The highly anticipated Lord of the Rings game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordorhas launched in North America for next generation consoles and Windows. A European release will follow later this week on October 3rd, 2014. PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners will have to wait until November 18th in North America and November 21st in Europe to get their hands on the title.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordortakes the franchise in a new non-canon direction. Talion is a ranger who is murdered along with his family by Sauron’s army. He comes back to life with new wraith powers that augment his ranger skills and is now on a path of vengeance. The new nemesis system will allow Talion to develop a unique experience in this open world action game, by having major characters take in account Talion’s previous interactions with them.
Today FUNimation released the most recent One Piece movie, One Piece – Film Z, in North America and considering they have released it containing both the English and Japanese voice track, the company has released a launch trailer for the movie which can be found below.
Those interested in picking up the movie can check out our review here, while FUNimation has provided the below story synopsis:
Said to be comparable to the Ancient Weapons of old, the Marines’ trump card, the “Dyna Stones,” have suddenly been stolen by a group of renegade vigilantes. The terrifyingly powerful man responsible, former Marine Admiral “Z”, now stands in the path of Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates. Can the Straw Hats defeat “Z” and his crew, or will the New World meet its end at the hands of this mad man?
We still have very few details about Dead or Alive 5: Last Round other than the fact that it is heading to both current-gen consoles as well as last-gen consoles. Now thanks to the latest issue of Famitsu, and summarized at GamesTalk, we have learned that not only are a couple of new characters on the way but that she will be a bit different than the others.
The magazine reports that the new female character is not a returning character and will be brand new for the series and that she is being developed using what Koei Tecmo describes as their “Soft Engine” which apparently has been designed to replicate the “softness and warmth” of a character’s skin.
Additional details include a new male character being added, though it was not said if he has been in the series before, additional hairstyles, and “The Danger Zone” level being brought back from Dead or Alive 2.
Koei Tecmo has already revealed that Dead or Alive 5: Last Round will be released in the West and it will be interesting to see just who this new character might be. Considering the teases of collaboration between the two franchises, it might even be a guest character from the Senran Kagura series.
With the 2014 New York Comic-Con set for October 9th through the 12th, Viz Media has announced their plans for the event and these plans happen to contain quite a few events. On top of these events, Viz will also be at booth #1944 where they will be selling various products including pre-orders for some of their upcoming titles, including copies of Sailor Moon where those who pre-order during the event will be given a special coin that has long-since went unavailable. Other special merchandise which will be revealed later today.
The company will be welcoming manga artist Takeshi Obata as their guest of honor as he makes his first-ever U.S. event appearance. Those unfamiliar with the name will probably recognize some of the manga he has worked on in the past, as it includes Death Note, Bakuman., Hikaru no Go, and All You Need is Kill. Obata will be taking part in the Weekly Shonen Jump panel and will be appearing at several different events during Comic-Con.
Full details of all of the events and their time frame can be found below:
Thursday October 9th 3:15PM – 4:00PM Panel: VIZ MEDIA PANEL (Room 1A14)
Join VIZ Media and pull back the curtain on favorite manga and anime series. Be among the first to hear about upcoming releases and new acquisitions and throw questions at staff and grab FREE manga prizes while supplies last!
6:00PM – 6:45PM Panel: THE FUTURE OF WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP (Room 1A14)
Join the editors of VIZ Media’s WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and editors from Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine to welcome Takeshi Obata for an enlightening personal discussion on what’s new and what’s next for the long-running manga anthology which launched best-selling titles such as NARUTO, BLEACH, ONE PIECE, DRAGON BALL as well as Obata’s BAKUMAN。and DEATH NOTE series.
Friday October 10th 2:00PM – 2:45PM Panel: VOLTRON: A 30TH ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION PRESENTED BY PERFECT SQUARE (Room 1A21)
In 1984, Voltron: Defender of the Universe hit the TV, and the world of giant robots has never been the same. In honor of Voltron’s 30th anniversary, join the staff of VIZ Media’s Perfect Square imprint for a very special peek behind the curtain at this cultural phenomenon with special guests, new product announcements and much, much more!
5:00PM – 5:45PM Panel: WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP PRESENTS
TAKESHI OBATA, MANGA ARTIST (Room 1A21)
Join VIZ Media and the staff of WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP to welcome very special guest Takeshi Obata and his editor Koji Yoshida for a conversation about Obata’s beginnings as an artist, his extensive history working in the manga industry, and the creative process behind his works. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity!
Saturday October 11th 4:15PM – 5:00PM Panel: OFFICIAL SAILOR MOON PANEL (Room 1A14)
Come on a journey with the legendary Guardian of love and justice, Sailor Moon! Members of the VIZ Media SAILOR MOON animation team will talk about the impact of this beloved anime series, show footage from the re-mastered episodes and celebrate the long-awaited return of Usagi and her friends!
Scheduled Booth Activities:
VIZ Media Prize Wheel of Destiny: Take a spin for a chance to win a surprise goodie like t-shirts, posters, stickers and more! While supplies last.
DORAEMON Meet & Greet: Drop by for a photo op with everyone’s favorite big blue cat-type robot from the future!
