The Raven RepublicYouTube | Born and raised beside a game controller, he's been playing video games for much of his life. Mecha games, especially Armored Core, are his favorites.
RR cover girl Sophie Emilia shows more of her artistic side with the following original pictures by the talented Trace-02. First off is an artistic rendition of Sophie in the vein of Art Neuvo, influenced by the style of Alfons Mucha. I may have been enticed by some spell the illustration may have cast on me, and I can’t help but enjoy looking at the picture.
Recent screenshots of the upcoming Armored Core Silent Line Portable game for the PSP have revealed a variety of new parts to be included in the next AC game as well as some new features.
1. Shortened load time thanks to some of the game data being installed in the memory stick.
2. Data from AC3P can be carried over, though only 1/10 of the credits will be ported over aside from all of the parts.
3. A.I. training seems to be back as well.
On to the new parts:
Long time AC fan Naitoh, who has been an excellent source of information on the Japanese Armored Core scene, has recently uploaded videos of “Matsuri 2”, a Japanese Armored Core 3 tournament held back in January of 2003, on his YouTube account. Sadly, we have no further information regarding the tournament such as its rules and part restrictions. Beyond that, the only information we can confirm for sure is the slight lag with the 2nd player because of the i.Link connection, as mentioned by Naitoh himself, a given problem in the AC3 and SL editions of AC.
Anyone familiar with the game of pool will be familiar with the “nine-ball” format. Unlike other pool formats, nine-ball is generally played one-on-one, and remains to be a popular event in major pool sporting tournaments. The primary appeal of a nine-ball game is its mano-a-mano format, offering spectators a duel of fates between two competitors whether it is in the spirit of friendly competition, or bitter rivalries. It is this very same format and emotionally charged atmosphere that surround Armored Core’s defining attribute – the arena.
One large entertainment deal has been announced recently, as The Disney Company decides to buy Marvel Entertainment for a total of $4 billion USD. This means that Marvel Entertainment’s famous and iconic characters such as Captain America and Wolverine can and may co-exist with equally iconic characters such as Donald Duck and Goofy. What it means for us gamers, is the chance to see more berserk cross-universe games like Kingdom Hearts with Marvel characters, and maybe succeeding Marvel Ultimate Alliance games featuring a couple or so Hidden Mickeys.
Under the control of Disney, which is known to have a family-friendly disposition, the next issue of Marvel Comics may look something like this:
After the release of Armored Core 3 Portable for the PSP last July, From’s next entry in its PSP ports series is Armored Core: Silent Line, which is scheduled for a November 19, 2009 release. One of the highlights of this new edition is the reappearance of the legendary Karasawa Mk II first seen in Armored Core 2, and it seems like it retains most of its stats except for the reduced ammo count as seen below:
From software, the creators of Armored Core, is sponsoring a tournament for the recently released Armored Core 3 Portable for the PSP. It seems that From plans to go on a tour of various game stores all across Japan for the preliminary matches in this tournament. It’ll be interesting to see how tactics and gameplay have evolved from the original release on the PS2, as well as taking a look at the new parts in action. With the finals date set for October 3, 2009, it is only a matter of time before we get to see results.
Given my lack of Japanese reading skills, I could only decipher that the prizes include the awesome Armored Core model kits made by Kotubukiya plus various extras that I could not read. Please visit From’s officia tournament website for more details (Warning: Heavy on Japanese text): http://armoredcore.net/acct/season1/
The first matches are scheduled to start on August 29, so stay tuned to From’s official site for updates.
Sometimes imagination can run too wild, and nothing can simultaneously express the mixed feelings of attraction and confusion as being gender bent from one’s current sex into the other. The gender bending idea of some RR members came about when Nerese thought of the idea and did some concept sketches a while back which resonated positively among members. After a year’s worth of waiting, those sketches are finally up and the floodgates have opened.
Check out Nerese‘s concept sketches here.
iraya-sama has been kind enough to further this trend by making her own original water colored artworks of some RR gender bent characters in very good quality: