I play World of Tanks a lot and I was in the beta of MWO.

I felt that MWO was too much of a shooter, all this jumping around and the first person perspective. I haven't even logged in yet in 2013.

Also my WoT-friends all stuck with WoT althought some had invested money in MWO. The one thing I really liked was C3, their teamspeak-without-a-server alternative.

But since it is a free game, I'd say just give it a try.
 

Well I've played both quite a lot. I find that the pacing is somewhat similar, slightly more twitch but personally I don't think its by much.

Generally you have to worry about other things more, like heat management and positioning.

It's a really nice game overall. But it seems to be more vulnerable to premades that dominate matches because the team sizes are smaller. Also since you can customize you mechs there will always be min-maxers that one- or two-shot you now and then.

But it's F2P so try it out and see what you think about it. Then tell us. :)
 

Might try asking Dan that question.

http://dansdata.com/

He responds to emails, generally speaking. He's really into MWO. I don't know if he's played WoT, but it seems likely he's at least tried it. Certainly he will be able to give you an intelligent assessment.
 

I spent a decent amount of time in the MWO Beta, and have played a great deal of WoT. Overall, I find that I much prefer WoT to MWO, but I would say that at least part of that is due to controls.

With MWO, I feel that having a HOTAS-style setup of throttle and joystick makes the game a lot more natural to play; If you've played older MechWarrior/Battletech games such as MW2 from back in the day, it behaves a great deal like that does.
 

I have been playing MWO on-and-off since the closed beta. I have never played WoT.

There is a good variation in playstyles through the range of 25 ton to 100 ton mechs. It favours cautious gameplay and isn't so twitchy that this 40-year old cannot do well.

It is a team game so it is much more fun if you are on Ts3 or Mumble. Generally though, never wander off from the rest of your group unless you have the speed to get out of trouble.

The Cadet Bonus gives a lot of extra c-bills over your first 25 matches. This gives you time in the trial mechs to figure out your preferred playstyle and the money to buy a mech you like.

The game uses Elo matchmaking and new players have a lower starting point so you shouldn't find it too brutal.

The forums are full of complaints about game balance and the slow deliver of features and content, but I would suggest those people need to step away from the game for a couple of months and do something fun with their life. I have been playing since closed beta and have taken two long breaks already.

The core gameplay is great and the graphics are immersive, but once you have played a couple of thousand games you hunger for Community Warfare, which I don't expect to be fully up and running for another 6 months.
 

Unless you're a Mechwarrior fan don't bother. You'll have a difficult time learning all the weapons and required piloting skills. You'll also encounter bugs and blatant UI problems which will frustrate you coming from more polished online games. Unless you pay for premium time it will be a grind to earn cbills unless you like being a Mechwarrior.
 

I've played a lot of WoT.

My foray into MWO lasted something like half an hour.

I found it way-way too difficult to get into -- and I'm the fan of the original MechWarrior games.

Specifically it seemed that the maps (as little I've seen of them) are insanely cluttered with buildings and caves and you're supposed to somehow manage to 'drive' through all this clutter while simultaneously targetting/looking/shooting to the side. Which does seem very similar to WoT but somehow it completely didn't work for me in MWO.

But do remember this is like 30-minutes feeling after which I lost all the interest. Maybe if I stuck with it longer...
 

I wouldn't worry too much about MWO, it's a decent reboot but it has many things that make it an average game.
Balance is still rather poor. Also the amount of credits required to purchase new weapons, parts, and mechs is very inflated. If you play a lot i guess it would be fine but as a casual player it's just restricting. Of course you can buy these items with irl money but it would be extremely expensive.

I haven't played it yet but Hawken seems the better Mech shooter
 

Just a thought - try it out, you can test the playstyle with 4 different premade mechs. You don't need a joystick, mouse + WASD keyboard works just fine. Playstyle is very similar to WoT I think, after my first test. The smaller the mech the twitchier the movement, large Mechs are pretty slow and heavily armed + armored, but weak against fast opponents. It is less frustrating than I found WoT to be, where you still have no chance with a small scout tank vs. the large, long range and accurate heavy tanks. As long as you don't mind that the game is in beta phase and has some glitches, you will like it I think. Don't go for the light scouts, you will get motion sickness in them. They run with 80 to 120 km/h, the larger mechs only with 50 to 60 km/h or even slower, which you notice.
 

Second comment - the game is totally F2P, very similar in cash vs. grind as WoT. Invest a lot of time in normal play, you don't need to spend a Euro. Not enough time? Buy a well-equipped heavy Mech for 10 to 20 Euro. You can't pay to win, the models are accessible for all, with exception of a small number of "gold" mechs, which don't seem to have a big advantage other than fancy skins.
 

To be honest, I didn't read about this game till I saw it on http://mmo-play.com/ I've kinda been living under a rock, yeah. But I also play WoT and this seems like a game that can be a good break from Tanks, if anything. Maybe it won't beat it as competition (although who knows?!), but I'll definitely invest some time in it :)