Over at Amazon.co.jp the boxart (and prices!) of both console versions, PS3 and 360, for Armored Core V have finally been displayed. Like the Japanese 360 boxart for Armored Core 4, the latest game isn’t afraid to show how brown our dystopian future will be. That said, we still like it a lot and it’s nicely stylised (despite the colour palette). The subdued approach to showing the mecha in silhouette is also a nice touch and refreshingly subtle. Hopefully, the Western release won’t end up like this eyesore did though.

Separately, the second extended live stream happened and like the first has some pretty excitable presenters. Oh well. Craziness aside, the game is looking even more bloody amazing and the tank legs look awesomely beefy.

With the release of Gundam Memories less than a month away, 4Gamer has a new set of screenshots showing off more units in the game. Whilst it’s always nice to see the MSN-06S Sinanju featured, we can’t but punch the air with glee to see some more Blue Destiny units present. Admittedly we weren’t all that impressed with the trailer but we will still be nabbing the game come its June 23rd release. Hopefully it can undo the travesty that was Gundam Assault Survive.

Battle Armor Division, a mecha action sidescroller, has been released by developer Crian Soft. As we’ve noted before, Battle Armor Division’s gameplay runs in a similar vein to the classic Assault Suits series, which inspired other recent efforts at recreating the Assaults Suit magic such as Gunhound and Gigantic Army. It’s always a pleasure to see a Western-developed mecha game (European, no less) that’s not afraid to combine elements of both Japanese mecha anime and Western military science fiction, especially when it leads to gritty Real Robot conflicts filling the screen with explosions.

On the official site you can find a demo, and the full game is available via digital distribution for 8.90 Euros (around $12.50). Along with the game, a new trailer has been released, asking: “can you survive at the war in 26° century?” Ah, it just wouldn’t feel like a mecha game without a slightly awkward localization.

Despite our tardiness, there have been a few updates regarding the wonderful Gundam Extreme Versus. Specifically, the addition of new units from the MSN-001A1 Delta Plus to the AMX-004-3 Qubeley Mark II. 4Gamer has two pieces on the new units here and here. In addition, at the end of May another two more units will surface. Specifically the XM-X2 (F97) Crossbone Gundam X-2 Kai and XXXG-01D2 Gundam Deathscythe Hell. As always with each new update, we yearn for the news of a console port of which there is still no news for. There are rumours that once the arcade updates come to an end a home port will happen, that makes quite a bit of sense but we just wish they’d hurry it up.

Update: 4Gamer now has a piece on the two new units appearing at the end of May.

Good news: it seems that English speakers are getting an actual Gundam game localized overseas, even if it’s decidedly the least ‘mecha’ of the Gundam games, Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3. The US site gives the release date as June 28th 2011, and Europe gets it a few days later, on July 1st 2011.

Needless to say, fans of pressing the X and Y buttons for hours on end will be chomping at the bit to play this, but despite the repetitive gameplay of the first two games I also have to admit that I have 200 hours of play time split between them. The third installment doesn’t seem to change the formula so it’s hard to recommend it, but the Dynasty Warriors series is as long-lived as it is for a reason; sometimes you don’t need the depth of Armored Core, but just want to hammer away at 1,000 Zakus for fifteen minutes, or play something split-screen with a friend without them needing a half-hour tutorial. And, unfortunately, mecha fans don’t exactly have much to pick from in terms of Gundam games in English, and being able to take part in the epic finale to Zeta Gundam is often worth suffering through occasionally mindless gameplay.

The English trailer shows off the new cel-shaded graphics, and seeing the Turn A Gundam again–now accompanied by the absolutely godlike Kapools–does my metallic robot heart some good.

There’s a really cool little interview with Hiroyuki Maruyama, CEO of the wonderful Japanese developer G.Rev. The interview also goes into a detail on what happened to the Senko no Ronde DUO DLC. Thanks to Matty Manzarek for the heads up.

Similar to a post we made back in 2009, GameSetWatch have found another industrious individual has taken the epic Steel Battalion controller and used it for
DJ-ing purposes. Called the “Zero System”, no doubt a nod to Gundam Wing, The Asterite as he’s known also has two additional joysticks to help him mix. Again, we always find this re-purposing of gaming hardware pretty nifty and we’re always happy to see more use made out of the brilliant Steel Battalion controller.

It’s been announced in the latest Famitsu that another OG game in the Super Robot Wars series is on the way, entitled Dai-2-Ji Super Robot Taisen OG. Not only will it have traditional 2D animations (yay!) it will also be on the PlayStation 3 (super yay!). Apparently, the animations will specifically make use of the HD resolution the console can offer. Considering the last HD SRW game was XO on the 360 (and even that was a port of SRW GC) the fact we now have a proper 2D SRW coming to a modern console is utterly fantastic news. No word on a specific release date as yet but it is expected to ship sometime this year.

Update: Famitsu has updated their site with a whole piece on the game. The screenshots look amazing.

Over at 4Gamer they have a bunch of new screenshots for Armored Core V, as well as a thorough breakdown of all the information featured in Famitsu last week. The interesting points are that back weapons are partially gone now and replaced by hangar units, which are stored across the shoulders but used by both arms. In addition the player now has to equip a recon unit to scan the area (no doubt feeding into the new scan mode we saw). In addition, ammo types are broken down down into kinetic, chemical and thermal now (rather than just solid and energy, as in the past). Finally, the update covers the new boost types. With the wall jumping Boost Drive being our favourite at the moment. Famitsu will also be having new live stream events on the 19th and 26th May. So keep your eyes peeled for that.

Update: 4Gamer also has a new piece on some additional parts, one of which being a rather uber looking sniper rifle.

Out of the ashes from the team that brought you the Warhawk reboot, comes an all new game in the same vein. Entitled Starhawk, the game is fundamentally similar to Warhawk but with two major changes; an RTS element and a bipedal mecha mode for the jets. Considering that the hover mode in Warhawk was a semi-mecha themed mode anyway, this sounds like a good fit. Unfortunately, the mecha are entirely groundbased and look a tad clunky (no boosting basically). We’re obviously hoping it won’t turn out like the dreadful Bayformer cash ins but we wish the team luck.