Not only is the Cougar not from this timeline (3058... a few years down the line), but much of the Mechassault series, especially MA2, was taking huge liberties with the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise to the point of being unrecognisable. A number of the mechs from that title didn't even exist in Battletech, and wouldn't for many years. The
Raptor, for example, does not look like you're expecting, and it would be years before the Raptor II, which had very little of anything to do with the original Raptor, would be introduced. Many of the weapons never will exist in Battletech - at least not in the way they were depicted, there. I can't tell you how much the idea of someone using Battlearmor to hijack and use a mech made me cringe when I heard about it. They were trying really hard to piggyback off of GTA during it's first popularity spike. At the very least, it didn't overwrite the existing lore like Clickytech did.
As many folks have said
"Mechassault is a fun arcade game, but it's not a Mechwarrior game".
To put it in context. Asking for the Cougar in this time period is kind of like asking for an Apache helicopter in a WW2 game. Stuff is getting added, but you're in for a wait. I can relate that I got into the franchise from an early age (Mechwarrior 2, in the 3rd grade), but I was lucky enough to get hooked on a game that did a rather good job of portraying the setting. For you, though it's in no way your fault, the gap between expectation and reality may be a bit bigger than the one I had to get used to.
Unfortunately, a combination of Microsoft dragging the franchise through the mud and dragging their feet on making a new title means that the most recent game in the Mechwarrior franchise that does a decent job is Mechwarrior 3. Mechwarrior 4 was OK for campaign and story, but the game mechanics were watered down heavily to compensate for the rise in multiplayer gaming.
Edited by ice trey, 21 November 2016 - 05:54 AM.
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