Armored Core Analogs: Finger Machine Gun

Stinger is just about to hit a hand full of lead.

Size doesn’t matter in the world of AC, especially when you’re talking about the WA Finger. A placeholder for one of the series’ most broken weapons, the Finger finds an unexpected ancestor in a weapon that helped shape the British Empire.

Barely the size of an AC’s fist, the WA Finger machine gun is nonetheless one of the most hated weapons to ever grace Armored Core. While the Karasawa terrorized with staggering single-shot firepower, the Finger dealt fear with sheer, overwhelming numbers.

Stop-Motion Gundam Animation

Over at the forums, R.Leonhardt just shared with us two fantastic stop-motion videos of his collection in action.

One more vid after the cut:

Front Mission Evolved Q&A With Square Enix Director Shinji Hashimoto

There have been a lot of rumors and speculations regarding what sort of features Front Mission Evolved (FME) will be having, and fans have analyzed officially released videos over and over again to look for clues regarding the next installment of the Front Mission series.

The fine folks over at Japanator and its sister site Destructoid wanted these rumors and speculations laid to rest, so they asked Square Enix Director Shinji Hashimoto a few questions regarding the upcoming Front Mission title, including some of the burning questions fans wanted to ask about the game. Some select questions after the jump:

Aftermath

Grim’s Edit: Amends have been made. Issue has ended.

NiX’s Edit: Cleaned up for good measure. If you saw what was here before, all you need to know is that it’s over. If you didn’t, well it’s probably better that way.

Anyway, you can still sort of catch up by hitting the comments.

From Soft’s Armored Core Battle TV

Some interesting developments in Armored Core’s official website. From seems to be launching a replay based broadcast service upon the release of Last Raven Portable early this March. Speculations run that the service will allow players to upload and download various replay battles that builds upon Armored Core: Last Raven’s ability to save and load battle replays, a first for the series on the PS2, and likely the feature is being ported over to the PSP version as well.

Suddenly, we’re getting this idea of roving caravans of LR player teams all over Japan with their PSPs duking it out with other AC groups and posting the replays on Armored Core Battle TV. No news if this service will also be accessed when the international English version does get released.

In other news, From released a variety of Armored Core based themes for the PSP, go check them out as well.

Thanks NiX for the heads up.

[via: armoredcore.net through Mecha Damashii]

Armored Core Analogs: Anti-Missile Systems

One thing we enjoy about Armored Core are the parts, and how closely some they remind us of an existing analog in the real world.

For this post, we’ll be talking about anti-missile defenses – those wondrous little extensions that are oftentimes the only thing standing between you and an abrupt, fiery demise. The fact that they were so KISS-convenient to use was what made them rock – so long as you kept your AC pointed in the direction of your enemy, your little friends did the rest. So convenient in fact, that you’re probably wondering whether such a system is too good to be true.

Armored Core Retribution ACs Featured in Last Raven Portable

Dengeki Online Magazine has released a new batch of screen shots for the upcoming Armored Core Last Raven Portable, and these compelling screen shots show that one more additional item that seems to be missing from the Last Raven Portable extra parts list.

It seems that ACs featured in Dengeki Hobby Magazine’s own Armored Core Retribution published back in 2007 will be featured in the game, much like how the Victoria AC from Brave New World was featured in Silent Line Portable.

From the screen shots, we can see that this new arm part will function as a shield given its arm position, unless there are last-minute changes in its design and function for the final release. Additional screen shots after the jump.

Japanese Armored Core Silent Line Fight Videos

Now that Armored Core Silent Line Portable has been released in English, people might wonder how different Silent Line is compared to its predecessor and the rest of the Armored Core games.

As evidenced by the videos above and to follow, a lot has changed from the days of Armored Core 3 Portable. These videos were taken from Naitoh’s AC site some time around 2003-2004 during various sparring sessions or actual tournaments on the PS2 version.

These featured are probably among best Ravens to ever pilot an Armored Core, so its worth watching them. Maybe these fights might inspire some people to play AC more often and learn a couple of things in the process. One important thing to note: all these videos are played in hard mode, meaning all the lock boxes are much smaller.

More videos after the jump.