GRmored Core

[melatonin]

What?
Yeah, I know.

No, seriously - what's going on?
Okay. Well, do you know anything about the Armored Core games?

Not really. Big robots, bit Japanese, that's about it.
And that pretty much covers it. This is the new one, its out today, and its pretty damn good. Probably the best of the series released so far this generation.

Well, how many others have there been?
Well, on just the 360/PS3, there was Armored Core 4 which was okay, and Armored Core For Answer which... wasn't.

So why should I bother with this one?
Glad you asked! Armored Core V is the first of the series to integrate the multiplayer and single player aspects of the game rather than treating them as entirely separate. Essentially, you're always connected to the Armored Core servers, no matter what you're doing.

Wait, that sounds familiar.
So it should. The series is developed by FROM Software, of Demon's/Dark Souls fame. Obviously they have very little to do with each other in terms of gameplay, but the attitude to online connectivity is very similar.

Intriguing. So what does that mean?
Well, when you start the game for the first time, you're asked to either start up your own team or join an existing one. Whichever you choose, every mission you complete in the single player campaign will contribute points to the overall team rating. If you're the only one in your team this doesn't mean a lot, but when you start getting a few people together, interesting things start happening.

Like what?
Well, you can 'hire' any other member of your team to help you out in any of the 10 Story or 88 Order missions at the cost of half your reward. You can also trade parts with other team members, share AC designs, have cool clan emblems/colour schemes across the board...

That it?
No. There's a persistent Territory mode too. The Eurogamer review sums it up quite nicely.

But if there's one defining area where Armored Core 5 stands out from its predecessors, it's the online turf wars.
Simpler in principle than the persistent battlefields of Steel Battalion: Line of Contact, Conquest Missions offer teams the chance to try to capture valuable Territories that will raise their Team Level and unlock better AC parts. These take the form of five-on-five battles where the defenders have to guard a tactical objective while the attackers have just 10 minutes to capture or destroy them, and by letting teams devise strategies that combine the inherent strengths and weaknesses of different AC designs, the game becomes as much about effective team synergy as it does individual piloting skill.

Persistent campaigns! Five on five battles! Err, team synergy! What's not to like?

Okay, that does sound pretty cool. So what team should I join?
It most certainly does, and you should definitely join GRmored Core. It's a real team and everything!



Search for the team when you first start the game, and apply to join - we're password protected, and that password is 'cade'.

Wait, PS3 or 360?
360 only right now, but that's the version of the game you should be going for anyway. Apparently the PS3 one is a bit of a mess.

Still not sure to be honest...
Would it help if I showed you my big Japanese robot, War Bastard?

Sold!
Lovely stuff. I'll keep a list of people below when (if) interest starts rising. Please don't let me be the only one on it.

[Sirus]

I loved Armored Core IV, but I never managed to finish it. I'm hoping the customization in this one will be a bit less baffling.

[Harry Bizzle]

Buy me this.

[Christopher]

Waiting on this to drop in price to around £20 before I jump in.

[Shalashaska]

I loved Armored Core IV, but I never managed to finish it. I'm hoping the customization in this one will be a bit less baffling.

Same

This talk of more tactical gameplay and environment use sounds like sexual chocolate. Consider me suited up.

[NBK]

Great OP

Today seems to be a day for me finding out about games I've heard next to nothing about then wanting to play them straight away.

The online aspect sounds interesting and massive robots are always fun. Customising massive robots sounds even more fun. Especially when you can name them things like War Bastard.

I'll look into it, thanks for the info

[Fargo]

Waiting on this to drop in price to around £20 before I jump in.

I can imagine the servers being turned off if the games popularity drops as with Demon Souls. Wouldn't you be better getting it now when the community is likely to be at its best ?

Great OP btw!

[melatonin]

I loved Armored Core IV, but I never managed to finish it. I'm hoping the customization in this one will be a bit less baffling.

I don't know if it's necessarily simpler, but the customization has definitely been overhauled quite a bit. Essentially there are three different categories for both attack and armour - KE, TE and CE. KE is kinetic weaponry like your basic rifles and gatling guns, anything that uses brute force to cause damage. TE is thermal weaponry, so your laser blades, laser rifles/cannons, etc., and more often than not costs boost power to use. CE is chemical weaponry, the damage for which isn't affected as much by distance as KE, and doesn't rely on energy as much as TE, but generally isn't as accurate as either.

