Who has played Mechwarrior 4?

I was thinking about getting it but have hesitated because it has been dumbed down by microsoft. That is kind of annoying. I played the original Mechwarrior and of course 2 and 3. I love customizing the mechs balancing wt and criticals. I read that that has been all dropped in favor of a simplified method. How is the game play compaired to MW2/MW3? I have a CGW CD that had a Mechwarrior4:Black Knight demo on it and installed it to take a look and the frickin' thing won't run because the demo is "expired". Everytime I forget about how much I hate MS things like this remind me. A demo with an expiration date? Give me a break. Anyway, is it worth it or should I just replay MW3 or try to get MW2:mercenaries to run under windows.

Go for it, the grafix are still ok and the game itself is a blast.

Good AI, read some reviews around teh web and judge for yourself.

I think you will like it!! I know I did

Learux

I have Mech Warrior 4 Vengance and totally, totally dig it. It's easy to play with the mouse and keyboard, though Torso Twist like back in the days of Mech Warrior 2 and the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick is sorely missed. Still, the game seems more refined, smoother and less cheesy.

I would not hesitate to throw down the cash on this one. Instant Action type mission drops are a hoot.

Should be able to find it cheap, I would think.

I have Vengeance, but have had a hard time getting into it, but I will someday. The demo for the Black Knight expansion was pretty solid, but now it is hard to find. I loved Mechwarrior 2 and finished all the missions. Mech3 was a quite a step up in graphics quality, but I got board. I never finished the Ghost Bear expansion, but it rocked. I wish they would redo all the old games for DirectX 9.

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Originally posted by rhettro
I have Vengeance, but have had a hard time getting into it, but I will someday. The demo for the Black Knight expansion was pretty solid, but now it is hard to find. I loved Mechwarrior 2 and finished all the missions. Mech3 was a quite a step up in graphics quality, but I got board. I never finished the Ghost Bear expansion, but it rocked. I wish they would redo all the old games for DirectX 9.

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There is an expansion to MW3 isn't there? I played both campaigns in MW2. I am replaying MW3 on my new computer and turning on some AA/AF.
I originally played it on a PIII800 and a TNT/Voodoo2 system. That tells you how old that game is. I now have an [email protected]/Ti4800.
It should be much smoother. I never finished the expansion to MW2 since that was about when I transitioned to windows. I got stuck on the underwater mission if I remember correctly. I am still up in the air about MW4. No torso twist? Now that is complete BS. The circle of death was my go to tactic.

I like MW4. Got hooked on the nintento version of MW way back before I had a PC, then got MW1 with my sidewinder 3DPro, bought MW2 3 and 4.
Started playing MW3 online which was a blast. Thus my sig GB_Cobber. The GB stands for Ghost Bear. Was with them through MW3 and most of MW4 till shortly after the mech packs came out. Mainly cause of connection problems at the time. Aslo because I changed to Windows XP and my joystick profiler didnt work. Missing the extra 8 functions was a *****.
The great thing for me was being ok 56K on the other side of the world, the slower moving mechs didnt lag too bad. Esspecially in MW4 which used a server based system rather than peer to peer. In MW3 I could hide in my lag. In MW4 I cant.
MW4 also got much better cheat protection.

Great game. I recently started the campaign again on difficult for the first time and man its difficult :)

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Originally posted by drdoom
No torso twist? Now that is complete BS. The circle of death was my go to tactic.

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There's torso twist in MW4. I fired it up again as a result of this thread. Problem is, my old Logitech Wingman 3d isn't working correctly. I got it configured to work with my rumblepad, but it isn't the same. Now the question is what joystick to replace it with.

They didn't really remove MEch customization, did they? That was the best part of the game!

nop still a lot of things to change.I loved the game!!

Learux

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Originally posted by rhettro
There's torso twist in MW4. I fired it up again as a result of this thread. Problem is, my old Logitech Wingman 3d isn't working correctly. I got it configured to work with my rumblepad, but it isn't the same. Now the question is what joystick to replace it with.

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I didn't know that it was there! I guess with a mouse and keyboard, it's not as obvious. I will have to install it and give another look-see, I reckon'. Maybe even dig my old Microsoft Sidewinder Pro 3D out of the dusty closet and see if I can relive the glory days. :)

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Originally posted by Abarine
They didn't really remove MEch customization, did they? That was the best part of the game!

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I agree, I loved swapping weapons/ armor around to better suit a certain mission. I played mech2 and 3 alot, good stuff. A bit buggy, though.

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Originally posted by r'aggro
I agree, I loved swapping weapons/ armor around to better suit a certain mission. I played mech2 and 3 alot, good stuff. A bit buggy, though.

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Customization is still there but has been ruined by Microsoft. There are no more criticals and now you are limited as to where you can put weapons and equipment. Instead of physically putting things on the Mech there are tick boxes and a heat sink counter. And there are separate energy, missle and ballistic weopon slots. So no more all laser mechs or my personal favorite double heat sinks on the legs. Frankly, it sucks compared to the real Mechwarrior. I am sure Microsoft marketing told the the developer to get rid of the old system so they could sell the game to people too dense to fathom criticals and weight. Pathetic.

hahah too dense

havent heard that for a while, i cant remember, has thise been out for a while or is it new?

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Originally posted by raider1v1
i cant remember, has thise been out for a while or is it new?

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Been out quite a while, long enough for two expansion packs, Black Knights and Mercenaries. It's one of those games I want to finish eventually. LOL!

well, for inner sphere mechs, the way MW4/MW4mercs does mech customization is a bit closer to the spirit of the original rules. i mean, omnimechs are supposed to be superior for a reason, right? inner sphere mechs are supposed to be modified at a proper mech facility, not on the fly while you're gearing up for a mission (except for the new inner sphere omnimechs, of course).

anyway, I never nabbed a copy of MW4, but MW4 Mercs was pretty fun; terrible voice-acting, though. I hate the interface you have to use for customizing the controls - it takes me too long to get the controls back to how I liked it in Mechwarrior 2. The gameplay is better than MW3 (you can't cheese your way through missions by knocking everyone over with a heavy autocannon like you could in MW3), at any rate. MW2/MW2:GBL were way more ambitious, though.

rhettro: if I remember, at the end of Ghost Bear's Legacy you fight on the surface of a jumpship to get the clan's genetics material back. then, if you've done well enough throughout the campaign (I think if you beat every mission on the first try, or got every single secondary/tertiary objective, I don't remember), you get to battle for a Bloodname. pretty cool stuff.

Only thing I'd usually change was the weapons and weapon groups. I'd usually take the default body design they gave (one with a good mix of speed and armor) and just blast away doing circle-kills when possible. I have to say, as much as I dug MW 2 and GBL, I prefer Mech Warrior 4 for the superior graphics and overall texture goodness. :)

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Originally posted by tu2thepoo
well, for inner sphere mechs, the way MW4/MW4mercs does mech cusrhettro: if I remember, at the end of Ghost Bear's Legacy you fight on the surface of a jumpship to get the clan's genetics material back. then, if you've done well enough throughout the campaign (I think if you beat every mission on the first try, or got every single secondary/tertiary objective, I don't remember), you get to battle for a Bloodname. pretty cool stuff.

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That's awesome. I never did finish the thing, seems like I was in to it during that ackward transition from DOS to Windows 95. That's one expansion that just crying out for a remake. :)

The PNP Mechwarrior is awesome...I have to find a group in the area to play with again.