Another Age takes place several years after the events of Armored Core 2. After Leos Klein's revolt threw the colonies on Mars into chaos, the old tensions between the Earth government and powerful corporations again threatened to explode into violence. The government's expanded Martian military presence, installed to try and restore order after the coup, obviously intrudes into the territory the corporations are accustomed to ruling. To make matters worse, further disorder results from the migration of settlers to the planet's surface, out of the underground cities, and scattered armed conflict between colonists is becoming a problem.
Well, a problem to some, anyway -- to an enterprising Raven, war is just another job opportunity. Assignments are more bountiful than ever in Another Age, with 100 total missions available. Among these is the possibility of a two-player split-screen mission, where a friend can bring there Core into battle along with you. When building your AC, you'll have access to all-new parts, making for 10,000,000,000 or more total combinations. The number of new parts is as follows, organized by type:
Cores: 6
Weapon Arms: 6
Legs: 14
Boosters: 4
FCS: 2
Generators: 1
Radiators: 3
Extension: 2
Back Weapons: 10
Arm Units/R: 16
Arm Units/L: 4
Cooperative missions are a great idea, but there are also times when you may just want to beat hell out of somebody else -- if so, you can go head to head in split-screen, i.Link, or online combat. That's right, Another Age will support the third-party PS2 modems that are on their way in Japan, and so you'll be able to fight your friends in the tradition of their Dreamcast mech sim Frame Gride. You can use ACs you created in Another Age, or load save data from the original AC2 and use the mechs you built in that game.
AC2: Another Age is coming to the United States almost entirely intact, save for the modem options, which will be removed due to the lack of a suitable peripheral in this market. That's a small thing in comparison to the huge amount of single-player game, though -- AC fans will certainly want to pick this one up.
-- David Smith