Crucially, most of the parts available for customization only either really excel in one of these three areas, or put in a middle performance for all three. That's what makes the idea of 5 v. 5 battle so interesting, as you could theoretically have dedicated roles for each member, with individual weaknesses and strengths playing a big part. For example, there's stuff like super-long range weaponry as well which requires you to take a 'kneeling' stance before firing, so that person would be able to cause horrific damage from afar, but would need protecting from anyone trying to get in close...

This talk of more tactical gameplay and environment use sounds like sexual chocolate. Consider me suited up.

Again, probably one of the biggest changes they've made is the way you can use the surrounding buildings to your advantage. All the bipedal mechs can either 'climb' buildings or wall-jump from/between them very quickly with very little effort, making highly-mobile mechs potentially very dangerous in these sort of crowded spaces. Very cool stuff.

What is slightly annoying is that I actually created GRmored Core before playing last night, but because the servers hadn't been turned on yet, all the team points (got us up to rank 20!) didn't count.

Guys, it's less than £30 already on Shopto. You could spend more than that this week on one of two half-arsed, brain dead, cash cow franchise updates of boring old Ninja Gaiden or Resident Evil, or you could play something fun and be recognised as a Really Cool Dude. Don't you want to be a Really Cool Dude?

[Psychic]

Does it still have the Arena mode where you go one on one with the AI builds?

[melatonin]

Does it still have the Arena mode where you go one on one with the AI builds?

Yeah, they're part of the Order missions.

[Psychic]

Awesome. I'll pick this up as soon as I can then. I have fond memories of making a slightly less mobile tank that fired off about five hundred missiles* at anything that came near me in the arena.

*May not be accurate

[Zellery]

Does this game have any co-op game modes or is it all single player and multiplayer death match type scenarios?

[Shalashaska]

Just tried an online duel. Got my ass handed to me by some prick who had some ridiculous mech which looked like it had some Max Power body kit.
Time to start building my super agile laser blade AC.

[melatonin]

Does this game have any co-op game modes or is it all single player and multiplayer death match type scenarios?

Two players can do all of the Story/Order missions in co-op mode, and there's a 5 on 5 team mode as part of a persistent online campaign. That team mode also allows one person to act as an 'operator', which I assume is sort of like it was in Chromehounds. Haven't tried it yet though.

Three people in GRmored Core as it stands, Team level 34. Note that even if you join and decide that you don't want to do any of the actual multiplayer stuff, that's still fine - all the single player missions you complete help to build up our rank. Also, all of the AC parts are tied into team level, so as soon as you join you'll get access to all the parts we've unlocked so far. You'll still have to play missions to get the money to buy them of course...

Couple of random points - one, the story is complete and utter nonsense. I genuinely have no idea what's going on. Two, the bloke who does the voice of The Riddler in the Batman games is in this, and he's... doing the exact same voice. Maybe it's the only one he has. Hmm.

[NBK]

Guys, it's less than £30 already on Shopto. You could spend more than that this week on one of two half-arsed, brain dead, cash cow franchise updates of boring old Ninja Gaiden or Resident Evil, or you could play something fun and be recognised as a Really Cool Dude. Don't you want to be a Really Cool Dude?

Sold out already at Shopto but you can get it for about the same price at either Zavvi or The Hut.

The Hut also has a voucher for £6 off £60 that's valid until midnight tomorrow.

I got this, Kid Icarus and Garden Party (look, it was only 95p and I needed to make up to the full amount. Hopefully this won't reflect badly on my newly acquired Really Cool Dude status) so managed to use it. Worth it if there's anything else you're after.

The code is CLHUT6

[melatonin]

That, right there, is the post of a Really Cool Dude. TheHut can be pretty shitty when it comes to fulfilling orders though, so let us know how it goes.

[Harry Bizzle]

Hopefully will bomb before weekend after next so I can pick it up for like £25 when I'm in the UK.


Actually, I might trade in a load of old junk at Asda for this.

[melatonin]

My local Asda weren't even stocking it on Friday. Think it'll be very difficult to find anywhere but online.

[Shalashaska]

I found it in Blockbuster after looking everywhere else.

[Zellery]

Think I might pick this up.