BattleTech's first expansion, Flashpoint, coming in November

Tactical mech game BattleTech is getting its first expansion in November, which will add new branching short stories, three new mechs, and a tropical biome to do battle in.

The expansion is called Flashpoints, which is also the name for the new short stories. They're procedurally-generated missions stitched together with crew conversations, special events, and choices to make. Some Flashpoints will feature “consecutive deployments”, which means players won't be able to repair their mechs between fights. Given how hard the base game is, that sounds brutal.

One of the three new mechs is the hulking Hatchetman, which you can see in the video (it's the one with the hatchet for an arm, believe it or not). The other two are the speedy Crab mech and the Cyclops, which can deal damage at any range.

The DLC will also introduce a new mission type to the game called Target Acquisition. You'll have to take control of three territories on the map to succeed, and it's ideal for light or medium mechs.

Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Harebrained Schemes have not yet set a price for the expansion.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.