06/1/17

BATTLETECH!

Tactical Mech Combat In The Third Millennium

By: Craig H. Handler, June 1, 2017

After a brief three month delay that felt like an eternity, the Backer Beta of Harebrained Schemes’ eagerly awaited mech combat game, Battletech, has been released. The initial build bestowed upon backers of the “Mechwarrior” tier contains a single player skirmish mode vs. AI, with five arena style maps, 20 Mech chassis (32 variants) and 11 different MechWarriors. After a soon to be released update, it will also contain 1v1 online & LAN multiplayer.

Unfortunately, the Backer Beta does not include the MechLab or any elements of the story campaign, so we will not get to tinker with our mechs, or customize any MechWarriors.  Harebrained Schemes has been quite clear that while they will update the Beta to fix high-impact and game-breaking bugs, there are no plans to update the Backer Beta with additional features or content beyond the current scope.  As such, this build is not an Early Access game and is only a temporary tool to obtain data for the continued development of the game.

Still, that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun blowing up mechs while the beta lasts.

In any event, we couldn’t wait to get you some screenshots of our first clash, so keep reading and check them out! Also, keep checking our main page for more coverage, including a Let’s Play video, or two!

Its been far too long!

 

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05/31/17

A Look at the Nexus Game Fair

If you’re a large plains-roaming land mammal, or a driving cat, and you just can’t make Origins, there’s always the local convention  ~

Jim Owczarski, 31 May 2017

Milwaukee has missed GenCon since the day it changed lodgings in 2003.  I know.  I’m from here.  The mass of local gamers that were left behind have created other events and some have seen remarkable success, but none have approached the grand madness that is the mother of all American gaming conventions.

Still, I love the convention experience and was looking forward to checking out the Nexus Game Fair when it rolled into town late last week.  Most importantly, I was wondering if there would be anything at all for a grognard to do.  What follows are a few thoughts and a fair number of photographs documenting the experience of Friday and Saturday.

Hosted primarily at the downtown Hyatt, evident on the Milwaukee skyline by the spaceship-like restaurant perched at the top, Nexus seems to have kept its ambitions modest.  Attendance ran to the hundreds rather than thousands and there was rarely a press of crowds despite the smallish space.  It was, however, a professionally-organized operation with a well-designed program and a strong staff of workers managing registration.

Two beautiful days and I’m going indoors to play with little soldier men. (That’s the new Bucks’ arena going up.)

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05/27/17

Legendary Encounters: Firefly – First Look!

The beloved TV franchise comes to your tabletop ~

Michael Eckenfels, 27 May 2017

A month or so back, I had the chance to get a copy of a Legendary Encounters game. At first, I was going to get the Aliens-themed one, though the Big Trouble in Little China version looked cool too, as did the Marvel version. Well, any of those three and the 1,674 (ish) other Legendary Encounters games. I almost told them I would look at the Aliens-themed one, but then I ran across Firefly, and it was a no-brainer for me.

The box itself is just like any of the other LE-type games. At least, I think it is. I played the Aliens version once before and can say it’s definitely the same size, as is the Big Trouble in Little China one too (saw the box, never played it).

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05/25/17

Gaming Nostalgia – The Orcs Nest

#TBT at GrogHeads!

When we went travelled to London in the Summer of ’88, there was one required stop: The Orcs Nest.  A Warhammer box set, two Battletech books, and a whole lot of dice later, we were on our way.  Nine months later, a guy in Oklahoma recognized the Orcs Nest pin on my backpack from the Dragon Magazine ads.

click images to enlarge

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