Author Topic: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence  (Read 8700 times)

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Offline Rick James

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Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
Gather round, ye gamers, and hear a tale from the simpler days of gaming:

When I was five years old, I got the Battlepack version of Mechwarrior 2 for Windows. For the first three months I didn't understand much of the game, yet was absolutely blown away by the absolutely beautiful cinematics. This, folks, is the game that taught me how to read, although learning the meaning of words like "Long-Range Missiles" was of dubious value to my parents. It was the first game in which I learned to appreciate the mystical, incorporeal fifth element of gaming called Story, and with good reason: I have seen no other simulation title which combines a sense of immediacy with such a varied background.

Eventually, of course, with the advent of 32-bit system hardware I along with the rest of the planet had to upgrade to Windows XP, and Mechwarrior 2 became a memory. Recently discovered a patch that enables the game to be played on 32-bit platforms, both XP and Vista.

Ah, to be able to run across a sunny mesa in my Firemoth once again...

Anyhoo, I was wondering how many other Mechwarrior 2 buffs are on the forum, and if any of them are still playing. No game can achieve what Mechwarrior 2 did in terms of atmosphere, and I want to hear the experiences of other players.

Boystrous 19 year old temp at work slapped me in the face with an envelope and laughed it off as playful. So I shoved him over a desk and laughed it off as playful. It's on camera so I can plead reasonable force.  Temp is now passive.

 

Offline Inquisitor

Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
Quote
When I was five years old, I got the Battlepack version of Mechwarrior 2 for Windows.

I hate you :)
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Offline Scotty

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
All hail MechWarrior!

I can't get number 2 to work on my comp tho   :(
I do like to play number 3, because it has the best in game graphics IMHO, plus the briefing like cinematics and the whole "behind enemy lines with no real resupply" story.

 

Offline Col. Fishguts

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
I got MW2 bundled together with my Matrox Mystique back in 1997... it was one of those early titles with hardware acceleration that lacked even basic effects like bilinear filtered textures.
But goddamn, it was fully 3d, ran smooth as hell and you got to stomp around in giant PPC-LRM-death-spouting mechs.... it was glorious.
"I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it." - D. Lynch

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
I preferred Mercs myself. 

 

Offline Flaser

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
Pats his Monster 3D Edition disc.
Got this baby working, even put up the necessary files to do so on VOGONS.
Hmm....maybe it IS time to replay it.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2009, 08:23:18 am by Flaser »
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Offline General Battuta

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
2 was the best, followed by 3. My first game. Fantastic on every level.

 

Offline Mika

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
I played also through Mechwarrior 2, think I was 14 or 15. Unfortunately, I had the fortune of playing Falcon 3.0, F-15 Strike Eagle III and Red Baron before that, and as a result MW2 didn't really hit. I thought the combat was pretty shallow even at hardest difficulty setting, it was about firing long range missiles and simultaneously pulling back joystick to launch missiles in an upward arc over some obstruction or to get longer range. Rinse and repeat.

The less tonnage robots didn't have much chance in the later game stages. I don't remember getting into a desperate running and turning fight that often, where as in flight sims this occured more often (excluding F-15 SE3). And was pretty fun in the end.

Currently I don't remember if MW2 had wingmen in missions. If memory serves, it was about going in alone for most of the time. Besides Clan Jade Falcons was much harder faction than Clan Wolf for some reason. It was a bit of a let down after I completed the Jade Falcon campaign I nearly played through the Wolf campaign in a couple of days.

Otherwise, that game restarted the mech stuff, but I think the gameplay mechanics weren't that fantastical that a lot of reviewers said by that time. Though this doesn't mean it wasn't a good game. I just felt combat was better in games that were released in 1990 (Red Baron) - 1991 (Falcon 3.0).

Mika
Relaxed movement is always more effective than forced movement.

 

Offline Roanoke

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
I had it on Playstation.  :)

 

Offline Angelus

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
Currently I don't remember if MW2 had wingmen in missions. If memory serves, it was about going in alone for most of the time.

Depends on the mission, in some missions you're on your own, in other you can play with an entire Star.
I mostly played alone, because it was more intense and you get a better rating if you kill all the enemys yourself.

IIRC, there are only 2 or 3 missions per campaign where teammates come handy...as cannon fodder. :drevil:
There is a patch for XP users for the Win 95 edition, never tried it though.

Mechwarrior 3 is better then MW2 ( not only because of the graphics ) and by far better then MW4 and MW4 Mercs, imo.
M$ managed to turn a awesome simulation ( where you had the feel steering a 75ton  heavy mech ) into a
game that resembles a FPS. Seriously. WTF?


