that and the fact that the is nearly 100% identical to the [url=http://www.new-un-spacy.com/sdfmacross/destroid-tomahawk/destroid-tomahawk.gif]Tomahawk / Excalibur from Macross / Robotech

Didn't say it was :)

From those books I can recommend:
D.R.T.
Far Country
Highlander Gambit
Decision at Thunder Rift
Mercenary's Star
The Price of Glory

Boy, I'd love to be able to play the MechWarrior games offered by my favorite digital distribution service!

No freaking kidding. Gametap seems to be the only place they exist online. I went looking for MW4 and ended up ordering a physical copy from Amazon. How quaint.

Phys i cal?

Yeah, it comes on a shiny plastic disc, or maybe pieces of cardboard with holes punched in them, I forget. And you have to stick them inside your computer somehow. It's all very strange and confusing.
Also I have to wait for several days while same guy carries the thing to my house. A real live mailman! I thought they'd gone extinct, I swear I remember seeing one in the natural history museum.

A real mailman? I've heard the legends but never dared believe! Was he being chased by a dog as the stories told?

I didn't see a dog. Maybe the dog doesn't chase him the whole way, or perhaps it was only a metaphor.

Rambling thoughts in stream-of-consciousness order because I'm barely coherent enough to post, no way I'm going to be able to sort this.
1. This may just about be the first time I've ever actually been intimidated by an Atlas. Holy sweet baby Jesus, when that smoke cleared, and I found myself looking into that grinning skull, I mean... WOW. Normally, I find an Atlas out on the field, and it's like "Ooooooh! Salvage!" But man, that thing just looked IMPOSING.
2. The designers want to reward you for picking a mech and sticking with it -- you will gain experience and become better at piloting your chosen mech, and that will translate into better accuracy and damage with weapon systems. This way, a player could specialize in a light mech throughout the entire game if they choose. < This. THIS so hard. Don't get me wrong, I loved stomping around in Madcats or Sunders or whatever big, bad clan heavies/assaults I could grab, but there was just so much fun to be had running around in a light mech, vaulting over people with your jumpjets and kneecapping them with your lasers. But in just about every game in the franchise, it stopped being a viable tactic as time went on. You -had- to armor up and start taking the heavier chassis because as nimble as you were, you'd still get hit eventually, and when you did, you were dead.
3. as well as support for a four-player co-op campaign < W-wargasm. Oh... oh, I think I just made a mess.
Oh... oh, wow. Ok, yes. I know this statement is rife with innuendo, but I'm totally willing to join a GOG lance.
4. I imagine this level of pretty may just kill my graphics card, though. Goshdarnit. :(

I need a crystal ball. If I'd known this would happen, I'd have saved my money.
Oh well. Good news for anyone else who missed MW4 and wants to catch up.

:-O
too many good news in too many little time... something really bad has to happen

Michael Jackson died.

http://battletech.catalystgamelabs.com/2009/07/09/mektek-net-to-distribute-mechwarrior-for-free-on-battletech-com/
Mektec's article on the free release!

And here I was just about to screw up my courage to get MW2 to run on my computer. Now MW4 is here to save me the effort! What a sweet move.