that is what you, the pilot, are known as in the game-universe).

Finally, the date is set in 3015, as opposed to the 3130's, which may also be a reason for the name going back to what it should be.


As to this whole hullabaloo, I think it's all down to HG wanting to beat a dead (or unconcious) horse. Yes the Robotech series is pretty nifty (I've watched it all), but quite frankly, it's even more niche than the Battletech universe is.

This whole game announcement is due to Catalyst Games having managed to get the rights for the mentioned "unseen" designs in recent months. However, because of HG, we still do not have the rights to certain designs used within the Robotech anime series, as this article states, as they are digging their metaphorical claws and fangs into this, and are giving the general public the impression that they are clinging onto this for dear life, with what seems to be little reason, logic, or motive, beyond a spot of penny pinching. Whether this is, or is not the case, is unclear, but HG are generating a *lot* of bad press for themselves by doing this.

At the very least, they could just ask for royalties or some other consession instead of messing about and yanking people's chains, so to speak. There's always a good compromise available for both parties, and HG seems to be willing to give people the impression that they don't understand that. If I was a business executive, I'd put little stock in dealing HG, and I'd see little wisdom in attempting to work with them.

Hopefully they'll realise just how bad this looks for them, and maybe start to become a little bit more flexible in their dealings with those around them.

For goodness' sake, why not just take out all the Battletech crap and use different mechs? It doesn't matter what a mech looks like. What matters is the gameplay, impressive weapons, and general awesomeness.

I say they should simply come up with entirely new mech designs, add some new Vulcan cannon style weapons, which were sadly lacking before, and paste messages all over the front of the mechs (before you paint them) saying "lol, it's not from Robotech. Screw you!"

Oops. I meant Macross, not Battletech. You know what I meant!

While we're at it I have a patent for Hatchback cars. I'm going to be taking up a lawsuit with every car manufacturer.

Man I REALLY want to play this with the Steel Battalion controller. It would be beyond awesome.

quote Pilliy

While we're at it I have a patent for Hatchback cars. I'm going to be taking up a lawsuit with every car manufacturer.

Funny except you miss the point. Vague patent trolling vs trademark of an actual finished property isn't the same thing. Maybe you can talk about how you designed the a car that was virtually cloned by Nissan instead and then actually have a valid point to the topic at hand.

quote VeGiTAX2

Funny except you miss the point. Vague patent trolling vs trademark of an actual finished property isn't the same thing. Maybe you can talk about how you designed the a car that was virtually cloned by Nissan instead and then actually have a valid point to the topic at hand.

But there's a limit to how different you can make a Mech look without it becoming stupid. The average mech has a humanoid shape. We have to see what they are specifically trying to say in the trailer looks like robotech, I've seen the anime and so far I don't see anything strikingly similar.

Giant Robot Fight!!!

Unfortunately, it's a lame thing to be fighting about because it's going to impact how the game is developed and how much awesome the Piranha Games folks are going to be able to pack into the title.

Le sigh...

I like those old "unseen" mechs, and they're some of the more original looking mechs in the MechWarrior series.

I only see this as an excuse to come up with even cooler designs though.

quote mcjomar

At the very least, they could just ask for royalties or some other consession instead of messing about and yanking people's chains, so to speak. There's always a good compromise available for both parties, and HG seems to be willing to give people the impression that they don't understand that.

How do we know HG didn't start by discussing royalties? We don't know the full story yet. But I do agree that there's a limit to how different you can really make mechs. Although for me the Robotech/Macross stuff tends to have very specific designs compared to MechWarrior (more organic looking vs more tanklike).

Apparantly the original battletech tabletop game did feature MUCH more robotech-like mechs. They were smaller, lighter, and could move insanely fast and fight in close combat.

You really don't see anything like that in Mechwarrior though, and I've never seen a slow mech in Robotech... So... Yeah, I don't get it.

As for using the Steel Battalion controller, I think I heards someone DID rig theirs up to work on the PC.

I took the simpler cheaper option. Got two joysticks and installed Xpadder. For Mechwarrior 4 I had the left joystick controlling the turning and acceleration of the mech (through simulated key presses through Xpadder), and the right stick controlling the weapons, aiming and torso turning. Worked pretty awesomely.

Since then I replaced the two sticks with a single 3 axis stick with throttle. I'm not sure which I prefer...

But the whole Steel Battalion controller is just insanely fun to play with. I'd really love a HD remake of it.

Been waiting for a new Mechwarrior for a very long time. Figures some goofball company would try to frig it up.

I've been watching this contraversy from almost the beginning in the 1980s and have some facts that I've been sharing in my blog. FASA had in fact licensed the Unseen designs from Japanese sources in parallel to Harmony Gold, so HG's first challenge to them went nowhere because at that point, FASA's claims looked legally valid. But soon after, FASA's middleman company on the deal (Twentieth Century Imports a.k.a. TCI) went out of business and that broke the paper trail. This was near the time FASA began to bring the Clans into the game. The issue was basically dropped by both sides (with FASA dropping the Unseen from its products in a quiet fashion and HG moving on to other projects) until the Battletech TV series came along and there was a parallel revival of Robotech because of a product tie-in to the Exo-Squad TV series. Playmates (on HG's side) sued Tyco (on FASA's) and won, and FASA crumbled soon after that.

In theory, Studio Nue and Sotsu Agency (the original designers of the Unseen) hold all the copy and patent rights on the Unseen. But their rights in the United States are partly held by HG due to a resolution in Japan between the two creative entities behind Macross (Big West and Tatsunoko).