As a Battletech purist I have a number of thoughts about this game.

First off, the intro, it is awesome, good film quality, but that Mad Dog/Vulture Omni isn't a FASA mech.

Gamesplay issues. The Mechlab is vastly simplified and people have said that this stops 'boating' in multiplayer games where someone can put a large amount of one type of weapon, especially lasers and LRM launchers. The problem is that there is missile boats in the actual board game like the Yeoman that can fire 120 LRMs in one salvo. The mechlab itself makes it that it is only possible to put possible weapons in a particular slot. For example, there are slots for energy weapons, slots for missiles etc. This would be fine for standard mechs but screws up the whole concept of Omnis.

The mechs are a lot tougher than in MW3, where it was possible to kneecap an enemy mech and disable it. Graphically it's a lot nicer than MW3 but I prefer MW3 myself.

As a warning to people thinking of getting the new clan and IS expansion packs, it's EULA apparently doesent tell you that you cannot install it on two computers on a LAN then play at the same time, even on just the LAN! People are apparently outraged over this , as they feel it's taking copy protection way too far.

They must have gotten their base defence plans from Starfleet

One thing that bugs me about the intro video is how they were defeated by something like 7 mechs , and how they put basically their entire force (oddly comprised of nothing more then light mechs with a couple mediums and a heavy) in a single hangar (which of course gets destroyed). Considering that most of the mechs that are assaulting are also mediums and maybe one or two heavies (I saw at least 2 nova cats) , an Atlas or 2 could probably have made quick work of them, especially if they were piloted by decent pilots.

I also found it odd how easily karis' (?) shadowcat gets destroyed, it only appears to get hit by a couple of missies before being destroyed. Shadow cats may not be super strong but they can take a lot more then that.

Another thing is that there sure is a lot of Omnis to spread around.

Chris, regarding your point about the weight classes of the mechs, if you are a Battletech player, you will probably know that it is fairly traditional for the LAAF to be a heavy and assault class mech force in the main.

Any idea what additional mechs are coming in the expansion packs?

One thing I would like to see in a Mechwarrior game is the AI using certain mechs like they were designed for in the game. Take an example. The Catapult. Send in your normal mechs like the Bushwhacker, Shadow Cat or whatever, but you sure don't send a Catapult into the middle of a close up slugfest unless you're in deep trouble. Fire Support is meant to sit back and pick off targets of opportunity.