Those smart gamers who haven’t been incessantly whining about Lost Planet 3 for its working-class lead character, intentionally unexciting cover art and American developer (for no legitimate reason other than they like to whine about a game they’ve yet to play) HAVE been wondering what’s up with the silence so far on the game’s online multiplayer modes. Well, Capcom is here to clear the air with a peek at two of them, so here comes half an answer if you’re one of those folks. Me, I’m all about the single player campaign in my games, but given that action-based games such as this seem to require ways to interact with other players by running around and shooting them in the face, here you go. Well, at least the two revealed modes sound fun if you like that sort of thing (to the press release, Robin!):
Scenario Mode sets each team a series of either offensive or defensive challenges and mixes them up with the extreme and unpredictable conditions of E.D.N. III. Players can compete in both third person on-foot action and in first person combat using the futuristic Vital Suits, making this a dynamic gameplay experience.
Akrid Survival sees two teams of three players compete independently of each other in a series of encounters against waves of hostile Akrid before the teams go head to head in a final PvP elimination round.
As the game’s now got an August 27, 2013 release date, that gives Capcom time to show off the other two MP modes and perhaps also show the really cranky skeptics out there that Spark Unlimited has done a solid job with this prequel. I still think the title is what’s confusing many more than the game proper, as I keep seeing bile-spewing posts all around where the authors believe this game takes place AFTER the events of Lost Planet 2 and not many years before. OK, Capcom – the ball is in your court again – I say get a YouTube video out with an explanation of where this game falls into place along with a nice long video of some live gameplay so people can shut the hell up and actually put more money into your pockets because they like what they see and understand it more fully. Me, I’m not in need of any further convincing because my hands-on time helped me see this one’s going to be quite good…
Starbreeze Studios and Josef Fares’ upcoming collaboration: 
Well, there goes the rest of the week, folks. I walk in from working on a few posts and there’s a copy of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen waiting for me. Nice. Hmmm… I see from the included Fact Sheet that loading up that old save I have will net me a cool 100,000 Rift Points, a nice set of gear and some other fun stuff, so I’m going to have to NOT pass up that chance to score all those goodies and see what this “expansion” packs on that disc. I say “expansion” because it’s a lot more than a simple add-on and nope, you don’t need the first game at all to play this one.
First things first: Armored Core Verdict Day is NOT an “expansion pack” at all. You don’t NEED a copy of Armored Core V in order to play, there have been a ton of improvements and additions in key areas and in fact, this might be a more enjoyable experience for players diving in for the first time as well as returning veterans. FromSoftware is polishing up this online experience to a beautiful shine and if the recent demo on display at Namco Bandai’s Global Gamers Day was any indication, this should be one of those mech games that keeps players coming back for more once they get to take it for a spin… 
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 