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.

The latest live stream footage for Armored Core V, from the first of two extended sessions, is now archived (we’ve linked it below). For those that found the first session a bit hysterical, then you’ll be happy to hear that this session is much more grounded. Mostly because it is handled by the people at From Software themselves excluding the somewhat unnecessary “tarento” that were present in the first session, with Toshifumi Nabeshima (effectively the father of Armored Core) in the driving seat for most of the time. With each passing day, the more we learn and see of Armored Core V in action the more we feel compelled to build a time machine and zip forward to the game’s October release.

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.

After a bit of a wait, we’ve finally got our hands on the limited release Robot Damashii toy for the White Dingo GM Sniper II, as originally seen in the Dreamcast game Rise from the Ashes. Whilst we’ve already reviewed the standard GM Sniper II toy, this variant is very much a gaming specific mobile suit. As such, whilst the toy is pretty much functionally identical, the context of it is something we wanted to cover in more detail. Especially, as the White Dingo team themselves in effect birthed a specific development studio within Bandai Namco games. Naturally, we’ve also included a variety of gameplay videos at the end of the review to give the toy some context.

The much anticipated live demo for Armored Core V has been and gone. Thankfully From Software archived the 2 hours plus of footage (shown below). The highlights, for us anyway, were the all new scan and combat modes for the HUD (with scan mode shown above) as well as the fact that the combat looked utterly bloody amazing. For those concerned that ACV would be slower than the last two games, don’t worry. Whilst it looks more manageable now, you’ll be boosting all over the place in what can only be described as ecstatic abandon. In short, October cannot come soon enough for us.

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.

In the latest issue of Famitsu, it’s been announced that the upcoming Armored Core V will not only be released (in Japan) sometime in October, at a price point of 7,800 yen, but also that a closed beta will occur before that. In terms of player applications to the beta, From Software will be releasing details about that shortly. In any case, this is very good news either way. Mainly on account of the fact it will massively improve the online QA process, as well as allow From Software to deal with server load issues before the game is released. Whilst we don’t think this is by any means a silver bullet it will make a huge difference to the end game.

Separately, the Famitsu also references several new boosting mechanics; glide, charge, high, jump, drive, and drift. Whether these will sit atop the traditional boosting/movement setup or replace it entirely remains to be seen. Finally, don’t forget that the live stream of the game is still happening on the 13th.

Despite our functional dislike of the Zone of the Enders series, we’ve always admired the designs that Yoji Shinkawa penned for the games. As such, we felt compelled to purchase the recently released Revoltech Jehuty toy. It’s clear from the off that the team at Kaiyodo were obvious fans of the series, as this toy has had a lot of love poured into it. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve included some gameplay videos of Jehuty in action from the first game at the end of the review.