As part of the build up to the release of Gundam Unicorn, a new PlayStation 3 exclusive service is being beta tested. Called the Gundam Viewchives it aims to educate people on all things to do with the massive mythos. Apparently there will be a AI controlled guiding hand that will help people negotiate their queries as well. Whether this new service will handle the distribution of Gundam Unicorn is not entirely clear but Unicorn will be featured on the service in some way for its release. In any case, this is all being done purely for the Japanese market at the moment with the beta test starting on the 28th January and running until the end of March.

The renowned Japanese voice actor, or seiyuu, Daisuke Gouri has passed away this Sunday at the age of 57. It was reported that Gouri was discovered in Nakano (a ward of Tokyo) by a passer by who observed blood dripping from his wrist. A knife was discovered under his body and his last will and testament were also discovered nearby, Japanese police are treating this case as a possible suicide.

Gouri had a long and distinguished voice acting career. Many of you would most probably recognise his voice as a consequence of him playing the roles of Dozle Zabi in the original Gundam as well as Basque Om in Zeta Gundam and Gundam 0083. Not to mention his multiple other anime and videogame roles.

His characteristically deep and rich vocal timbre will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and condolences are also with his friends and family.

The official Armored Core 5 site was updated today, along with some new screenshots (with one of them above). In general, it’s now becoming clear how big the scale shift in the game has become and that ultimately it looks an awful lot better for it. It also seems that a form of overboost maybe still present as well. In any case, we’re liking the rain and the generally improved texture detail in the environments. Still no word on a release date or any gameplay footage though.

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas used to be where video game movers and shakers in North America made all their grand announcements, until a dedicated game show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, came along. But now that E3’s stock has significantly decreased for a variety of reasons, a few publishers have come back, though mostly American based ones. Like Microsoft, with the only real news being their avatar arcade initiative, hence why this year’s CES was a bit of a snoozer. So it was easy to miss Capcom’s presence, who passed along a few new images from Lost Planet 2. Click on to read more…

The new Artdink developed Gundam Assault Survive recently received a nice gameplay promo. For those that played the last few Gundam Battle games, some of the environments will look awfully familiar. In terms of new game mechanics, not much is known but it seems that some elements have changed (the ring around the mobile suit’s waist for example). The game is still scheduled for March release in Japan. There are also some nice new screenshots here.

It seems that Yahoo are launching the original Virtual On today for two Softbank phones in Japan (the 930P and 931P, made by Panasonic). Priced at 315 yen it appears to contain the entire game, with 8 playable VR’s (so Jaguarandi and Z-Gradt aren’t available basically). Visually it looks similar to the Saturn version, which isn’t a bad thing by any stretch (as it worked great on a pad). In any case, we want it and with any luck we could even see an iPhone version.

A new promo video for Last Raven Portable was released today. Admittedly it seems to be just a re-working of the cinematic footage but it’s still very nice nonetheless. What is is interesting is that apparently, come the game’s release in March, a coupon will be packaged with the game that will give a special code to unlock parts of the Armored Core 5 site that will apparently contain “special contents” for download.

The upcoming High Moon developed Transformers game; War for Cybertron has received a new trailer. It’s entirely cinematic footage, with nothing actually in-game, but again it’s nice to see the stylistic approach they’ve taken with the designs is more progressive than the live action nonsense we were subjected to. If anything, a full blown movie like the cinematic below would indeed be most welcome. Still no word on a release date as yet but it’s apparently scheduled for some time this year.

The latest issue of Famitsu, as promised, has a very nice feature on the the upcoming Armored Core 5. Apart from the confirmation the game is coming to PS3 and 360, the other surprising elements are how it confirms the return to the older style gameplay seen in the earlier games. In that, the original Armored Core was influenced by VOTOMS. The mecha were mass produced and featured hardpoints for weapons and other equipment. The difference was that the mecha in Armored Core were around 10 to 15 metres in height. In Armored Core 5, the mecha are now much smaller and at around 5 metres tall. This is roughly the same height as an armored trooper from VOTOMS.

In addition to the size change, the game will apparently feature longer missions than before with more complex environments (this most probably being a follow on from Demon’s Souls level design). Apparently, according to rumours on a few Japanese blogs, the Xbox game Metal Wolf Chaos was also used as a functional benchmark early on in development, which would make sense as the main mecha in that game is around the same height and the environments are quite pyrotechnic. At present Armored Core 5 is at 20% completion, however the game has been in production already for almost 2 years, so we’re not sure with what that percentage exactly corresponds to.

Update: Famitsu online has also run a piece on AC5 too, it also talks about a new “Overed Weapon” function – similar to the Overboost in a way – but it acts as a performance modifier on your weapons. This may tie into the transforming AC head we saw in the trailer in some way.

Update 2: Over at 1up Kevin Gifford has translated a lot more of Nabeshima’s comments about AC5, separately there’s also talk that AC5 will feature “more realistic parts designs” so the mecha will feel more believable.

Senjou no Kizuna, as in that Gundam arcade game with a panoramic cockpit, is getting another update with some rule changes and two new mobile suits. The latter are the MS-08TX (EXAM) Efreet Custom and the RX-79BD-2 Blue Destiny Unit 2, both of which come from the Saturn Blue Destiny trilogy and were piloted by the games’ main antagonist, Nimbus Schterzen. The Efreet is a unique design, as it pops up a lot in the better Gundam games. A new version, the MS-08TX/N Efreet Nacht, also appeared in the recent PS3 game Gundam Senki 0081. The original design came from the Super Famicom game Cross Dimension 0079 in case you’re wondering. The two new suits will also use the EXAM system once they reach critically low health, consequently giving them a performance boost. Both will also be available tomorrow on the 13th January.