We managed to not only have several playthroughs on the upcoming port of Virtual On Force but also try out the HORI TwinStick EX peripheral that will be compatible with the game on its release in December. From what we saw, pretty much all the VR and their variants were playable and the following impressions were undertaken using Temjin 747. We’ve also linked a video at the end of the post to show the sticks in action with the game (we aren’t the ones playing though, in case you’re wondering).

Apologies for the slightly blurry photo above but we’ve managed to play a fair bit of Koei’s upcoming and now cel-shaded Gundam Musou 3. To give both releases a fair chance, we put some time into the PS3 and 360 versions. The show demo only has two playable units; the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam and the GF13-017NJII God Gundam. You can also pick your partners too, such as Kamille in the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam and Four in the MRX-009 Psycho Gundam. Our impressions are after the jump.

4Gamer has the scoop from Capcom’s press briefing today. In short From Software are developing a new Steel Battalion game for Capcom that uses Kinect to control the vertical tanks. This looks like a reboot as well, as the tech seen in the previous games is narratively absent apparently. Naturally, there aren’t many functional details at present but of all the developers – bar the original Nudemaker – who could handle Steel Battalion well it would easily be From Software (especially considering that Chrome Hounds pretty much went down that route already). No word on who’s penning the new mecha designs as yet, as the original games used mecha designed by the very talented Junji Okubo, but we’ll hopefully know more on that in a day or two. In the meantime, here’s the teaser trailer.

Update: It’s been confirmed that Junji Okubo is not penning the mecha designs for this, which is a pity, but the good news is that the Chrome Hounds team are developing this Kinect only game – so we’re very cautiously optimistic about this.

Like with previous Gundam Versus games, you often get a Japanese singer to do a cover song for the intro (Gackt being notable in this regard). However, for the upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus things are going to be a little…different. Instead of using a Japanese artist, Bandai Namco will be using the American band Linkin Park and their song The Catalyst for the game’s intro song. Following on from this, they’ll also be releasing (in Japan) a modified HGUC kit of the RX-78GP01-Fb Gundam Full Vernian “Zephyranthes” from Gundam 0083 styled by the band. To make matters somewhat more awesome, the above press shot has the band dressed in Federation regalia from the same part of the Universal Century timeline, this is more than a little bit brilliant as far as we’re concerned (and classy too because they picked UC). In any case, this version of the single was released yesterday in Japan and the music video for the song is shown below.

Whilst wonderful games like Border Break Air Burst are being shown at this year’s JAMMA show, Bandai Namco don’t want to miss a trick either and have had Gundam Extreme Versus at the show too. They’ve even got the full intro for each series running on a gorgeously massive screen and as such it wasn’t long until some diligent fan captured the footage. We’ve subsequently linked the video below (the actual intros kick in around the 2 minute mark). Enjoy!

At the PAX convention in Seattle, Red 5 Studios released a gameplay trailer of their upcoming free-to-play online team-based shooter, Firefall. Notably, the studio has staff who previously worked on World of Warcraft and Starsiege: Tribes, so it’s not just an online team-based shooter with an amazing gameplay trailer, it’s one by some of the people behind the world’s biggest online game and an online team-based shooter held by many to be a classic, respectively, so the sheer potential this game has is simply staggering.

More mecha related though are the player characters’ armor, which from all appearances seems to work like that of Tribes’, where a character’s role would be determined by the armor, weapons and equipment they had equipped, rather than by having specific classes. And again like Tribes, these are suits of powered armor that allow a limited form of flight through the use of jetpacks, replicating the kind of combat in the novel version of Starship Troopers. While the Starship Troopers movie, which had a radically different plot from the book, muddies this a bit, the original novel had a huge effect on both the mecha anime genre (more specifically, Real Robots) and the “space marine” trope that simply cannot be overstated–they wouldn’t exist in their present forms without it.

In the West, the “space marine” interpretation is obviously the most popular, while Japan adopted the mecha aspects of the novel’s powered armor as their own, but it has only been recently that we’ve started to see the two different genres, which share the same common ancestor, sharing ideas. Games like Lost Planet and Vanquish are starting to take elements from both sides and are creating something new and original, and Firefall seems to be a part of that trend, with even Gears of War getting a piece of robot action these days.

The Firefall armor, for instance, not only looks like the earlier Tribes’, but incorporates a number of features uncommon in the West but more common in Japan–the armor is in general more colorful rather than ultra-gritty gray and includes glowy verniers in addition to more standard thrusters, much like Japanese mecha of today, versus the “space marines” we see more often in the West which de-emphasize these mechanical aspects. The glowy verniers themselves seem to be inspired by Gundam 00’s GN Drives or perhaps some of Gurren Lagann‘s “spiral” imagery, and according to the little data we have available on Firefall, they might even share a few more similarities to them other than looks: they seem to be related to “repulsor technology” a bit like how GN particles (or UC Gundam’s Minovsky particles) could be used for shielding or improved movement. It seems like the powered armor can also use an ability similar to Armored Core: For Answer’s “Assault Armor” in the cinematic trailer (which also shows off deployable robot drones, and the most painful-looking asstacular female ‘armor’ seen to date). The gameplay trailer, with its ten minutes of awesome, follows:

The upcoming Super Robot Wars L has received its first promo video (which was shown at C3xHOBBY over the weekend). Despite the nice new Macross Frontier shots, the remaining animation does look awfully recycled and in some instances almost GameBoy Advance in sprite quality. It will be interesting to see what this entry will be like though as SRWK was really quite short, though with any luck it may utilise some of that version’s game system. The game will retail at 6,090 yen on November 25th.

The upcoming Super Robot Wars OG anime directed by none other than Masami Obari has finally received its first PV (shown below). Despite the somewhat unnerving character design, having the cockpits shake and rattle in both the PTX-007-03C Weisritter and PTX-003C Alteisen is rather refreshing. The PV is also quite long too and shows a good chunk of footage.

As the release date for Front Mission Evolved looms ever closer, the marketing campaign is going into overdrive. From appearances of the game at GamesCom to a somewhat spurious “interactive trailer” (linked below). We’re still a bit sceptical about the game, as the wanzers appear a tad twitchy. In any case, we’ll know for sure when it’s released at the end of September.

One of the most terrifying opponents in From Software’s series of Armored Core games is the ultimate incarnation of Nineball, that of Nineball Seraph. First introduced as the final boss in Armored Core Master of Arena, it was one of the first transforming antagonists seen in the series. However when Seraph reappeared in Armored Core 2 Another Age, as a secret boss, this was when its reputation as a brutal opponent surfaced. Colloquially known as “jetboy” amongst the Western gaming throng, Seraph would obliterate almost everyone that tried to face it in combat.

It seems that Nineball Seraph has finally made it into the just released Another Century’s Episode R, though with a few minor modifications admittedly (with the shoulders being notable). This would be the first time, since the original Another Century’s Episode, that a From Software mecha made it into the series (as the last was a Cloudbreaker from the Xbox game Murakumo). Whether this is a playable unit remains to be seen though. In other news, the wonderful Hi-Nu Gundam has been confirmed as a secret unlock in the game as well, this would mark the unit’s current generation debut in an action game. In any case, we’ve linked the video of Seraph’s introduction below as well as its appearances in Armored Core.