In a move that’s more than a little bit uplifting, Capcom it seems haven’t entirely abandoned the Lost Planet series. A new Capcom developed cel shaded and anime styled game called E.X. Troopers has been announced. Both 4Gamer and Famitsu have the scoop, along with a nice promo trailer (shown below). Functionally it looks a bit more arcadey in places, with the player dashing around a bit now, but it’s still very much a Lost Planet game. Especially as many recognisable Akrid are present not to mention the all important Vital Suits. Released on both PS3 and 3DS, the game will also be playable at this year’s Capcom Summer Jam. Interestingly, Shintaro Kojima (the game’s producer) also worked on the Monster Hunter series so expect even more of that type of functionality in this game. It also seems that May’n, of Macross Frontier fame, will involved musically too. In any case, our faith in Lost Planet has been reaffirmed and we can’t wait for this when it’s released later this year.

Gundam Battle Operation has received a new ground combat trailer. Showing off the human sized combat, the trailer doesn’t exactly help to assuage our fears. Whilst it’s the same team behind Gundam Senki 0081, we’re definitely getting flashbacks to the pretty awful Gundam Operation Troy. That said, since the beta a bunch of changes have gone in. From visible enemy life gauges to more easily visible hit markers and stun grenades for foot soldiers (the latter being in the trailer). The stun grenades look to be a pretty handy option but seem a bit overpowered in the trailer, as they cripple a mobile suit pretty effectively. The game is meant to be released sometime at the end of June but no specific date has been set as yet.

A new event has been announced for the forthcoming Zone of the Enders HD Collection. Called “Zone of the Enders HD Night Fastest in the Universe Reboot Preview” it will be held on May 25th at the Shijuku Wald 9 theatre. Most of the key staff will be there too. Tickets for the event will cost 3,000 yen and will be purchasable through Konami Style starting May 2nd at 10am. Following on from this, more places have started to show off the upcoming Jehuty HD Edition kit from Kotobukiya. As always, the sculpt looks utterly spot on. Considering that over ten years have passed since the original game was released and the only models available were hideously expensive garage kits, it’s nice to think that we’ll actually have a choice now. You can pre-order the HD edition kit here.

In a cool community based move, From Software are running an emblem design contest for Armored Core V. The winners will receive a “special award” as well as have the emblems included in a free DLC emblem pack. Unfortunately, the means by which you submit the emblems requires you to use the ACV Link feature. This is something that’s only available in the Japanese release of the game and links the game to your profile over at the Armored Core Official Partnership site. The contest will finish on the 10th May at 3pm.

Before people get all pissy at this, first blame Namco Bandai for removing the feature and second shout at them (not From Software) to include it. Since the game’s release abroad, From Software have been blamed for a bizarre amount of the community issues with the game. When in reality that’s Namco Bandai’s responsibility, something they massively dropped the ball on no less.

That said, Namco Bandai did manage to sort out a preview of all five of the bosses this weekend. Normally bosses only trigger due to territorial disputes but considering the fact that we’re still waiting for the patch, they unlocked them a little early to help appease the now pretty pissed fanbase. The bosses are a partial nod to the Arms Forts in Armored Core For Answer but more a reference to the old massive MT’s players used to face in the original games. Whilst it’s recommended to play against them with four players, you can actually take them out on your own (normally with some judicious usage of Overed Weapons).

For those that buy the first release of the forthcoming Macross Do You Remember Love BluRay Hybrid Boxset, they’ll also get a nice PSN download code for the original PSone shooter. Originally released on the Saturn and then ported to the PSone, it was actually a pretty damn good shoot-em-up and we very much enjoyed blasting our way through it back in good old 1999. It even came with demos for Macross VF-X2 and Patlabor: Game Edition. What was very notable about the game however was its use of some lovely reanimated cutscenes (as produced by Gonzo).

There’s also a pretty cool exhibition going on in Shibuya, Tokyo regarding Macross. Starting today and running until May 13th, tickets cost 500 yen each (400 yen if you’re a student and free if you’re a kid at elementary school) and it covers pretty much the whole gamut of the saga. If you’re in the area, then check out the Parco Museum page about the event for more details.

