4Gamer has some very extensive coverage for the upcoming Carnage Heart EXA. Despite the large amount of pictures that show off the suitably intense OKE programming setup, the update also talks a lot about the increased complexity of the chips themselves and how this will (hopefully) create more interesting and capable OKEs. Whilst the chip area won’t be increased over Carnage Heart Portable, the increase in chip number is something that should make the game considerably more intricate and deep. Following on from this will be a SATLOKE service hosted by Artdink – this will allow players to upload and download user created OKE data from their servers (similar to the original Formula World for the original Armored Core Formula Front). Unsurprisingly, this will help the resurgent Carnage Heart community spar with their respective OKEs. Other interesting tidbits of note, are that Artdink aren’t sure whether a download version of the game will be made on release and that they are thinking of DLC content but don’t have any specifics to divulge at present. There’s still no word of a Western release for this but considering Carnage Heart Portable didn’t receive one either, a localised released of EXA is pretty unlikely. That said, Artdink are handling this new game (Not Genki), so we could end up seeing EXA released abroad. In any case, the Japanese release is still on track for the October 28th for 5,880 yen. You can also pre-order the game here.

Over at the official SRW blog, series producer Takanobu Terada has divulged the fact that ACE:P was developed alongside ACE:R. This isn’t overly surprising in the current climate; as why fund one PS3 game properly when you could siphon some of the funds to make a cut-down PSP game too. What’s more worrying about this though is that ACE:P will share much of the functional setup as seen in its bigger brother ACE:R (hardware changes notwithstanding obviously). This doesn’t really bode well, as much of ACE:R’s consumer based ire was linked to how functionally awkward the series had become (relative to the PS2 versions) – something that has directly and negatively affected the retail price of the game. This sounds like ACE:P will fly very much in the face of that, without any real concessions to appease a disgruntled customer base. Terada also goes on to talk about how the mission progression has changed to allow casual play now, rather than the larger investment of time a scenario mode would have required. Overall though, we were more upbeat about this entry into the ACE series but these new revelations don’t exactly fill us with confidence. We’ll know for sure come January next year though.

For those that read this site much, you’ll know that from the site’s logo above to this interview; we’re fans of Junji Okubo’s work. Despite being a fiendishly talented mecha designer, he’s also a proper old school shmup fan. Years ago he used to have an Eightbit Fighters site, where he showed renders of classic shmup ships from the 8bit era of gaming. What was and still is remarkable about that was how he forced himself to focus on the original 8bit pixel art as his sole reference – extrapolating the remainder himself. There’s hardcore and then’s there’s just plain awesome, Junji falls squarely into the latter category. Well, it seems that Attract Mode have his first Eightbit Fighters Chronicles volume in stock (for only $20 too!), collating all his wonderful renders from his website into a very shiny book. So pick it up now whilst you still can.

We finally have a trailer for the upcoming fan made PC game Armored Core Limit Release, that’s using UDK in case you’re wondering. The trailer is more of a machinima affair rather than actual gameplay footage, but the final version will be apparently close to the Last Raven era of Armored Core games (despite the somewhat anachronistic presence of a vanguard over boost in the video). There’s a nice post by the game’s creators on how they’re planning to handle the controls as well as an Armored Core 2 era styled HUD mock-up. In any case, this is a pretty ambitious project for a small team like this and we wish them luck. The trailer is below.

4Gamer has some nice new shots of Gundam Musou 3, showing off its nice cel shading amongst other things. The post also talks more about the new features in the game, though these were also present at TGS (you can read our impressions here). Specifically, the partner system and how that different units you select will do different things. From the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero spewing beams of localised death, to the beefier MRX-009 Psycho Gundam decimating an entire area. Some fields will also have extra properties if you capture them, such as a catapult being able to instantly transport you to other fields in the level. Finally, the game will be building on its dashing system in a manner partially similar to the “next” dash in the Gundam Versus games. Allowing the player to evade enemy attacks more easily. The game is still scheduled for its Japanese released on December 16th for 7,800 yen. You can pre-order the (region free) PS3 version here. Whilst there is a 360 version as well, we can’t verify it’s regioning status but if you have a Japanese console you can also pre-order it here.

