The next DLC pack for the PS3 version of Gundam Extreme Versus has been announced. On February 7, players will be able to download the MBF-P01-Re Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatsu and the AMX-011S Zaku III Custom for 500 yen each. This will be the first time we see any of these units grace the Gundam Versus series and have a unit cost of 2000 and 1000 respectively. We’ll be looking forward to seeing how well they mesh with the already massive lineup of mobile suits. This pack should be the last of the new wave of DLC units to hit Gundam Extreme Versus since the recent release of the Best version last December. When you get a chance, make sure to check out the DLC video announcement below!

Over at Hideo Kojima’s Twitter feed he previewed a shot of a Revoltech Vic Viper from Anubis. For one it looks lovely and it will be at least affordable. Talking of other Revoltech’s, Naked Jehuty is now out too and our review will be forthcoming. If you can’t wait for the Vic Viper Revoltech they you can still buy the Kotobukiya kit, in addition a RIOBOT toy is also planned.

In a tantalisingly short video (shown below), Bamco have shown off the much talked about kit bashing customisation element in Gundam Breaker. In a funny sort of way it’s somewhat similar to classic Armored Core in a way and this is no bad thing. In addition to the video below there have been some nice updates at both 4Gamer and Famitsu. The important thing to note is that the Vita version is still being advertised again.

If we’re honest, when we saw the sample limited edition boxart for the forthcoming Macross 30 weren’t exactly all that impressed. However, we now have the official box art (shown above) as penned by Hidetaka Tenjin. It looks really rather lovely and if it weren’t for the godawful limited edition skins, we’d probably buy this version just for the boxart. The game is still on track for its February 28th release and you can pre-order the limited edition boxset here

In a nice move of not making yet another Jehuty toy, Kaiyodo have followed up with a toy of the orbital frame Ardjet this March. As with all Revoltechs, Ardjet looks to have decent articulation and won’t cost the earth. Whilst this feels like extended marketing for the ZOE HD Collection, it’s nice to see one of the lesser orbital frames from Anubis get the toy treatment. You can pre-order Ardjet here.

Famitsu has a piece on the forthcoming Gundam Breaker game. Explaining how you can kitbash mobile suits together, as killing enemies drops their model parts which you can then use later. Despite showing all manner of in-game shots, we also get to see some of the arenas now too. The interesting omission in all of this is the fact that the Vita version is no longer mentioned, leaving only the PS3 game. However, the official site still lists both platforms. In any case, we still have no word one when this will be released (bar sometime this year) nor how much it will cost. That aside, the game has an interesting premise and we’re definitely curious about it still.

Looks like the recent 1.02 patch for the PS3 version of Gundam Extreme Versus has a bit more to offer. GN-007+GNR-101A Archer Arios from Gundam 00 and GAT-X105E+AQM/E-X09S Strike Noir Gundam from Gundam Seed Stargazer have been announced as the fifth DLC pack to be released on January 10th for 500 yen each. Archer Arios will be a 1000 cost unit while Strike Noir will be a 2500 cost unit, just like its Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost iteration. Archer Arios was recently revealed as a new suit to come to Full Boost a few weeks ago, so it is nice to see it coming to the home version. It was a little disappointing to see Arios not be as agile as its anime iteration, but it still looks well rounded with Archer never far behind. As for Strike Noir, players have been clamoring for it to be DLC since it Full Boost was first announced. It will definitely be a welcome addition to the already diverse cast of mobile suits with its acrobatic manoeuvres.

Also, if you purchase these suits before February 10th, you’ll get a pack of energy capsules for Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation. Make sure to check out the DLC video announcement below!

Over at Famitsu we have a bunch of new things revealed for the upcoming Macross 30. From in-game shots of the YF-30 in all three modes (shown above) that make it look more like a fighter-bomber with a dedicated missile pod array, to all manner of detail on the Sub-Quests. These are the open world missions you can undertake, which range from item collection to killing lots of things dead. If we’re honest, these don’t sound overly interesting. What does sound interesting though are the controls, which will have two modes; the classic PSP setup and a new one that allows for more precise aiming. To the extent it almost sounds like they have a dual analogue control setup for battroid mode. This might explain the slower gameplay, as manual look based combat definitely has an upper threshold of game speed before it just becomes impossible. Games like Armored Core get around this by having a weapon lock-on that helps with doing the finer enemy tracking for you. Following on from that there will also be an option to have your difficulty automatically adjusted to how you play, though you can still pick the fixed difficulties too thankfully. There’s also some stuff about the limited edition variable fighter skins, though these look utterly dire so the less said about them the better.

Albeit brief, we now have a new advert for Macross 30 (shown below). It only shows a few more seconds of gameplay and emphasises how smooth the game appears to be running. Not to mention that we’ll obviously be getting a lot of new animated footage for the game. Hopefully that will mean some kind of high fiving from Basara and the other classic Macross characters. Don’t forget you can pre-order it here

Over the past few years, realising that the current generation has decayed due to excessive functional standardisation, we’ve had a few “classics” resurrected into HD to stem the tide of mediocrity. Whilst many of these games were originally rather noteworthy, their updated HD versions have often been very disappointing. This is mainly down to the fact that these ports are in fact outsourced in their entirety.

The worst offender thus far has been that of Konami, with a variety of HD re-releases suffering from all manner of grievous problems (many of which the original games never suffered from). So what has happened to the Zone of the Enders HD edition then? Well, firstly it was ported by High Voltage Software (not internally by Konami, as we were led to believe) and they’ve done a pretty poor job. Now, we’ve never thought the Zone of the Enders games were bad but they are functionally flawed. Though the issue here is entirely down to the fidelity of the port itself.