My Mushishi game journal got me thinking about games that I don't talk about very often, and the Armored Core series came to mind. It's something I ought to bring up more when the subject of video games comes up, because it's hands down the best at a lot of things.

[link] It has a level of customization that every RPG ever can only dream of. If that trailer looked in-depth at all to you then stop for a moment, because that was pathetic. Armored Core lets you customize your power supply, ventilation systems, add radar jamming or missile interceptors, you can be bipedal, quadrupedal, plantigrade, digitigrade, even apedal with tank treads or hover chassis...Absolutely every single thing your AC is capable of doing, from what sort of weapons it's best at firing to the most basic things like whether it is even capable of auto-locking onto targets or if it has radar, is a direct result of what you add to it. If you didn't specifically ask for it, then it's not there.
A lot of people are daunted by that. "Why do we need to think about cooling systems?!" But I'm a nit-picking logic-seeking hard-core detailist. I don't care if it seems pointless, I want to know exactly what my AC is capable of taking before it overheats. I want to know just how long I can push an overboost before I fry in my cockpit like a baked potato in tinfoil. Which brings me to my other point.

[link] Armored Core has the lightning-fast, inconceivably intense combat that every action game ever can only dream of. Remember what I said about Starsiege: Tribes and it's frantic shooting? As much as I hate to admit it, the fact is that absolutely nothing that I've ever experienced tops Armored Core. Multiplayer matches are a thing of beauty. The key to victory in Armored Core is making sure that your opponent, as voiced by one lulzy online regular, quote "has no f***ing idea where you are". You have to move so quickly and erratically that they lose sight of you completely and you're free to blast them to slag while they flail their viewfinders around in desperate circles in a last-ditch attempt locate you. Of course creative measures are always welcome. Notice at about 2:30 in the video I linked to this paragraph how the Blue Dragon (the opponent in that video) charges an overboost, then just as it takes off takes off he fires an Assault Armor explosion. Normally this attack would cloud both mech's vision, but because the Blue Dragon boosted out of the explosion it was able to effectively disappear for almost fifteen seconds and get some free hits on the Monique.

END AC RANT.

ALMOST

(ZACH. Buy "Armored Core for Answer". You'll love it. I think. Maybe. Actually I have no idea, but I hope you'll love it because...it's awesome?)