Over at this year’s All Japan Plamodel Hobby Show (photo report here) amongst the panoply of various kits Hasegawa have finally revealed their kit for the fully transformable Myzr Delta VR from Virtual On Force and Marz. This was a continuation of the Viper and Cypher series, so it was an excellent airborne unit as a consequence. GAGraphic also has some nice shots of the kit and the video below (around the 3 minute mark) has some lovely footage it as well, we’ve linked the full video below anyway though. In addition to the Myzr Delta kit Kotobukiya also had their upcoming SAV-07-D Belgdor kit on show too.

In the latest Famitsu, a new entry to the Another Century’s Episode series has been announced; titled Another Century’s Episode Portable, it will be released exclusively on the PSP. There are a fair few cool things about this version that should also help assuage the genuine player anguish caused by the last PS3 effort, ACE:R. The first of which is a return to the straight mission setup of the PS2 games, rather than the series scenario adopted by the recent game. Not to mention the similar mission based “secrets” seen in the first ACE that will require multiple replays in order to accrue various unit unlocks. They’re also offering resupplying areas now too, similar in setup to Gundam Senki 0081 – where ammo and health will be replenished during the mission. The big and absolutely awesome aspect of this new version is the epic and wonderfully old school series roster the game will have. Admittedly, many of these are from the PS2 games but we’re still chuffed that Layzner and Dunbine are back (the full list is linked below).

The big and somewhat scary unknown is whether this ACE will revert to the boosting setup seen in the older PS2 games or stick with the idiotic new approach from ACE:R. Considering there is no real chance of retaining the camera look from the PS2 games, the least they could do is return to the old and brilliant boosting setup. With any luck, the legacy animation from the PS2 unit assets will force Banpresto to take a step back and let From Software do their jobs again. As this is the main aspect that helped the older games, as Banpresto were unwilling to fund substantial rewrites so From Software got to control their code and asset base more effectively (without publisher interruption) – hence the consistent functional improvements between each of the PS2 iterations.

In any case, we’re cautiously optimistic that this new ACE will be a return to form. It’s released on January 13th next year for 6,279 yen.

Update: Famitsu now has the screenshots up on their site too.

What with the release of Virtual On Force around the corner, SEGA have finally released an HD (720p) trailer of the game running – along with its various new features. The video is pretty comprehensive though and does show the accuracy of the port, which is probably the game’s weakest point really (as it looks visually dated and suffers from the functional legacy issues of the arcade original). If you want to know more about the game, then read our hands-on impressions from TGS as well as our extensive feature on the series as a whole..

What with the Blu-Ray of the recent Macross Frontier movie released a few days ago, we’ve managed to have a play on the game packaged along with it. Entitled Macross Trial Frontier, it’s been developed by those wonderful people at Artdink and as you’d expect it plays almost identically to their last Macross PSP game, Macross Ultimate Frontier. It is also very clear that the “trial” in the title belies the fact that this is only a demo and that a full fledged PS3 game is very likely in the near(ish) future. In any case, the quality of this “demo” is impressive and to package it along with the movie was a shrewd move on the part of Bandai. For those that are curious, Trial Frontier also utterly walks all over the recent ACE:R and shows that Artdink really know what they’re doing when it comes to Macross. The impressions are after the jump…

4Gamer has the breakdown on Virtual On Force’s pretty epic “Memorial Box” set. From a CD soundtrack, containing most of the music from the original game, Oratan, Marz as well as Force (somewhat rendering the rather lovely and now quite expensive Marsinal set a tad moot), the other big addition is that of a 140 page booklet chronicling the 15 years of the series’ history. From lovely artwork for each game as well as interviews with both Juro Watari and Hajime Katoki. In terms of the latter Katoki has also penned some new box-art for the Memorial Box version, something he hasn’t done for the series since the Dreamcast port of Oratan back in 1998. As if all that wasn’t enough, there will also be two Tangram super balls thrown in with the set.

It’s also become apparent that the reasoning behind taking Force to a boxed format, rather than digital download as they recently did with Oratan, was specifically because SEGA wanted to do a 15th Anniversary collector’s set for the fans. Though, SEGA are charging a premium for all this fanservice; at 10,290 yen the Memorial Box isn’t exactly cheap. If you have money to burn though, you can pre-order it here.