Mechwarrior Online Open Beta Launch - 29th October 2012

Welcome to the long-awaited Open Beta release of Mechwarrior Online! This is the day we've all been waiting for. At long last there will be no more wipes, everything we do from here on out will be 'live'.

There wasn't a client patch deployed, but it seems some things have changed server-side. Repair bills have fallen and the cbills received at the end of each match appear to have increased. This makes the initial grind to buy a mech much more manageable.

Mechwarrior Online Patch Notes - 25th October 2012

Rejoice! For the change log for the long-awaited MWO patch has been released! The forums are currently down, but I the update email has arrived so I can bring you the patch notes hot off the press.

MechWarrior Online BETA Update

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Build Version 1.0.134 (That's right.. Version 1.0!!!)

Mechwarrior Online Tutorial Videos

Well the servers have been taken down and a patch is incoming that will hopefully bring with it the transition to Open Beta. There will be a large influx of new players over the coming weeks, and KageKaze from the official forums has produced a series of tutorial videos to help the new player make their first steps in the world of MWO.

Edit: Open Beta has launched, sign up here.

Mechwarrior Online Heat Maps

A while ago Bryan Ekman posted a set of heat maps on the beta forums. They've plotted points on each map using data harvested in game to show graphically where players have been moving and where they have been dying. The points are colour-coded based on the frequency with which they appear, going from dark blue to red. With the former being rarely travelled and the latter being heavily travelled.

More MWO cReddit Merc Corps Gameplay Videos

Reddit has it's very own Merc Corp: cReddit, and the below videos were taken over the weekend during a variety of engagements. We communicate using Mumble, and there are usually at least two full companies worth of people online during peak hours and even when I play during off-peak there are a good number of pilots to drop with.

Anyway, on to the videos!

Inner Sphere News Round-up - Week of 8th Oct. 3049

Welcome to the weekly round-up of news from the Inner Sphere, for the week of 8th October 3049.

Mon, Oct 8, 3049:
Brotherhood of Cincinnatus cleared of alleged threats against Archon; Brotherhood claims still under illegal surveillance.

Official Response to Community Concerns

Following the AMA on reddit last week and the number of issues that came to light after switching to the latest version of the CryEngine (though a number graphical issues have been hotpatched), the community felt like there had been a lack in communications from the Devs over a number of serious issues.

Thankfully, PG have not been ignoring the community on these matter, and Paul Inouye has posted the below on the official forums.

Ask the Devs Part 20

The questions and answers from the twentieth round of 'Ask the Devs' have been posted:

Q: Is there any idea when death from above will be implemented? [Atayu]
A: It's already there in it's bare form, but we'll be improving it over time. Can't say exactly when, but it'll be there. [Garth]

Inner Sphere News Roundup - Week of 1st Oct. 3049

Welcome to the Inner Sphere News weekly roundup for the week of 1st October 3049.

Mon. Oct 1, 3049:
“Amaris The Misunderstood” publishes to boycotts on a dozen worlds; one transformed into a riot, dozens arrested.

Mechwarrior Online Open Beta Date Announced

Good news everybody! Via an article by Bryan Ekman and Russ Bullock on the official site, we have confirmation that MWO will be going into open beta on 16th October, alongside a huge patch full of new goodies.

The expected content coming in the 16th October patch is as follows:

MWO Gameplay with Hoplite Lance - Dragon Pile

Memory, the commander of cReddit's Hoplite Lance recorded the below video of our drop into Frozen City last night. With the upgrade to the latest version of CryEngine, the whole game has got a new look to it, and the Frozen City map is no exception.

Stay tuned for a full lance of Dragons jumping off a ledge onto the head of an enemy Catapult, resulting some rather odd teleporting.

MWO with Carole Ruggier's MW2 Voiceover

Many people have mentioned that one of the key things missing from MWO is the robotic voice in the cockpit that chimed in to keep you abreast of actions on the battlefield that was a staple of Mechwarrior 2 and 3. Personally I will never forget the first thing everyone heard upon launching a mission in Mechwarrior 3: "Reactor: online. Weapons: online. Sensors: online. All systems nominal", hell I still have it as the startup sound in windows!

Patch Notes Tuesday 9th October

The patch notes for the 9th October have been posted:

Change Log
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To the MechWarrior™ Online® Community:

We are pleased to announce the latest engine drop of CryENGINE 3.41. This was a large undertaking and has helped us address many of the game’s issues and bump up performance and rendering capabilities.

PC Gamer Exclusive MechWarrior Online Items

The December issue of the US edition of PC Gamer hit the shelves yesterday, and brings with it two exclusive items: a unique black and red skin, and a Coconut Monkey bobblehead cockpit decoration.

Hitler Reacts to the Mechwarrior Online Beta

Okay so if you've been anywhere on the internets over the last few years you have doubtless stumbled upon one of the 'Hitler Reacts to x' parody videos. They show one of the scenes from the film 'Der Untergang' (released in English as 'Downfall')

They've covered everything from getting banned from X-Box Live to the release of the iPad, and now it seems they have spread to Mechwarrior Online!

MWO cReddit Merc Corps Gameplay Videos

Now that the NDA has been lifted, plenty of gameplay videos are hitting YouTube. The set below were all recorded by Defekt from DefektiveGaming, dropping with the cReddit Merc Corp. Each is available in 1080p resolution, so crank up the res, sit back and enjoy!

Hands On: Mechwarrior Online

Jim Rossignol from the formidable Rock Paper Shotgun has been playing MWO for the last couple of days and this is what he thinks: 

The Mechwarrior Online closed beta has been stomping around in the back of my mind for a while now. It’s perhaps rude of me to admit it, but there have been even bigger games blasting away at the heavy armour of my limited attention. The past couple of days, though, I gave it my full focus, and found myself pleasantly surprised. The Mechs, it seems, are quite good.

Head over to Rock, Paper, Shotgun for the full article.

Ask the Devs Part 19

The questions and answers from the nineteenth round of 'Ask the Devs' have been posted:

Q: Higher Blood pressure , Paul or Fox ? [Helmer]
A: Paul. [Garth]

Inner Sphere News Roundup - Week of 24th Sept. 3049

Welcome to the weekly roundup of news from the Inner Sphere, for the week of 24th September 3049.

Mon. Sept 24, 3049:

NAIS attempts to reengineer KTO-20 Kintaro from captured down-graded Combine model; a ComStar “gift” from War of 3039.

NDA Lifted!

Good news everybody! The Mechwarrior Online NDA has finally been lifted! This is a great relief to us beta testers that have been under the yoke of the NDA for so long, finally we can tell you exactly what we think about MWO. I will be posting a series of new player guides over the next few days, so when Open Beta hits everyone can be well prepared.

I expect a lot of player-made content will now start hitting YouTube soon, and I've heard tell people have begun streaming MWO on twitch.tv, so there will be plenty of news to post!