MechWarrior Online Stands out in Free-to-Play genre

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;jmstevenson&period;files&period;wordpress&period;com&sol;2011&sol;10&sol;mechwarrior41&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"576" height&equals;"432" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>MechWarrior Online really stands out as a free-to-play game because of how good it looks&period; It was built using CryEngine3&comma; it is evident how much the team loves the series by the care and effort they took into painstakingly recreating the look of every mech from the Battletech universe&period; Fans of the series will immediately recognize mechs like the Titan&period; They also look amazing as they splash through rivers or smash mountains&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The phrase&comma; what you see is what you get really applies to the game&period; Fans of the series have come to expect that every mech is extremely customizable&comma; with adaptable weapon loadouts and accessories that fit into your particular play style&period; If the battle is agains a Hunchback with an autocannon coming off its shoulder&comma; it is immediately recognizable just by looking at it&period; That comes in handy because of the ability to target specific parts of that mech in order to disable troublesome limbs with all of its armaments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This means that placing weapons and accessories on specific parts of the mech can make a difference since arms can aim and fire independently from the rest of the mech&period; In previous games the mechs entire upper body pivoted&comma; meaning everything was fired in the same place&period; In MechWarrior Online&comma; however&comma; the torso weapons can be aimed at one target while each arm can be   aimed at separate targets&comma; or a specific joint on the same target&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The goal is to kill the other team &lpar;called a mercenary group&rpar;&comma; your role can be as straight forward as heavy weapons expert&comma; the spotter or the fast-moving scout&period; The challenge that Piranha Games faces is to reward everyone for doing more than just kills&comma; something upon which the team has been working on&period; At the end of each round&comma; the goal is to make someone who spotted by monitoring radar and thermal imaging screens to feel like they contributed just as much as the heaviest mech&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The environment potentially affects how a player plays the game just as much as their individual load out&period; The MechWarrior universe takes place on hundreds of different worlds&comma; meaning battles won’t always happen in beautiful mountains&period; Desert fighting means less cover for the mechs&comma; however&comma; heat of the environment makes the use of thermal imaging less effective&period; The exact opposite applies in ice worlds&semi; weapons overheat slower&comma; but the mechs will stand out a lot easier to someone watching their scanners&period; Water can be a mechs friend&comma; as long as the heatsinks are strategically placed on the legs&comma; which can make a difference if the fighting takes place on a world with shallow bodies of water&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>MechWarriors online enters closed beta testing in the near future with an open bets to launch before the end of the year&period; Pirahna Games emphasizes the fact that no one will be able to pay their way into power&period; The microtransaction system will focus on giving players with less time on their hands&comma; but a little extra money in their pockets additional gameplay options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;