Another live stream for Armored Core V is planned for the 21st July, naturally you can check out the stream at Famitsu or you can watch it on From Software’s much more reliable UStream channel (though weirdly they’re linking the same videos). The reason for this new live stream is to show the closed beta in action, so this will likely be very interesting as gamers will be rinsing the game rather than squeaky tarento going incoherently crazy. 4Gamer has also laid down the gauntlet by announcing their formation of a team for the closed beta. We are seriously beginning to think that this shit is going to get real pretty damn soon.

Over at Famitsu there’s a new update regarding Armored Core V’s story. Specifically that the game seems centered around freeing a city from a dictator of sorts, in an almost Seven Samurai homage (as you’re obviously a paid mercenary). The shot of a giant MT (above) is also encouraging as the Arms Forts in AC4 and ACFA were very cool so to see them back, at least in some way, makes us happy. The other cool element is that there will also be an underground city, where the former resistance hide out, which is a nice nod to the original PSone games (as well as AC3 and AC3SL) too. In any case, the game is still on track for its October 20th release and we really can’t wait!

Due to the ongoing maintenance on the Japanese PSN, the closed beta test for Armored Core V’s suitably epic online setup has been indefinitely delayed, at least until the Japanese PSN is back up and running again. Thankfully the 360 closed beta is still good to go and will commence on July 19th. Still, considering that in Japan at least the vast majority of gamers would be playing the game on PS3 (as they did for both AC4 and ACFA) the fact that they are out of the loop until PSN is fixed is a bit worrying. As the whole point of this exercise was to stress test the network setup for the game, so the more more people you have online the better. Fingers crossed the Japanese PSN problems are resolved soon.

Over at 4Gamer there’s a new piece on the forthcoming Ace Combat Assault Horizon. Curiously at the bottom of the page is a picture (shown above) of a DLC specific fighter tentatively dubbed the “F-X” that’s designed by none other than Shoji Kawamori. Whilst it very likely won’t transform, it’s cool to effectively see a VF-9 Cutlass grace a game like this. Admittedly the sound of the Optimum control setup makes us want to gouge our eyes out with a rusty spoon but it’s good to know that the proper “original” controls will also still be available to those that haven’t mated with their closest relatives. The game will be released this October but no word on when Kawamori’s plane will hit DLC.

The upcoming 2nd Super Robot Wars OG has received it’s first promo. Whilst showing some of the very nice CG opening movie, the promo also has a variety of sections from the game itself. The animation, as expected, is incredibly impressive and doubly so as much of it appears to emphasise 3D movement via 2D animation (as in swanky camera pans among other things). Naturally, the final segment is dedicated to The Inspector anime series, that you can buy bundled with the game for crazy money. You pre-order the standard game here though.

After the veritable yearly clusterfuck that is E3, Armored Core V has exited out the other side safely. Whilst not displayed at the show, unlike Dark Souls From Software’s other forthcoming title, Armored Core V is still ticking along in terms of its PR. This week 4Gamer have a piece on the details behind area acquisition and how that culminates in effectively an AC face-off as well as some information on the game’s back story. Much like the 1997 original, humanity has suffered a global catastrophe, though this time brought about by environmental forces. With wars erupting across the globe as resources become precious and suitably rare. The interesting twist though is that the AC’s actually pre-date this devastation and are dug up from deep underground, in a manner not too dissimilar to the events in Panzer World Galient. Separately, there are now new character types known as “migrants” that travel between areas of the world to trade resources (including weapons). Whether these will act as mobile shops is not clear as yet though.

4Gamer has a new updated for the forthcoming 2nd Super Robot Wars OG, specifically featuring characters and mecha from D and MX. Whilst the screenshots are curiously small, they do look very impressive. The game has now also been scheduled for a release on 29th September in Japan and the (standard edition) will retail for 8,379 yen. You can pre-order the game here.

Following the shorter CG trailer released week for Armored Core V, From Software have followed up with what looks to be the full version (shown below). As with all their CG movie work, it’s very pretty indeed. The daytime shots look really quite splendid too. It’s also interesting to see how gritty they’re pitching the game now. The release date, for Japan at least, has also finally been confirmed for the 20th October.

Over at Gundam.info they’re teasing a new release, using a silhouette somewhat similar to the Extreme Gundam from Gundam Extreme Versus. We’re hoping this means we’ll be finally seeing a PS3 port of the game sometime later this year. In any case, the full brief will be divulged via a live stream on June 13th. The fact that Bandai Namco are handling the stream makes us think this is likely to be game related, but who knows.

Update: Anime News Network is reporting this could more likely be a new anime series than a game announcement. Anyway, we’ll know more on June 13th.

Along with a slew of Metal Gear Solid Games, Konami have announced that they will also be bring both PlayStation 2 Zone of the Enders games into the bright light of day that is HD. Slated for a “2012” release, both games will be available on the PS3 and 360, either boxed or via digital download. In addition, the two player functionality from the games will also be available. Whether this will be online multiplayer remains to be seen but if so it would fix the fundamental nonsense the original games suffered from, as players wouldn’t need to fight over the camera. Whilst we aren’t fans of the games, in a functional sense at least, it will be interesting to see how they perform with this new HD lick of paint. No doubt Konami are testing the waters to see if the franchise is still financially viable.