We now have some new information on Macross 30, courtesy of Famitsu, which is now fully called “Macross 30: Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe” or “Macross 30: The Voice that Connects The Galaxy”. The big news is that this is indeed developed by Artdink and it leans toward an action RPG of sorts, though this likely means it has an Academy Mode bent as per Macross Triangle Frontier. The other interesting thing is that the game is set on the planet Ouroboros after a fold incident that has warped in the various characters from their respective parts in the timeline into one place (a tad Super Robot wars that). For those that know their mythology, the Ouroboros is a symbol of a snake eating its own tail that represents eternal return. Likely this is nod to the fact that a lot of the various Macross characters have found themselves in a shared predicament. The release date for Macross 30 has also been set for February of next year.

Update: We also forgot to mention that the variable fighter silhouette seen in the game’s logo appears to be an entirely new design.

As part of the marketing drive for the Zone of the Enders HD Collection released tomorrow in Japan, they’re will be a large bust of Jehuty placed in Akihabara on the Shimura Musen building. If followers of the KojiPro twitter account send the hashtag “#ZOE再起動” (the kanji basically says “restart” in case you’re at all curious) attached to photos of the bust they’ll be in with a chance of having a ZOE poster signed by Yoji Shinkawa.

Whilst we get why all this promotion is kicking off, the ZOE games were never all that popular when they were released on the (far more widespread) PS2. So all this feels very odd. We’ll be posting our review of the HD edition when we’ve given it a good playthrough over the next week or so.

A gameplay walkthrough was uploaded for Lost Planet 3 pretty recently and we’ve linked it below. If we’re honest, it really doesn’t fill us with hope for this narrative prequel. It looks functionally very awkward and the QTE’s (or re-branded “struggle” moments) appear to be pretty damn tedious. Even the rig setup seems just a bit crap. Admittedly the final controls could assuage our worries but it doesn’t look like a fluid game. Comparing this to the bloody wonderful E.X. Troopers, where all the game videos looked super tight and that then being proved true with the recent demos, makes this new Lost Planet 3 footage come across as though the final game could very well be a bit pants. Anyway, we’ll know for sure once the game gets released.

As part of a SEGA Model 2 Collection, the original Virtual On will be released on both XBLA and PSN. Whilst the release date and price are unknown as yet, the port will feature online versus functionality. In addition, for the PS3 version, HORI are releasing a new pair of TwinSticks (costing 30,000 yen a piece). What’s especially interesting about this news is that both the PS3 and 360 will be getting the game, whereas in the past the HD ports of Oratan and Force were 360 exclusives. The release of these new PS3 sticks could also indicate a further release of the other games that also graced the 360 (fingers crossed). Anyway, this is good news and despite once owning an arcade cabinet of the game and all manner of other home ports, it’s always nice to see the original Virtual On getting some continued love.

There have been some interesting reveals at this year’s All-Japan Model Hobby Show as well as via Kotobuikya. In regards to the latter, Kotobukiya’s output has birthed the rather incredible kit above from Armored Core V (as was mentioned a while back). The sculpt being something of truly amazing finesse and it seems that there will be all manner of other kits available for it too (including tanks and helicopters from the game), so you can build your very own diorama.

Moving on from that, Wave have shown a variety of new garage kits. From Galient to Vifam, though what has really peaked our interest is this lovely Layzner Mk. II kit. Hasegawa even previewed a new Kagekiyo kit from Virtual On Force. If you want to see more of the hobby show, then AmiAmi has lots of lovely photos here, here and here.

The shop page for the forthcoming Hanged Man Super Robot Chogokin from Armored Core V has been updated. Featuring what looks like an improved hangar articulation setup (shown above), Bandai clearly haven’t been idle in terms of the toy’s engineering. In addition, there’s a brief interview with Keiji Fujiwara; the seiyuu who voiced Chief in the Japanese version of the game. Still no word on the Western release of this toy as yet but once we know more we’ll be sure to let you know

It’s been announced that we’ll be getting some demos for E.X. Troopers for both the 3DS and PS3 versions of the game next week. The demos will feature an introductory mission as well as two co-op specific levels. Like other 3DS demos, this will also have a 30 play limit. The demos will feature new co-op based attacks, called EX-T Blast Resonance, not to mention all manner of familiar Akrid from previous Lost Planet games. In addition to the demo announcement, Capcom also published a video of Monster Staff playing the game (linked below). The demos will be released on October 17th (3DS) and October 18th (PS3).

What with 2nd Super Robot Wars OG on its way, we have new information on the game’s ability system and an archive movie mode. With the former, pilots can have abilities added that increase their hit rate, attack damage and armor. These appear to be separate from pilot skills or the mecha upgrades and cumulatively add to the whole team. So you can set up a group of units which will have mutually reinforced abilities. Sounds quite interesting. In addition, they also make a point of highlighting the fact that playing on harder difficulty results in you facing more units, which in turn allows you to earn more SR Points. Finally, thee game will also come with an archive movie mode that covers the events in the previous OG games. All in all this entry into the OG saga looks to be pretty intricate, so we’re getting rather excited for its release. Don’t forget that you can pre-order you copy here here.

In a new update for the upcoming E.X. Troopers there are details on a weapon modification setup. Specifically that you can assign an attribute to a weapon, with these being fire, ice and lightning. Certain enemies in the game are vulnerable to some of these attributes, allowing you to stun them for instance. There are also some interesting reveals regarding Tiki’s background and that her relationship with Bren will bring about some interesting events. The game is still on track for it’s November release in Japan and you can pre-order it here.

One of the more interesting games announced at this year’s Tokyo Game Show was that of Gundam Breaker. A new PS3 and Vita game were you control Gundam model kits (or gunpla) in various arenas. The interesting aspect of this was that they not only retained the scales (so you could have a 1/144 scale Gundam facing a 1/60 scale Zaku) but that you could also kitbash the units too. Well, we now have a promo video that shows the game in action and it is quite simply joyous to behold. In addition, it seems that destruction of various gunpla results in their inner plastic workings to be sprayed everywhere, polycap joints and all. As ideas go this is a pretty good one and considering how massively popular gunpla remains in most of Asia, it should appeal to a lot of people. No word on a price point or a release date as yet but as soon as we know more we’ll let you know.