Following the new promo for Gundam Battle Operation, we now have a new update with some new screenshots as well as the slew of fixes on account of the recent closed beta. One of the most important of these obviously being the improving of the game’s netcode in order to reduce lag. On top of this there are all manner of gameplay tweaks and balances mention, with the slightly floppy grapple being firmed up and more immediate being notable. Despite being free to play, they’re really making an effort to make the game more palatable to its (Japanese) audience, as well as openly communicate that. That in itself is reassuring. Still no word of the game’s release date though, bar sometime at the end of June.

In a move that’s more than a little bit uplifting, Capcom it seems haven’t entirely abandoned the Lost Planet series. A new Capcom developed cel shaded and anime styled game called E.X. Troopers has been announced. Both 4Gamer and Famitsu have the scoop, along with a nice promo trailer (shown below). Functionally it looks a bit more arcadey in places, with the player dashing around a bit now, but it’s still very much a Lost Planet game. Especially as many recognisable Akrid are present not to mention the all important Vital Suits. Released on both PS3 and 3DS, the game will also be playable at this year’s Capcom Summer Jam. Interestingly, Shintaro Kojima (the game’s producer) also worked on the Monster Hunter series so expect even more of that type of functionality in this game. It also seems that May’n, of Macross Frontier fame, will involved musically too. In any case, our faith in Lost Planet has been reaffirmed and we can’t wait for this when it’s released later this year.

The recent alpha test for Mobile Suit Gundam Online has been given a full on report, coupled with a pretty interesting in-game video. In short, the game plays like a standard TPS, with WASD and mouse control (something you can pretty much deduce from the video below). Whilst it does look a bit dated what the game is doing technically is no mean feat; as it handles over a hundred online players per match. Our only real concern is the strange and rather excessive use of motion blur, hopefully that will get toned down at some point. Still no news on a release date for this but it’s expected sometime this year.

A new event has been announced for the forthcoming Zone of the Enders HD Collection. Called “Zone of the Enders HD Night Fastest in the Universe Reboot Preview” it will be held on May 25th at the Shijuku Wald 9 theatre. Most of the key staff will be there too. Tickets for the event will cost 3,000 yen and will be purchasable through Konami Style starting May 2nd at 10am. Following on from this, more places have started to show off the upcoming Jehuty HD Edition kit from Kotobukiya. As always, the sculpt looks utterly spot on. Considering that over ten years have passed since the original game was released and the only models available were hideously expensive garage kits, it’s nice to think that we’ll actually have a choice now. You can pre-order the HD edition kit here.

For a third week running, the suitably awesome Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen is in the top of the Japanese charts yet again. This isn’t wholly surprising but it is testament to the fact that the game is genuinely very good indeed. It also illustrates another fine point; that no hardware is truly dead and software is all important in a platform’s success. Listening to all the hardware naysayers over the years, it’s now very clear that much of their outlook is desperately parochial.

That aside, we’ve subsequently done numerous repeated playthroughs on the game since our review and it gets better with each sitting. Our favourite unit, by quite a large margin, is also the suitably godlike YF-29 Durandal. Admittedly it’s only available towards the end of the game and then only via a secret unlock, but even so it’s just so damn awesome. The animations are also pretty amazing too. We cannot stress enough how much this game needs to be in your life right now, so buy it already.

In a cool community based move, From Software are running an emblem design contest for Armored Core V. The winners will receive a “special award” as well as have the emblems included in a free DLC emblem pack. Unfortunately, the means by which you submit the emblems requires you to use the ACV Link feature. This is something that’s only available in the Japanese release of the game and links the game to your profile over at the Armored Core Official Partnership site. The contest will finish on the 10th May at 3pm.

Before people get all pissy at this, first blame Namco Bandai for removing the feature and second shout at them (not From Software) to include it. Since the game’s release abroad, From Software have been blamed for a bizarre amount of the community issues with the game. When in reality that’s Namco Bandai’s responsibility, something they massively dropped the ball on no less.

That said, Namco Bandai did manage to sort out a preview of all five of the bosses this weekend. Normally bosses only trigger due to territorial disputes but considering the fact that we’re still waiting for the patch, they unlocked them a little early to help appease the now pretty pissed fanbase. The bosses are a partial nod to the Arms Forts in Armored Core For Answer but more a reference to the old massive MT’s players used to face in the original games. Whilst it’s recommended to play against them with four players, you can actually take them out on your own (normally with some judicious usage of Overed Weapons).

For those that buy the first release of the forthcoming Macross Do You Remember Love BluRay Hybrid Boxset, they’ll also get a nice PSN download code for the original PSone shooter. Originally released on the Saturn and then ported to the PSone, it was actually a pretty damn good shoot-em-up and we very much enjoyed blasting our way through it back in good old 1999. It even came with demos for Macross VF-X2 and Patlabor: Game Edition. What was very notable about the game however was its use of some lovely reanimated cutscenes (as produced by Gonzo).

There’s also a pretty cool exhibition going on in Shibuya, Tokyo regarding Macross. Starting today and running until May 13th, tickets cost 500 yen each (400 yen if you’re a student and free if you’re a kid at elementary school) and it covers pretty much the whole gamut of the saga. If you’re in the area, then check out the Parco Museum page about the event for more details.

In addition to this news is the fact a lovely 5 minute HD promo for the BluRay was released yesterday (shown below). Voiced by non-other than Mika Doi (of Misa Hayase fame), the promo also has footage of the game in action too (around the 3:25 mark). Don’t forget you can still pre-order the pretty damn awesome boxset here.

In a move that’s quite inspired, Capcom have seemingly hired veteran anime and live action film director Mamoru Oshii (pictured above) to helm a trailer for the forthcoming Steel Battalion Heavy Armor. In a teaser trailer (shown below) it shows some snippets of behind the scenes action. Considering that Oshii is a huge gun nut and has directed some pretty brutal films on occasion, we’re expecting some pretty epic hardware to be displayed. How they’ll handle the VT’s remains to be seen though.

On April 26th the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam “Banshee” will be added to the playable roster of mobile suits in Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost. The version in the game is also that of the OVA rendition that was teased at the end of the last episode, rather than the one from the novel. The screenshots do show similar (green) psycho-frame resonance as per the Unicorn too, which is a nice touch. This version will also be piloted by Marida Cruz, who initially pilots the Banshee before Riddhe Marcenas gets his hands on it. Whilst the design does look boss, black Gundams generally do to be fair, we had hoped to see more of the Blue Destiny units teased in the new intro.

For the second week running Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen has topped the Japanese charts again, with 39,403 sales (for a total of 299,842 sales). This popularity is thoroughly well deserved though and we’re still relishing the game in all its brilliance. With any luck, our review will go up sometime next week and we hope you don’t mind the wait. In the meantime, you can buy the game (if you haven’t already done so) here.