22 replies to this topic

[VonBruinwald]

As a kid I went in expecting Jungle strike with 'mechs.



Any contenders? And NO Mechwarrior Tactics doesn't count.

[Rorik Thrumsalr]

Yeah, that's a pretty bad one. There is a worse one however:

This one superficially looks like the great and legendary MW2, but ruins it with terrible controls, lack of the campaigns, gameplay "tweaks" that ruin the experience and poor performance.

[Koniving]

VonBruinwald, on 14 December 2019 - 04:08 PM, said:

As a kid I went in expecting Jungle strike with 'mechs.



Any contenders? And NO Mechwarrior Tactics doesn't count.

Mechwarrior 1.2 so to speak. Same storyline, different person, different perspective to the Mechwarrior 1 1989 storyline. 3D dropped for sprites.
No names for mechs.
Completely unrecognizeable designs never used again.
Flat levels with buildings and such "painted" flat on the ground.
Attempted fast-paced action.
Gameplay-wise, I'd say this one is the worst.
Though I will say at least the enemy AI used their jumpjets (can't even get that 26 years later.)


Mechwarrior 3050 / Sega's "Battletech" was like desert strike with mechs.
(The SNES version was more Jungle Strike esque; better controls, larger sprites).
It is worth noting that the Sega/megadrive version is considerably worse than MW3050 (the SNES version).

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2019 - 06:46 PM.

[JediPanther]

I had both systems. Rented the games way back when that was a thing from a real brick n cement building. Biggest waste of a very limited allowance and a weekend or two. Who ever decided that a two player mode where the second play only steers a mech while the first player had all the fun of weapons deserved the worst hell possible. Sadly they were my first experiences with bt/mw.

While I eventually had pcs and fond memories of lucas arts games (X-wing,tie fighter) we never had any mw title. As bad as mwo is is it a lot of progresses and fun compared to those two things that could deserve a burial spot next to e.t.

[RickySpanish]

I thought the Crescent Hawk's Inception was pretty crap. I finished it in an afternoon, not entirely sure how. Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge is of course the best BT game ever made, so karma did balance out in the end.

Edited by RickySpanish, 14 December 2019 - 06:50 PM.

[Koniving]

RickySpanish, on 14 December 2019 - 06:46 PM, said:

I thought the Crescent Hawk's Inception was pretty crap. I finished it in an afternoon, not entirely sure how. Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge is of course the best BT game ever made, so karma did balance out in the end.

To be fair, that was the BT universe first video game they made (Mechwarrior being the second), and Revenge was the third BT universe game ever made.

[Jackal Noble]

I loved the **** out of Battletech on the genesis. That probably speaks volumes of why I enjoy MW5 as much as I do.

[Anjian]

Probably the SEGA version. Didn't like that at all. Didn't last long on my machine, switched to playing Phantasy Star instead.

[Koniving]

Jackal Noble, on 14 December 2019 - 07:19 PM, said:

I loved the **** out of Battletech on the genesis. That probably speaks volumes of why I enjoy MW5 as much as I do.

If you played the SNES version Mechwarrior 3050, you'd probably like the Sega version less.
It plays more or less exactly the same. The frame rate was slower and struggled in more active scenes. And controlling the torso was much harder (due to the six button controller as opposed to shoulder buttons to torso twist), while it was pretty easy to be able to twist and go in the SNES version.

Curiously...
Much of the focus of reviewers was single-player mode is difficult to the point of being inaccessible.



(Could move much faster in the SNES version, which somehow got 2 of 4 reviews to recommend against it due to difficulty, while the Sega version had the same 4 reviewers a year early give 3 recommends for it and 1 against due to difficulty) Weird how speed changes that.

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2019 - 08:49 PM.

[Valdarion Silarius]

Rorik Thrumsalr, on 14 December 2019 - 04:52 PM, said:

Yeah, that's a pretty bad one. There is a worse one however:

This one superficially looks like the great and legendary MW2, but ruins it with terrible controls, lack of the campaigns, gameplay "tweaks" that ruin the experience and poor performance.

Meh, having a somewhat ok MW2 port for the Playstation 1 is better than having no Mechwarrior 2 on the consoles at all. The controls are kinda iffy but what do you expect from a game that has a complex set of controls. My biggest gripe is that they cut the IIC's from the PC port.

