Along with a slew of Metal Gear Solid Games, Konami have announced that they will also be bring both PlayStation 2 Zone of the Enders games into the bright light of day that is HD. Slated for a “2012” release, both games will be available on the PS3 and 360, either boxed or via digital download. In addition, the two player functionality from the games will also be available. Whether this will be online multiplayer remains to be seen but if so it would fix the fundamental nonsense the original games suffered from, as players wouldn’t need to fight over the camera. Whilst we aren’t fans of the games, in a functional sense at least, it will be interesting to see how they perform with this new HD lick of paint. No doubt Konami are testing the waters to see if the franchise is still financially viable.

Yet another live stream has been and gone for Armored Core V. This one was thankfully more restrained in terms of the presenters, basically because Toshifumi Nabeshima clearly hasn’t got the time for that kind of mindless crap. Unfortunately it featured less actual gameplay footage this time around, instead covering other elements such as the story and mission breakdown. However, a nice but short snippet of the game’s opening CG movie was shown. Primarily displaying the beefiness of tanks and that our mechanically inclined future has gone to hell in a hand basket, a very brown hand basket.

In a recent blog post, the team working on the anticipated Hawken link to a selection of new videos that show more of the game in action. Whilst there are no confirmed platforms (bar a tentative “PC”) or release dates as yet, the team are in apparently a number of talks to figure out how best to get this game to market. The new level, pictured above, looks suitably lovely though.

Another live stream event for Armored Core V will be happening on the 2nd June. Around an hour long it will also feature the opening CG cinematic for the game. Whilst we’ve already seen snippets of the CG movie from the (re)announcement trailer, it will be cool to see more of it finally. Especially as From Software have a pretty stellar track record when it comes to this kind of thing, with the opening cinematic for Armored Core Last Raven being one of our favourites.

From the incomparable gevurah22, creator of many other LittleBigPlanet mecha creations, has outdone himself yet again with a LittleBigPlanet 2 stage entitled The Gundam Wing Project: Survival Training. The video below shows the Wing Gundam unbelievably well-animated for something put together in a game’s somewhat simplistic editor, and the author is continuing to add content to the stage, including a boss fight against the Wing Gundam’s nemesis, the Tallgeese. The Tallgeese might have a silly name and a silly red hat, but those backpack verniers will make any Gundam come down with a case of thruster envy.

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.