Rating: 
Summary: Microsoft put the fun of 'Virtuality' into FASA's Battletech
Review: Microsoft's stab at the "heavy mech" market is a hit. Mechwarrior 4 goes back to the roots of the Battletech universe: Create an imersive world full of technological marvels and the public will go nuts. And go nuts they have. Multiplayer games on the Zone are packed full of players young and old alike. In fact, it's the Multiplay aspect of Mechwarrior that is the game's biggest draw, and Microsoft put together the perfect team in place for this.Mechwarrior 4's technical team consisted of the same developers who brought you the Virtual Reality "Tesla" pods that are seen in Battletech centers all across the country. (You can usually find one at your nearest Dave & Busters location.) These pods are full-sized cockpits complete with multiple screens, big booming sound, and excellent multiplayer capability. Microsoft's version comes the closest to this experience than any of the previous titles. Battletech purists will argue that many of the features of the original game are lost, however the changes that Microsoft has made will make for a quicker-paced game with a longer shelf life.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely worthy of the name
Review: The short: Great gameplay, great engine, excellent interface, awful story and acting. A fine addition to the Mech series of games. A solid, stable, fun game that doesn't require that you played any of the previous three to have a complete blast with it. The long: I respectfully disagree with the review that gave this title one star because you can't make any Mech into a supermachine. That is precisely what makes this game better than all the ones that came before it. I have played ALL of the MW games, including the Virtual World cockpit sims, and this is the best yet. The game has been totally changed (and by the FASA guys themselves) from being just a computerized version of the paper game into a solid computer game that more accurately conveys what it should be like to be in one of these machines. The shortcoming of the previous games was that Mech models didn't matter. You could take any one of them and put in any weapons, any equipment, any armor. You were limited only by total weight, so what was the difference? Now there IS a difference. The missile racks on a Mech now really do have missiles in them (or nothing), and you can really hit those racks and blow them up. In the prior games you could hit a Mech in the waist and it would count as a "torso side" hit, regardless of what the structure of the machine was supposed to be. Now it plays far more like you'd think the real deal should. Two 75-ton Mechs are now completely different if they're different models, and you can play them with different tactics. You can use your knowledge of their structures to hit them where it hurts. Shouldn't it have been this way all along? Game balance is totally different: Legs are way tougher to hit and to damage, so you can't cheap out as easily with leg or even head shots. Mechs accelerate, decelerate, and reverse faster, so if you crash into somebody, you don't ballroom dance with them at close range until somebody dies (and the meltdown from a death at close range is now greatly to be avoided--very cool); you can break off easily and continue to run and gun. Every Mech battle is now the extended duel it should be--no easy way out, and no cheap argument-ending superweapons like the Ultra AC/20. Now you've got to actually fight. If you don't like solid tactical fighting, then go play any first-person shooter, ninnies. Weapon select and grouping is now totally different; the HUD is much simpler and more effective to use, and the Mech lab is equally simplified and effective. Wingman command is perhaps the best such game interface yet invented; very quick and it works. Missile play also is done right this time; long-range missiles launch in an arc to the target, short-ranges are dumbfire and Streaks always hit without needing a lock. Other toys like AMS and BAP really work now, and have a noticeable effect and advantage during play. The new way that the missiles launch in a ripple-shower (instead of all at once) is more fun. This means that evasive action works. Now rather than either getting hit with the full load or totally missed, you can do things like dodge some and try to let AMS handle some, and everything in between. It also means that you need skill and strategy as a missile marksman, which wasn't really the case before. The Mechs themselves have never looked better. They're highly detailed, distinctively blacken on damage, limp, stagger, run, walk, recoil, fall, and DIE awesomely. The graphics look great. Weapon effects are intense and the sounds are rich and throaty. You feel like you're dealing out some hurting even if you're only scratching paint when you unleash a machine gun. The AI is no longer dirt-stupid, puts up a great fight and won't sit there while you snipe from long range or pull other tricks that used to work. It's much more equivalent to the great bot AI that you see in first-person shooters like Unreal Tournament or Quake. The single-player campaign is 25 full missions, far longer in play time than MW3. Unfortunately the story is as awful as most other computer games. Starcraft or Half-Life this is not. I can't remember seeing worse acting since high school, so I can't give this five stars. It's solid in just about every other way, though. I look forward to any expansions that may be on the way.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Well Balanced.
Review: ... I think this game is an excellent, well balanced game! The only real beef I have with it is that it seems too short and I wish you could play the single player missions in Multi-player games. Other than that, the game is excellent! The storyline is good and the actors don't suck. I don't know about you, but I like seeing weapons come out of places they are supposed to come from. It's kind of weird and unrealistic to see a beam weapon, or ballistic weapon coming from a missile rack don't you think? Also, I would imagine it makes Multi player a little more balanced and fun. You have to work for your victory, using combat tactics and strategy! No more Cheapo, no talent mechwarriors stocking up on Ultra AC's and taking everyone out with a couple shots! I say bravo to Microsoft for making the game beautiful, and fun for everyone! I also should note that the animation in the game is wonderful! The Mechs move and take weapon hits as you would expect them to in the real world! Very fluid! Again I say Bravo Microsoft!
Rating:
Summary: great Mech fun!
Review: I've you love the MechWarrior feel of gaming, here you have the ultimate in Meching around. The graphics are great, the gameplay top-notch, and the Mech configurations are far easier to manipulate in this new version. Better character control has made it easier to manuever through campaigns, as well. As an individual who's seen a lot of games, I highly recommend this one.
