Armored Core 4

Like previous entries in the franchise, in Armored Core 4 players pilot mecha units called Armored Cores and take on missions in return for credits. An arena mechanic returns to allow players to fight in 1-on-1 matches against computer-controlled opponents. When starting a new game, players choose from one of several Armored Cores with differing difficulty ratings. A tutorial introduces the basic game concepts prior to beginning the story sections. Once players finish the tutorial, they can begin selecting missions and earning credits for customization.

Gameplay has been sped up and controls have been streamlined to be more accessible than previous entries. Customization, a franchise staple, has retained depth. Hundreds of available parts and weapons can be used to radically change the player's mecha, and each part has a number of stats to detail effectiveness. A change from earlier titles is that many parts are not available at the beginning of this game and instead are unlocked in groups as the game progresses in throughout the story. Parts can also be tuned to subtly alter performances to fit a player's needs.

Amid overpopulation, dwindling resources, and civil unrest, six major corporations launch a coordinated global uprising known as the National Dismantlement War, which overthrows all countries on Earth and ushers in a new world order of corporate-enforced peace: the Pax Economica. To efficiently redistribute resources, people are relocated into oppressively managed settlements called colonies and forced into hard labor. However, a technological gap opens between the corporations with the advent of Kojima technology, which utilizes potent and hazardous Kojima Particles as energy. Kojima technology is instrumental in the creation of NEXTs, next-generation Armored Core mechs, and the corporations begin waging a shadow war among themselves for control of it.

Five years into the Pax Economica, the colony of Anatolia enters a financial crisis. Anatolia is one of a handful of colonies that enjoys autonomy from the corporations, but this was solely due to the wealth of the late Professor Jarnefeldt, a leading NEXT engineer. Upon Jarnefeldt's death, most of his staff defected to the corporate research colony Aspina, severing Anatolia's income stream, and leadership of the colony fell to Emil Gustav, one of Jarnefeldt's researchers. To keep Anatolia funded, Emil modifies a veteran Armored Core pilot into a LYNX, gives him a NEXT, and sells his services as a mercenary to corporations that lack their own NEXTs.

Armored Core 4 received "mixed or average" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave the PlayStation 3 version a score of 31 out of 40, while Famitsu Xbox 360 gave the Xbox 360 version a score of 32 out of 40.

Reviewers found that Armored Core 4's graphical update was a welcome addition following its increasingly outdated visuals over the last several titles, but noted that there were still issues with the visual presentation of the game. GameSpot's Tom Magrino wrote that after years of "pining for a graphical update" that the "update has now arrived", though he had reservations about the blandness of certain environments and clipping issues with mechs on hilly terrain. Andrew Mellick from 411Mania remarked that the graphics looked impressive "sometimes" and noted that while the game had sections that "really look breathtaking", the game's "level of inspiration didn't keep up the whole game". IGN's Greg Miller was far less impressed by the updated visuals, writing that "what they had didn't work". Bryan Vore of Game Informer opened his review by stating the "biggest surprises" found in Armored Core 4 is the multiplatform status of the title and the "next-gen graphical makeover".