Over at Game Set Watch they’ve uncovered a new doujin game by Astro Port called Gigantic Army. Specifically, this is a free two level demo of the game (download link here).

For the more observant of you this may seem awfully similar to Dracue’s Gunhound, which we do still intend to review. Like Gunhound though, Gigantic Army’s functional influences stem from the Assault Suits series, specifically Valken and Leynos II (not to mention VOTOMS, as many of the roller sound effects are lifted straight from the series!). With any luck this may even get an English translation but for the time being the game is more than playable in Japanese.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

SiliconEra has an interview with Shinji Hashimoto, producer of Front Mission Evolved, teasing some sort of cross-promotion with Hideo Kojima and his PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This cross-promotion seems to be in addition to an already announced cross-promotion between the two games, where items unlocked in Peace Walker will be available in Front Mission Evolved, and/or vice versa. Considering the very different nature of the two games’ mecha, I’m wondering how this will actually work; if it’s robot-to-robot part swapping it could look awkward, albeit possibly interesting. The mecha in Peace Walker are heavy tank-like walkers and reworked versions of Metal Gear Solid 3′s Shagohod, while Front Mission Evolved’s mecha conform more to the Real Robot standard of quick-moving humanoid weapons, equipped with thrusters and ground rollers.

I wouldn’t mind the big secret being a face-off against the venerable Metal Gear REX from the original Metal Gear Solid. I’ve been waiting years to go mano-a-mano (well, mecha-to-mecha) against that monster without support from an insane cyborg ninja. Getting help from an insane cyborg ninja always felt like cheating.

Activision did just that and between film releases decided to fund a dedicated Transformers game which wasn’t stringently bound to the narrative idiosyncrasies of a series that’s, to be fair, pretty mongrel at the best of times. High Moon have managed to tackle the challenge with a remarkable level of craftsmanship and for the first time in a long while I’ve been able to play a refreshingly good Transformers game.

War for Cybertron effectively tells part of the back story of what happened to the Transformers before they evacuated their planet and left for Earth. It features many familiar names as well as both Decepticon and Autobot campaigns. Set over 10 chapters, you can either start at the beginning (with the Decepticons) or halfway through (with the Autobots). What transpires is a linear narrative from both sides of the conflict. Due to this framing much of the origins for the major characters in the mythos, the game doesn’t have either Megatron or Optimus Prime square off directly. Instead, it opts to show how both these leaders found themselves in there respective positions on either side of the conflict.

From the off, High Moon have picked a shrewd starting point for the game’s narrative, as it not only sets up other elements in the canon backstory but also gives a huge amount of freedom to the team as much of what happened on Cybertron wasn’t overly documented. This also means that the designs of the Transformers themselves could be reworked to fit High Moon’s functional needs. As such, by forging an untold narrative path High Moon have been able to focus on making the game decent in the process.

Interestingly, the core third person shooter functionality is actually very standardised. Using the Unreal engine, the game plays like you’d expect much of the genre to operate. However, the levels have been built a bit differently as they’ve been made to work sympathetically with how each of the mecha transform. This is a major step forward in gaming terms, as the transformation has historically been overlooked as some kind of ephemeral gimmick and not something that’s crucial to how these mecha would operate. Now, we have each of the mecha transform at will but within an environment that encourages that.

To make matters more joyous, High Moon have used a modicum of physics to handle the mecha’s inertia. Whilst it’s not overly realistic in a technical sense, it’s actually far more accurate as to how the mecha would handle in the show. So whilst, in the past, I’ve often advocated the avoidance of physics based middleware for mecha gaming the caveat I gave at the time (as in “you need to know what you’re doing in terms of the mecha mythos”) definitely stands in the case of High Moon’s usage here. From being able to transform back from vehicle mode into mecha and still retain the momentum makes a huge difference at making these mecha functionally consistent, as well as affording a nuanced form of control to the player in the process.

All this adds a different slant on the core third person shooter framework the game uses and, once in the various multiplayer modes, also produces another functional layer to what is becoming quite a stale genre. That said, each of the transformers have to manage their ammunition quite fastidiously and it does take a while getting used to hearing Optimus Prime’s gun go “clickety-click” once it runs out.

