MechWarrior reboot announced

Following some anonymous teaser trailers posted on YouTube and some blatant hints on VG247, a new game in the MechWarrior (MW) series has been confirmed. Out of comission since 2002's MechWarrior 4 expansion pack, the series will be 'rebooted' with a new game simply called MechWarrior, releasing on the Xbox 360 and PC. (Sidenote: MW4 and its expansions will soon be available free.)

Smith and Tinker (S&T) will be producing the game, with Pirahna Games developing, working with Unreal Engine 3; S&T's co-founder Jordan Weisman helped form FASA, the company which created the BattleTech universe the series is based on. So it appears, the new game is in good hands.

Set on the planet Deshler in 3015, you take on the role of Adrian Khol, a "wayward nobleman" and more of a partier/slacker type than anything else -- however, House Kurita invades the planet, killing Khol's family, naturally prompting him to enter mechanical war machines and blow the hell out of people.

As you'd expect, the new title takes advantage of modern technology; by the sounds of it, this one is potentially the truest representation of what the creators were after all these years -- they say they're aiming to fully capture that sense of actually being in a giant mech in the middle of a very dynamic battlefield.

A publisher isn't firmed up yet, so neither is the production budget, but we'd imagine it won't be too difficult to get the proper support. Nevertheless, the plan is to have a full single-player campaign, four-player co-op campaign (!), a full-on multiplayer suite, and cross-platform play.

A main aim of MechWarrior will be placing equal importance on each mech; sticking with the one you choose will pay off in the long run via experience and increased piloting skills, resulting in better accuracy and damage, meaning you could viably stick with a light class and vault your way throughout the whole game. Also worth noting is the game will change (though it's not specified how) based on which machine you choose. The amount of class types is yet to be known, but there are four at present: the Jenner (light class), Warhammer and Rifleman (heavy class), and Atlas Prime, an assault class mech as fearful as it sounds (that's the skullfaced fella in the trailer above).

It's far too early for a release date of course, but feel free to speculate!