Mechwarrior 5 powered by UE3

[Shadow Dweller]

Super Jamie said:

Yes, though the demo is a fairly good indication of gameplay, there's just a bit more story and customization behind it. You use something called "mw2hook" to get it to work under WinXP.

Would that by any chance work on vista? or would I have to use DosBox?

[Super Jamie]

I looked around mech2.org forums, apparently mw2hook only works under XP.

You can always install under DOSBox and get it going that way, of course this requires a DOS verison of MW2, which not everyone has.

I did find one forum post that suggested if you have a PC sufficiently powerful to run Vista, chances are you could install a virtual machine and have success running the game in an older version of Windows.

Virtualbox is probably best for this, though has no Guest Additions for Win98. The best way would be to install XP under VirtualBox, and get mw2hook working that way.

You could also dual-boot Vista and XP, or even setup a small FAT32 partition and dual-boot Vista and DOS/FreeDOS, though getting your sound working may be problematic depending on soundcard.

[Shadow Dweller]

Yeah, I think I'll just dual boot Vista and XP and see if that works.

[SyntherAugustus]

Scet said:

4 is a good example of how a huge budget doesn't make a better game. It contains a lot of really cheesy FMVs(much worse than 3s voice-overs).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijdn5mXhTUU

Heh. This is a student made film though so they have an excuse.

[SYS]

BlackFish said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijdn5mXhTUU

Heh. This is a student made film though so they have an excuse.

Not really, but such is the nature of student film. Everybody wants to Direct and they get butthurt so typically every other aspect suffers severely. After shitting out anywhere between 20K - 50K to finish film school they learn how badly they really fail it. They leave filmschool only to realize that nobody cares about their dogshit.

They then fade into further obscurity or luck out as that mythical indie director. Their skill rivals their ego, they found a good crew, great script, actors, and most importantly: someone that desperately needs to launder their money to finance it all.

Thread derail FTW. Um... Mechwarrior... wut?

[Super Jamie]

That movie annoyed me. Not because of the poor acting or disjointed blending of CGI and real actors - that's been standard fan film fare for years - but because the mechs move totally unlike any mechs in the MW universe should.

To me, this movie just embodies that annoying "modern gamer" attitude of being able to do anything with your character, do it fast, and with flashy visual effects (because the game uses This Engine (tm) which is apparently a selling point).

Even a light mech weighs like 45 tons. People need to get it through their head - these things are not agile.

It's that attitude which ruined Mech 4. In Mech 2 and 3 you actually feel like you're piloting some 60 ton colossus which makes the ground shake for hundreds of meters and sends anyone in a lesser vehicle scrambling to get out of your way. Mech 4 is nothing but a glorified generic FPS with navpoints and slower controls.

[Prince of Darkness]

I've found three different copies of Mechwarrior 2 at my nearby goodwill stores (bought them all, just in case). If you have trouble finding one, go there.

If you are wanting to get MW 2 to work on XP, try here:

The Mechwarrior 2 Resource Forum

As for MW 3/4, MW 3 is still superior, even in looks (to me) and atmosphere. I have Pirate's Moon, and the feeling of turning off your lights and standing in the middle of an airless desert feels amazing; no matter if you have a lancemate with you or not.

Mechwarrior 4, while good, destroyed the original system for damage from the previous titles and boardgame, making the only worthwhile guns the heavy lasers/PPC's/autocannon. Missiles, to me, were completely ignored since only the most massive of batteries were dangerous (unlike MW 2). Of course, I could get into a rant about it's issues with gameplay and canon history...

[Steeveeo]

I got MW2 working on my XP machine the other day, good times were to be had.

I have not gotten MW3 to work right yet, only plays the first mission and wont let me go from there, even though its NOT a demo...

I have a copy of Mechwarrior 4: Mercs, and after you get through the good single player, the multiplayer is ASS. All it was when I last played was 8 people on either team getting in Black Knights/Gladiators or any other Heavy/Assault mechs with jumpjets, standing behind their respective hills, and Poptart sniping until the game ends (Jumpjetting up, firing, then falling back down).
I tried missile-boating in a Longbow, with 120 missile salvos (6 LRM20s), and it ended up just being a long-range nuisance, not doing any damage except to people's eardrums with constant DEEDEE DEEDEE lock-on warnings...

[Scet]

Yeah I had some issues with MW3 and XP, it would crash with some sound error. I forget how I solved it though, you might have to play it in a VM.

[Super Jamie]

Steeveeo said:

I have not gotten MW3 to work right yet, only plays the first mission and wont let me go from there, even though its NOT a demo...

Right-click the shortcut and change compatibility mode to Win98. And believe it or not, stick to software 3D only.

[the_filthy_beast]

Man, I am going to have to install MW3 on to my comp. I never was able to beat Pirates Moon. I might have to reinstall that too and give it a shot.

[Prince of Darkness]

the_filthy_beast said:

Man, I am going to have to install MW3 on to my comp. I never was able to beat Pirates Moon. I might have to reinstall that too and give it a shot.

Yeah, it's a Nentendo hard sort of game.

