BobTD
08-30-2010, 02:31 PM
Ok, so MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries can be found for free as an official and legal release here: (comes with mechpack expansions)
http://www.mektek.net/projects/mw4/download.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YXQmXdXr54&feature=fvst
This the the best multiplayer mech game ever! We should have a forum mech night!
Mechwarrior 3, and Mecwarrior 4 where both PC exclusive mechwarrior titles. And in my opinion some of the best games ever made. Certainly the most detailed and colorful giant mech series ever made.
While both the original game and the Mercenaries expansion are available, I recommend the mercenaries expansion because of its less linear campaign and its arena play.
What does Mechwarrior 4 Mercinaries have to offer?
111 different mechs ranging from 20 to 100 tons, and the ability to buy and salvage mech from the battlefield and custom fit them with any of hundreds of weapons! As well as commanding a team of mechs whos pilots you hire and who gain skill over time, and whos mechs you choose and setup for them out of your collection.
Now, there are some things Mechwarrior 3 did better, but for anyone who thinks 3 was better here is my separate rant on that:
Ok, hold up a minute. BOTH of these games rock. But there are some large differences to be had. I can fully explain these as well as answer any questions you may have. But first things first, let me tell you why they are different:
MW3
This is a mainly single player game, oriented at tactics and team play and doesn't have much in the line of online multiplayer.
MW4
This game is geared towards being a more fast paced game of skilled piloting and has a lot more online orientation.
Why are these things important? Its because of this that you have 2d trees in MW4 while you can blow craters in hills and building fall apart with a physics engine in MW3. You just could not do that while hosting 16 different players running the kind of computer the average gamer had at the time.
What are some of the other differences because of this?
MW4: (action/multiplayer)
Pros
All mechs must have torso twist (they even edited the uller to make it work)
Your mechs limp when they lose a leg instead of falling over and blowing up
More mechs
More overall game speed and different tactics (in the form of maneuvering)
Cons
Your buildings are not as realistic
you cant create craters with missiles
you cant drop a bridge on another mech
No slave box's, tracking missiles that go over hills, or ammo CASE
No mobile field bases (this was a disappointment)
The last time I played through MW3 and the expansion I used a black hawk the entire time from the moment I got it simply because you can load up with nothing but ER Lasers and blow a single leg off any opponent while having an anti missile system. The Blackhawk has no torso twist so I depended on positioning myself in a way that allowed me to pick off every enemy from a distance. This game was geared more towards selecting the best targets (the legs, turning the environment against your enemy ect.)*
The way your aimer was not fixed to your torso and your aimer mover freely around your screen was cool, but totally disorienting with torso twist.
In MW3 (remember you have 2 hands), you must some how fire different weapon systems, walk forward, left, right, back or a combination of those, Also pitch your torso left, right up, and down, As Well As having to aim at precise points on an enemy mech body or some other target.
MW4 locks the aimer to the torso. Whew, problem solved. (click mouse 2 and it locks or unlocks your torso to your legs, and the mouse wheel controls speed, you have a whole hand left to fire up to six weapon systems!)
Frankly, the gameplay was limited with the system they where using and they used it as well as they could. The move to a multiplayer setting while changing the basic idea of how you control your mech made mechs like the Bushwacker* a hundred time more effective then a blackhawk because you could now effectively point your torso at the other mech and run in a circle around them, because you combine facing with aiming. (I set torso toggle to my right mouse button and its rather easy)
And the system worked for MW4, 2 mech packs and 3 expansions later there are still active players online playing every day, while with MW3 I have never even been able to play online.
Yeah, thats right. When it comes to Mech Warrior Im a fanatic, but a fair one.* ;)
One hand is on the mouse, while the other hand is over your weapon keys (home, end, page up, page down, ect on most keyboards are grouped together)
Example:
With the exception of the F1-F10 keys your left hand is in one of these two areas, the lighter color circle for pre and post combat, and the darker color for combat situations. All adjustments to speed can be made with the mouse wheel, backspace usually cycles my weapon grouping.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8902/keyboardvl1.gif
Obviously your not going to be changing radar types, or crouching very often in an intense combat situation. But once your familiar with what all the keys do you can switch between these hand positions fairly rapidly.
Ok, with that out of the way...
I hope that many of the members here treat themselves to the glory that is the mechwarrior series. I mean, its free!
Alos, one major glitch in these games (edit: Seems to have been fixed with the free version, yay!)
Essentially, the best way to play the game is this:
Mouse 1: fire primary weapons (alternating fire modes allows to to fire one group after another)
Mouse 2: locks your torso twist in place allowing you to remain aiming at a target while changing direction (without having to touch the keyboard)
Mouse wheel up: speed up
Mouse wheel down: slow down
The keys I posted are my personal recommendation, (from hundreds of hours of having played it, in many variations) and it looks like they may be pretty close to default if you go into the options and turn the mouse to on with the axis being the torso.
