Over at the official Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus site, some new videos have surfaced. One being a TV commercial and the other an extended promo video. The latter is similar to the original video we linked not that long ago except that it shows a lot more gameplay footage and it covers pretty much every Gundam series featured in the game. What’s especially interesting to see is how the Trans-Am abilities for the Gundam 00 mecha are handled, notably that of the 00 Raiser. The game is still scheduled for Japanese release at the beginning of December.

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On top of the addition of the Victoria AC, more unique Ranker opponents are on the way for Silent Line Portable. This means that new parts will also follow suit, specifically the MHD-72-50 head, which is an original design that was featured in the pages of Hobby Japan. The AC that adorns this new head is called “Focus” and is separate from the Brave New World narrative arc. In addition the Japanese PlayStation Store has a few Silent Line Portable wallpaper images available (for free) to help promote the upcoming release.

The official site for the Xbox 360 port of Oratan 5.66 has recently been given an update regarding the HORI TwinSticks. It seems all is on track and that feedback was positive at this year’s TGS, where the sticks were first displayed to the public. In addition, there is apparently an interview with the team in the December Xbox 360 specific Famitsu. The November release of the sticks is still on schedule as well apparently.

The Escapist is currently running a feature called I, Robot, that covers mecha and its affect on gaming. My personal favourite piece is the Pilgrimage to Mecha as it’s rare to see Gundam covered in a truly culturally sympathetic sense within the Western press. I’ve also contributed a piece as well, entitled Mecha Magnates it covers the most influential games that have shaped the genre over the years.

One of the lesser known Virtual On releases was the Seganet version that shipped at literally the end of 1996 for the Saturn. This utilised the then hugely cutting edge technology of dial up modems, to connect peer-to-peer with other similarly equipped Saturn gamers. This meant you could actually play online matches on the Saturn port of Virtual On. Pretty heady stuff. A few years later, in 1998, the Sega Netlink service was started up in the US and the Saturn port of Virtual On followed along with it.

Matt Schulz managed to capture his online matches from way back when and has uploaded them to his YouTube channel for all to see. For fans of the Saturn port and even Virtual On in general, these videos are definitely worth a gander.

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As we predicted the Victoria AC from the Brave New World sidestory is appearing in the upcoming Silent Line Portable. In addition, From Software are holding an event on November 7th at their offices in Shibuya for gamers to have a go on the new port. Considering that Armored Core 3 Portable received a recent release abroad there’s a good chance Silent Line will follow suit.

Three new mobile suits for Gundam Senki 0081 are scheduled for release on the Japanese PlayStation Store on October 29th. These are the RX-81ST (with assault cannon), the AGX-04 Gerbera Tetra and the RMS-099 Rick Dias. The last two are noteworthy as they occur later in the Universal Century timeline, which could cause some interesting balancing issues as the there is quite a large disparity in terms of technology when it comes to units like the Rick Dias, which is from Zeta Gundam.

Not that long ago Yoshiyuki Tomino, the father of the Gundam saga, weighed in on games; declaring them to be “evil” relative to their creative worth. Unfortunately, many people seemed to ignore the context of his statements (and the fact he made Overman King Gainer, which features mecha games in a particularly positive manner). However, Mark Simmons recently interviewed Tomino and dutifully quizzed him again on this issue. It’s suitably thought provoking at the very least and part of me thinks he’s saying this so that the games industry can try to prove him wrong.

…and Tomino said »

Armored Core 3 Portable is now available on the US PlayStation Store for $14.99. The download is around 324 MB. The upside of this release, bar the reduced price, is that it will use less battery power as the UMD version had the constant issue of it reading the disc (thus sapping the battery dry in super quick time). However, it’s worth clarifying that over the PS2 original, the new PSP port has input framerate issues. In that, despite the general visual consistency in terms of framerate the player input is quite erratic. You have been warned.

Over at Anime News Network a story has broken that the final chapter in Ryosuke Takahashi’s VOTOMS series, entitled Gen-ei Hen (or Phantom Arc) will begin airing next spring. It’s worth clarifying the simply massive impact this saga has had on gaming. Despite its own list of tie-in games (of which we reviewed the most recent), titles like Heavy Gear and Front Mission simply wouldn’t exist without the base ruleset that was used for the armored troopers in VOTOMS. The fact that this will be the final instalment in the narrative also qualifies as being a bit of a big deal, as the last part of the timeline we saw was in Heretic Saint back in 1994 (the recent Pailsen Files was actually set before the events in the original TV series). With any luck Yuke’s will be called back to do a new game to tie-in with this.