Despite our double-take on the whole weird marketing for Hawken, the playthrough of the game now has us a bit more excited. Especially as the customisation options look to be pretty cogent. If that didn’t pretty squarely make Hawken a mecha game, then behold its own controller (shown above). Dubbed the slightly tragic “Mek-Fu”, the controller is actually a fully customisable USB device. So even after Hawken has been and gone you’ll still be able to use it quite happily on other games. Considering MechWarrior Online’s Artemis controller, this looks a lot more like the classic Steel Battalion setup we loved and adored. However, the price tag may end up being considerably more than the Steel Battalion one and that even included the game. Though at least you’ll be able to use it on other games, something the Steel Battalion controller wasn’t really able to do. If you want to see the playthrough we’ve linked it below.

Famitsu has the scoop on Assault Gunners, a new PSN download mecha game for the Vita out at the end of June. Like the other download only games for the Vita, the price tag is a similarly reasonable 1,480 yen. For that you get a 30 mission story mode, a Horde mode clone called “Inferno” and 4 player ad-hoc multiplayer. There’s also a load of customisation available too. All that aside, the game looks to be pretty damn solid indeed. We’ve been craving for some good mecha games on the Vita for a while and now a whole bunch arrive at once. Developed by Marvellous AQL, it’s directed by Kazuyuki Ogawa (of Clock Tower fame) and produced by Shinji Motoki (who recently worked on the pretty awesome Muramasa game on the Wii). Anyway, a demo is out for the game today and we’ll be buying as well as giving the game a good once over on its release on June 28th.

4Gamer have a nice rundown of the other characters in the upcoming E.X. Troopers. Excluding Bren we have TeeKee an ex-Snow Pirate with mad language skillz, Chris the icy leader with a talent for piloting VTs (as well as being Bren’s main rival), Julie an upbeat mechanic and Luan who’s some kind of nerd when it comes to life on EDN-3rd. All in all it seems like a pretty standard mecha anime cast and it should work well hopefully. We’re loving the art style still and this is definitely one of our “do want” games.

The folks behind many fine gaming mice, keyboards and other products are cooking up a treat for MechWarrior Online. Razer’s still in development controller, named Artemis, was shown off at this past E3. You can see some pictures here.

As it is still in development, what you see here is likely to change somewhat from now to release. Though what we have now is quite lovely, if I don’t say so myself. From left to right we see a 12 key console with sliding throttle, a centre section featuring an 8 inch monitor to be used in conjunction with the game’s main screen, and finally an adjustable flight stick featuring force-feedback. The unit will also feature fully programmable button combinations (macros). For example; you would be able to bind one key of the 12 to fire a volley a missiles, followed by a barrage of laser fire, topped off with a peppering of autocannons.

We might also point out that this is the first time since the original Steel Battalion, that a mecha game has had a similarly complex controller of its very own (the recent HORI TwinSticks are pretty simple by comparison). We’re quite excited indeed and cannot wait to get our hands on this beauty.

The rather luscious looking Hawken has apparently already been receiving criticism from its prospective fanbase; due to the mecha coming across as merely mecha skinned people rather than pilotable machines in their own functional right. In some ways, we can see where people are coming from (as a recent game will attest to) but we think the rationale put forward does somewhat miss the point. Specifically that why would mecha be made unnecessarily awkward to pilot, despite being a rather obvious straw man on their part no decent mecha game goes out of its way to do what they claim. In fact the opposite is true; that in order to give as much control to the player the controls and movement need to be managed more carefully. Gamers want to feel that they’re controlling a complex and potent machine, as there are already plenty of pedestrian shooters out there to choose from. All this aside we’re still sitting on the fence until Hawken is finally out later this year.

We now finally have details on Gundam Battle Operation’s freemium setup. It seems that the main form of game currency are units of energy. Each unit amounts to one play and you earn one unit every two hours (amounting to a total of 12 a day). The monetisation part starts when you run out of units, as this is where you can buy more (rather than having to wait for them to recharge). The current pricing will be is 100 yen per one piece of energy, followed by bulk purchases at 6 units for 480 yen, 13 units for 950 yen and 27 units for 1,850 yen. There will also be a campaign where units will be doubled from the game’s releases on June 28th to July 11th. Whilst the mobile suits are pretty much free, sadly you can power up your suit and weapons for a small fee. The latter sounds pretty dumb and falls into the tragically common freemium approach. That aside, the game has also received over 100,000 registrations already. So at least when the game’s released it should have a good head start in terms of the online community.

The recently announced E.X. Troopers has finally had some more of its story details released. Featuring the plight of Bren Turner as he joins NEVEC’s “Academy”, his main desire is to be the best vital suit pilot. During his transport to EDN-3rd their ship is attacked by unknown vital suits, forcing Bren to enter the new Gingira VT (shown above) to defend the ship. Despite the new VT basically being called “glittering”, we like its design quite a bit. Anyway, the new high resolution screenshots look awesome and we’re really looking forward to finally playing this come its release later this year.

Now with a confirmed release date on the horizon for 2nd Super Robot Wars OG, we’re now getting some more details on the game. Such as new mecha and characters that will be present, with the somewhat weirdly named Code “Evil” above (as designed by Hajime Katoki no less). The other new mecha are also penned by Kazutaka Miyatake, so it’s clear at least that they’re spending at least some money on the game.

Moving on from that, there’s mention of a Twin System now. Similar to the formation setup seen in the first Super Robot Wars Z, this distills the units down to simply two per group (rather than three). Like the formations though you can use the Twin System to attack enemy units individually or together. Personally, we liked the scope offered by the three unit formations but this is definitely better than nothing in that regard. Apart from all that, the new level maps look suitably lush and have actual shadows now.

Overall then, this is shaping up to be not only a very pretty looking game but also strategically interesting too. The release of this game really can’t come soon enough for us.

What with this year’s E3 gladly behind us, we now have a few reports to read and taken in. One of these is for Lost Planet 3. Covering the game pretty broadly, it does confirm that the previous mecha nomenclature of “vital suits” has been dropped in favour of “rigs”. Considering the utter lack of imagination shown in the mecha designs (seen above) it’s good to know that same lack of inspiration has also spread to the narrative. Weirdly NEVEC is still present though, which is interesting as this game looks more of a reboot than a sequel. The report talks about the Unreal engine a fair bit too, justifiably espousing its graphical prowess. The sad thing is that the toolset is very comprehensive (from personal experience), yet Spark have chosen to make another generic corridor based shooter. Oh well.

A new live stream for Armored Core V has been announced. Entitled Revision its main focus is to cover feedback from the Japanese community on the game, especially in regards to the online implementation and how matchmaking has been dealt with. This will also be an interactive event as well, as it seems viewers will be able to ask questions to the panel. Personally, we applaud From Software’s support of the Japanese community. If only Bandai Namco would learn from their example when it came to the Western release of the game, something they are still wholly responsible for. The new live stream will happen on 11th June at 9pm (Japanese time).

Separately, we will be posting a new post-mortem opinion piece on the game as we’ve been playing the Western version since March. Whilst the review we did still holds true, it was very much based on the Japanese releases. The Western version has had some pretty interesting issues by comparison. So keep an eye out for that over the next week or so.