What with the launch of Gundam Musou 3 around the corner, 4Gamer have a nice bit of coverage for the game’s pre-launch ceremony. From the announcement of background online matchmaking (where players can battle away in the story only to have the game seeking online gamers to help them out), to the unsurprising reveal of forthcoming DLC. The latter will feature two mobile suits, the GNX-Y901TW Susanowo (piloted by one MISTAH BUSHIDO) and the NZ-666 Kshatriya, as well as maybe a new level or two. Pricing and release dates for the DLC haven’t been finalised as yet though. The really classy aspect of the event was how Bandai had rolled out Harutoshi Fukui – author of the original novels – to help pimp the various Gundam Unicorn awesomeness that will be in the game. In the meantime, enjoy some more videos of the game in action.

Following on from the recently released trailer, 4Gamer have done a good breakdown of Another Century’s Episode Portable’s new customisation setup. To not mislead anyone, this customisation is by no means like something akin to Armored Core let’s say, instead it’s more of an extended version of the module setup seen in the previous games. Whilst modules were something that could be used mid-mission, such as replenishing health, the new weapon panels will have a more combat orientated and immediate focus (rather than tucked away in the pause menu). In that, you can now equip new and custom weapon panels that give units a new ability. These are also built from Chips that can be combined in various configurations. All of these are unlocked by defeating enemies in missions. Each unit also has a Capacity limitation in terms of the panels that can be equipped, this can be increased by upgrading the unit’s parameters with ACE points (the latter being a staple from the previous ACE games). In any case, all this sounds pretty interesting and we’re curious to see how all this will work in game.

Some sad news: in-browser game site InstantAction is now dead. The site had been closed for quite a while, promising a relaunch of the service with brand new features (including a browser version of the much-beloved Tribes) but after months of waiting we find out not only are those new features not coming, but neither are the original games returning either.

The greatest loss here is easily Fallen Empires: Legions, an amazing 3D browser game that was superficially similar to Tribes, but with the jetpacks an order of magnitude more powerful and with a corresponding increase in the speed of gameplay. There’s nothing quite like the exhilarating feeling you get from flying over a hill at 100 miles per hour and carefully landing on your opponent’s base, and now it’s likely you won’t ever get the chance to experience it.

On the brighter side of things, there’s a fan group attempting to get Legions back into action, and although the demise of InstantAction means the browser version of Tribes will likely never become a reality, this freed up the Tribes license for the developers of Global Agenda to work on an MMOG FPS based on the property.

So while Fallen Empires: Legions and the browser-based Tribes game might be out of the equation, we’ve got a MMOG version of Tribes on the horizon as well as the Tribes-inspired Firefall coming. Instead of the return of two older games, we have two new games about supersoldiers with mecha backpacks to look forward to–a fair trade if you ask me.

Update: Looks like a new version of the game will be starting up at LegionsOverdrive.com.

It seems mecha games have gotten one last hurrah out of the Nintendo DS with the release of the eagerly anticipated action RPG Solatorobo. No word yet on whether the game will get a Western localization, but since we’ve seen Solatorobo in French there is certainly reason to be cautiously optimistic.

It’s interesting to note that for what is likely considered to be a longshot in the games industry these days–Solatorobo not being a direct sequel to a well-known property nor being a cash-in on another successful game’s genre–Solatorobo had quite an advertising campaign associated with it, with no less than one hundred commercials being played on a single TV station, all within eight hours. That’s one hundred different commercials, mind you.

If you’re as incredulous as I was, you can check the official website and watch all 100. They spend a large portion of that airtime fleshing out the game’s world, talking about the kinds of foods that dog and cat people eat and the kinds of shoes they wear, in case you ever had questions about dog and cat people living in Victorian-era floating islands but were always too afraid to ask. It’s a rare glimpse into a fully realized world, rather than the usual slapping together of standardized video game and anime tropes, and it’s amazing (and perhaps slightly frightening) how much work CyberConnect2 put into making the world of Solatorobo feel alive. I find myself wishing that developers of “open world” style games put that much thought into their releases.

If you, for some reason, still prefer your trailers to focus on the actual game, you can see a quite nice one here.

4Gamer has a a pretty epic selection of new screenshots for the upcoming Gundam Musou 3. In addition to the new four player online co-op, the game will also feature one of our favourite new mobile suit designs; that of the MSN-06S Sinanju, pictured above, from the amazing Gundam Unicorn (a series you can watch in very pretty HD via the PSN store on the PS3 no less). The game is still scheduled for a December 16th release in Japan and whilst there’s no official word on a Western release, it is highly likely as the last two games also made the jump abroad just fine.

With the upcoming Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity around the corner, SEGA have teamed up with Studio Gainax to package costumes from both Gurren Lagann and Evangelion. In terms of the latter, players will not only be able to wear the plug suits seen in the series and movies but also wield a human sized Lance of Longinus. However, the coolest addition has to be the Gurren Lagann “suit” that male characters will be able to wear (along with a Giga Drill and Gurren Boomerang). Whilst the Evangelion tie-up is by no means a new one, the Gurren Lagann one is. In any case, the game will be piercing the heavens (as in released) on November 24th for 5,040 yen.

The upcoming XBLA shooter Seisou Kouki Strania was recently showcased by the staff from G.Rev, but what caught our eye was this photo of the characters from the game. It’s notable because you can see Yamamoto Nanashiki’s inimitable style shine though (something that was confirmed at the event itself). This is doubly interesting as he was also responsible for designing the Rounder mecha in both Senko no Ronde and its sequel DUO (which we recently reviewed the 360 port of). Considering all the 80’s and 90’s gameplay references G.Rev’s staff were making at the event, it’s nice to see that aesthetically the game is following suit too (as there’s something almost Tekkaman Blade about the characterisation and poses in that shot).

The much anticipated Armored Core 5 has been officially delayed until next year. This is something that was intimated at this year’s TGS by the fact the game was noticeably absent. Ultimately this is good news though as the last thing a fresh reboot of the series needs is to be rushed to release. That said, From Software have started the early aspects of their marketing push by firing up their fan supporter setup, so expect more news on the game in the coming weeks.

A new trailer was released for upcoming persistent world online shooter Firefall, and while a lot of the footage being shown is of locations and concepts we’ve already seen in the larger ten minute gameplay trailer, our excitement for the game has been by no means diminished since the game’s announcement, as there is clearly a lot of potential.

One thing the new trailer does hint at which we haven’t seen before is some sort of system that allows players to “glide”–while the huge mecha jetpacks enable characters to gain vertical height and sometimes forward speed (similar to the thrusters in Tribes, of which Firefall seems to be a spiritual successor) this seems to be an entirely new mechanic, used for crossing large amounts of distance in the air. This gliding feature projects two laser wings which reminds us just a bit of the V2 Gundam’s Wings of Light, which along with the very possible Gurren Lagann and Gundam 00 influences in the powered armors’ designs leads evidence to someone at Firefall being a closet mecha fanatic.

In addition to the 10 minute trailer that’s been passed around widely, it’s also worth noting that there’s a less well-traveled version of that very same trailer with developer commentary that explains a bit more about the specific game mechanics.

Well, Artdink’s wondrous new Carnage Heart EXA has finally been released. Whilst we’ll be getting a copy we may abstain from a review, on account of the somewhat epic language barrier. That said, if people want a review then by all means say so (as we’d be happy to oblige). To commemorate the release 4Gamer have done a pretty epic breakdown of the game. Don’t forget that you can still also order the boxed version here, though we are cautiously hopeful that a Western publisher may pick up EXA for a digital release.