I love how Peter Molyneux is like 'the Familiar World of Albion', as if Fable's world had anything that made it stand out from being so stereotypical "fantasy world" it may as well have been a generated platonic ideal worthy of being pictured on the tvtropes page for medieval fantasy.

It certainly doesn't stand out enough to come to mind before, y'know, Albion, i.e.: fantasy Great Britain, or Albion Online, or lesser-known-but-still-more-known-than-Fable-World Alebion, son of Poseidon in Greek myth, and precursor of the word itself.

I've nothing against Peter Molyneux; I don't engage in the undeserved slagging of his works, even if he's made some shockingly questionable decisions (looking at you, Curiosity.) I loved Fable 1 (less so 2 and 3, tho that's not his fault I think; they both smack of scope creep and game dev issues), LOVED Black and White 1 and 2.

He just seems like he really needs a producer who can keep him on track, keep scope creep down, but also somehow simultaneously let him thrive and flourish making the games of his dreams.

If he can bring about games like B&W1 or Fable1, then there's something special there. I just dunno what keeps happening. -_-;

OMG IT HAS THE HAND CONTROL AND 'GOD MODE'?? Is this another swing at Black and White??? Hell yeah! Little bit of Dungeon Keeper vibes too, fuck yeah.

One of the things I sorely missed from MW5:Mercs is the nitpicky tactical layer of gameplay around sensors and electronic warfare. I know MW5M had ECM and such, but it was basically relegated to certain Mechs and didn't feel like a core part of the gameplay loop to consider. Kinda like how heat got distilled into an inverse ammo punishment bar, instead of a multi-effect system wide problem with multiple solutions of varying quality. Clever pilot tactics and edge cases fell away to stacking heatsinks or shutting down in combat for a few seconds. Again, never felt like a core part of the gameplay loop, more just a stat to worry about. Maybe it was just the automation and backgrounding of so many systems that makes it feel underutilized.

Launching sensors, radar, ECM, battlefield overviews, etc - seeing the top-down live map view with moving mech markers is a welcome sight. I don't see anything for like, more in-depth play re: ECM/sensors, nor for heat, but I'm hoping we do! I'd love to see ejectable heatsinks, or some other clever tactical options to leverage to give yourself an edge, beyond just having a more expensive mech loadout.

I see a 'scan mode', that could be something. I'd love to be able to scan a mech and get some kind of info beyond health; what parts might be worth focusing on, or trying to save to salvage, etc. Maybe scanning reveals a lack of heatsinks on a laser mech, so overheating it is a viable strategy, etc!

I see in the loadouts of this Timber Wolf, they've got Gyro and Engine slots, but they're 'internal equipment' slots and locked. Wonder if that'll change for some mechs? Wonder if modders will be able to let us customize them more deeply? I saw Active Probes in equipment, that's something!

Seems like a majorly updated version of MW5Mercs, which is welcome, since modders did a lot with MW5Mercs, the hope is they'll be able to do the same/more with Clans.