I remember being stuck on level 4 for 3 years...

[Woolie Wool]

Super Jamie said:

I couldn't really care what engine the games uses, it's the gameplay that matters. Mechwarrior 2 is still a far superior sim to the disappointing, watered-down, FASA/Microsoft arcade bullshit that was Mechwarrior 4.

What's watered down about MW4? Compared to MW2, the controls are more demanding requring you to actually slow down to keep an enemy mech in your sights during the Circle of Death, heat buildup is much more unforgiving meaning that just piling on the PPCs will not get you anywhere, the AI is tougher, and the campaign is longer. Is it the fact that the MechLab no longer lets you do absolutely ridiculous things like put lasers in a Timber Wolf's cockpit (let's not even get into the way MW2 basically treated every mech in the entire game as an OmniMech)? The game really isn't much different from MW2, but people talk about it as if it's MechAssault or something. It almost makes me wonder if it's because of butthurt clanners upset that their favorite band of space Vikings wasn't included.

Super Jamie said:

That movie annoyed me. Not because of the poor acting or disjointed blending of CGI and real actors - that's been standard fan film fare for years - but because the mechs move totally unlike any mechs in the MW universe should.

To me, this movie just embodies that annoying "modern gamer" attitude of being able to do anything with your character, do it fast, and with flashy visual effects (because the game uses This Engine (tm) which is apparently a selling point).

Even a light mech weighs like 45 tons. People need to get it through their head - these things are not agile.

It's that attitude which ruined Mech 4. In Mech 2 and 3 you actually feel like you're piloting some 60 ton colossus which makes the ground shake for hundreds of meters and sends anyone in a lesser vehicle scrambling to get out of your way. Mech 4 is nothing but a glorified generic FPS with navpoints and slower controls.

Are you playing the same game I am? Mechs take a lot more time and room to turn around in MW4 than in MW2. Circle around an enemy mech, even an Atlas, at full throttle in MW4 and you will overshoot. They certainly didn't do anything like that retarded mech-fu shit in the Age of Destruction video. Slapping aircraft out of the sky? Please. Play the city honor guard mission of MW4 Mercs in a Dire Wolf and you will feel every ton of its mass, and probably wish you had brought along something more reasonable (i.e. smaller).

Steeveeo said:

I have a copy of Mechwarrior 4: Mercs, and after you get through the good single player, the multiplayer is ASS. All it was when I last played was 8 people on either team getting in Black Knights/Gladiators or any other Heavy/Assault mechs with jumpjets, standing behind their respective hills, and Poptart sniping until the game ends (Jumpjetting up, firing, then falling back down).

"I have a copy of Doom, and after you get through the good single player, the Skulltag/ZDaemon multiplayer is ASS. All it was when I last played was 8 people on either team running around with SSGs shooting at random until the game ends."

"I have a copy of RTCW, and after you get through the good single player, the multiplayer is ASS. All it was when I last played was 8 people on either team shooting their teammates until the game ends."

"I have a copy of Soul Calibur, and after you get through the good single player, the multiplayer is ASS. All it was when I last played was people juggling each other to death as Xianghua until the game ends."

The behavior of players should not be used as an indictment against the game itself.

Shadow Dweller said:

Would that by any chance work on vista? or would I have to use DosBox?

There are two versions of the basic MechWarrior 2. The DOS version will run fine in DOSBox. The Windows 95 "Pentium" version may or may not work under Windows Vista and there are no workarounds for that on Vista. "Mw2hook" is for the Win95 version but it's useless under Vista.

Then you have the various 3D enhanced versions, which I don't know anything about, and Titanium Edition, which will run fine on Vista after a patch.

I recommed you either get an original DOS version (which may be difficult--try to get a version that comes with an actual retail box. Jewel case versions are almost always the Windows 95 version) or Titanium. Titanium has some changes compared to the original, like modernized graphics and rebalanced (some say unbalanced) weapons, but it's probably the easiest way to get a copy running under Vista at this point.

[Shadow Dweller]

Prince of Darkness said:

Yeah, it's a Nentendo hard sort of game.

I remember being stuck on level 4 for 3 years...

When it came to hard levels like that, I just loaded my 'Mech with the strongest weapons that I had, or that I could carry, and shot the legs off anything that was stronger than me.

I was an ass in that game.

There are two versions of the basic MechWarrior 2. The DOS version will run fine in DOSBox. The Windows 95 "Pentium" version may or may not work under Windows Vista and there are no workarounds for that on Vista. "Mw2hook" is for the Win95 version but it's useless under Vista.

Then you have the various 3D enhanced versions, which I don't know anything about, and Titanium Edition, which will run fine on Vista after a patch.

I recommed you either get an original DOS version (which may be difficult--try to get a version that comes with an actual retail box. Jewel case versions are almost always the Windows 95 version) or Titanium. Titanium has some changes compared to the original, like modernized graphics and rebalanced (some say unbalanced) weapons, but it's probably the easiest way to get a copy running under Vista at this point.

That works. I'll have to look around and see if I can find the Titanium Edition, It sounds like it would be the easiest to come across.