[LordNothing]

Koniving, on 14 December 2019 - 06:37 PM, said:

Mechwarrior 1.2 so to speak. Same storyline, different person, different perspective to the Mechwarrior 1 1989 storyline. 3D dropped for sprites.
No names for mechs.
Completely unrecognizeable designs never used again.
Flat levels with buildings and such "painted" flat on the ground.
Attempted fast-paced action.
Gameplay-wise, I'd say this one is the worst.
Though I will say at least the enemy AI used their jumpjets (can't even get that 26 years later.)


Mechwarrior 3050 / Sega's "Battletech" was like desert strike with mechs.
(The SNES version was more Jungle Strike esque; better controls, larger sprites).
It is worth noting that the Sega/megadrive version is considerably worse than MW3050 (the SNES version).

bsnes has better mode zero supersampling which makes the snes version look a bit better emulated than it does on a real nses.

Edited by LordNothing, 15 December 2019 - 10:08 AM.

[Koniving]

LordNothing, on 15 December 2019 - 10:07 AM, said:

bsnes has better mode zero supersampling which makes the snes version look a bit better emulated than it does on a real nses.

I admit, I've only emulated the Sega version of BT/MW3050, but the SNES version I own for the SNES and spent years playing.
Edit, wait no that's a lie. I've rented it once thinking it was a different game due to a different name. I remember the frustration of not having shoulder buttons for the torso twist.

Though from the emulated footage these two have, the Sega one looks better.

Did you guys see the unreleased Sega CD Mechwarrior?


I downloaded it a while ago, hoping to play it soon.
It's the first mechwarrior game I've ever seen to acknowledge a fact that no other Mechwarrior game ever has about the BT universe.
Mechs can turn their heads and can do human-like movement with aiming and the like.
Course that's just in the cinematic.
Also the only game to show how the classic Stalker supposedly walked (with that goofy leg arrangement its always depicted as having), and the way my weapon mod breaks down laser fire into multiple shots... it's done here. This was, according to the FASA guy that uploaded it, the last mechwarrior project that FASA had full creative control over.
(Meaning MW2 by activision, MW3, MW4, FASA didn't have as much of a reign over them. MW2 for obvious reasons, Dynamic and Activision were both making one at the same time [Dynamic had first dibs but when they were struggling Weisman hired another group and if Dynamic [makers of MW1] was able to get it together then they would have released with different titles) FASA was backseat driving this one and so when Activision showed much more promise, the Dynamic version was cancelled [and became Earth Siege] As for MW3, I'm not sure why they wouldn't have had more control over it but that is around the time FASA was being bought by Microsoft and Weisman would go on to work for Microsoft in a high position for a while).

Edited by Koniving, 15 December 2019 - 12:29 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

The only Battletech games that I've played are HBS's Battletech, MWO and MW5 with a bit of MW4. None of them can hold a candle to Heavy Gear 2. I mean, not only do those "Gears" in Heavy Gear 2 toggle between running or sliding on wheels, go prone, crouch and snipe but they can battle in zero-G environments as well while doing barrel-rolls.

[Koniving]

FRAGTAST1C, on 15 December 2019 - 07:34 PM, said:

The only Battletech games that I've played are HBS's Battletech, MWO and MW5 with a bit of MW4. None of them can hold a candle to Heavy Gear 2. I mean, not only do those "Gears" in Heavy Gear 2 toggle between running or sliding on wheels, go prone, crouch and snipe but they can battle in zero-G environments as well while doing barrel-rolls.

That puts them above the games, that's for sure.
MW3 would be my recommendation of a BT universe game to try.

That, or try a battle in Megamek HQ with me against the AI. When you have mechs power sliding into buildings where they lose an arm along the way, fall into a basement but have the safety from the attacks coming their way...
mechs that pick up loose pilots to protect them while fighting off other mechs...
crossing through traffic and causing trucks to spin wildly and cause multi-car pile ups,
mechs that go hull down to set up ambushes and snipe at 3x range,
picking up trees or fallen limbs to use as improvised ugly-sticks,
grapple another enemy to hold them still so another can do a running jump kick DFA,
or my personal favorite headshot the guy that's picked you up by the cockpit (via grapple) by letting loose with all your Piranha's still functioning unjammed MGs (which was only 3 at the time)...

