If you haven't heard about Smith & Tinker, don't worry as they are not the most bombastic firm. I only discovered them when I wanted to find out the fate of Mech Commander's IP.
They are a computer entertainment company set up by Jordan Weisman (best known for Mechwarrior), Tim Lebel and Joe Lawandus in 2007. Most importantly they have obtained the licence of several games in FASA's back catalogue from Mircosoft, including Mechwarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies.
At the moment they have two projects announced, nanovor , the first one, is currently in a beta and is shaping itself up to be a pokemon-style game, while the other, Lost Souls, is apparently about a 13-year old boy trying to save the world from the Mayan Apocalypse.
Information is scarce at atmo on S&T an what they are doing but, Here's hoping for More Mech Goodness Soon!
It's kind of a shame how Battletech on the PC pretty much died suddenly. It was all the latest rage not so long ago. MechCommander 1&2, Mechwarriors 3-4-Mercs were all good games for the genre. I especially loved MC and Mechwarrior 4: Mercs, the latter of which tried to re-create the experience of MW1, which was a hard thing to do since MW1 still had the most features out of all of them. You could actually negotiate contracts, you had your dropship and had to make sure you had enough money for fuel to travel to different planets, you bought your mechs, it costs money to repair, all that good stuff.
Shame what happened, and in light of that I sort of doubt we'd get a revival of MechCommander, as much as I'd love it. The only thing now is a MechWarrior Crysis mod coming out
Ahhh yes, good times. There was a similar game that came out called Heavy Gear too which was pretty good, felt more like anime Robots but similar kind of thing.
Would love to see a new MC, I remember the multiplayer of that being good fun. Even if it was done in a similar style to Demigod, controlling one unit and choosing loadouts and upgrades like you do skills.
There is a slight chance we might see another mech warrior/commander game out of smith and tinker, although they are holding their cards tight to their chest
What a Mechwarrior Crysis MOD!?!? Where have I been?!?!
If they purchased the IPs, you can bet they have something on the horizon.
It started off as an ET:QW mod I think
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/
I'd give my right, hell no...both of my nuts to see a mech commander game that equalled the first. The graphics wern't amazing but had a nice feel to them, the gameplay was top-notch and multiplayer was always a fun and enthralling affair (and WORKED!)...that game got me started on multiplayer's...and was responsible for the £150+ phonebills every month (which i assume you my parents didn't appreciate! )
3 MadCat J's with 6LRM/2 Gauss on a 6/8 game, great stuff! (Though i always had a soft spot for Thors and Loki's).
Oh you were one of those I always played Inner Sphere. It was amusing how many people would take Atlases (omg 100 ton mech!) and have it ripped apart by a few lighter mechs because it's so slow it was easy to get behind it.
Loki/Hellbringer, next to Mad Cat/Timberwolf, is my favorite Clan mech. I was so pissed that MechCommander 2 didn't have it.
I always enjoyed the 3/5 loadout rules which helped cut down on the LRM spam. And yes, lolz at the Atlas people.
Infact come to think of it, Mech Commander was the first game i remember were people kited the enemy on the edge of long range...where we responsible for the birth of Regulus?!
Yeah. I actually liked stock games as well, there was just a different feel to them when you couldn't min/max your loadouts.
Stock was probably better for Inner Sphere to play, since a lot of their equipment wasn't nearly as good as the Clan versions, and stock configs helped cut down on some of the disparity
But there were some funky moments in the game. Sometimes your mechs would rotate while jumping, allowing trailing LRMs to hit them right in the back. I've actually seen a completely fully-armored-never-been-shot-at Raven die from one little LRM from a turret.
Man, that game brings back memories! The sad thing is, MC2 probably could've taken off as well if the Zone wasn't killed off around then...
Man MC had a ton of game play elements that you do not see often anymore. Most games have gone to the "Sandbox" style of play which I like also but I do miss those cat and mouse chases when a unit got caught off guard on the wrong side of the map. When you can not rebuild a unit in game saving it becames a priority!
I also loved the ingame radar system and how scout mechs could see other mechs coming before the reverse, scouting had a whole new element than just sending sacraficial units all over the map to see whats going on, like star craft and C&C series.
Then the whole attrition aspect of LRMs running out of ammo, Mines slowing down units, and how a base with just a few units could hold a large force if played right with mines, arty, etc.
Hell I had a game once were all my m8s got ambushed and lost and then they and the other team begged me to just quit becuase there was no way my Vulture and Mine layer could beat 9 Madcats......... WRONG! Guess those Mads should not have used their LRMs to shoot the mines, LOL
What a great game!
It was great when your favorite pilot took an AC20 hit to the cockpit...
Talk about a moral hit right there...There was nothing worse than watching your pilots die by freak shooting. Not even in a awesome firefight. Just a gauss, ER PPC, or LRM 20 to the head and boom. 1 dead mech.
One dead pilot, too They'd never eject out of a direct cockpit hit!
Yes, your right . LOL, what I was implying is that the mech is no good without a pilot. About as usefull as an APC.
Though I have to admit love to load up Hollender II J with an either a gauss or ER PPC and pray for head shots!
Man I miss Mechwarrior and Mechcommander... really need to bring em back.
They have Shadowrun too. I hope they do some stuff with it. And MechWarrior.
I hope they do something with Shadowrun that actually looks like Shadowrun.
Mech Commander 2 was one of the best games I ever played.
Interestingly enough, I had a lot more enjoyment out of MC1 than MC2. Though MC2 was good, I think it was just the mech selections that turned me off. No Hellbringer
I only played 2
I was the same Annatar, could never get into MC2, the UI and controls were poor. MC1 was just superb in every respect.
Stardock, i petition you to get the MC1 code from the now defunkt Microprose...and mod it for Impulse gaming play!
I found the controls and UI for 2 to be brilliant ?&*$!
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