Good little MechWarrior that you are, you're may be reading this from your repurposed fighter jet seat, headset atop your melon, dual joysticks in hand and pedals underfoot, eagerly waiting for MechWarrior Online's open beta to launch today. Ah. Problem. You've clearly missed, as we did, developer Piranha's announcement on Friday that it has delayed the open beta to whip the stompy robot sim into better shape.

Read more: No new date set yet »

I noted in my look at MechWarrior Online that I dabbled with the franchise with MechWarrior 2 and its expansions in the '90s, but that was it. I didn't play any of the Crescent Hawk RPGs, nor the original tabletop game. But lately, courtesy of my smartphone and tablet, I've been playing a lot of digital adaptations of board games--stuff like Neuroshima Hex or Carcassone. Right in the middle of that slight shift in my gaming habits comes an idea that I would have dismissed immediately if you presented it to me a year ago, but I'm actually intrigued by today: a free-to-play browser based collectible card game (CCG)-style MechWarrior.

Read more: Lance-on-lance battles »