By Greg Kasavin                 Page 1 of 6

	Developer: Zipper Interactive Publisher: MicroProse Release Date: June 1999

Of all the giant robot simulations to be published this year, MechWarrior 3 has the most at stake. While its closest competitors, Starsiege and Heavy Gear 2, need but supersede their unpopular predecessors to succeed, MechWarrior 3 has a very tough act to follow, since MechWarrior 2 remains the best giant robot simulation to this day. Activision's 1995 simulation combined excellent graphics and special effects with realistic gameplay that Activision itself couldn't match in the pseudo sequel MechWarrior: Mercenaries. Shortly thereafter Activision lost the BattleTech license to MicroProse, and years later, the nearly complete MechWarrior 3 stands poised to fulfill its birthright as sequel to one of the best simulations of the decade. With that history in mind, it's difficult not to feel skeptical about whether MicroProse and small developer Zipper Interactive can successfully follow up the game that revitalized Activision almost single-handedly. But based on the recent beta, it looks as if BattleTech fans may well get the sequel they've been wishing for when the game is released in June.

The MechWarrior games are based on FASA's anime-inspired BattleTech universe, a future torn apart by civil war. At the forefront of the combat are the MechWarriors, pilots who are neurologically grafted to gigantic humanoid military machines. MechWarrior 2 was all about the infighting between the warring Clans, idealistic groups of human renegades long since banished from the Inner Sphere, the space surrounding Earth. And while MechWarrior 2 proved that the Clans were far from friendly with one another, their real target remained the Inner Sphere, which the Clans believe is their rightful home. Of course, the Inner Sphere inhabitants are none too willing to let the barbarians through the gate. Unfortunately, those barbarians tend to be equipped with far-more-powerful BattleMechs than the Inner Sphere can muster. Then again, the Inner Sphere's defenses are powerful, and the war remains at a stalemate, with occasional victories for either side. In MechWarrior 3, you assume the role of an Inner Sphere pilot looking to bloody the nose of the powerful Clan Smoke Jaguar at its military planet Tranquil. The Smoke Jaguars are just one of many enemies facing the Inner Sphere, but they are among the deadliest.

Clan Smoke Jaguar is a familiar threat to gamers who've experienced FASA Interactive's challenging real-time strategy game MechCommander and will certainly prove a worthy foe again in MechWarrior 3. Their powerful OmniMechs are no match for the piddling Inner Sphere technology, but because you're part of an elite MechWarrior unit, you're equipped to pilot any Clan mechs should you manage to capture them. Eighteen different mechs are simulated in the game, each of which you can customize with weapons and other accessories between missions. The single-player game spans over 20 missions across four different operations, and MechWarrior 3 also includes an instant-action feature, as well as a full array of multiplayer modes playable over the Microsoft Gaming Zone.