MechWarrior 3 (Windows)

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Description

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!

MechWarrior 3 features 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. 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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "机甲战士3" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "MW3" -- Common abbreviation

Part of the Following Groups

• BattleTech universe
• MechWarrior series

User Reviews

One of those games that's so good, who cares what its flaws are?	Gerauchertes (9)
Minor problems keep this from being a major success.	Evil-Jim (175)	unrated
This is the good stuff...	Tony Van (2855)
I said to myself, "I think I'm about to be blown away..." - and I was...	Raphael (1261)
Finally: A reason to complain about realism	Jackson Schwipp (20)
Hits the target like a salvo of Clan Streak SRM-20	MadCat (61)
Bigger, but not that much better.	Kasey Chang (4608)	unrated
A refreshing surprise.	William Shawn McDonie (1180)
Good, but not great.	Vincent Valentine (28)
A pretty good Mechwarrior game.	James Kirk (168)

Critic Reviews

Gaming Entertainment Monthly	Jul 04, 1999	92 out of 100	92
Computer Games Magazine	Jun 07, 1999		90
Jeuxvideo.com	Jun 14, 1999	18 out of 20	90
PC Accelerator	Jul, 1999	9 out of 10	90
Hacker	Jul, 1999	89 out of 100	89
Gameplay (Benelux)	Aug 31, 1999	89 out of 100	89
PC Gamer	Aug, 1999	86 out of 100	86
PC Player (Germany)	Jul, 1999	86 out of 100	86
GameSpot	Jun 04, 1999	8.3 out of 10	83
Spel för Alla	Sep, 1999	8 out of 10	80

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Need Help configuring...	1	Bob Bob Jul 16, 2013

Trivia

German version

The German version of the game has been censored: Foot soldiers disappear as soon as one aims at them or one is in an position to smash them with the mechs' legs.

Graphics

This game has its own unique style and is, in some places, technically superior to MechWarrior 4: Vengeance. For instance, MechWarrior 3 features landscape mesh transform when you hit the terrain with a weapon. This means that you don't just leave a char mark, the terrain actually changes when you strike. MW4 leaves a decal and that's it. The decal then fades or disappears suddenly after a period of time. In MechWarrior 3, if you leave a crater, it's there until you leave the map.

OEM release

MechWarrior 3 was the bundled software that came with the second production run of the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro 1.0 joystick. The first release was bundled with Urban Assault.

Rights and development

Activision was unable to develop a sequel to MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat after the FASA Corporation, the creators and then-owners of the BattleTech universe, refused to renew the licensing contract after the delays and troubled development of the game, despite its subsequent success. However, this did not prevent Activision from creating and patching the two expansion packs, Ghost Bear's Legacy and Mercenaries.

Initially, development on MechWarrior 3 was influenced by another 3D BattleTech game from the mid-1990s, created by the Virtual World Entertainment Group, which featured eight mutually connected cabinets called "Tesla pods" where players would fight in 'Mechs against each other. FASA acquired this technology to be used in a full-blown video game that was to become MechWarrior 3, under the publishing of MicroProse. For this reason, the FASA Interactive Technologies (FIT) division was formed to develop it. The process was delayed, however, due to struggles with the engine incompatibilities with concurrent hardware.

In 1996, Spectrum Holobyte, MicroProse's parent company since 1993, lays off much of the MicroProse staff and renames itself into MicroProse, and is purchased by Hasbro Interactive in 1998. FASA Interactive merged with Virtual World Entertainment Group, but their version of MechWarrior 3 is eventually put on hold, as Zipper Interactive was called to finish the game. They used a combination of the already developed assets and their own engine, most likely from the 1999 game Recoil.

Meanwhile, Microsoft bought the Virtual World Entertainment Group, but only kept FASA Interactive, and by transition, they now had the rights to the BattleTech license and MechWarrior games, hence the Microsoft logo's appearance in the MechWarrior 3 back cover art and intro.

The original MechWarrior 3 project would be the base of FASA Studio's MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, released a year and a half after Zipper Interactive's finished MechWarrior 3.

Information also contributed by Zaghadka.

Related Web Sites

• MechWarrior 3 (official website)
• Mech 3 Community Project (A nice and big Community Website with a good Download-Section (official patches/fanpatches), a good program (gameRanger.com) for playing Mechwarrior 3 online and a well sorted Forum with a very good support.)
• www.mechwarrior3.org FORUM (The forum-site for Mechwarrior3.org. Very good support regarding technical problems.)