It’s been reported that veteran anime director Noboru Ishiguro passed away recently at the age of 73. A monolithic figure in anime, he helmed all manner of classic mecha anime from Macross to Orguss as well as Megazone 23. Not to mention his amazing work on the original Yamato and the utterly epic Legend of Galactic Heroes. Considering that Hiroshi Kakoi only died last year (though under very different circumstances obviously), to have yet another Macross alumni pass away is so very sad. As always, our thoughts are with his friends and family during this difficult time.

It’s been announced that the long awaited Blu-Ray release for Macross Do You Remember Love? will also in fact be a hybrid game disc like the last two Macross Frontier movies. The game, very likely developed by Artdink, will be called “My Boyfriend is a Pilot 2012″. Not only is 2012 an important year for the saga, as it marks its 30th Anniversary, but it also is the date in which Macross Flashback 2012 is set (this will also be included in the Blu-Ray box set apparently). This isn’t the first time the classic movie has been rendered in game form either, as there was an excellent 2.5D shooter on the PSone and Saturn as well as the rather wonderful PS2 game (not to mention all the PSP games too). The disc will be released on the 26th July this year and come in two versions; standard and a boxset. The standard disc will cost 7,140 yen and the box set at 13,800 yen.

Following on from the recent promo, Gundam Battle Operation has received a nice new update article over at 4Gamer. The piece has all manner of new screenshots and goes into some detail about the game’s system. Notable are the mentions regarding the grappling setup, which seems to be a context sensitive menu (ugh) and the fact that mobile suits will be customisable. You’ll also be able to colour your character too. The article also confirms that infantry will be able to repair mobile suits in the field as well as hitch a ride. Once the beta for this is out we’ll be posting our impressions.

As expected, we now have the nice extended promo for the upcoming Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen. This is the promo that normally goes the rounds on the high street games shops too, so the 13 minute duration is on account of that. In addition, there’s also a very short commercial too (stitched together from bits of the new promo). We’ve included both below. As for elements of note, well seeing the X-ATH-02-DT Rabidly Dog (pictured above) in action is a wonderful thing indeed though we’re not too impressed with the Dancouga and Dancouga Nova team-up (we’d rather Dancouga Nova wasn’t even in the game to be perfectly honest). Bar that, there’s a lot of cool stuff jammed in at the end too so prepare thy body accordingly. Finally, there was a rather nice event recently celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the series (though technically the first Super Robot Wars game was released in 1991). Naturally, Ichiro Mizuki was on hand to add a sense of tamashii to the proceedings. Don’t forget you can still preorder the game here.

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There are a few times when developers take on projects to test out ideas and build their technology resources. Sandlot made a little tie-in game for a live action mecha show that allowed them to later build the very wonderful Gigantic Drive. Likewise, it seems From Software took on Gundam Unicorn to improve their prior beleaguered attempt at a then new Another Century’s Episode game. Subsequently, Gundam Unicorn is in places a bit of a testbed as well as proof that the older Another Century’s Episode games still have a lot to offer in terms of gaming functionality.

Gundam Unicorn also affords a new kind of DLC setup for this kind of game and one that isn’t wholly irritating either. As such we’re relieved to play something that turned out to be pretty compelling and suitably polished.

There’s now a new and extended gameplay trailer for Hawken going the rounds (shown below). As always it’s looking good and pretty meaty but we’re still surprised at the amount of tearing still present. The team are also hiring pretty aggressively now too, so it seems that this game will be getting bigger by the looks of it. Either way this is still on track to being one of our most anticipated mecha games of this year. Here’s hoping these guys can pull it off!

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As of yesterday, a second batch of DLC was released for the new Gundam Unicorn game. Featuring all manner of characters, missions and mobile suits (some free and others paid), we’re most happy to see the MSN-001X Gundam Delta Kai present and correct. Having downloaded and played with the mobile suit, it really is quite beastly. Featuring a very powerful and accurate long range beam rifle, it also packs prototype funnels that fire beam shotgun (!) projectiles. It can also transform and pack a variety of other weapon load-outs too. We’ve included a nice little video of it in action below. As for our review, that’s still forthcoming but we can say that we’re impressed with the game thus far and that it’s very reminiscent of the earlier Another Century’s Episode games.

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Two new trailers have been released for MechWarrior Online in a move that will surely leave fans salivating every waking moment until the game opens up this summer. The first continues the hardcore soundtrack responsible for breaking thousands of necks as viewers headbanged in excitement during a Mech launch sequence, while the second features the developers talking about the game types that will be available at launch and how they’re designing the game so that the Mechs will fulfill certain roles on the battlefield. The two game types seem to be just the standard deathmatch and a variant with a limited number of spawns, which is admittedly somewhat disappointing.  Better news is that the developers are well aware that past games have overwhelmingly favored the heavier assault-class Mechs, leaving humble scouts such as the Jenner at a severe disadvantage. While no concrete information was given, the devs claim the smaller, faster Mechs will have an important place on the battlefield. Here’s to hoping that the game comes with the infamous Narc missile, which allowed the other players on your team to get faster and more accurate lock-ons on targets you marked.

There was also a trailer released for MechWarrior Tactics, which I forgot to mention last time around because I thought it was the same thing as MechWarrior: Tactical Command for iOS. Mea culpa. How did we go from having no MechWarrior games in development to having three different ones so quickly? Is this what the Mayans predicted for 2012? Anyways, MechWarrior Tactics is a hex-based, turn-based, browser-based strategy game hewing more closely to the original Battletech tabletop game than the action-oriented MechWarrior interpretations, and allows players to put in their commands asynchronously–you can log in quickly, move your Mechs, and then log out without needing to wait for the other player’s response. If you’re interested, make sure you reserve your handle at the game’s official site — it’s a different registration than the one for MechWarrior Online.

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Not long after the game’s announcement, Gundam Battle Operation has received its very first promo video (shown below). It comprises entirely of in-game footage, from mobile suits doing combat rolls (no, really) to teeny people taking down said mobile suits with a variety of weaponry. Some of the animation looks pretty fluid in places but this game really reminds us of the very ill-fated Gundam Operation Troy on 360. Admittedly, the development was outsourced on that but the attempt to effectively turn Gundam into a Battlefield game didn’t really work out. Likewise, this looks to be a similar setup in places but we hope it will work out a bit better this time. That aside, the engine and tech do look more and more from Gundam Senki 0081 though and this is definitely a good thing, as that already had a pretty solid multiplayer infrastructure. There are also some nice screemshots of the game over at Famitsu too.

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The original Steel Battalion had a pretty epic price tag, but that was because you were getting a huge custom built controller to go with the game. In a recent move by Capcom though, they’ve seemed to rather missed the main point of pricing the forthcoming Steel Battalion Heavy Armor. Whilst this is not the standard price for the game, as that’s roughly what you’d expect it to be, the Limited Edition will come in at 35,000 yen. For that you get a jacket, helmet (?!?), soundtrack, book on the game and the game itself. This is nearly double what the original game cost and this pack doesn’t even come with a Kinect peripheral. We’re really beginning to doubt that the guys at Capcom know what they’re doing.