Review 3

Way of the Warrior

The latest in the Mechwarrior robot combat series is both a return to the game’s roots and a fine-tuning of what’s worked in past Mechwarrior games. With simplified controls and a more streamlined user interface, the game is now much more intuitive and less complex, allowing for pure destruction without muss or fuss. The hardware test demo provides only a few mechs to choose, one level, and online or bot match play only, but the full game will offer full campaigns consisting of dynamically generated missions, as well as new mechs to choose from and customize.

Ah, the “hardware test” – a term developers have come to use for demos that don’t work properly. Not only do PC gamers have to put up with final games that almost always need immediate patching, recently (since Quake III and possibly even before) we’re even getting demos that need patching. The latest in this movement? Mechwarrior 4 – we can’t guarantee this demo will even work on your system, but if it does, it’s a sight to behold.

Developed by the original Mechwarrior team that popularized the entire robot combat genre on the PC, the game has really been tweaked and honed to near-perfection, with controls that have gotten more and more intuitive and less complex, and graphics that are among the best the PC system has to offer. Even better, while you’re not going to get the best performance on a low-end machine, it doesn’t take a system that hasn’t been invented yet to enjoy the game to its fullest. On our PIII-750 test-bed the game absolutely screams with all effects turned on and detail set to the highest level – turn things down to normal and you’ll get the game running at a smooth clip even on a PII-400 or possibly lower. To do that while looking as good as this game does is an accomplishment.

The MW4 hardware test gives you only internet and bot-match modes, and frankly the internet mode did not work at all for us, even over a T1 connection (Microsoft makes no bones about the fact that various portions of this test will not work for some people – that is the point of calling it a “test”). We were able to try out the bot-matches, which were as fun as any in Q3A or Unreal Tournament.

As with any hardware test, be sure to read the readme file for known issues before starting the game, and then hope for the best. If you like, you can report problems through the MW4 web site at http://www.mechwarrior4.com. Keep in mind the internet functions of this demo will expire on November 4, so what are you waiting for? Get downloadin’ and get playin’!

Disclamer: Some of the graphics in this archive were not created by Time Capsule. They were acquired from a number of different sites on the net. The authors of the graphics in this archive may not agree in the use of their graphics in commercial projects. Time Capsule does not take claim of ownership to any of the graphics in this archive and any use of them is at your own risk.


	Way of the Warrior The latest in the Mechwarrior robot combat series is both a return to the game’s roots and a fine-tuning of what’s worked in past Mechwarrior games. With simplified controls and a more streamlined user interface, the game is now much more intuitive and less complex, allowing for pure destruction without muss or fuss. The hardware test demo provides only a few mechs to choose, one level, and online or bot match play only, but the full game will offer full campaigns consisting of dynamically generated missions, as well as new mechs to choose from and customize. Ah, the “hardware test” – a term developers have come to use for demos that don’t work properly. Not only do PC gamers have to put up with final games that almost always need immediate patching, recently (since Quake III and possibly even before) we’re even getting demos that need patching. The latest in this movement? Mechwarrior 4 – we can’t guarantee this demo will even work on your system, but if it does, it’s a sight to behold. Developed by the original Mechwarrior team that popularized the entire robot combat genre on the PC, the game has really been tweaked and honed to near-perfection, with controls that have gotten more and more intuitive and less complex, and graphics that are among the best the PC system has to offer. Even better, while you’re not going to get the best performance on a low-end machine, it doesn’t take a system that hasn’t been invented yet to enjoy the game to its fullest. On our PIII-750 test-bed the game absolutely screams with all effects turned on and detail set to the highest level – turn things down to normal and you’ll get the game running at a smooth clip even on a PII-400 or possibly lower. To do that while looking as good as this game does is an accomplishment. The MW4 hardware test gives you only internet and bot-match modes, and frankly the internet mode did not work at all for us, even over a T1 connection (Microsoft makes no bones about the fact that various portions of this test will not work for some people – that is the point of calling it a “test”). We were able to try out the bot-matches, which were as fun as any in Q3A or Unreal Tournament. As with any hardware test, be sure to read the readme file for known issues before starting the game, and then hope for the best. If you like, you can report problems through the MW4 web site at http://www.mechwarrior4.com. Keep in mind the internet functions of this demo will expire on November 4, so what are you waiting for? Get downloadin’ and get playin’! * * * * * * * Copyright (C) 2000 TC Studios Disclamer: Some of the graphics in this archive were not created by Time Capsule. They were acquired from a number of different sites on the net. The authors of the graphics in this archive may not agree in the use of their graphics in commercial projects. Time Capsule does not take claim of ownership to any of the graphics in this archive and any use of them is at your own risk.