"MechWarrior 3" was a runner-up for "Computer Gaming World"s 1999 "Science Fiction Simulation of the Year", GameSpot's "Science-Fiction Simulation of the Year" and "Computer Games Strategy Plus"s "Sci-Fi Simulation of the Year" awards, all of which ultimately went to "FreeSpace 2". The editors of "Computer Games" wrote: "While it ["MechWarrior 3"] was light on quantity of missions, Zipper finally got the scale right in a Mech sim". The magazine later named "MechWarrior 3" as a runner-up for its 2000 "10 Best Sci-Fi Simulations" list.