There are many theories on why mech games died out. The question I have is "wh??y are they coming back now?"

Perhaps these two issues are tied closer together than some may think. It’s a matter of innovation, I believe. With new concepts made possible through improved network and graphical ability, the once tired mech genre stands a chance to fight again with games like Hawken, MechWarrior Online, and Armored Core V.

After all, it seems throwing a mech into an FPS is the latest gimmick (see: Gears of War, Killzone, F.E.A.R.) Maybe people want a whole game based around that concept? After playing Armored Core V, I have to deduc?t that peopl?e will still be wanting that game.

To ??put it bluntly, this one just isn&rsq??uo;t very good.

Armored Core V  (Xbox 360 [reviewed], PlayStation 3)
Developer: From Software
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Released: March 20, 2012
MSRP: $59.99

I've had a couple slight encounters with Armored Core before, but never played one from beginning to end. Being my first full-fledged Armored Core experience, it’s inevitable that I will get some things wrong in my assessment of Armored Core V. However, this is as much the game’s fault as it is my own for not attending the AC Ma?ster Class at Harvard like the best of you. It also doesn't help that the game's tutorial and manual tell you fuck-all. Again, Harvard.

If you are also new to the series, prepare to have some distant observations reaffirmed through play: ACV is one of the most archaic, obtuse, and frustrating games of this generation. It’s also one of the most ambitious. As if releasing a hardcore mech game in 2012 isn't enough, ACV introduces some r?ather interesting?? online features.

Like previous entries, the main draw of ACV is the incredibly in-depth customization options. Fans call it the Forza of mech games for good reason: There are so many possible combinations that it can be daunting to choose one. Everything from the legs to your booster can be altered to accommodate a subtly different playstyle. The game is at its best when you?? go online with a motley mech crew. One may jump across buildings with a sword in (mech) hand, while another might slowly walk toward a vantage point for its sniper rifle.

I imagine most players will stick with a specific build after a couple rounds. Weapons, however, will continue to be swapped, if only out of necessity. A key feature of combat is the three different weapon damage types -- having the right kind of weapon available can be crucial to a mission. There were times where a fight went from near impossible to stupid easy because I didn’t have the right weapon attached. Coming to grips with this can be both massively rewarding and frustrating at times. It’s the love it or hate it calling card of the series and ACV absolut??ely nails this aspect. For those keeping count, that's one thing the game gets right.

Despite the title, ACV isn’t a direct sequel. Actually, it’s a reboot of sorts in a series that goes well beyond five entries (more like 14). I know: how very Japanese of them! In an effort to stay contemporary -- the graphics and audio sure as hell aren’t pulling their weight here -- developer From Software (Dark Souls) designed the game around a persistent online world. The game is closer to Monster Hunter than an MMORPG, however. Like that beloved Japa??nese series, playing offline is an option but much of the game’s appeal is lost in the process.

One of the first things you'll do upon booting up ACV is starting or joining a team. Teams can?? include up to 20 players who can claim/defend territory (the game's persistent world, as mentioned above), take on missions together, and trade items. Every victory a team member achieves will help level up the member and team, gaining access to more missions in time. It’s a cool concept that doesn’t amount to much  due to clunky design.

I imagine every player’s experience with ACV’s menu and systems will vary. For me, it was a very poor one. For starters, the team aspect felt utterly pointless. I changed my team a couple times, during my play sessions, and came across the same problems. No one was ever online on my team, and when they were there was no way to play with them. Thankfully, you can hire mercenaries that take the role of team members on missions. These mercenaries are just other players in the same boat as you who want somebody to play with. You will have to share the mission income with these players, but it&r?squo;s often worth it. Well, sometimes.

Getting one of these guys into your game can be a painful process in itself. For whatever reason, the game would frequently deny my requests, forcing me to exit out of the mission and start another. Magically, it would suddenly work after repeating this process. There are a lot of strange issues like this in the game’s design. "Polished" is one thing that no one can call ACV.

Once you get into a story mission (which there are ten of), you’ll run into a whole new host of problems. One of which relates to the co-op aspect. If your co-op buddy leaves the game, you are forced out as well. This would be fine if you could keep your checkpoint or if these missions weren’t 30+ minutes long. This, however, is not the case. I found myself getting so frustrated with losing progress (we are talking at least t??hree hours), I played most missions solo. Neither player even gets anything if they forfeit, which makes it even worse.

Here is the absolute worst part of all of ACV: After a match, the game forces you to send a message to the other players. I'm all for ridiculing these jerks, except all the messages are positive! "SUPERB JORB!!!" It's like that scene where your mom walks in on your older brother beating you up and then she tells you to apologize for getting beat up. Except it happens repeatedly and you ??can't hit them back when mom leaves.

