I have to disagree. The mechlab is half the game for me. Being able to go in depth with how you build your mechs has always been one of the big draws for Mechwarrior in my opinion. If they skimp on the mechlab and bring it down to just bare-bones weapon swaps, I'll be very disappointed.

I was literally just thinking we had yet to hear anything about MW5: Clans. I have to admit, only a few minutes into the vid, and I'm really liking how much more cinematic this game looks compared to MW5: Mercs, including the animated com feeds.

I wish the enemy combined arms would behave more tactically, instead of just driving/flying directly to you.

MechWarrior2 is one of the most pivotal games ever made. Even the market for these types of games has essentially disappeared, i'm so glad there's still a niche band of players of these games. Armored Core 6 sales can attest.

This is the best thing since the original mechwarrior 2. I was introduced to Battletech via the Clans and all the storied lore that went with them back in early 90's. I had played the full Jade Falcon campaign on a store display before I ever got my first computer. Nothing has come close to giving me a genuine clan story since and I am so down to get back to my absolute earliest gaming roots with Clans.

The BattleTech cartoon's Enhanced imaging was meant to resemble MW2 and MW2:Mercs since they were the latest games at the time and would have been recognizable by fans.

That's how we issued commands in mw3. It was the best. So glad it's coming back better than ever.

PGI's continued development of games in the BattleTech universe makes all the money I dropped on MWO money well spent. I still enjoy MW5 Mercenaries, buy the DLC and play often. This MW5 Clans game is more MechWarrior/BattleTech so there is no question that I will buy it and play it. I am glad it is taking another slightly different approach to gameplay and storytelling. I really looking forward to it as I will continue to play Mercs and integrate Clans into my gameplay routine.

I hope to see a improvement in the AI from Mercs 5.

Wishlist - ability to deploy tanks, aircraft, elementals, etc - conquest of some type - more ability to customize. - more variety in combat engagements. I love the idea of deploying light mechs for intel or specific missions for the smaller stuff All in all, I'm excited for it

Stoked for this. It wasn't until MW5 that I realized all my favorite mechs were clanners

For their squad commands, they need to boot up a copy of socom 2 and play through the campaign. The commands you could give your squad mates in that game were fantastic. Their were quick commands, and extensive commands, with specific details. The ability to order your men to interact with pre set waypoints sounds like a small detail, but a military operation will have these prefixed locations, named in advance.

First thing I noticed was how much better the tracers and missles look. One of the biggest complaints I have about MW5 is how big and cheesy the missiles looks sometimes. The explosions look really good too. CAN'T WAIT

MWO was my first Battletech video game. Back in the day you did a MechCommander walk-thru which included what you needed to do to make it run on modern systems. I'd like to see you do that with other BT titles, maybe starting with MW4?

This looks great. Far more than I expected. It's nice to see Russ and the team throw the shackles off a bit and have more faith in their customer base.

Thanks for giving us a sneak peek and your thoughts, excited to see this come out!

Holy cow you can actually read that weapon status information this time. That was one of my biggest gripes with MW5 from the word go.

Hopefully Clans will be better optimized then MW5 was at its beginning.

The new command interface is what interestes me the most. It kinda reminds me of Mech Commander in a simpler form. Would be cool if it is.

the ship drop off looks badass

Excited for this & some improvements I've been wanting them to make. I've been waiting to be able to give my star/lance more comex or useful orders & being able to designate targets.