This is probably the main issue the game suffers from; due to its functionally standardised core it is, on the one hand, more manageable and cogent but on the other quite monotonous. Admittedly the levels and mecha variance do help to break this up but the truth is that there’s nothing really new here. Being able to play a Transformers game that actually works is definitely a step forward but it ultimately plays like the vast swathes of games already available in the third and first person shooter genre.

Mecha gaming is unique in its attempt to functionally re-interpret a fictional ruleset from a multitude of viewpoints. From the customisation focus of Armored Core, to the fixed dashes of Virtual On and to the control of individual limbs in Gigantic Drive. These games are meant to offer something new and different in their approach. This is what has kept the genre fresh over the years and how it’s managed to carve out its own functional identity.

Just implementing a straightforward and obvious approach to transforming is definitely a welcome advance but it’s not enough. Considering the potency of the Unreal engine it’s a shame that the game doesn’t try anything really new, though we are relieved that the Gears of War cover system was left out so that’s at least something. We understand it makes sense to make this game appeal to as many people as possible but the license, to be fair, mostly limits that to Transformers fans so why not explore that further and make something new in the process.

The above may sound more damning than it actually is but in truth this is still an excellent and thoughtfully crafted game. From the gentle narrative references to the wonderful (though generic) mecha handling, it does finally hit the spot that the original TV series and movie all those years ago instigated. High Moon have finally picked up the baton that other Western developers have dropped. So much so that it’s a relief to say that this is the first decent Western developed mecha game we’ve played in long while. For that alone High Moon should be commended for their work and with any luck other Western developers will learn from their example.

Tamashii: 7/10

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

What with this year’s BotCon having finished over the weekend, the peeps over at TFORMERS.com have uploaded a rather interesting Q&A session with some of the team members who worked on the recently released War for Cybertron. Both Matt Tieger and Aaron Archer talked a fair bit about various aspects of the game but some of the more curious tidbits where the mention of future games that were either to be RPG orientated or even a Twisted Metal-type racer. Bear in mind that these comments were more of the “wishlist” variety and by no means binding, but at the very least it’s a refreshing take and one that does break out of the overtly standardised genre types.

As for the game itself, we’ll be reviewing it very shortly and overall we were very impressed with High Moon’s effort. Considering that the Transformers series often gets a bum deal with games, it’s a great relief to finally play one that doesn’t suck horribly.

The wondrous news of a MBV-04-G Temjin toy on the way has finally manifested itself via an official site from Bandai. Despite specifying both the release date for October this year and the price of 5,040 yen, the site also sports the “theme tune” of sorts for Temjin (or more accurately the stage music where you face Temjin in the original Virtual On). Called In The Blue Sky it’s been a recurring anthem of sorts for the series as a whole. The site also shows a curious lighting effect for the beam sword, whether this is a photoshop special (most likely) or an actual feature remains to be seen. In addition to the site going live there’s also an interesting interview with Juro Watari (effectively the “creator” of Virtual On) over at the official Virtual On site about this new toy.

The swirling chaos that is E3 is almost over, and while it will be some time before anyone can make sense of what this raw data pulse from the games industry actually means, there have been a few mecha-related sightings and announcements for the observant mechanical fanatic.

One of the biggest surprises of the show came in this trailer for the campaign of Halo: Reach, which revealed the presence of space fighter combat. While a lot of FPS fans were shocked by the news, Halo has always had an emphasis on using vehicles, so this is really just an extreme extension of that. More interesting to mecha gaming fans, perhaps, is how Real Robot the Spartan designs now look. While we have talked about the Spartan design and its similarities to Yutaka Izubuchi’s work before, specifically the GM Sniper II and GM Command, the comparison to Japanese Real Robot design is even more pronounced now. The squad of Spartans we see all have different kinds of equipment, and therefore distinct visual looks, which describe their role type on the battlefield. This is something that mecha games have been doing for years and now more mainstream games are finally catching up. Some of the interviews and information being leaked out talk about being able to customize your player character Spartan with different weapons, equipment and aesthetic features, making the character more like a human wearing powered armor and less like a generic guy with guns (something we talked a bit about last week with Vanquish).