To get the game install the file I linked and open the program, should look like this:
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/553/mtxlm.jpg
I know installing programs to get to games sucks, but this program will install the game and fix any corrupted files and even fixed a keyboard setup glitch, and it comes with the extra mechpacks this way so thats why Im recommending this method.
http://www.mektek.net/projects/mw4/download.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YXQmXdXr54&feature=fvst
This the the best multiplayer mech game ever! We should have a forum mech night!
Mechwarrior 3, and Mecwarrior 4 where both PC exclusive mechwarrior titles. And in my opinion some of the best games ever made. Certainly the most detailed and colorful giant mech series ever made.
While both the original game and the Mercenaries expansion are available, I recommend the mercenaries expansion because of its less linear campaign and its arena play.
What does Mechwarrior 4 Mercinaries have to offer?
111 different mechs ranging from 20 to 100 tons, and the ability to buy and salvage mech from the battlefield and custom fit them with any of hundreds of weapons! As well as commanding a team of mechs whos pilots you hire and who gain skill over time, and whos mechs you choose and setup for them out of your collection.
Now, there are some things Mechwarrior 3 did better, but for anyone who thinks 3 was better here is my separate rant on that:
Ok, hold up a minute. BOTH of these games rock. But there are some large differences to be had. I can fully explain these as well as answer any questions you may have. But first things first, let me tell you why they are different:
MW3
This is a mainly single player game, oriented at tactics and team play and doesn't have much in the line of online multiplayer.
MW4
This game is geared towards being a more fast paced game of skilled piloting and has a lot more online orientation.
Why are these things important? Its because of this that you have 2d trees in MW4 while you can blow craters in hills and building fall apart with a physics engine in MW3. You just could not do that while hosting 16 different players running the kind of computer the average gamer had at the time.
What are some of the other differences because of this?
MW4: (action/multiplayer)
Pros
All mechs must have torso twist (they even edited the uller to make it work)
Your mechs limp when they lose a leg instead of falling over and blowing up
More mechs
More overall game speed and different tactics (in the form of maneuvering)
Cons
Your buildings are not as realistic
you cant create craters with missiles
you cant drop a bridge on another mech
No slave box's, tracking missiles that go over hills, or ammo CASE
No mobile field bases (this was a disappointment)
The last time I played through MW3 and the expansion I used a black hawk the entire time from the moment I got it simply because you can load up with nothing but ER Lasers and blow a single leg off any opponent while having an anti missile system. The Blackhawk has no torso twist so I depended on positioning myself in a way that allowed me to pick off every enemy from a distance. This game was geared more towards selecting the best targets (the legs, turning the environment against your enemy ect.)*
The way your aimer was not fixed to your torso and your aimer mover freely around your screen was cool, but totally disorienting with torso twist.
In MW3 (remember you have 2 hands), you must some how fire different weapon systems, walk forward, left, right, back or a combination of those, Also pitch your torso left, right up, and down, As Well As having to aim at precise points on an enemy mech body or some other target.
MW4 locks the aimer to the torso. Whew, problem solved. (click mouse 2 and it locks or unlocks your torso to your legs, and the mouse wheel controls speed, you have a whole hand left to fire up to six weapon systems!)
Frankly, the gameplay was limited with the system they where using and they used it as well as they could. The move to a multiplayer setting while changing the basic idea of how you control your mech made mechs like the Bushwacker* a hundred time more effective then a blackhawk because you could now effectively point your torso at the other mech and run in a circle around them, because you combine facing with aiming. (I set torso toggle to my right mouse button and its rather easy)
And the system worked for MW4, 2 mech packs and 3 expansions later there are still active players online playing every day, while with MW3 I have never even been able to play online.
Yeah, thats right. When it comes to Mech Warrior Im a fanatic, but a fair one.* ;)
One hand is on the mouse, while the other hand is over your weapon keys (home, end, page up, page down, ect on most keyboards are grouped together)
Example:
With the exception of the F1-F10 keys your left hand is in one of these two areas, the lighter color circle for pre and post combat, and the darker color for combat situations. All adjustments to speed can be made with the mouse wheel, backspace usually cycles my weapon grouping.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8902/keyboardvl1.gif
Obviously your not going to be changing radar types, or crouching very often in an intense combat situation. But once your familiar with what all the keys do you can switch between these hand positions fairly rapidly.
Ok, with that out of the way...
I hope that many of the members here treat themselves to the glory that is the mechwarrior series. I mean, its free!
Alos, one major glitch in these games (edit: Seems to have been fixed with the free version, yay!)
Essentially, the best way to play the game is this:
Mouse 1: fire primary weapons (alternating fire modes allows to to fire one group after another)
Mouse 2: locks your torso twist in place allowing you to remain aiming at a target while changing direction (without having to touch the keyboard)
Mouse wheel up: speed up
Mouse wheel down: slow down
The keys I posted are my personal recommendation, (from hundreds of hours of having played it, in many variations) and it looks like they may be pretty close to default if you go into the options and turn the mouse to on with the axis being the torso.
To get the game install the file I linked and open the program, should look like this:
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/553/mtxlm.jpg
I know installing programs to get to games sucks, but this program will install the game and fix any corrupted files and even fixed a keyboard setup glitch, and it comes with the extra mechpacks this way so thats why Im recommending this method.