Love most what I have seen so far, tactical stuff. Clans in a STAR/ Mechs and/ or Elementals vs Inner Spheres LANCE of 4 mechs ++ Lore is a MUST for this kind of Mech Warrior game. Mr. Scarface have seen some SHIT! xD Tactical overview I love, the animated Star mates comms. MORE orders and hopefully better A.I x) For MW5 Clans we NEED at least an option for Zellbrigen/ duel for ownership of personell, mechs, vehicles, planet based and planetary territory etc Hope the Clan lasers gets color change, kinda like in MWO. If not saved for different types of lasers. I preferrably would have had Smalls be orange, Mediums be yellow and Large be purple. Using the color frequencys closest " neighbour " colors. I strongly wish for that (you) PGI show gameplay thats like 90% sure to be in be it details small, large and inbetween. Dont skimp on the details ;) DONT cut promising features!! Rather take extra time to have it in the game at launch! Example, LOVED the more weighty feel the early MW5Mercs trailers/ gameplay video had and that you could see the planetary system and the celestial object we choose to go on ( still can, just in background ) Hope to pilot an Cougar! My fav Clan Light mech ( thanks to Mech Commander and MW4 ) Also awesome to see the little badass IS bugger mechs Flea and Locust. Fleas for me!

My favourite thing about this and what has me most excited is that you're Smoke Jaguar. My first Battletech book was Exodus Road: Twilight of the Clans 1.

So far this looks like a pretty important improvement over MW5 in terms of control, fluidity and optimization. If they have a proper mechlab with the sorts of features the community has come to expect of Mechwarrior titles, by this I mean they _do not_ dumb down the configuration of mechs like vanilla MW5, that would be an important improvement as well. I like that you bring up the quality of the voice acting and the dialogue, because it's been a very long time since we had a well-written game with tactical engagements and dialogue written from a professional military personnel point of view. To some degree, I am not impressed by the combat because from what I can see of the video it doesn't look like there are good tactical decisions to make and to keep things interesting, it still looks like disorganized brawling and close-spawning of enemy assets. I will be very interested to see how this develops over time, it would be nice to have a game where utilizing the tools you have tactically is more important than just building everything to be a brick that can survive being vastly out numbered.

This actually looks like a huge improvement over Mercs. Looking forward to picking this up

Heck yeah! I was just looking for updates last night. Sooo excited to see what they do with this.

I will buy it, its the Clans..... But , if they were smart, they would make MW5 and Clans compatible for mission orientated multiplayer, much like a WW2 destroyer and Uboat sim game a number of years back. separate, but can be played head to head. Just a thought...

The console way of doing things is a minus in my book, there is no question that keyboard shortcuts are way more efficient. Going into a pie menu for MASC is hell in and of itself. :)

The visuals and graphics are pretty damn stunning, and the cinematic cut scene was wonderful. Very much excited to play it

Both my first mechwarrior game & and my first online game was MW3 where the Smoke Jaguars were the villains that you had to fight which pissed me off as I wanted to play as Clan. This looks really good so far. Super excited. Hope they get this right.

I started playing Battletech TT in I think 88. Sometimes playing campaigns over several weekends. After moving to where I live now and there not being anyone to play with I switched over to the computer in 94 or so. I'm looking forward to this.

Looks pretty good. The cutscene in the new trailer looked surprisingly great with great voice acting. I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.

Happy to see this. I am a PC user. I would like to see footprints left behind from the mechs

Thanks for sharing.

The top-down command mode is something MW5 has been needing for so long, and the attack queue is going to be really useful. Also glad that they finally added a compass heading.

Between the "NEG" and the lack of contractions, they definitely got the dialog correct. I'm excited.

The way you said "commander's intent" man I felt that in my soul.

Beyond excited for this I’ve put a lot of time into mercs and this is everything I’ve wanted

Remember how mw5 looked great at the preview?

Looks amazing and def see they were paying attention to the things fans were saying about Mercs. Though as an IS fan, I hope they plan a DLC for Clans that allows you play the side of IS with this beautiful upgrade to their system.

I thought you were late on April Fools, but now I’m excited. Piranha Games has my respect and I honestly think we’re going to get something good from this game.

mw3 vibes for sure (I haven't played mw3 in a decade). Excited for the future of this. Hopefully the command wheel wont be the only way to control masc/teammates. Need standard keybinds too.

My favourite mechs, for the best faction!

i am looking so forward to playing this game. i hope the replay ability is good cause i do plan on playing more then once maybe with different mechs or choices

those radial menus are SUPER immersion breaking.

The command interface for your Star, complete with popping out to a top-down map, reminds me of the original Ghost Recon. That’s a good thing.