Speaking of Vanquish, there’s a gameplay video from the E3 floor which shows the protagonist hopping on and controlling what reminds me of the Regult battle pod from Macross. Vanquish continues to look as amazing as ever and the interesting mixture of Western and Japanese game ideas will hopefully inject some much-needed lifeblood into the ‘third person shooter’ genre.

And more directly mecha related, I was happy to see in the new Warhammer 40,000 MMO trailer some of the massive robotic weapons the Warhammer 40k universe has to offer. While actual details on the game are currently light, and no one seems to be able to tell us whether we will control some of these mechanical monstrosities or if they’re just the 40k MMO equivalent to World of Warcraft’s raid bosses, it does seem as if the developer is trying to incorporate some of the more epic-scaled elements of the 40k universe rather than just making the WoW clone that everyone else is trying to make. I refuse to believe there can be anything bad about a fictional universe that agrees with Mobile Suit Gundam’s assertion that vehicles painted red go faster, at any rate.

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.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

After almost a year of waiting, Mektek X has released MechWarrior 4 to the public. The gates were actually opened to the free release a few days ago, but the flood of MechWarrior fans crushed the MTX client with their sheer enthusiasm, but it now appears that the problems are (mostly) worked out and the client is now chugging along fine. If you do have any additional problems, they do offer a beta release of their client in addition to the current version, which is supposed to be less dependent on the client being able to connect to the website, in case the problems that the original flood created show up again. Obviously there are still a lot of bugs for the MTX team to work out, but their hard dedication seems to finally be paying off: MechWarrior is back. Polish up your Death From Above skills while waiting for the upcoming new MechWarrior game.

The guys at MekTek have recently re-announced the free release of MechWarrior 4, saying that the issues with Microsoft’s legal team have been resolved. As the team’s update notes, it has been nearly a year since the original announcement of the free release, and rather than being upset by the long wait, I have to give serious kudos to the members of the MekTek team for continuing to work on this project despite all the obstacles they’ve faced. In an era where community projects unexpectedly rise and just as suddenly fall, the MechWarrior/Battletech community have really stuck together and with this upcoming free release, other amazing fan projects, and the official MechWarrior franchise reboot coming soon, MechWarrior/BattleTech’s destiny looks brighter than it ever has since the release of Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, all the way back in 1996. Hopefully this gathering of excitement and creative energy can revitalize the flatlined state of Western mecha gaming development.

It’s a good time to be a Supreme Commander fan. Supreme Commander 2 was just released and now Stardock’s Impulse service is selling Total Annihilation for $9.99.

Total Annihilation was a real-time strategy game released all the way back in 1997, considered to have been ahead of its time and which won considerable acclaim from critics. However, the game never gained quite the foothold or presence that Starcraft did in the minds of the average gamer, and remains mostly a forgotten classic, only living on in occasional critics’ lists of favorites and in the free Spring RTS engine, an attempt by fans to clone the original Total Annihilation’s gameplay (anything with a Gundam RTS mod deserves mention).

Supreme Commander was a “spiritual successor” to Total Annihilation, an attempt to bring its massive scale of combat, large selection of units, an interesting economy/base construction model, and the crowd-pleasing nuclear superweapons back into the minds of gamers, and it being re-released at the time that Supreme Commander is getting its own sequel allows fans to relive history as they step into the future.

More importantly, though, Total Annihilation’s early geometric 3D mecha are simply way, way cool. Most early 3D is considered terrible by the standards of today, but the low-poly units of Total Annihilation seemed to have been designed with the day’s limitations in mind, and thus they still hold up today as somewhat abstract art. The tanks and mecha in Total Annihilation ooze style out of every jaggy line.

Both games feature a “Commander” unit, a giant mecha, which uses atomic-level manufacturing to build an entire economy on far-off planets literally from the ground up, which is an interesting inversion on how mecha usually are used in games: the “Commander” is more or less the player character, and while their large mecha is by no means weak, it’s a central unit because of its production capabilities, and not because of its arsenal, which as a mecha fan I always thought was a nice way to work the idea of a “hero mecha” into an RTS, because you can relate to the Commander mecha’s role as, well, a Commander on the battlefield rather than as simply a powerful named “hero” unit as exist in most other RTSes.