One of PC gaming’s most beloved franchises is officially being rebooted in the second half of 2012, and it will be released exclusively on PC and as a free-to-play online game.

The game is being developed by Piranha Games, and creative director Bryan Ekman insists that we should not be put off by the fact that the game will be free-to-play, and that it will be a fully developed Battlemech sim.

Ekman admits that the developer is making some fundamental tweaks to the gameplay, one being a shift from basic shooter gameplay to a more of a tactical simulator.

“One of our core pillars is what we call ‘information warfare,’ which basically boils down to controlling the flow of information on the battlefield, whether it be your own information, or the information of your enemies,” Ekman said in an interview with PC Gamer.

“We want to make gameplay be less about an arms race, where you start in a light Mech but you really want to get into an assault Mech, because it’s the best thing there is.”

Multiple teams will be able to play on single maps, and they will consist of squads of four players – or “lances” as they are called in the MechWarrior universe. Conquest mode will be the most prominent game type, but there will also be various deathmatch modes available.

Naturally, since the game is free-to-play, the developer will be relying on micro transactions to make money. Having said that, Ekman insists that “Anything that would affect or give you a tactical advantage, you can’t purchase with real cash. You have to earn that by playing the game.”

There will be multiple upgrade paths for individual mechs as well as for pilots, and according to Bullock, “If someone has played a combination of Mechwarrior, Call of Duty, and Diablo in their gaming life, they’re going to have seen everything that we’re offering for the most part.”

There will be a variety of maps set accross different environments and climates, and it will be important to take environmental factors into consideration when in battle. For instance, heat will play an important role in MechWarrior Online, and the environment and weather will directly impact temperature.

You can find out more on the official MechWarrior Online website www.mwomercs.com, which went live last night.

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