The ZGMF-X88S Gaia Gundam will be the next playable unit added to Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost on May 28th in arcades all over Japan. The Gaia Gundam, piloted by Stellar Loussier, is a 2000 cost unit and will be able to switch into its Mobile Armor mode at will. Gaia can also call in Chaos Gundam and Abyss Gundam as assists with different attacks depending on what mode the player is using. No official video has been released yet, but check out the CPU Gaia Gundam in action in the video below!

4Gamer has a nice big update on Masou Kishin III, showing off the main mecha and characters. The special Valsione from the anime series, that we covered previously, also gets more eye candy too. Still no word on whether winkysoft is handling this but we’re cautiously optimistic that they will be. The latter is a big deal, as they made all the previous Masou Kishin games and some of the best entries into the normal Super Robot Wars canon too. In that, the games they made were far more strategic than the more brute force approach seen in the recent games. Pride of Justice is still set for its August 22nd release and you can pre-order it here.

The beta for Gundam Breaker has passed half million downloads since its launch. That’s not at all shabby for basically a glorified demo. In addition, save data from the beta will also be carried over to the full game come its release on June 27th. Finally, those that buy the game at launch will get all manner of parts perks with the MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki (pictured above) being one of them. You can pre-order the PS3 version of the game here.

In the upcoming Masou Kishin III players will be given a special bonus code in the initial run of the game. This will give a different version of Valsione as seen in the Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector anime series. This is not to be confused with Valsione R, which is a different mecha entirely. However, this redesign from the anime will have different attacks and animations from the standard Valsione (so it’s not just a simple re-skin). As always, these kind of little bonuses appeal to us and we’ll be definitely nabbing the game come its August 22nd release.

The second livestream for Armored Core Verdict Day will be happening on the 17th May (you’ll be able to watch it here). The main point of discussion will be about the new UNAC system, which is the new AI setup that harks back to earlier Armored Core games and allows AI wing-mates to help you out on missions (in the absence of human players).

Bandai Namco have announced the third entry into the Masou Kishin series with a new promo for Pride of Justice (shown below). The game will be released on both PS3 and Vita and seems to be using the same engine used on OG3. What’s unknown at this point is whether winkysoft will be developing this, as they’ve done all the prior Masou Kishin games (though this would be an obvious technical step-up for them). Whilst the engine is being reused due to the Masou Kishin character list a lot of this will be new animations and art for the game. In any case, both versions of the game are released on August 22nd for 7,480 yen (PS3) and 6,480 yen (Vita).

Someone nice has uploaded beta test footage from Armored Core Verdict Day (shown below) and it looks pretty great. The new scan initiation looks cool and the whole game runs smoother too. We’re not sure on the size of the maps but the one in the video looks pretty expansive and varied. Obviously, the music isn’t from the game (in case you were wondering). In addition, Famitsu also has some scant details on “UNAC”; a new AI customisation setup for NPCs on the field. This harks back to the likes of Ranker Mk in Master of Arena and the AI setup in Silent Line. It seems Verdict Day is shaping up quite nicely and we’re really looking forward to its September release.

Not for the first time, but the recently announced Zone of the Enders sequel has been put on hold. The difference here is that this game was publicly announced compared to the previous attempts at a sequel. What’s also interesting about this announcement is that the HD version (which we reviewed) was also brought up. With Hideo Kojima himself apologising pretty profusely to (Japanese) fans at the sub-standard quality of the port. As such it’s been indicated that Konami themselves have taken matters into their own hands and an internally produced patch for the PS3 version, though no news on anything for the 360 release sadly (though this is likely due to the fact that the PS3 version was the best selling one in Japan, so it takes priority). In some sense it seems that the poor sales performance of the HD release is likely one of the causes of the sequel being put on hold.

It seems the beta/trial version of Gundam Breaker will be getting a fair few updates. From fixing the lock-on system, as well as new customisation and multiplayer options. Considering that the game is out next month is interesting as it’s not obvious how much use these changes will be (in terms of feedback loop and implementation) when it’s likely the game is already in certification at Sony. That aside there are new units announced too, with the RX-93 Nu Gundam (shown above) being notable. You can still pre-order the PS3 version of the game here for it’s June 27th release.

Famitsu has a nice update for Super Robot Wars Operation Extend featuring all manner of new units. From the mighty Billbine (shown above) to the RX-79[G]Ez-8 Gundam Ez8. In addition, the piece talks about armour parts that can be equipped to each unit. These are similar sounding to previous parts in the other SRW games. In terms of the blend of 2D and 3D animation in the battle scenes, it seems this is broken down between character cut-ins (2D) and mecha (3D), which isn’t anything overly new (though Banpresto are spinning it that it is). However, the latter 3D models are more stylised in terms of the texturing compared to the previous 3D SRW games. This is obviously a decent improvement but we’d like to see these in action before relaxing entirely, as generally 3D SRW games aren’t exactly very pretty looking normally.