Windows

MechWarrior 3

Descriptions:

The Inner Sphere is launching a counterattack on the Clans, and the Smoke Jaguars is the first target! Operation Democles will attack the planet Tranquil. As Connor Sinclair, you're leading the Democles Commando team lance, part of the Eridani Light Horse, on the attack. The op went terribly wrong when one of the two drop ships was hit during descent, and your lancemates have been scattered to the four winds in the frenzied drop. You must attack through Clan territory, meet up with your lancemates, remove any resistance in your path, and try to find a way off the planet, while also accomplishing what you came to do: destroy the Smoke Jaguars!

MW3 features very detailed mechs (they limp when legs are hit, and destroyed limbs spark and trail wreckage) with slow and ponderous movements, as 100 ton mechs should. Firepower and precise application are the key in winning your engagements. Plenty of mechs are available. You start in a 55-ton Bushwhacker and work you way up to the really heavy stuff in a 20-mission campaign (which is quite short). Full multiplayer is supported with Internet play at Microsoft Zone. Your MFB has limited capacity so you'll need to decide what supplies to keep or dump for your salvage. You'll need to track ammo, weapons, equipment (like heatsinks), and the mechs. Keep the MFB safe or you'll have even LESS room! Redesign mechs to utilize newly captured weapons or adapt to the changing ammo situation. The AI is rather dumb as it relies on trigger points. As low as you avoid the trigger, the game is simply a matter of killing one set of enemy mechs at one time, repair, repeat. The occasional escort or chase missions are challenging, but not terribly so. This is a improvement over MW2, and is recommended.

It is the 31st century, and you are an Inner Sphere (IS) Mechwarrior. In this game, you can pilot one of 18 different (customizable) 'Mechs on the planet Tranquil. The object is to defeat the Smoke Jaguar Clan and drive them from the planet.

This game has unbelievable graphics, very good sound, and can be played at up to 1024x768. It has a full 20+-mission single player game, but the game is great in Multiplayer. I've played it on MSGZ since about a week after it came out near the end of May/beginning of June, 1999, and it's great.

In the single-player, the mission commander sounds like he has some serious breathing problems... And unfortunately I guess they didn't have the budget to hire actors, but the voice actors are pretty good. Sadly, the game has a very poor interface for issuing orders to "wingmates". But they're pretty good, even without giving them orders... usually.

If you're not familiar with the BattleTech universe, it's no problem. The game comes with a little book that gives the basics of the universe, but mainly from the IS perspective.