Tha k you gor this as someone who has played since MW2 was released all the videogames, the WizKids game & finally I've been able to get into the classic tabletop war game BattleTech & hopefully the tabletop RPG Drstiny soon I'm a huge fan despite how hard companies like Microsoft & now CGL can make it to support this amazing universe.

Following the characters as you move through missions will be really interesting. MW3 had a decent amount of this and it will be nice to see another game do more

I'm looking forward to this.

"Needless to say... I'm odds and ends But I'll be stumblin' away"

Curiously, what do we think the 'Switch Campaign' feature on the main menu represents? Is it another way of saying/loading a different campaign playthrough? or...

Lets hope that, with this game, piranha took what they learned from MECH 5 Mercs and made this game the best it could be.

You had me at "it looks like Tron" I cannot wait for this

I am really curious to see if the “satellite” mode you called it can be used for the whole game or match. So it has more of an RTS feel. The game over all looks like a good step up from MW5 Mercs.

Very much looking forward to Clans, and yes planning on getting the game. My biggest questions/concerns are the controls, and whether the PC version is going to have better HOTAS support than Mercs had. (By support I do not mean having ready-made keybinds, that is not a problem to do, it is the lack of functions that was startling: no way to choose whether an axis is relative or absolute, for example.)

Clan smoked jaguar brings back good memories of MW3. Must've read the manual a dozen times. Cant wait for this game to drop.

I like the fact they're using 5 unit stars. Since that is one of the differences in organization. Not sure if they bring 'batchall' in or not, I think it could be interesting.

I did not see a heat scale on the screen in any of that game play. That seems like an odd thing to add late in development. Are they just not worrying about heat for clans??? EDIT... oh, no there it is on the right side of the reticle area. That's pretty subtle for a thing you need to pay attention to or else die. =D

Very cool, thanks for the share.

I appreciate the new system for telling your starmates where to goand what to do. I have to get super creative giving my lancemates orders with the basic system and simple ai.

The 3D Tron look was called "Image Enhancement" was from Mechwarrior 2

Nice thing was the mech coming into combat from the elevator

Did they change the way the arm / torso crosshairs worK? Looks like the camera is locked to the arm movement, instead of the torso like in MWO and MW5.

Looking good. Will love it even more if it is available on new Quest 3

i cant wait for this game, ive been in love with the smoke jags since mech3, and me and my hubby play loyal smoke Jags in MWO, so bring it on, i cant wait :D

This looks way better than what MW5 looked like at demo and launch, hell even now with tons of mods. I am actually very cautiously excited now. Maybe we'll have Mech Commander 3 sometime. Edit: Also if we could have like matchmaking like system to find players to do Co-op, that would be epic. How cool would it be to start a campaign with strangers.

Watching the coms chatter between the various pilots and their commander and seeing not a single contraction used makes me HAPPY. That and "aff" and "neg". Simple stuff like that, I love it.

I do like what appears to be a significant upgrade to the UI in terms of working with your AI team-mates. That was desperately needed. My biggest problem with Mercs is the AI of the enemy units. Specifically their "Zerg the Human" mentality. I really do hope that there is an improvement in the way the enemy units react and engage. It seemed better, but I was getting a feel towards the end of the demo when the number of enemy AI was ramping up, that I was seeing a bit of that same problem. It's early yet, and it's not a large sample size, so fingers crossed! I know I have been looking forward to this one for awhile now.

Can't wait so hyped for this

Great take. Are they doing an engine update? Did you see a command for "Defend my target" instead of just attack options? I do love the 'Mechcommander' aspect of the commands and command queue.

I hope we get to see some Elemental Power Armour in action. Atleast in either a cutscene or as support deployed alongside you in combat

This looks very good. I hope they can deliver on this quality upgrade over MW5. I have spent a couple hundred hours in MW5 through several campaigns and characters as each DLC was released. I am a billionaire... in MW5 8-)

Looks cool, but having been late to the MW5 scene, I'll be waiting until I beat all the dlc content. Thank you for the preview.