In addition to this news is the fact a lovely 5 minute HD promo for the BluRay was released yesterday (shown below). Voiced by non-other than Mika Doi (of Misa Hayase fame), the promo also has footage of the game in action too (around the 3:25 mark). Don’t forget you can still pre-order the pretty damn awesome boxset here.

It seems another Lost Planet game is on the way next year, as a CGI trailer for it has been leaked (shown below). If you’re wondering why the styling is a bit Gears of War-tastic and the mecha looks like something from BattleTech, that’s because it’s being developed by a Western studio this time. Specifically that of Spark Unlimited, who also developed Legendary and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. If we’re honest, we’re not sure about the styling (as it’s a bit also-ran and there are plenty of similar themed shooters out there). This is not to say that we don’t think a Western developer can do it justice, as Red Faction: Guerrilla was hugely enjoyable and nailed the mecha aspect beautifully. It’s just that Lost Planet has always been a really interesting and different type of game and this comes across as something we’ve all seen before. After all, we loved the last game and we’re just hoping that this holds true to that in some way.

Updated: In-game screens are here, though some of these look more than a little touched up. Sadly, the mecha seems to be controlled in the first person.

In typical Hideo Kojima fashion, yet another Revoltech Jehuty has been revealed but this time sporting an all new colour scheme and a very beefy Vector Cannon (pictured above). The latter is probably one of the most powerful weapons the player had access to in Anubis and was an actual necessity on some enemies (as shown in the video below). However, in contrast to the emphasis on mobility that the game was focused around the Vector Cannon required the player to be grounded and stationary in order to fire (it even had a rather long charge time too). Considering that this will be the third Jehuty Revoltech we are starting to feel that Kojima et al are milking it a bit now. Like with all Revoltechs though, this toy likely won’t break the bank thankfully. It will also be on sale mid-June with any luck too. Unfortunately, there’s still no word on when the HD collection will be out nor whatever happened to the mysterious 3DS game but in the meantime they seem fine to placate us with more toys.

A fair while back it was revealed that a game would be released alongside the forthcoming anime series Eureka Seven AO. We now know that this will in fact by a game packaged on the Blu-Ray release of the anime itself, basically yet another hybrid game/anime setup. Considering this will be a long running series, rather than a one shot movie, it will be interesting to see whether the game will become similarly episodic. In any case, still no details as to what type of game this will be but due to the format we do now know that it will be a PS3 exclusive.

Frustrated with Armored Core V’s regional server structure, one person has taken it upon himself to create an open petition to Bandai Namco; to merge the North American, European and Australian servers into one large server. You can find the petition here.

It’s no secret that Armored Core has never exactly been big outside of Japan. Sure, we few mecha gaming fans have played and loved them for years but the general population has, for the most part, skimmed over the franchise. So to start off with the player base is small but to then make it smaller yet, by braking the online players up from region to region, is a bit of a kick in the side. They meant well though. They just wanted to decrease server lag for us, which is a nice thought.

If the servers were to merge, we would have a great many more opportunities for territory matches, the online would feel more alive and I think all around more robust (albeit perhaps slightly laggier). While I’m not sure if Bandai Namco will listen to the pleas made by this petition, I do believe that at the very least, Bamco will take notice, and think about what the players want. Besides the petition’s stated goal, many people hope that it will bring with it the patches required to bring the game inline with its Japanese counterpart, which would be a very welcome thing indeed.

Whilst we don’t normally cover the D-Style kits from Kotobukiya, this two kit set from Armored Core 4 and For Answer is pretty sweet. Featuring both White Glint and Orleans, the latter being an interesting design as it was piloted by a LINX called Anjou who did very much enjoy using the Moonlight laserblade. The set also comes with a nice transfer sheet, allowing you to affix a variety of emblem’s (even Berlioz’s too). This is also a limited edition set that has to be ordered through Hobby Japan (to be released this summer). Thankfully the pricing is a very reasonable 4,500 yen.