#mw5

[quiltofstars]

The Fish Hook Nebula, Mandel-Wilson 5 // Jaume Zapata

[sjmechw]

It may be ironic considering that I call myself SJ Mechwarrior, but as another DLC comes along, I can’t help but reflect on how excluded I feel by the Mechwarrior franchise.

With PGI at the helm, we’ve seen truly gorgeous ‘mechs come into being, a stylistic redesign that unites decades of hard-to-draw materiel and makes battlemechs feel more plausible than ever before. In Mechwarrior Online, the ‘mechs are so much the stars of the show that the player’s avatar is quickly forgotten after they fiddle with some cockpit elements at the start of a match.

The avatar’s presence is still felt, albeit sparingly, when the player uses the tag system: a masculine, American voice points out targets and other opportunities for the team to work with.

But that game had a tiny budget and the focus is always on the robots.

Eventually, PGI got the go-ahead to make the brand-new Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries, and I got hyped. Gameplay like that of MWO but with combined arms enemies, missions on procedurally-generated maps, and not just gameplay around running a merc company, but a story to boot? With access to the beta, I declared it “everything I ever wanted from Mechwarrior,” because I thought it was.

During development, it was said that you’d get to customize your commander, somewhat. The tie-in novella that fleshed out the history of Chloe’s Cavaliers made care not to mention Chloe’s and Nik’s child using any gendered language, for this is who we’d be put in the neurohelmet of. Developers insisted, during live QnAs, that I’d get to pick the commander’s gender. Even the beta, with its use of the multiplayer and quick game modes, let me choose the look and voice of my pilot.

And yet, on release and ever since, your mercenary company is run by the son of Nikolai Mason. At its core, the storyline’s a simple affair of revenge and Nik’s secrets. But can Chloe’s daughter reform her Cavaliers like a phoenix? Nope! Recording voice lines to account for that would be “too expensive.”

I wouldn’t be so mad if I hadn’t been lied to during the Q&As, and if Harebrained Schemes hadn’t shown how easy and cheap it was to be inclusive with BATTLETECH.

MW5 Clans at least admitted that, in a star full of interesting people, your avatar would be the token white guy.

As more DLC for MW5 is released, each with a ported ‘mech or two and a story of yet more men in big stompy robots, I just can’t help feeling excluded as a woman who wants to stand among the likes of Elizabeth Hazen and Natasha Kerensky.

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - Shadow of Kerensky on Steam

Take on a 12-mission story campaign set during the Clan Invasion. Battle through a shifting Inner Sphere map, face powerful Clan OmniMechs,

IT'S LIVE!!!!

[matrim-cauthons-hat]

ive only had my raven for twenty minutes but if anything happen to her i would kill everyone in this hanger and then myself

[redactedcat-posts]

Loaves Of Tukayyid

The Loaves Of Tukayyid It's time for a new DLC to be started in MW5C, on our way to the long wait for May's new release when this'll be done. A loaf invades again. https://www.twitch.tv/redacted_cat

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

Mechwarrior 5: Clans Leak of PC Gamer magazine's cover story source: u/Fanimusmaximus on r/battletech

[badragonplays]

[telluriandigits]

I had this idea to mod diagetic hype music into the dropship launch sequence. This is just an audio/video edit (because apparently audio modding is borked) but it needs to become reality. The vibe is immaculate.