The missions themselves are pretty shoddy, feeling like a 360/PS3 launch title in their presentation and design. You go from point A to B with very little variety in enemy type or objectives. You can look forward to such thrilling things as a sewer that loops three times for no good reason (this actually appears in two missions, since the game has only eight maps), a turret that can kill you in one shot, and some horribly cheap boss fights. You’d be wrong in thinking ACV is hard. It’s not. It’s just te??rribly imbalance??d and unfair.

I went from one of the most grueling enemy encounters in one mission, to the next being an absolute cakewalk. The game is baffling in its difficulty spikes. Most of the challenge will come from the disadvantages of your particular build. You may come across a section that requires you to dodge fast, but you are built for slow, direct combat. I wouldn’t say this is a pro or con; it’s just the nature of this type of game. However, I’d like to think there are ways to offer alternative routes for alternative playstyles. Regardless, ACV is decidedly not progressive in its design despite the forward-thinking online wrapper surrounding the?? game.

If you are in need of extra in-game income, ACV offers a couple options. At any time you ?can jump into different non-story missions. Order missions are simple in presentation and last about a minute to complete, most of the time. You just take down ridiculously underpowered enemies and move on to the next mission. Invasion missions let you and your team claim territory in the game’s persistent world. In execution, however, they play out just like an Order mission. The only difference is that you can have three team members with you and an Operator who can direct your team by setting waypoints and marking enemies.

The main draw of ACV is Conquest, which is its 5-on-5 multiplayer mode. Once you learn the nuances of the game’s combat, you can have some really exciting matches in Conquest. It’s a shame then that this mode is tied to some bizarre concepts. You aren’t just playing team deathmatch; you are fighting over the game’s persistent territory. As a result, you need to spend team points to even play this mode. Team points are a form of currency you acquire upon winning a match in any other mode. So, even if you are a serious AC player, you’ll be just as frustra??ted that the game sends computer-controlled mechs to defend your territory if a real player isn’t around. If all this sounds confusing and dumb, it’s probably because it i?s.

Even when I look past all of ACV’s hit-and-miss ambitious concepts, it is a very poorly designed game at its core. On a technical level, it is full of glitches and weird little quirks. Presentation-wise, its graphics, audio, art direction, and story are terrible and not in that charming dated way of other From Software games (here’s looking at you, Ninja Blade).

Even the mechs don’t control like you want. They are far, far more sluggish and heavier than the ones in AC4 that let you fly around the sky like a Gundam cartoon. The game’s opening sets the tone very well: This is a new Armored Core. It’s one where the mechs are beat to hell and the wo??rld is in tatter?s (even more so than before). Everything from the inexcusably bad audio design to the weird delay on boosting conveyed this aesthetic -- probably not in the way the developer intended, however.

Even once I worked past the game’s convoluted, tutorial-free systems and understood how to build a mech, I found myself in a constant state of despondency. I just can’t get myself to care a??bout the customization and persistent w?orld when everything surrounding it so poorly designed and not the least bit fun. I mean, at least give me loot. Give me something!

ACV will make Chromehounds f??ans mourn that game’s passing and will leave genre newcomers crying out in frustration. A good mech game is hard to find, these days. ;

The post Review: Armored Core V appeared first on Destructoid.

According to Namco Bandai, Armored Core V went gold this week, just in time for its release which happens to be next week. While Japan has had access to this new installment for some time, North America is only now getting it on March 20, 2012, followed by a European relea??se on March 23.

The publisher is also talking pre-order bonuses for Armored Core V. Amazon is offering the "Recon Pack," while GameStop has the "Heavy Assault Pack." Nothing special, but addi?tional parts and weapons can't hurt.

With all the recent talk about mech g?ames, many of which are also coming out this year, I'll gladly devote a handful of late-night gaming sessions to pimping out my Armored Core. I need to get this mech lust out of my system.

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I... f*ck. It's Armored Core V, guys. I remember buying my PS1 way back when, opening the packed-in demo disk (the one with Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Parappa the Rapper, and I.Q), and falling in love with Armored Core. The customization and all-around mecha-based ba??dassery were and, judging by this video, still ARE incredible. 

Namco-Bandai Community Manager Rich "FilthieRich" Bantegui casually talks us through some of Armored Core V's myriad weapon and customization options including the three different weapon classes and their pros/cons, emblems, and paint. Then there's the?? combat, which... Well, March 20 can't get here fast enough. 

The post This Armored Core V c??ust?omization walkthrough is tasty appeared first on Destructoid.

Namco Bandai and From Software have settled on a release date for Armored Core V. In the United States, the big day i?s March 20; in Europe, the game hits shelves on March 23.

