Armored Core 4 Trial Version (XB360, JP Marketplace)

[Silvergun X]

Wow. Where to start...

Content. About 6~8 different AC's (haven't counted yet) to try out over 3 levels and a tutorial. Demo doesn't quit back to dashboard so once you've cained all 3, you can do them all over again.

Weighs in at about 750mb.

It's a bit good, ey!

First thing you're greeted with is the tutorial which, thank god, has visual clues as to what to do, as 99.9% of the text is Japanese. Initially it's very daunting as to me, everything seems to be in the wrong place. Even though you're aiming with both thumbsticks, the attack buttons are on the face buttons and not on the triggers. The triggers are your two types of boost, normal and quick boost, and the bumpers are for weapon changing.

Clicking in the left thumbstick however, locks the camera onto your target, therefore leaving the right thumbstick redundant for you to rain bullet hell on whatever's infront of you.

It's quick. Super quick. You've REALLY got to learn how to be moving at all times or else you're just going to get missile'd to hell.

Objectives on all 3 of the missions are easily learned. Blow stuff up. You have a target indicated by a red dot on your radar for you to destroy. Kill it, mission complete.

You're graded from D to A (S?) based on the criteria of Time, Ammunition Spent, and Damage, so for you S-Rankers on the forums there's some replay value in it for you. :)

More as I play it.

[Bleeders]

Good man.

All we need now is UK release date, since it's conspicious by it's absence at the usual websites.

[dvdmike]

Im loving this also for us uk peeps the game is not locked :)

Silvergun any idea how to invert the right stick ?

[Silvergun X]

I don't think you can invert the right stick at all.

[dvdmike]

Damn it all I will have to lean to play it that way then because there is no way I am not buying this.
There is no sign of the bad frame rates noted in the PS3 version that I could see, that kinda makes my mind up as to which format I get it on.

[Silvergun X]

Framerate can jump at times, but most of the time it's solid.

[dvdmike]

Really I didn't see it, will see what the ps3 one is like then as it is out over here first

[Charlie]

I've not played any of the Armour Core series and despite reading a review somewhere (can't remember where) that AC4 is pretty average I'm still looking forward to playing it. Any idea when the demo will be up on the UK marketplace?

[Ajay1986]

Is anybodys elses DL going mind booglingly slow. :(

[dvdmike]

Just played it again and the stick was inverted, very odd that still loving it

[zeroboo]

do i have to be in japan to download this demo?

[Paulos G]

Nope. See here (http://www.gamersreports.com/article/19/).

[chopemon]

just played it and i thankfully it's good. i was planning to buy it on the basis it looked nice and had big robots in, a good game just seals the deal.

the demo is pretty easy to get through with no knowledge of the dark and mysterious symbols of the japanese but i fear that customising your mech will be a nightmare without english.

i'm also not sure why you would want weapons that don't lock on. one of the mechs has a rocket launcher that just fires straight ahead which is all well and good but when the enemy mech is blasting about the battlefield it's totally useless.

i enjoyed it though and hope the US version is region free otherwise i'll have to get the jap version and try to understand the customisation if it doesn't get released in europe for ages

[Vince]

I'm really looking forward to this and have been for a while so i have it downloading now. As far as i can tell the UK version has no release date yet, although the PS3 one is coming out here in April and i read somewhere today that the 360 one is likely to follow this later in the year. I've pre-ordered a US copy as its out later this month and i'm just praying its region free.

[Paulos G]

The whole "it has big robots in" thing is what attracted me too.

I think all of Sega's stuff on the 360 so far has been region free, so here's hoping!

[chopemon]

good point paulos, i hope they keep up their track record

it would be nice if the japanese one has an english language option as the US box art isn't great (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000IONGX6/ref=dp_image_0/104-5577231-4975134?ie=UTF8&n=468642&s=videogames) and the japanese one is better (http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/images/B000BN980E/ref=dp_image_0/503-5412224-6257569?ie=UTF8&n=637394&s=videogames)

[Yoshimax]

Region Freeness would be good - Had a quick blast on this last night and REALLY liked what I played - Will have another blast later.

