A new Unreal Engine powered FPS called Hawken has been announced. Whilst no official platforms have been cited, over at the official game’s site the team are keen to release the game on PS3, 360 and PC. The game has been in devlopment for around 9 months already, with a relatively small team. The mecha used are in the similar scale and vein as the Vital Suits in the Lost Planet games, but with a more industrial bent. Interestingly, this will also be yet another digital download title focused around online multiplayer. Visually it all looks suitably sumptuous, but in the trailer below it’s clear the online optimisation still has a way to go.

4Gamer has a piece today about Armored Core V’s site re-boot, covering off lots of new ground regarding the operator setup. The epic 7 page Dengeki Online interview with Toshifumi Nabeshima we mentioned previously actually ties in with a lot of this new information thankfully. Specifically, operators are indeed separate from the mecha control entirely. Seeing the battlefield in map form and coordinating their team-mates. Information is actually imparted via the AC’s on the ground to the operator, so the team have to do recon basically. This was done to allow less functionally skilled, though strategically adept, players to help their team. In addition, parts and AC type balancing have been purposefully skewed to make sure that there are complimentary configs in a match. Meaning that certain configs will sympathetically outmatch one another, forcing players to work more in a team in most situations. This means that skilled players will have a harder time if they decide to go up against an AC that’s their config nemesis so to speak. Player skill is still hugely important though and apparently older players will still be able to transfer their skillset over to how ACV works. The reasoning behind this design choice was to emphasise team work in taking and holding onto territories. Despite all this Nabeshima was confident that players can still play the game in a singleplayer way (despite still being online). All in all, this is sounding more and more like ACV is going down the Monster Hunter / Lost Planet 2 route. The 4Gamer piece also has some lovely new mecha design artwork, which is suitably industrial.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the book Valkyries Second Sortie to review, featuring the work of the very talented Hidetaka Tenjin. Unsurprisingly, this new book is very much focused on the more recent work Tenjni has undertaken for Macross Frontier. We’ve naturally taken a few select snapshots to show off the truly stunning content within it.

The past few days has had the likes of Jamzy at Famitsu hinting at a live demo for Armored Core V, but now it seems that this is true and on March 12th Toshifumi Nabeshima and crew will descend on Akihabara to do a live demo of the game. Specifically at Belle Salle between 4pm and 6pm and attendees will be given an Armored Core V sticker for their troubles (admission to the event is also free). Unfortunately, punters won’t get to play the game but they will be able to watch. Due to Famitsu being somewhat conscientious, they will also be streaming the event. With any luck there will be an uploaded version of the demo to follow shortly after it goes live. This also ties in neatly with a pretty epic 7 page interview with Nabeshima over at Dengeki Online (something we will be summarising in a day or two).

Famitsu has a new piece today about the territory defense setup in Armored Core V. Due to the game being permanently online, the player has to setup their base with a selection of territorial defenses (in the form of beefy cannons). It’s nice to see that something that was mentioned in passing around the game’s announcement is actually a pretty cogent concept (as the above screenshot indicates). In addition, the piece also briefly talks about and shows how the operator view works in the game. As it allows players to see the whole battlefield play out in real time. Apparently, you’ll be able to place markers down on the map that other players can see and coupled with voice communications will enable the team to react to enemy threats. Still no word on a release date, though Famitsu thinks it’s still sometime this year.

On the 23rd of February, another mobile suit will be added to Gundam Musou 3 in the form of another DLC pack. That of the beefy GN-008 Seravee Gundam and its more lithe internal counterpart the GN-009 Seraphim Gundam, from the second season of Gundam 00. The Seravee and Seraphim were also the upgraded versions of the GN-005 Gundam Virtue and GN-004 Gundam Nadleeh respectively. 4Gamer has some good shots of each of the mecha too. In terms of pricing, the DLC will cost 600 yen (PS3) and 480 MSP (360) and will also feature an additional mission. As has been said though, the fact that each of these have been released as separate DLC packs is a bit cheeky really. Hopefully, the Western release will conglomerate the DLC a bit better.

The official site for Armored Core V was updated yesterday with two new screenshots showing some of the game’s tank legs on display. Partly due to the reduced size of the ACs themselves, the weapon load-out looks almost disproportionately beefy. Not that we’re complaining, as it makes the new AC’s look suitably kickass. It’s just the more we see of ACV, the more it heralds back to the likes of VOTOMS but in a meaner and tougher sense perhaps. The other screenshot is shown after the jump.

What with the release of Gundam Unicorn’s third episode, the Ghost of Laplace, being palpably imminent we’ve been graced with another video. This one, unlike the previous trailer, is actually of the first eight minutes. Despite some nice shots of the MSN-001A1 Delta Plus, most of the action is in the latter half. Unlike previous space battles in and around asteroids in Gundam, this battle has far more weight to it. As the previous episode already set up the fact that the asteroid has a substantial civilian populace, so this battle feels awfully tragic as a consequence. How it will be handled and the effect it will have on the characters, especially Banagher, will be very interesting. The third episode will be released at the beginning of March.

On the 16th of February, another mobile suit will be added to the ranks of Gundam Musou 3. That of the transformable GN-007 Arios Gundam from the second season of Gundam 00. The Arios was also the upgraded version of the GN-003 Gundam Kyrios. 4Gamer has some nice shots of the mecha too. In terms of pricing the DLC will cost 600 yen (PS3) and 480 MSP (360) and will also feature an additional mission.

As part of a rather nifty Japanese campaign, PS3 owners that watch at least 6 episodes of various Macross series via the Home video theatres will be rewarded with a new piece of furniture for their apartment in Home; the SDF-1. This being the SDF-1 from the first Macross TV series, as it sports both the Daedalus and Prometheus as arms. That said there are a few elements of the model that bear a closer resemblance to that of the movie version, notably around the “feet” and the tips of the main cannon. Considering that the movie version was rebuilt from a Meltran Gun Destroyer, rather than the Supervision Army variant as in the series, this mix and mash of elements is most curious. In any case, the fact you can have a fully transformable Macross in Home is pretty neat. Thankfully there is also a real world option too if you are so inclined, albeit a bit smaller. This campaign started a few days ago and will finish on March 16th, so get watching while you can.