As someone who has always valued developers' efforts to make multiplayer a full-on war, not merely a series of ??unrelated battles, the persistent online mode and fo?cus on teamwork sounds intriguing.

Bu pre-ordering Armored Core V at GameStop, you'll get the "Heavy Assault Pack," which "will help give players a competitive advantage on day one" with extra weapons and parts. Uh, yeah. Truth be told, I'm far more curious about the skeleton and ninja downloadable content.

The post Amored Core V set for a March release appeared first on Destructoid.

Armored Core isn’t a series I’ve ever played or considered inve??sting in for more than a couple hours. Right now, you are most likely cursing my name or thinking, “Yeah, me too, dude.”

Although I appreciate the customization and depth the series offers mech fans, the steep learning curve of the controls and menus always provided a barrier I never dared to pass. Now, From Software (Dark Souls) are meeting me on my own mentally-feeble level by simplifying the game without doing away with its signature speed, difficulty and depth. It’s just the right amount of?? twitch, strategy and polish to give the series a successful reboot.

[By the way, this is the fifth reboot in the Armored Core franchise; it is NOT the fifth sequel. In fact, it's the 14t?h entry in the series. Confusing, I know.]

After the hands-on demo, Producer Toshifumi Nabeshima said, “The complexity and difficulty [of the Armored Core series] are the appeal to hardcore fans so we are kee??ping those things and finding ways of getting new fans.??”

There is a dividing line between complexity and excess that few developers recognize in their own games. From Software is one of them. Its efforts in slimming down Armored Core to its basics and pairing it with a multiplayer focus presents the series in a new light. Now, ??players will be able to form 20 person parties who can ??play together online in groups of up to five. The main idea being that players can keep in touch and easily join another player's game. There will also be 5-on-5 multiplayer but I didn’t get to check that out.

Although it’s disappointing that the game doesn’t have a mode where all 20 players can play together, Armored Core V is still offers the promise of many late nights doing mech stuff with mech-lovin’ friends. Instead of lowering the game’s difficulty, From Software wanted to let newbies get by with a little help from their friends. So, in this reboot, players can take on co-op missions with five players or play the single-player campaign wit??h a friend.

As with Dark Souls, it’s refreshing to see a developer keep high levels of complexity and difficulty intact in a game while keeping it accessible to players who are willing to commit the time to learn the systems? and become well-versed in mech ass kicking.

The game itself feels great and the controls were easy enough to grasp within the 30-minute demo. ?Dodging missiles, scanning enemies and jetting through the air felt seamless and hassle-free. The new controls and HUD work to the series' strengths of providing hectic, twitch-based mech battles, where a well-timed boost can be as vital as strategic weapon management.

Although I couldn’t get past the level’s end boss, I enjoyed my time with the demo -- even the part with me getting my ass repeatedly kicked by that stupid mech! The game’s sense of speed, atmosphere and challenge recalls the criminally overlooked Ghost in the Shell game for PlayStation. To be honest, tha??t was the last time I cared about a mech game but apparently it might not be the last. I look forward to hearing more about this game as it gets closer to release next year.

The post TGS: Armored Core V impressions appeared first on Destructoid.

Although I have very little prior experience with the Armored Core series (true story: I played one of the demos once), I've reached a time in my life when my need to kill mechs with other mechs must be satiated. Perhaps Armored Core V will be the installment that finally gets me.

Attached is the gamescom trailer for the title, which may be the darkest trailer I have ever seen for a videogame. The sound of global online team battles is appealing enough to cancel out any concerns I have with the video, though. Also, if the mechs seem?? smaller this time, it's not your imagination.

The post Mechs gone wild in this Armored Core V trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

The October 20 release date for Armored Core V has just been pushed back to January 2012. It seems that the compay is using data gathered from a recent online closed beta test of the game, From Software received feedback from players that they're working to implement in the final game, says Siliconera. It's always nice to hear that sort of thing.

Namco Bandai is scheduled publish Armored Core V in North America and Europe. The original plan was to release the title on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2012. I wonder if this push back for the Japanese version will change the ??US release date. Probably.

The post From Softwa??re listens to feedbac?k, delays Armored Core V appeared first on Destructoid.

Invites went out from From Software to Japanese gamers today for the beta for upcoming title Armored Core V. According to The Daily DL, this beta will give a taste of the final product, offering team play, story missions, customization of mechs and a?? look at the new Mercenary System.

There's actually two betas for AC5 running through the month of July. The first is for PS3 folks (July 1-14), and the n?ext is for the Xbox 360 kids (July 18 through A?ugust 1). Japanese gamers will get the finished game a couple of months later, on October 20th. Us? You'll have to wait a bit, I'm sure.

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