What happened to the pre alpha screenshot hud?

I don't know why, but I always imagined the Clan aesthetic on a personal level looking much more like Khan and his Augments from Wrath of Khan.

Damn that looks fantastic! I remember Mechwarrior 2 on PC way back in the gap... and this has that vibe.

I've been waiting 20 years for this.

It looks great!

A little sad I won't be able to carry on my MW5 Merc arsenal to fight the clanners but this is looking amazing and I will be probably putting as many hours into it as I did the previous.

Hi guys! Do I understand correctly that judging by the size of the equipment, the size of the mechs has been brought back to normal?

I can't wait!

Hopefully lives up the hyper. I do wonder if it will be open-box if beyond the linear campaign is done.

Holy crap this looks amazing.

I really really hope they keep omni 'mech customization to how it should be lore wise: Locked Engine rating, locked armor type and amount, locked structure type. Weapons being able to be swapped freely.

A deep mechlab is a must. Has to be there. If I can't fully customize a mech, then I'll be bored.

When I first saw the trailer i thought it was an april fools joke for a Mercs DLC, glad to see it wasnt a joke and a full game

From the start, it looks good. I would like the campaign to feel more dynamic and that relationships/egos with colleagues could cause problems or behave more effectively. It would be a dream, that history could be altered, even that other planets could be conquered, or even that a kind of race could be established between the different clans and that the invasion could be taken further. And above all, that there is freedom to choose your mechwarrior. But I suppose all this will be too much to ask.

Just worries about replayablility. I’m super stoked for narrative. But afterwords I would love to do a career mode like Mercs.

As far as the plot goes, I think it would be a great experience to just lean hard into the Crusader mindset for the invasion.

MW2 also had enhanced imaging and missions that required scanning. Definitely callbacks to that, as much as the cartoon.

01:12 It is 5:30 AM here. I am screeching like a little schoolgirl at the sight of a Top-Down Command Mode! Because as long as Clans is a DLC for 5 or gets it's own Mercenaries style Career Mode, this opens up the doors finally being able to command an actual Battlemech COMPANY rather than just a single Lance or Star! Because Modders wont have to design this whole command system from scratch! When making "command more mechs" and "bring a bunch of vehicles with you as support" mods. I am drooling at the possibilities!

I better get an early access beta key. Have been playing their games since mw3 and was one of the few who supported them in making MWO which ending up being the launching platform for all these newer mechwarrior/battletech games.

I'm totally ready to witness the clan invasion from the perspective of clan smoked jaguar cockpit. I have near to none knowledge of clans lore (except from battletech cartoon), so I have high hopes to dive into this through experience of this crew. Also hope for some commander Mason reference. Who else in the inner sphere sports a Nightstar?

I loved Battletech Crescent Hawks Inception. I wish they would do something like that where your just a little guy having to make money in a city, and scraping mechs. That game was old school. But man that game was sooo much fun

Looking forward to having more human characters in this game. I hope they continue a lot of clan lore and connect us with interestinf characters with good background stories.

It's nice to see PGI introducing Clan Smoke Jaguar as a playable faction. I just hope we get the full experience of this clan's lore to its prominence from its downfall.

When I saw MW2 31st century combat's flame effect in the steam trailer, they better not mess it up.

I liked the enhanced imaging from MW2 where it showed damage level on the mechs. Really looking forward to Clans.. A lot of the features look well put together, like the lancemate commands/battlemap integration. Clans is gonna be great for new content to make, mercs is getting stale haha. Thanks for sharing brother!

some of the UI is exitingly blockly and useful, I really like the targeting reticle specificly. however the ui along the bottom of the screen and the radial wheel feel so out of place. it feels better for a thrid person shooter rather than a mech game, lemme see a hud that feels like crt screens.

I've been saying since the early days of MWO: I want Mass Effect 1 set in the Battletech Universe. ME had all the storytelling depth I want in a game, and I see no reason why that can't be set in Battletech, including you as a lowly human running around among active 'mechs, to give a proper sense of scale.