Rating: 
Summary: What A Let Down
Review: If you are a fan of mechWarrior3 you are going to be really disapointed with 4. They are totally different games that share a similuar concept. You can forget building the mega killer Mech in this game. The Ultra 20 Auto cannon is gone, the largest is a 5. The Mechs have hardend weapon points that limit your ability to custom build what you want. Take the Thor for instance it has a missile rack on the torso. Well that torso is now a hard point for missiles only. Arm, and torso critical spaces have specified spots for specified weapon types. Its like you are being dictated too as to what you can put where. The Mech lab is poorly constructed, and much more difficult to keep up with your Mechs load out. Those of us that really enjoy the fast paced games of unlimited ammo and awesome auto cannon firepower in MechWarrior3 will have no place in MechWarrior4, we were not taken into consideration. I won't speak much on the graphics, they are great, but how can you enjoy the graphics of a game you cannot enjoy. The seven new mechs, full customability, all new terrain features, the 16 player on line game, what a let down. But the box is pretty cool looking.
Rating:
Summary: good game, bad balancing
Review: Like all mechwarrior games, this one has too many controls to memorize. Aside from that, the graphics are stunning (the exception being the badly acted movies) the mechs are badass and the overall game pretty good. Unfortunately, most of the enemies in this game seem to require ungodly amounts of damage to take down making it nearly impossible to take on more than two or three enemy mechs before your own chassis is a smoldering ruin. I miss the good old days when a single alpha strike from a 100 ton atlas pretty much busted up anything that moved.
Rating:
Summary: Stupid pretty boy Ian
Review: Mechwarrior 4 is the next REAL chapter and the best mech game in quite a while. In fact, it's the best since 1996's Mech 2 Mercenaries. FASA cleans up their act with a 4 star game in my opinion.
Lets get this over with...
Graphics
The graphics on this game are sharp with very extreme details like snow, rain, lightening and other weather effects. The ground looks clean enough you could eat off of it. Different environments include moon craters, tundra, desert, swamps and cities. The mechs look great with no more of that weird swivle they used to do. More buildings include factories, mech repair bays, explosive fuel tanks, and more deadly turrents. The weapons are great looking from the time they leave the mech to arrival. Explosions are great but don't get to close. There are a large varity of vechicles but you can't kill walking people or animals. 100/100
Sound/Music
The sound effects are good, not great but ok. Things make little noise when they blow up. Weapons sound better, but still not as good as they could. Walking through snow or over water has the best SF. The music is spectaculer. It was made by a real orcetra you know band. I can't spell that word. The flutes, violins, and whatever else is in the band set a perfect mood. 86/100
Controls
The controls are very easy. Unlike in MW3 when you had to switch weapons all the time, with the Sidewinder joystick each group has it's own button. I like to do the training course just to warm up. The only problem is the dang torso. It moves by itself. That's ok once you get used to it. 91/100
Story
This is where things down. You would just love to get a fancy worded tech briefing wouldn't you? I would, but nooooo. You have to sit through this sad little tail bout your uncle and listen to about 20 guys talk about whatever. Plus Ian is stupid commander with no control who never really knows what he's doing. You must reclaim your birthright. LAME!! 40/100
Misc.
This game is kind of easy. With 25 missions I think. There isn't anything besides fighting. Multiplayer is ok, too. 90/100
This game gets 407/500 81.4% B-
Rating:
Summary: Best in a long series of good games--
Review: I have played about all the Mechwarrior games, including MW2, MW2 Expansion, MW3, Mercenaries, and Heavy Gear (which was in the series, but renamed because of copyright problems). This is the best in my view. The graphics are just superior. No other way to put it. As you fire on an enemy mech, the fire, explosions, and chips being blown off the enemy seem very real. The size of mechs is communicated to the player in a variety of ways, including the moaning hum and slow response appropriate to 100 tons of armored vehicle. There's been a real effort to weld the game into the Battletech Universe, which includes a long series of books on the "imaginary history" of the Clans, the Inner Sphere, the wars between the empires, and so forth. Some of the earlier games sort of skimmed by this. In other words, the "future history" is well developed. I like the way the mechlab limits what changes can be made by separating weapons slots into energy, missile, or ballistic. In the past, a mech like a Catapault that is really a mobile missile platform could be rebuilt into anything-- some custom revisions making it entirely unlike the Catapault in the novels. In MW4, you can customize the Catapault but only within the concept of the vehicle. In other words, you can change the types of missiles, and regroup the missiles, but you will have difficulty adding much by way of ballistic weapons (cannons) since the slots just aren't there. This makes mechlab much more like the "real" aspects of battle mechs. I like the story line and so far-- being 2/3 through the mission progression, I have not met a mission that I could not achieve. A good thing, because the cheat codes simply don't work. They were derived from the free demo version. The final version of MW4 has apparently been altered to invalidate the cheats. This could be a real problem if certain missions were almost impossibly hard, because you can't go on until you accplish the current mission. However, like I say, the missions have not been all that unreasonable. I do very much like the placement of mech repair stations in a number of the missions so -- after you are shot up -- you can sneak off and get repaired and rearmed. Although sometimes the placement of these repair stations seems a little loony -- in one mission, you are cruising across barren desert for miles, and suddenly, low and behold, there's a repair station just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Not even a road nearby. But heck, I am not that good a gamer, and I appreciate the help. To bring this to a close-- great game. As I say, I have played all or just about all of the previous mechwarrior series games and I truly believe this is the best. No tech problems either. I am at the "minimum requirements," but it plays fine for me. No bugs, no glitches.
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