Now with the release date widely known, we’ve now also been treated to a new trailer for Gundam Battle Operation. Specifically focusing on the mobile suits this time, the trailer shows a lot more of the grapple based melee attacks and whilst they look cool we feel that moving the camera out like that tends to fuck things up. Especially as to get that nice camera angle you often have to lock player control out elsewhere (so they can’t move out of shot) and this normally results in a long and very fixed animation sequence. The latter is the death of any decent melee combat, which is a shame as the rest of the trailer looks pretty fluid. Anyway, see what you think of it below.

A new live stream for Armored Core V has been announced. Entitled Revision its main focus is to cover feedback from the Japanese community on the game, especially in regards to the online implementation and how matchmaking has been dealt with. This will also be an interactive event as well, as it seems viewers will be able to ask questions to the panel. Personally, we applaud From Software’s support of the Japanese community. If only Bandai Namco would learn from their example when it came to the Western release of the game, something they are still wholly responsible for. The new live stream will happen on 11th June at 9pm (Japanese time).

Separately, we will be posting a new post-mortem opinion piece on the game as we’ve been playing the Western version since March. Whilst the review we did still holds true, it was very much based on the Japanese releases. The Western version has had some pretty interesting issues by comparison. So keep an eye out for that over the next week or so.

Finally, we now know that the release date for the new freemium based Gundam Battle Operation will be June 28th. The core game will naturally be free to download but internal content will be monetised. In addition, players will be able to pre-register on PSN pretty soon. Once we’ve put some time into this, be sure that a review will be forthcoming.

As this year’s bizarre clusterfuck that is E3, there’s now finally some (supposedly) in-game footage of Lost Planet 3 in a pretty slick trailer (plus some nice screenshots). Despite the somewhat desperate attempts to emulate a Hollywood film, the whole setup does show the fact we have another middle of the road Unreal powered game on our hands. This is not to say that Unreal is a bad toolset, far from it, but that publishers tend to force developers to play safe and opt for functionally very standardised design. Though in this instance it feels more like Spark are leading Capcom down the garden path due to their lack of inspiration. Considering this developer’s pretty crappy portfolio up to this point and the fact we’re getting a Red Faction: Armageddon vibe from this, we’re expecting something functionally very safe but also deeply lacklustre. Thank fuckity there’s E.X. Troopers on the way. The full trailer is available for your viewing pleasure below.

What seems to be the entire newly animated opening movie for the Zone of the Enders HD Collection is now available online for everyone to see. Animated by Sunrise, it was specially commissioned for the new HD collection. There’s also a brief interview with Kojima online too, though this more importantly shows the new HD gameplay in action. Both videos are linked below.

Famitsu has a nice new update showing in-game screenshots for the upcoming Zone of the Enders HD Collection. The most impressive of these, we think at least, are for the original game. In many ways playing that will be more interesting than Anubis (which already had many silent revisions and a special editions). Fingers cross crossed that they’ve helped to excise the suck out of the first game.

Finally, after much wait, the greatly anticipated 2nd Super Robot Wars OG has had its release details finally made public. Much of the fan speculation on places like 2ch was that the game would be released at the end of the year. Well, it seems that they were pretty much spot on as the game is slated for a Winter release. This can also mean it may slip to January next year though. This will be the first current generation 2D SRW game and if you’ve forgotten how gorgeous it will look, then take a gander at the lovely HD promo videos below. In short, we can’t wait for this!

Updated: Famitsu now has all the details online too.

Hot on the heels of their massive Metal Gear Rex replica is an equally impressive Metal Gear Ray from the same craftsmen at threeA. It was first publicly unveiled a few weeks back, at a showcase in Hong Kong, alongside upcoming figures for Halo and Portal.

But it was difficult to get a real sense of Ray’s size, though the safe bet was that he’s just as huge as Rex (if not more so.) So thanks to close up pics, via Kojima’s Twitter, we finally have a better idea. Mostly due to Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai Gray Fox, which stands close by and offers a true sense of scale. Anyone familiar with that figure knows already how big it is, so seeing it appear relatively diminutive speaks volumes.

Details are scant, other than what the pictures tell us. Like how its mouth can open; it remains to be see if he’ll shoot water, which was a primary means of offense in Metal Gear Solid 2. Ray is also without a tail, a key defining trait of the mass production unit. Perhaps one will be included in the final package, which can be applied at will? Like the battle scars that one can apparently adorn Rex, according to previous pictures.

No word yet on availability or price, but it appears to be coming along just swimmingly, and will more than likely have the same $500 or so price tag as its predecessor. Even though Rex is the most popular among Metal Gear diehards, Ray has plenty of fans nonetheless, who would be more than willing to give it a home as well. Provided that they’ve managed to pay his older brother off at that point. Also, Arsenal Gear next, please.

In a recent Tweet, Yuji Korekado posted a new screenshot from the Zone of the Enders HD Collection. From the second game Anubis it shows the early boss fight with Ardjet. As you can see above, it looks pretty good. This is also from a forthcoming demo meant for the event on the 25th and they are almost trying to recreate the same setup as was seen in the TGS 2002 demo (this was later included in the very nice Anubis artbook). It’s also worth clarifying that this version of the game is not really the same as the one we reviewed. Whilst a few people think our appraisal of the second game is a tad harsh, the review was done back in 2003 on the initial Japanese release. This was a very badly balanced version of the game and suffered lots of problems. Multiple silent revisions followed, culminating in the Special Edition. The latter is a very different game functionally and one day we’ll hopefully get around to covering that version in a new review (as we like it a lot more).

Following the new promo for Gundam Battle Operation, we now have a new update with some new screenshots as well as the slew of fixes on account of the recent closed beta. One of the most important of these obviously being the improving of the game’s netcode in order to reduce lag. On top of this there are all manner of gameplay tweaks and balances mention, with the slightly floppy grapple being firmed up and more immediate being notable. Despite being free to play, they’re really making an effort to make the game more palatable to its (Japanese) audience, as well as openly communicate that. That in itself is reassuring. Still no word of the game’s release date though, bar sometime at the end of June.