It was September of 2009 when we first saw footage of what would ultimately become the long-awaited return of the MechWarrior franchise. After disappearing for over two years, Piranha Games came out of nowhere last fall to officially unveil MechWarrior Online, a game based entirely in BattleTech canon and one that fans of the classic MechWarrior 2-4 games would find very familiar.
Since that time, Piranha has steadily maintained the official MechWarrior Online (MWO) blog with developer diaries and explanations of the game’s systems, slowly revealing concept art along the way. Those images however, hinted at potential cel-shaded designs for the mechs and some fans were growing concerned about the style and aesthetic of the most most authentic of the three upcoming BattleTech games. Those concerns can now be put to rest.
The first very MechWarrior Online teaser trailer gave players a look at the monstrous Atlas mech, inside the cockpit and out, detailing what we can expect from the designs and HUD. But now we have an even better look at the visuals and style of the game thanks to the screenshots PC Gamer gathered during GDC last week. Take a look and see what MechWarrior 5 would have looked like:
The images confirm that Piranha Games is aiming to make MechWarrior Online a game that fans of the series can easily get behind. Knowing it will play (and now we can say, look) like the successor to MechWarrior 4 we wanted years ago, combined with all of the awesome details about informational and community warfare, a persistent world, factions, etc., MWO has the potential to finally offer PC gamers the type free-to-play game we want.
Of course, this depends on gameplay and how microtransactions are implemented, and we still await details on that front. The other two recently announced mech games referenced above are MechWarrior Tactics and Reign of Thunder (think MechAssault).
MechWarrior Online launches summer 2012.
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Source: PC Gamer
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The thing that would make this game great is if you could construct your mechs similar to the game. They would provide you with hundreds if not thousands of components you could put together to make your mech unique.
now there’s something you dont see everyday,Mongoose.the game looks more like 2004.very old but good graphics.
1. Clearly a project started in 2009, the graphics show it. (not that they look bad, just old)
2. How could you mention MW:Tactics and Reign of Thunder but not HAWKEN? Hawken is the game worth keeping an eye on if you ask me. Im excited for it over any of these, it was also recently confirmed as a free to play from launch.
Because Hawken isn’t BattleTech.
AMEN! If its not Battletech its just not…par
No matter who says what this does NOT look like 2004 graphics, I used to thump along on a 50″ Mitsu TV with a HDMI hookup and MW4 Vengeance – Mercs NEVER looked this good. I hope it retains the gritty feel that seems to be present in these images, I like that better than the overpolished gameworlds that we get so often now. Combat is grungy, dirty and messy. Mechs are the biggest thing that fight, so it does follow that dirtier, grungier and messier is the visual theme that these games should strive to capture after a 15 minute battle where pu$$ies are not allowed and heat and ammo conservation are ENABLED!!!!!!!