PS3 Fanboy

Looks like Armored Core: for Answer will be arriving on our shores fairly soon; Ubisoft has announced that the game will be released on September 16th. GameSpot scored an interview with associate producer Kenan Alpay, who tells us a couple of facts about the game. Here are some highlights:

• Online co-op mode: "30 missions and eight-player online melees in 80 different arenas."
• Story mode: You play as a mercenary who can eventually choose which missions to take from different factions within the game. There are over 40 missions and the decisions you make can lead to multiple endings.
  
• Arms Forts, which are giant battle stations much larger than yourself, will be the featured enemies of the game.
• Control scheme: new control scheme for beginners, as well as an option for other players to join in via co-op mode to assist them with difficult missions.
• New customization options: 130 new mech parts, including "interesting" parts such as an "auxiliary boost jets that increase your mobility and are ideal for hit-and-run attacks."
• Voice chat will be supported, as well as cross-regional (North America, Japan, Europe) play.
  
• No trophy support for "the Western version."

The extremely niche Armored Core series continued with for Answer -- a sequel to Armored Core 4. The title was released back in March in Japan, and since then fell off the radar for any hope of a US release. However, that's all changed as Gamecyte has discovered that Ubisoft will be picking up the game and will ship the mechanized warfare to North America.

The move is a stealthy one as we haven't heard anything regarding the game for months. Oddly enough, the game is scheduled to be released sometime between August and September. Siliconera suggests for Answer might be heavily discounted for cheap bucks due to the lack of marketing; that might actually sound bad if localization is to be sacrificed. If you're wondering even more about the game, check out the embedded trailer, and even better still, download the demo off the Japanese PS Store.

[Via Siliconera]

Armored Core: for Answer looks like it is really knocking things up a notch from its predecessor, Armored Core 4. These new screenshots from The Magic Box help prove that point as they display the game's larger arenas and amazingly humongous enemy fortresses. Suiting up in the good old AC unit is going to become a whole new experience when it finally comes time to take these giant foes down.

So far, for Answer hasn't been announced outside Japan; however, we're keeping our fingers crossed for that nice little press release to arrive and tell us otherwise. This game has got us excited since January; check out this trailer we posted to see why. Or better yet, if you have a Japanese PSN account you can download the full HD version for yourself and be awed.

Historically, the Armored Core franchise has seen little evolution from each installment, but Armored Core: for Answer looks as if it could change that trend. Not only sporting bigger play areas compared to Armored Core 4, the game will also support online co-op and transformable battle mechs. And oh yeah, this new Japanese trailer for the game is godly amazing.

Armored Core: for Answer is set to release in Japan on March 19, but it currently doesn't have a release date elsewhere as of yet.