Generally speaking, most Gundam games are very much limited by what they can do functionally due to the host work. However, Bandai took a step back and thought about all the lovely kits associated with the franchise and decided to make a game about that instead.

It was a shrewd decision, not only because it tied into one of the most profitable parts of their business but also allowed a huge amount of design leeway in making an interesting game. Specifically down to the core nature of kits; that they are built from component parts. What transpired was a fascinating game but sadly somewhat mired via a few ill-fitting mechanics from other freemium type games.

What with the release of Masou Kishin III a few weeks away, we now finally have a nice long and juicy extended promo for the game (shown below). As you’d expected the battle animations are looking consistently fantastic but we’re still hoping winkysoft are involved in this, as they basically made all the Masou Kishin games to date. That aside, you can still pre-order both (region free) versions of the games here (PS3) and here (Vita).

There will be an Armored Core Convention held on the 7th September in Washington DC. Apparently LAN games will be supported as well as the chance to win Armored Core figures (plus the opportunity to drink booze). The convention also marks the series’ 16th birthday, which is nice. More details will be forthcoming closer to the time but you can go to the Facebook page to show your support and interest. Talking of Armored Core, there’s a pretty interesting interview over at 4Gamer about Verdict Day.

As many of you already know, a patch for the PS3 version of Zone of the Enders HD Edition has finally been released. This specifically covers the Anubis portion of the collection in case you’re wondering. Whilst this does improve the game noticeably it’s still not as good as the PS2 original, so in that sense our review of the collection will stand as is (as the 360 version remains unchanged as does the original game). However the studio behind the PS3 patch, that of the indomitable Hexadrive, have written a fantastically detailed post on all the improvements they made. It really begs the question why they weren’t hired in the first place for the port. There are also some great comparison videos too, so those are worth a watch. All in all though, it’s still sad to think that possibly the last ever release of Zone of the Enders was handled so badly.

You can now pre-order the simply gorgeous Isamu Dyson YF-29 DX Chogokin via the Bandai premium online webshop. Priced at 17,850 yen it will be released in December of this year. This was a unique version of the YF-29 Durandal as seen in the recently released Macross 30. It even seems like this version of the YF-29 will come with a bayonet on the end of the gunpod, much like the VF-11B Thunderbolt that Isamu also piloted at the beginning of Macross Plus. Regardless, this is a toy that we will be getting and may even get around to reviewing too.

If you didn’t get a chance to see it live, watch some great North American Gundam Extreme Versus action at the EVO 2013 Championship Tournament held in Las Vegas. Courtesy of TheBrett and the NorCal Dogfight crew, this video displays the Top 8 of the tournament with some of the best North America has to offer. Using an impressive streaming setup, you can watch all four combatants during each of the matches. Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 tournament and hopefully we will see some Full Boost action at next year’s EVO. So stop waiting and check out the action below!

Apologies for the delay in posting this, as we’ve been somewhat busy as of late. In any case the fourth livestream for Armored Core Verdict Day is now archived and linked below. In addition, there are all manner of new promos and adverts that have been unleashed online. The promo is especially interesting as it covers more the narrative side of things, which seems to be a bigger deal in this game compared to the previous one. Following on from that news of a Raven’s Meeting has surfaced. This will be held on August 8th in Shinjuku. Not only will the in-house From Software band FreQuency be playing live but the next livestream will be hosted there too.

In a rather cool move, Bandai have announced that they will be releasing Isamu Dyson’s YF-29 from Macross 30. Not only will this have an all new paint job but a new head too. No word on whether the super packs will be made available for this though. As you’d expect this will be a webshop exclusive released this December for a pretty steep 17,850 yen. Isamu was a lot of fun in Macross 30 and having him upgrade from the YF-19 to the bleeding edge YF-29 was a nice touch, especially as the designs share the same forward swept wings. Whilst we’re not overly fond of all the YF-29 toy variants Bandai have been churning, we’re tempted with this one. Still no word on the YF-30 DX Chogokin as yet however.

Over at 4Gamer there’s a new piece about the world in Armored Core Verdict Day. Despite doing the obvious staple corporate round-up, we now also have Reapers (picture above and that sound a lot like the Zodiac ACs you faced in the previous game) and on top of all that, it seems that the AI controlled UNACs are also part of the story too. That in itself is actually a nice little touch, especially with all the Nineball stuff we’ve had in the past (an army of Nineballs you say?). However, the biggest thing (literally) that’s been highlighted is that of the giant and equally mysterious tower we’ve seen in all the media for the game. For those that are familiar with VOTOMS, this tower should look narratively familiar and considering Armored Core’s narrative history with AI overlords we expect something similar again (something the UNACs are likely part of too). Obviously I could talk more here about all this but some people go apeshit over spoilers, so alas I shall abstain. Anyway, it seems that Verdict Day’s narrative is more grounded than the previous game and September can’t come soon enough.

The third livestream for Armored Core Verdict Day will be happening on the 12th July (you’ll be able to watch it here). The previous livestream is also online here if you want to watch it. This livestream appears to be more focused on the singleplayer story side of things, which is meant to be far more substantial over the previous game. It will also be nice to hear those lovely people at From Software talking about a mecha game without having an identity crisis.