The upcoming Activision published High Moon developed Transformers: War for Cybetron will be receiving its own line of toys made by Hasbro. Above is the unfinished prototype of the new Optimus Prime and it will be part of the “Deluxe” range apparently (which will also include Bumblebee, Drift, Megatron and the Soundwave toys from the game). Considering the Japanese origins of the series, it’s sad that more experienced toy manufacturers (such as Takara) are no longer able to really get involved in the franchise (though the Binaltech and Masterpiece lines are obvious and truly wondrous exceptions to this rule). Admittedly these new “Deluxe” toys are only going to cost around $10-20 each but considering the fans they’re targeting the game at are now in their thirties, it seems that Hasbro are aiming the quality bar a bit low. These toys will be released sometime this year, to obviously tie in with the game’s release no doubt. In any case, it’s nice that Western developed mecha games are getting their own toys again finally.

The upcoming Gundam Unicorn anime received a new PV today and its theme song was also announced; “Ryuusei no Namida” sung by Chiaki Kuriyama, which will be her vocal debut (as you’ll most probably know her as an actress appearing in films like Kill Bill and Battle Royale). The literal translation of the song title means “Meteor’s Tears”.

We’ve covered Gundam Unicorn before and what makes this anime interesting is that, like Xam’d, it’s being distributed online via the PlayStation Network in a few weeks. Not to mention that the titular Unicorn Gundam has been gracing arcades and PSPs in Gundam vs Gundam Next and that the series main mecha design is being handled by Hajime Katoki (a video game veteran when it comes to mecha). In any case, we’ve linked the video of the new theme song below and we actually like it, quite a bit in fact.

A few of you may remember that we reviewed the 1/72 scale Kotobukiya White Glint kit from Armored Core For Answer a while back. Well, that kit is now discontinued but fret not as Kotobukiya are releasing an updated version as per the colouring in the opening movie along with its Vanguard Overboost pack. Naturally, this pushes the price up a bit; to 9,800 yen to be precise. The updated kit will be available in May and you can pre-order it here.

As part of the build up to the release of Gundam Unicorn, a new PlayStation 3 exclusive service is being beta tested. Called the Gundam Viewchives it aims to educate people on all things to do with the massive mythos. Apparently there will be a AI controlled guiding hand that will help people negotiate their queries as well. Whether this new service will handle the distribution of Gundam Unicorn is not entirely clear but Unicorn will be featured on the service in some way for its release. In any case, this is all being done purely for the Japanese market at the moment with the beta test starting on the 28th January and running until the end of March.

The official Armored Core 5 site was updated today, along with some new screenshots (with one of them above). In general, it’s now becoming clear how big the scale shift in the game has become and that ultimately it looks an awful lot better for it. It also seems that a form of overboost maybe still present as well. In any case, we’re liking the rain and the generally improved texture detail in the environments. Still no word on a release date or any gameplay footage though.

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas used to be where video game movers and shakers in North America made all their grand announcements, until a dedicated game show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, came along. But now that E3’s stock has significantly decreased for a variety of reasons, a few publishers have come back, though mostly American based ones. Like Microsoft, with the only real news being their avatar arcade initiative, hence why this year’s CES was a bit of a snoozer. So it was easy to miss Capcom’s presence, who passed along a few new images from Lost Planet 2. Click on to read more…

The upcoming High Moon developed Transformers game; War for Cybertron has received a new trailer. It’s entirely cinematic footage, with nothing actually in-game, but again it’s nice to see the stylistic approach they’ve taken with the designs is more progressive than the live action nonsense we were subjected to. If anything, a full blown movie like the cinematic below would indeed be most welcome. Still no word on a release date as yet but it’s apparently scheduled for some time this year.

The latest issue of Famitsu, as promised, has a very nice feature on the the upcoming Armored Core 5. Apart from the confirmation the game is coming to PS3 and 360, the other surprising elements are how it confirms the return to the older style gameplay seen in the earlier games. In that, the original Armored Core was influenced by VOTOMS. The mecha were mass produced and featured hardpoints for weapons and other equipment. The difference was that the mecha in Armored Core were around 10 to 15 metres in height. In Armored Core 5, the mecha are now much smaller and at around 5 metres tall. This is roughly the same height as an armored trooper from VOTOMS.

In addition to the size change, the game will apparently feature longer missions than before with more complex environments (this most probably being a follow on from Demon’s Souls level design). Apparently, according to rumours on a few Japanese blogs, the Xbox game Metal Wolf Chaos was also used as a functional benchmark early on in development, which would make sense as the main mecha in that game is around the same height and the environments are quite pyrotechnic. At present Armored Core 5 is at 20% completion, however the game has been in production already for almost 2 years, so we’re not sure with what that percentage exactly corresponds to.

Update: Famitsu online has also run a piece on AC5 too, it also talks about a new “Overed Weapon” function – similar to the Overboost in a way – but it acts as a performance modifier on your weapons. This may tie into the transforming AC head we saw in the trailer in some way.

Update 2: Over at 1up Kevin Gifford has translated a lot more of Nabeshima’s comments about AC5, separately there’s also talk that AC5 will feature “more realistic parts designs” so the mecha will feel more believable.

Over on Square Enix’s Downloadable Games page on Facebook it’s finally been confirmed that a PS3 version of Thexder Neo is in the works. As Akira Kokushoh says “THEXDERNEO for PS3 is coming up in 2010! With PS3 graphic THEXDER NEO becomes more THEXDER. Can’t wait to show you. Checking would be almost done! Happy holidays, and please look forward for Square Enix’s Downloadable Games coming up in 2010!”

For those that may remember, we reviewed the excellent PSP version last year so the confirmation of a PS3 version is good news indeed!

(via Gamerbytes and Game Set Watch)

For those that have followed the Armored Core games over the years, many of you will know that Shoji Kawamori penned much of the mecha design. However, in the newer games such as Armored Core 4 and For Answer his role was almost non-existent. Instead From Software opted to use the very talented in-house illustrator, Yuzo Kojima. That said, in the case of For Answer, Kawamori was called back to create one specific design; that of Line Ark’s White Glint.

Due to the fact that it was such a strikingly elegant design, White Glint consequently adorned all the packaging and was exclusively featured in the opening CG movie (which we’ve included at the end of the review). So, when Kotobukiya were announcing they were releasing a model kit of the design earlier in the year many fans were suitably happy with the news. What follows is a photo review of the kit in a partially painted form, followed by fully painted photos.