I have a strong fondness for MW2: 31st Century Combat, it was my introduction to the franchise...barely. It did a really bad job of indicating it was part of a wider franchise, other than obviously being the second in a series. It doesn't really say "Go play the tabletop game and read the novels!" at any point. But it blew my 10 year old brain nonetheless.

It's definitely a nice callback.

I didn’t know. I am shockingly new to Battletech.