I am nervous about the upcoming release of Mechwarrior 5: Clans

As an old, broken man, I have a lot of nostalgia gumming up the works (thankfully my prostate is still fully functional, so no worries there).

I enjoyed mech games. Mechwarrior 2 and Ghost Bear's Legacy still live rent-free in my mind, and I distinctly recall the graphics and gameplay.. And the joy of Instant Action.

I became an expert in Metaltech: Battledrome (although I didn't have internet at the time, so I just played the singleplayer ladder).

I owned a Sega Saturn, and beat the shit out of Deadalus (AKA Robotica) numerous times.

I actually owned Battletech CCG cards, even though I literally never had anybody to play with.

As time went on, my interests waned a bit, as did my finances: I never got to play more than the demos of Mechwarrior 3 and 4, but I did play them quite a bit.

Much later in life, we saw Mechwarrior Online, and.. I said no.

You see, my life as a singleplayer gamer is formative; I rarely play games online, and even when playing MMOs I tended to prefer to go solo, only hanging out with folks from my clan to trade or chat.

I did pick up Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, but bounced off it early; I just wasn't in the right mindset for that game (and was never a big fan of the mercenaries mechanics, preferring a good single player clan story + instant action), but later on after all the DLC game out, I picked it up again and ran through it.. Twice.

When Clans was announced, I was - initially - excited.. But then my old man who fears change peaked his head out of my enchanted-forest-like nose hairs.

I'm worried that with the literal legacy of Ghost Bear being so amazing in my head (defying reality much like the MAGA morons still believe things were good in the days of iron lungs and legally-sanctioned-wife-beating) that I will be disappointed in MW5: Clans.. Especially with how so many modern games and game devs have begun falling on their faces in an attempt to bottle and sell nostalgia, leaving behind a nasty aftertaste not entirely unlike the not-at-all-good sugar replacement Stevia (seriously, I fucking hate Stevia).

I will most assuredly pick it up.

I will review it.

I will not, however, guarantee anything until I have played it in full.. And even then, we may find that we're happier after a few patches and modders have touched things up a bit.

Mechwarrior 5: Clans comes out October 17th on a variety of platforms, which you can learn more about here.

By the way: Did you see we have some fun merch for handicapped gamers now?