New to Armored Core? You Should Play Armored Core 3

With Elden Ring winning GOTY 2022 and FromSoftware’s reputation as a mover and shaker in the gaming world, the attention has suddenly shifted towards their upcoming Armored Core title. No doubt, people unfamiliar with the franchise are curious as to what it’s all about. Why would FromSoftware, the developer known for Soulsborne titles, go back to a clunker robot game? And with more than a dozen entries in the series, each generation serving as a soft reboot of the franchise, it’s a daunting task to pick where to start, right?

I’ll help you out. You should start with Armored Core 3.

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.

Armored Core 3 Portable Available In US Playstation Store

Armored Core 3 Portable is now available in the US Playstation store for $14.95 for your PSP. Enjoy your mech action on the go, because this one doesn’t require a UMD making the game load faster than its UMD based counterpart. Here’s hoping for an English SL portable and LR portable as well.

Thanks to forum member R.Leonhardt for the heads up.

Armored Core Championship Tournament Season 1 – Final Match Videos

The results of the recent Armored Core Championship Tournament sponsored by From Software was recently released in the official Armored Core website. The tournament winner is a pilot named “ame” from the Tokai prefecture while the second placer is “naname” from the Kanto area which come from their respective regions in the preliminary round. Final AC designs and final match videos after the jump. Please note that the designs posted are based off the videos. There is no official documentation of the player AC designs, and their internals are based on speculation.

10 Most Overpowered Weapons in Armored Core

Right arm weapons are nobrainers to use. Just point and shoot, simple enough that anyone with the slightest bit of hand-eye coordination would be able to do. While there is a wide variety of weapons to choose that will burn, shoot or crush your opponents, at times From Software just makes it a little too easy for people punch holes into each other. Here we shall see the 10 most overpowered weapons in old school AC that make killing NineBall Seraph and Phantasma, a breeze.

Armored Core 3 Portable English Release?

Joystiq has recently reported that the US based ESRB has rated an English version of Armored Core 3 Portable, and this may hint a possible English release. However, no other details have emerged aside from this particular stub; there is no word on which publisher has taken the task of distributing the game in the US or in other countries outside Japan. All that’s left is to hope for an English localization of the game and its sequels Silent Line Portable and Last Raven Portable.

[via Joystiq]

Armored Core Championship Tournament Season 1 Results

The officially sanctioned Armored Core 3 Portable tournament by From Software has finally ended and just in time prior to the release of Silent Line Portable. The results are up as well as tournament videos from various tournament locations all over Japan.

Not much has changed when it comes to part selection among participants compared to the initial release of AC3 for the PS2. The RF/220 is still the easiest weapon to use in the game, and is widely present in the tournament. Another prevalent weapon appearing on the top rankers is the OC/15 orbit cannons and the Multi-missiles. Overall the designs are well varied despite the usual domination of bipedal ACs.

An Unkindness of Ravens

A Nest for Ravens

Armored Core has always been something of a niche catering to the already-niche genre of mecha simulation. The Armored Core trilogy for the PS1 provided mech fans everywhere with the rare chance to build and battle with their very own customized mechs. As players got to know the game better, their skills improved along with their ability to design ACs. It got to the point where bashing the AI rankers wasn’t enough any more and nothing other than an equally skilled human opponent would suffice for competition. But as most AC players surely realized, finding people to play against, let alone skilled ones, was just as challenging as learning to play Armored Core itself.