Did everybody else find it signs you out of live whilst you run the demo ?

[chopemon]

yep, seemed odd that it would do that

you realise if the Japanese play on the same severs as us we will be crushed like the little girls we are...

it will have to be private ntsc games methinks

i'm also interested to see what they do about patches. they have been releasing optional patches for the ps3 version to balance mech parts but MS don't allow optional patches. i guess they will patch it up the current ps3 version and force us to update.

[spagmasterswift]

it would be nice if the japanese one has an english language option as the US box art isn't great (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000IONGX6/ref=dp_image_0/104-5577231-4975134?ie=UTF8&n=468642&s=videogames) and the japanese one is better (http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/images/B000BN980E/ref=dp_image_0/503-5412224-6257569?ie=UTF8&n=637394&s=videogames)

US Boxart sums up the demo much better than that moody Japanese one imo. Although from the Youtube stuff I've seen of the last level it gets pretty damn dark!

[fishbowlhead]

have to admit i quite liked this. Graphics were suprisingly lush and the effects of the weapons were nice and meaty. Good variation on the level design as well, much better than the constant grey urban enviros of the previous games.


Still not convinced by the controls though, really dont know why from software cant map them better, heres hoping for custom controls option.

[Riskbreaker]

Two questions (bare in mind im an AC newbie):

Can you boost up without having to stand still first? The only time I can get lift seems to be if I stand still first and then hit the left trigger.

Whats with the radar switching between auto and manual modes and how do I change this when it happens?

[anephric]

I'm not getting the "lush graphics" thing at all. Draw distance is lame, texture detail bland spruced up by nice reflectivity, fogginess abounds and the heat haze effect is the lamest one I've seen since CoD2. That said, me no like mech games, so...

[Silvergun X]

Two questions (bare in mind im an AC newbie):

Can you boost up without having to stand still first? The only time I can get lift seems to be if I stand still first and then hit the left trigger.

Whats with the radar switching between auto and manual modes and how do I change this when it happens?You can only get lift if you launch yourself off the air first, but this is only with some AC's - If you're using quite a light one, and you simply boost forwards and hit a tiny little bump, you'll fly straight up.

If you OB, you'll fly up into the air but chances are your weight will just send you straight back down again.

Auto and manual radar? I wasn't aware of this. :confused:

[Riskbreaker]

Sorry radar was the wrong word, I was talking about the lock on. Normally, the computer highlights the enemy with white circles and you use the left thumstick to lock on to one enemy and highlight it in red. Sometimes though, this disappears and I end up with just a series of thin parallel horizontal white lines moving up the middle of the screen. The problem is, without lock on, the controls are crap as its almost impossible to control the mech with both thumbsticks and use the face buttons.

Shame about the boost as well, it makes air combat a complete no go whilst fighting enemies like that battleship as you don't want to stop moving long enough to get some lift.

[Fargo]

Got this off the jap marketplace yesterday and i've been hooked ever since really good game. The last armored core game I played was on the original playstation. Its a definate purchase just have to decide which system to get it on.

[saturn-gamer]

Yeah its ok.

I'm not much into mech games, apart from VO and VOOT. I was disappointed with Chromehounds, but I found Armored core 4 to be good. It has a good sense of movement and speed! Control layout is a bit clunky though.

Download took ages by the way.

[benn99]

After a while lurking I turned to the NTSC forums for info on AC4 and I'm so glad I did. I didn't have a clue about the Japanese demos being so easy to obtain :) so thanks for that.

As for AC4 my initial impression is that it's very fast and fluid; I'm glad they've finally started using the right thumbstick to look around (last game played was AC3). However when I get the full game I think some major button remapping will be in order. The enemy in the desert level moves way to fast to aim and then take your thumb off the stick to fire.
I was a little unimpressed with the city-scape at first thinking it looked very bland, but the damage effects and lighting make up for this. The mechs look fantastic as always but I'm not too keen on the new HUD design. Again We'll have to see how much tinkering you can do with the retail version.

So does anybody know if the US 360 version will be multiregion?

[Bleeders]

Hope so fella, got everything crossed.

I really enjoyed the demo myself.