It’s been announced that we’ll be getting some demos for E.X. Troopers for both the 3DS and PS3 versions of the game next week. The demos will feature an introductory mission as well as two co-op specific levels. Like other 3DS demos, this will also have a 30 play limit. The demos will feature new co-op based attacks, called EX-T Blast Resonance, not to mention all manner of familiar Akrid from previous Lost Planet games. In addition to the demo announcement, Capcom also published a video of Monster Staff playing the game (linked below). The demos will be released on October 17th (3DS) and October 18th (PS3).

What with 2nd Super Robot Wars OG on its way, we have new information on the game’s ability system and an archive movie mode. With the former, pilots can have abilities added that increase their hit rate, attack damage and armor. These appear to be separate from pilot skills or the mecha upgrades and cumulatively add to the whole team. So you can set up a group of units which will have mutually reinforced abilities. Sounds quite interesting. In addition, they also make a point of highlighting the fact that playing on harder difficulty results in you facing more units, which in turn allows you to earn more SR Points. Finally, thee game will also come with an archive movie mode that covers the events in the previous OG games. All in all this entry into the OG saga looks to be pretty intricate, so we’re getting rather excited for its release. Don’t forget that you can pre-order you copy here here.

In a new update for the upcoming E.X. Troopers there are details on a weapon modification setup. Specifically that you can assign an attribute to a weapon, with these being fire, ice and lightning. Certain enemies in the game are vulnerable to some of these attributes, allowing you to stun them for instance. There are also some interesting reveals regarding Tiki’s background and that her relationship with Bren will bring about some interesting events. The game is still on track for it’s November release in Japan and you can pre-order it here.

As of today, the mighty GX-9900-DV Gundam X Divider (shown above) and GAT-X102 Duel Gundam (with Assault Shroud armor) have been added to Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost. In addition, the AMA-X7 Shamblo is now present in the game as a boss on the Torrington stage. Videos of the two new playable units are shown below.

Whilst the the title of this post may sound a little dull, this is actually quite interesting in a broader sense. In short Gundam Battle Operation has been downloaded lots with a 75% attachment rate in terms of purchases and made around 700 million yen (roughly 9 million US Dollars) since release. This is good right?

Well, no. Not really. To put it into perspective in terms of sales, an average PSP game can make more than double than this. The really scary insight though was that the money made has more than enough paid for the game’s development. This is a PS3 game we’re talking about here and one that was developed for a few years. Basically, Japanese developers get paid like utter shit in order for this to make a profit.

The other slightly bizarre thing we found out was that Masahiko Tokushima, of former Team White Dingo fame, was and is somehow involved with Battle Operation (apparently as a “director”). We’re not sure how much he had to do with the game’s development but he may have been rolled out purely to appease the fanbase (as his name alone garners a lot of respect when it comes to Gundam games in Japan). After the dissolution of Team White Dingo a few years back, he may have been relegated to a more managerial role at BEC so that may help to explain his presence.

As we mentioned previously, the wonderful Border Break will be getting an iOS game. From what’s been announced, the game will be a turn-based RPG of sorts using a freemium setup in terms of purchasing in game items. No word on whether it will interface with the arcade game’s servers but it’s likely it will be standalone. Visually at least it looks pretty decent but the main purpose of the game sounds as though it’s meant to be more on the casual side of things. It will be interesting to see how it does.

In an interesting move, Arc System Works have announced a new mobile game called Damascus Gear. With a large amount of customisation involved, the game sounds like something akin to classic Armored Core (with similar fantastic mecha design work). The in-game shots looks pretty amazing in fact and we’re surprised that a developer with a track record of awesome 2D fighters could pull something like this off.

What with this year’s Tokyo Game Show under way, Bandai Namco have finally announced the big Macross game they’ve been funding over the past few years. Titled Macross 30, not much is known about it as yet (just that it’s out next year and will feature a theme song song by a Miss Macross 30 contest winner). However, we’re betting that it will be developed by Artdink and be a PS3 exclusive (with maybe even a Vita version too). Considering the fact that Bandai have effectively been financing Artdink’s tech R&D with the various Blu-Ray Hybrid games it would make a lot of sense for them to capitalise on that investment. Anyway, we’re excited about this and as soon as we know more we’ll be sure to report it.

We now finally have a nice artbook for Armored Core V on the way. Released at the end of this week, it comes in at 224 A4 pages and only costs 2,940 yen. Considering that the game has a pretty interesting mecha design background it will be great to finally have a decent collection of the game’s concept artwork. If you’re interested in picking one up, then you can buy it here.

If you were wondering why the Western PR for E.X. Troopers hadn’t kicked off yet, well that’s because Capcom aren’t planning on release the game outside of Japan. So whilst we will be getting the decidedly meh Lost Planet 3, the only way gamers will be able to play E.X. Troopers is by importing it. This is something we will be doing at the end of November. If you plan on doing likewise, then you can buy the game here. Regardless, this news is just wholly depressing and reinforces our opinion that publishers are gutless bell ends.