MechWarrior Online releases fiery new map, mech pilots start sweating

MechWarrior Online's new Terra Therma map looks like it will melt the armor plating right off your giant battle robot. Full of craggy peaks and open lava flows, the new environment went live today, making it the (doubly) hottest game world in developer Piranha Games's free-to-play, still-in-beta shooter.

A planet-sized moon orbiting a gas giant, Terra Therma is constantly being ripped apart by the gravitational forces of its parent planet. This has led to the hellish landscape that greets mech pilots who are engaged in a struggle over the moon's stockpiles of natural resources. Because of the high temperatures and relatively open level design , managing heat on this map will be more critical than in almost any other MWO environment, except perhaps Tourmaline Desert, which has a comparable heat index.

One of our favorite shooters , MWO also got a new patch today, with some gameplay tweaks sure to have players keeping a closer eye on their mechs' heat levels. The update has linked the heat penalties of some weapons fired in groups to the largest version present in an individual strike. So if you fire standard Large Lasers along with Extended Range Large Lasers, the strike will apply the stats for ER LLs to your total heat penalty. For more on how heat functions in MWO, be sure to check out the game's official heat scale . The patch also reduced the range of the Seismic Sensor module, an item that has become a must for all loadouts due to its rather powerful ability to boost battlefield awareness.

MechWarrior Online officially releases September 17.

PRODUCTS