Slug fests are also fun, when one guy's getting in one to two punches while a pilot with melee master is getting in 2 punches and a kick, 2 kicks or up to 4 punches in... it's just so awesome. Also fun is you can punch and kick while grappling (don't need the melee master trait for that, or the ability to push out of a grapple with a success roll to do).

Oh, battle in zero-g's also covered (but you'd never want to do that in regular TT; megamek sure) [that's also covered in the Bt cartoon]. Having seen the rules for it, that'd be a nightmare to do and I haven't actually tried it on Megamek yet.

As for Riding on wheels..
Wheels and tracks are in the building options, though for the life of me I can't find out how to pull them up on Sarna.
Tracks take 2 crits and 1 ton per amount of weight (must be legs).
Wheels take 1 crit and total tonnage*0.15 tons (must be CT).

You'd pull this off when using them, and are forced to use cruising speed.

It allows you to ignore actuator damage and loss of feet, though.

Edited by Koniving, 15 December 2019 - 08:16 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Oh, did I mention that in Heavy Gear 2, there are melee attacks? You can switch between multiple weapons which means you can whip out that Vibro-blade if you have it in your loadout and then charge into the enemies. Also, JJ, ECM, ECCM, Stealth, etc., The only issue now is that Heavy Gear 2 is abandonware and though there are fixes to make it work on modern OS, it is still unstable.

[Horseman]

RickySpanish, on 14 December 2019 - 06:46 PM, said:

Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge is of course the best BT game ever made

PREACH.

[Sir Wulfrick]

FRAGTAST1C, on 15 December 2019 - 08:13 PM, said:

Oh, did I mention that in Heavy Gear 2, there are melee attacks? You can switch between multiple weapons which means you can whip out that Vibro-blade if you have it in your loadout and then charge into the enemies. Also, JJ, ECM, ECCM, Stealth, etc., The only issue now is that Heavy Gear 2 is abandonware and though there are fixes to make it work on modern OS, it is still unstable.

I could never get on with HG2. I loved the mission design but there was just something wrong with the feel of how the Gears handled. Too fast & nimble to be have that mech-type 'stompy robot' feel and too slow and ponderous to have an FPS feel.

[Tarl Cabot]

Each game was different. Cut my teeth with original Mechwarrior / Crescent Hawk games followed by EGA MPBT 3025 on GEnie and the BT/MW boardgame about the same time then AOL-Gamestore MPBT Solaris, MW2-3-4-Mercs, EA MPBT 3025, then MWO.

The SP games have their place, even with the limited multiplayer aspects of the later games in the series but they really could not hold a candle to the the MPBT games, from EGA - AOL/GameStorm MPBT Solaris then the short lived EA MPBT 3025, followed by MWO/HBS BT.

The persistent universe/atmosphere of the MPBT games was what kept drawing me in. And even though MPBT Solaris (AOL/Gamestorm) lacked the actual Succession War (CW/FP) module the community came together and made it happen every weekend while utilizing the Solaris areas as planets.

[Anjian]

Sir Wulfrick, on 16 December 2019 - 06:00 AM, said:

I could never get on with HG2. I loved the mission design but there was just something wrong with the feel of how the Gears handled. Too fast & nimble to be have that mech-type 'stompy robot' feel and too slow and ponderous to have an FPS feel.

I love HG2. It was my venture into PvP multiplayer space. There was a small but active community and boy it was a blast. The pace was much more mobile, much more like an FPS but not as light.

There were a lot of Gundam players there, both from Japan and the NA. Gundam Seed playing in Toonami helped. Because there was no proper Gundam game, this was a good alternative for one, especially when the Gears don't look far off from Gundam mobile suits.

Eventually cheaters and hackers ruined the game and there was zero support for the game to fix it. By then I tidied over to MW4's multiplayer modes.

Edited by Anjian, 16 December 2019 - 06:54 PM.

[Anjian]

This was another old game that I truly enjoyed. None of that someone in an evil red mech skin with a villain voice killed my father and I need to do an Inigo Montoya on him

Here the story is simple and your motivations are clear and obvious. You are fighting for the survival of the Species. Your Species.

Edited by Anjian, 16 December 2019 - 07:02 PM.