It's sad you can't use jumpjets in MW3 under XP, also trying to play the campaign or some of the standalone missions in Pirates Moon is impossible because without jumpjets you can't cross the canyon in mission 2.
I wonder if anyone ever released a patch for that.

 

Offline Nuke

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
the patch is pretty good and even works in vista 32. ive yet to get it to work on a 64 bit os. ive been able to play it with a full set of ch controlers, and my track ir (through freetrack & ppjoy), which is pretty 1337. mw2 is the only mechwrrior game that actually feels like a sim. mw3 and 4 have ****ty input code. mw3 is unstable as hell on os ive tried, so ive not really played it that much. 4 runs well most of the time, but doesnt feel as much like a simulator. mw2 had the best immersion. the graphics were kinda sucks and the collision detection was horrible, but i still think its the most fun mechwarrior game ive played.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2009, 08:43:26 pm by Nuke »
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Offline IceFire

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
I used to play MW2: Mercenaries.  Good fun...but I played it through and then that was it.  Never went much further with it.
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Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
I still have MW2: Mercs installed. It still works. Unfortunately, 3 doesn't.
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Offline redsniper

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
Heh, I was six when I got MW2, I had great fun with it. MW3 is my favorite though, since it had rivers and lakes, deformable terrain, and the whole one lance vs whole planet feel. Plus you get to be a dirty freeborn Inner Sphere boy rather than some snobby Clanner. :p
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The future makes happy, if you make it yourself.
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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
The gameplay mechanics of the MW2 series were fantastic, if a bit ridiculous. I remember one mission in Mercs where you're supposed to escape from an icy plateau to a rendezvous with a dropship 2-3 klicks away. I just hopped in a the lightest mech I had available (a Jenner IIRC), stuffed it with jump jets and flew all the way to the rendezvous. One could do this because MW2 had directional jumpjet control...  accelerate to maximum forward velocity with the Home key then apply vertical thrust with J. As long as you didn't touch the ground, you didn't decellerate. :p

 

Offline redsniper

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
Well, it would work on any of the airless worlds you visit. :nervous:
"Think about nice things not unhappy things.
The future makes happy, if you make it yourself.
No war; think about happy things."   -WouterSmitssm

Hard Light Productions:
"...this conversation is pointlessly confrontational."

 

Offline Nuke

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
i played mw2 with lasers and jump jets, but mw4 i mostly avoided jump jets and used ammo weapons mainly. i usually prefer lighter mechs too.
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

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Offline Rick James

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
One thing that always confused me in Mechwarrior 2 is the bizarre rift between the Wolf and Jade Falcon cutscenes in terms of quality. The Wolves seem to be more well-written. From the Clan Wolf ending:

Spoiler:
This verse has ended.

Our destiny is sealed to a once unthinkable fate. We have found new allies in an ancient foe--and enemies in our siblings. The honor of the Warden way, like a pyre in the blackness of space, has guided us to our home on Terra!

Kerensky foretold us of this Eden with the promise of deliverance.

We will defend it to our deaths. Let the next verse begin.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2009, 11:19:18 pm by Rick James »

Boystrous 19 year old temp at work slapped me in the face with an envelope and laughed it off as playful. So I shoved him over a desk and laughed it off as playful. It's on camera so I can plead reasonable force.  Temp is now passive.

 

Offline Nuke

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Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
so how did the clans ever manage to get their asses kicked? they saeemed like a bunch of badasses, how did they get defeated by a bunch of freebirths?
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Nuke's Scripting SVN

 
Re: Mechwarrior 2: A Reminiscence
so how did the clans ever manage to get their asses kicked? they saeemed like a bunch of badasses, how did they get defeated by a bunch of freebirths?

Because the Freeborn use Freeborn tactics, and the Clanners used honorouble tactics (Except Clan Wolf, since they knew about Freeborn Tactics thanks to Wolf's Dragoons).
One thing that always confused me in Mechwarrior 2 is the bizarre rift between the Wolf and Jade Falcon cutscenes in terms of quality. The Wolves seem to be more well-written. From the Clan Wolf ending:

Spoiler:
This verse has ended.

Our destiny is sealed to a once unthinkable fate. We have found new allies in an ancient foe--and enemies in our siblings. The honor of the Warden way, like a pyre in the blackness of space, has guided us to our home on Terra!

Kerensky foretold us of this Eden with the promise of deliverance.

We will defend it to our deaths. Let the next verse begin.

Clan Wolf is much cooler then Jade Falcon, so they get much cooler text :P. It is also the only campaign I finished in MW2. Never got around to finish the Jade Falcon one, really.