As we previously posted, the online Armored Core Battle TV service is now live and hosting a selection of gameplay videos. This is currently hosting videos from the recently released Armored Core Last Raven Portable but there’s no reason why the same service couldn’t be offered for something like Armored Core 5. The videos themselves are also quite interesting and whilst it’s clear that the PSP controls do limit movement somewhat, the final result is a lot like the PS2 original. Naturally, a review of Last Raven Portable will be forthcoming.

Separately, the campaign code site for Armored Core 5 is also up and running. So if you have a copy of Last Raven Portable, then it’s time to collect your online trinkets!

The wonderfully talented composer Kinuyo Yamashita is in a bit of a pickle over her English Wikipedia page. Despite being a credited composer on multiple games and having her own Japanese Wikipedia entry, it seems that the English side of things refuse to acknowledge her large body of work.

The reason we mention her here is that she recently composed the score for the PC shooter Gunhoud (which we will review soon, we promise). A few peeps, including the indomitable Eric Caoili over at Game Set Watch, noted that the Gunhound’s music bore a striking similarity to the various Castlevania games. Well, that’s because it was written by the same very gifted lady.

In any case, get on over to Wikipedia and help sort this nonsense out. It might also be worth showing that full blown orchestras have performed her work too, just saying. After all, what the world be without the wondrously memorable Vampire Killer?

Over at Moeyo (link somewhat NSFW) there’s a suitably cute preview of Kotobukiya’s upcoming D-Style White Glint from Armored Core For Answer. It turns out that, like it’s bigger Variable Infinity cousins, the D-Style variant will also be customisable (once other designs make the transition obviously). The eye detailing will also be accurate as per the original seen in the game as well. This little chap is currently being displayed in the Kotobukiya Direct store in Akihabara.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from Border Break to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/35 scale Cougar Type I . Our review only covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form (however, we have also included painted photos towards the end). In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also linked some gameplay footage of the design in action from Border Break at the end end of the review.

The mighty Gunleon from Super Robot Wars Z, a game we loved in our review, will be receiving a garage kit rendition courtesy of StudioXBEE. The Gunleon was an OG super robot introduced in Z and played a prominent role in one of the two narrative arcs available in the game. The design itself is somewhat inspired by Gaogaigar, as it has the signature lion head chest in its powered-up form (though this is actually a reference to a very long lineage of mecha designs that use this motif). This kit was on sale at the recent Wonder Festival for 18,000 yen, so whether it will receive a wider release is unlikely. In any case, it’s a very faithful rendition of the design and it seems only fitting to sign off with a video of the Gunleon strutting its stuff in game.

Over at 4Gamer there’s a nice update on Gundam Assault Survive’s shop and unit upgrading setup. For those that already played the Gundam Battle games, this meta-game back-end with all the unit upgrading will sound very familiar. However, it seems that Artdink have learnt from Macross Ultimate Frontier and allowed the player to short cut this grind with direct purchases. In addition, Assault Survive is unique in the sense it’s featuring non-UC timeline series, such as Gundam SEED above. It will be interesting to see how they resolve the disparate abilities of the mobile suits from Gundam 00, that all use the suitably mysterious GN drives as a form of power and propulsion.

As a developer, From Software are known for their mechanical expertise but they also have several teams at work on other genres too. One such group birthed a selection of Xbox games that were functionally quite woeful but visually rather accomplished. The two Otogi games helmed by this team were consequently, and somewhat mistakenly, elevated by the Western press as being somehow noteworthy. At the time I was personally thankful that this same team wasn’t undermining the work of the Armored Core series, which already had a hard enough time as it did abroad in terms of the press.

Then Metal Wolf Chaos was announced and it was apparent that the Otogi production was supposedly behind this, well at least on paper. In reality, many of the Armored Core team were apparently “getting involved” in the game’s creation and the final result is something truly surprising and quite functionally invigorating.

A new trailer for the upcoming Transformers: War for Cybertron has been released today, apparently it’s a “gameplay” trailer too. Whilst it’s clear that the footage is in-game it’s obvious that much of it is of the cutscenes rather than actual gameplay. Admittedly, the team have dispelled the rumour that the game is similar to Gears of War, the new trailer still doesn’t actually show much of what the final game will play like – which is a little worrying considering the game is out in May. Graphically it looks suitably lush but visuals aren’t normally the stumbling block for the various Transformers games (as Melbourne House’s effort was very pretty, if you stood still at least). Whether War for Cybertron will play decently very much remains to be seen, as the Transformers saga as whole has a very poor record in the gaming department.

Capcom have announced that the upcoming May release for Lost Planet 2 will also have DLC for both platforms. Entitled “Battle Stage Pack 1” the multiplayer DLC will feature two levels called “Return Island” and “Spiral Corridor”. The latter is especially interesting as it appears to be set underwater. The PlayStation 3 will also be receiving a demo on the 1st March, that allows up to to four human players to get involved. Whether this is the same as the 360 demo from a while back remains to be seen, but it is likely.

For the upcoming release of Armored Core Last Raven Portable, From Software will be offering a new service to players that choose to upload their arena replay data; Battle TV. This basically allows other players to access other people’s replay data online and view it for themselves. Whilst this is pretty interesting, it does beg the question why they didn’t offer an infrastructure option instead of setting up an Armored Core specific replay library. Players will be able to start uploading their videos on the 4th March and a special replay data movie will be assembled shortly after the service starts, showcasing a variety of “mad skillz” most probably.