Mechwarrior stomping onto our screens summer 2012

Yesterday it was revealed through a tweet from developer Piranha Games that the next game in the MechWarrior series is heading to PC's next summer.

Mechs! Shooting rockets!

The next chapter of this bipedal vehicular warfare games has been a long time coming, and many feared that the game had been lost in development limbo.
But now it looks like we won't have to wait terribly much longer before we can get back into the cockpit of our Timberwolf and let loose with deadly hails of rockets against our similarly mechanized enemies.

Online and for free.

What?

Yep, the title of the next MechWarrior game is going to be MechWarrior Online (MWO), and it's going to come at us in the shape of a free 2 play online team based multiplayer game.
Perhaps you are right now making some sort of disappointed groaning sound, but Piranha Games are promising that MWO is going to be true to the gaming heritage of the previous MechWarrior games, and present players with an in cockpit viewpoint that maintains the complexity that fans expect from the series.

The game will see players joining a faction and fighting battles on their behalf, hoping to swing the overall direction of the war into their favor.
Of course, being an online game, there will be plenty of opportunity to form guilds, or "mercenary corporations" as they are called in MWO.
MWO will cater to these by allowing plenty of customization of the individual corporations, so you have a chance to add your own distinct flavor to areas such as look, ranks or battle deployment.

MechWarrior: Mercenaries from 2002 was the last time we had a traditional MechWarrior game

With any F2P game there is always the worry that it is going to be ruled by the players with the deepest pockets, but Piranha Games are adamant that, while you will be able to buy some items for real money, you will never be able to buy anything that is going to give you a meaningful tactical advantage over your enemies.
You'll have to actually have some real skills in order to advance in the world of MWO.

And you'll have plenty of opportunity to advance, using the multiple upgrade path system of the game, which lets you upgrade both your mech as well as pilot skills.

Oh, and to those old school MechWarrior players, Piranha Games are currently saying it will be "quite likely" that they'll have joystick support. So get those old flightsticks out from the cupboard and dusted off!

For more on MWO, check out these two articles from PC Gamer here and here



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