The official site for Another Century’s Episode R has finally been updated with details on the game’s new game system. Apart from the relatively familiar “Tension” setup, which fires off a series specific special move (similar to the Combination Attacks in the last two ACE games), there’s also talk of new Charge Attacks. What’s most interesting though is the new “Chase Mode”. This will act as a point of interest camera angle for certain events and bosses in the game. This is so you don’t miss the full picture of what’s happening around you, something that partially happened with the earlier games as you were always locked onto specific enemies. Admittedly, you’ll still have the free look function but this sounds like a pretty cool addition. Finally, ACE R will also allow players to swap out pilots per unit, much like in the SRW games. That said having Kincaide Nau pilot the Hyakushiki seems a bit…odd.

Over at Game Watch it seems that the Japanese release date for Front Mission Evolved has been confirmed as the 16th September. Interestingly, the article also talks of a release on Steam. The US release, confirmed in the trailer below, is two days before the Japanese one; on the 14th September. Naturally, upon release, we’ll be reviewing the game – so keep an eye out for that.

Along with the news regarding Another Century’s Episode R’s release date, which is apparently the 19th August, the official site also talks about premium downloadable content for those that pre-order the game. Specifically, the MSZ-006-3 Zeta Gundam Type 3 from the limited release one-off “movie” Green Divers. This design, in the movie at least, was hinted at being piloted by none other than Amuro Ray (as Tohru Furuya was used to voice the unnamed pilot). It was only until Gundam Evolve 9 that fans knew that, yes, this was Amuro’s custom built Zeta and it was dubbed the “White Unicorn” to boot (though this is not to be confused with Amuro’s later custom built Zeta Plus). In any case, having this unit available in ACE R is a nice touch and for those curious about the Type 3 Zeta, we’ve linked the entirety of Gundam Evolve 9 below.

Over the past five years or so there’s been a palpable trend within gaming in the West. Palpable in the sense in that it fundamentally affects the functional framework of the games themselves, to the extent that this change is almost taken for granted.

In the scramble for supposed mainstream appeal more and more games have opted to take a standardised approach to gaming functionality. On the one hand this allows for a much more accessible learning curve and an implicit understanding of how a game will operate. The down side to this is that ultimately many games end up playing the same.

Bucking this trend is also very difficult as much of the mainstream press get pretty worked up when a game requires them to learn something new. This, to be fair, isn’t their fault as they often have to cover multiple games in a ridiculously short amount of time. As such, due to the way that the gaming press operates, functional standardisation is something that is critically welcomed.

So when something as brilliantly wrought as Lost Planet 2 comes along, with its immense number of fascinating nuances and insightful design choices, it receives coverage that’s very much distorted and more than a little bit unfair on account of how the gaming press is structured. As such, we feel compelled to address this issue; as Lost Planet 2 is really quite bloody amazing.

Over at 4Gamer they have a bunch of really nice HD screenshots for ACE R, which ties into the updated playable unit list we mentioned a few days ago. What’s especially good about these shots is that most of them are clearly ripped from the VRAM, rather than full on renders. This means you can actually see how sweet the game really looks and in the case of the Dijeh, just how pimp that blue beast really is.

That said, we feel compelled at this point to spend a quick moment on saluting the series we personally loved in the older ACE games that didn’t make it into ACE R. We shall miss you!

Update: The game will be released on 19th August in Japan for 8379 yen.

The forthcoming Another Century’s Episode R, or just ACE R, received a nice spread in this week’s Famitsu as well as an official site update. The main news was down to the increase in the number of playable units that will be featured in the game. It’s worth clarifying that these updates, whilst enlightening, aren’t entirely comprehensive. As the three previous games ended up having far more units in the game than was initially disclosed. We’ve listed all the units and their respective pilots announced thus far below.

The much anticipated Lost Planet 2 has been released today in Europe and the US (the Japanese release will follow next week). This is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition released way back in 2006, a game which bore many thematic similarities to Robert A Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Due to the player having to battle large insect aliens, called Akrid, in a variety of mecha. We will be reviewing the game shortly as well as covering the new Kotobukiya toys on their release, so keep an eye out for that.

As we previously reported, a location test for Gundam Extreme Versus is currently underway in two Japanese arcades this weekend. Naturally, a bunch of videos have sprouted up online to cover this. Despite looking very shiny, it’s clear that the team behind the games hasn’t dropped the ball in a functional sense. In that, those that have enjoyed the recent delights of Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus will see that much of the core combat is remarkably familiar.

As for the hardware itself, as we’ve said before the System 357 board that’s being used for the game is basically a PS3 in a box. In many ways, this appraisal is actually quite literal as this video shows the PS3’s XMB in action prior to the game booting up. Put simply, a PS3 port is a clear given at some point in the semi-near future.

The line-up of suits in the videos is suitably varied too, from the lovely V2 Gundam and its Assault Buster variant (which recently received an excellent Robot Damashii toy), to the new Crossbone Gundam units and finally the 00 Gundam. The latter has sensibly separated out the 00 Raiser setup, as it was hugely uber on the recent PSP iteration. In any case, enjoy the videos below.

In the latest issue of Gundam Ace, several pieces of Hajime Katoki’s reworked Gundam Senki 0081 designs have been showcased. Specifically that of the re-used Kunio Okawara design, the RX-78-7 or “7th Gundam” as it is more colloquially known. Up until 0081, this design hadn’t actually been featured in any part of the canon UC timeline narrative and was instead relegated to a mere mobile suit variation (or MSV). The above design, the FA-78-3 Full Armor 7th Gundam was part of an exclusive DLC pack for the game and also received its own HG UC kit.

Over at Famitsu they’ve released a bunch of very shiny in-game screenshots for the upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus. This is the first game in the series to use the System 357 board, effectively a PlayStation 3 in a box – so the texture detail and geometrical complexity are obviously going to be a pretty big step up from the older games.

The coverage shows three mobile suits specifically, each of which are new to the series; the EMS-10 Zudah, the MBF-P02 Gundam Astray Red Frame and the XM-X1 (F97) Crossbone Gundam X-1 (pictured above). In terms of the latter, Crossbone Gundam is getting a fair bit of a resurgence as of late with the mecha also being featured in the upcoming PlayStayion 3 exclusive Another Century’s Episode R.

No word on an exact release date for Gundam Extreme Versus as yet but it’s still slated for an Autumn release. However, the Famitsu article does also state that the game will be using a new card system as well as boast HD 16:9 displays for each of the cabinets. Due to the host hardware, it’s fairly safe to assume that a PlayStation 3 port will swiftly follow.

Update: There will be a loc test for the game next weekend (May 7th to 9th) at the Nakano Broadway Plabo and Tokyo Gulliver Matsudo.