SAILOR MOON PHOTO SESSION: Meet Guardian Sailor Moon (official cosplayer) and bring your own camera/phone and take your own “Sailor Selfie”!
VOLTRON Mascot Appearance: Become a Defender of the Universe with an official photo.
VIZ Media /WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP Newsletter Sign-Up: Receive the latest digital news about your favorite anime and manga titles and get a free Takeshi Obata full-color poster!
Assassin’s Creed: Identity, the first action-RPG in the franchise’s history, has soft launched in Australia and New Zealand for iOS devices. The soft launch is integral to gathering feedback for final development tweaks before Ubisoft‘s planned full release in 2015.
The title is being developed by Blue Byte (a Ubisoft studio) in Unity, and allows players to create and customise their own assassins, roam the familiar backdrops of Florence, the Coliseum and other Italian cities in full 3D, and take on literally thousands of missions. This is like having a console entry on your mobile, with dynamic crowds, time and weather systems and real-time lighting, as well as the series’ trademark free movement capabilities all implemented in the experience. Cyril Voiron, Head of Mobile developments at Blue Byte, stated;
This soft launch is an important step in the development process for Assassin’s Creed Identity. We’re looking forward to receiving feedback on the game from players in Australia and New Zealand, and think that by leveraging Unity engine, along with assets from previous Assassin’s Creed console titles, Assassin’s Creed Identity will deliver an authentic Assassin’s Creed experience on mobile devices.
You can downloadAssassin’s Creed: Identity for free right now from the App Store.
Fans of A Certain Magical Index have been waiting for the second season to be released for quite some time and now that it is set to be released in a couple of weeks, FUNimation has begun releasing English dub clips for the series. The clip released today contains some minor spoilers, but features a fight between Touma and the battle nun Agnese.
Check out the trailer below and as for the series itself, FUNimation is releasing A Certain Magical Index II Part One in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack that contains the first twelve episodes of the season with Part Two set to be released on December 16th.
With Omega Quintet set to be released in Japan this week, Compile Heart has released another pair of trailers highlighting the idols of the game. This time they have released introduction trailers for Kanadeko and Nene. Kanadeko is a “genki girl” who is unpredictable and a bit of a tomboy despite her appearance while Nene is a jumpy girl with a faint heart who always looks up to Kanadeko.
Check out the trailers below and for those interested in importing the title, Omega Quintet drops in Japan on October 2nd as a PlayStation 4 exclusive.
Good news for Soul Eater fans, FUNimation has announced that they have acquired the home video rights to the spin-off series, Soul Eater Not!. Previously FUNimation only had acquired the streaming rights to the series but now they are planning on giving it a full Blu-ray and DVD home video release sometime in summer 2015. An English dub is planned for Soul Eater Not! but at the moment FUNimation has not revealed whether or not certain voice actors will reprise their roles.
A synopsis for the series has also been released by FUNimation and can be found below:
Get ready to meet the newest class at Death Weapon Meister Academy! Tsugumi Harudori and her outrageous friends make up the NOT class at this stylish school dedicated to training living, breathing weapons and uniting them with the Meisters who’ll wield them! Soul Eater fanatics will be psyched to meet these epic new characters – and catch up with all their favorites from the original series. Don’t miss a minute of the adventure as Tsugumi and her pals weave their own exciting tale of deadly life at DWMA!
With the Summer 2014 anime season wrapping up, the start of the Fall 2014 anime season is right around the corner and with that comes the first license announcements. FUNimation has revealed that they will be continuing to stream two of their previously acquired series, Psycho-Pass and selector infected WIXOSS.
Psycho-Pass 2 will begin airing on October 9th and will be streaming on Thursdays at 11:50 AM CT while selector spread WIXOSS, the second season of selector infected WIXOSS, will also be streamed. At the moment FUNimation has not nailed down an exact start date for selector spread WIXOSS but they have released a plot synopsis which can be found below:
After Ruko battled to free the LRIGs in selector infected WIXOSS, the series returns for a second season with selector spread WIXOSS. Kanon Wakeshima, who performed the first season’s opener, also returns with spread’s opener, “world’s end, girl’s rondo”. Join Ruko once more in the strange world of the popular game, WIXOSS.
Roccat launched their newest gaming mouse today. The Roccat Tyon Gaming Mouse is a brand new mouse design that features a two way analog stick called the X-Celerator thumb paddle. The stick is ideal for vehicle-based games, where the stick can be assigned to handle throttle control or turret rotation. A dedicated EASY-SHIFT[+] button is in easy reach underneath the thumb, allowing players to multiply the number of potential macros that can be bound to the mouse. There are a total of 13 physical buttons on the mouse that can be bound.
The Roccat Tyon’s heart and soul is an 8200 DPI laser powered with a 32-bit processor. 576kB of on-board memory will allow players to take their profiles with the mouse. Finally, the mouse is available in either black or white and is armed with LEDs capable of displaying 16.8 million colours.
Roccat will be bringing the Tyon to the EB Games Expo 2014 in Australia. Buyers can snag one for themselves there for only $169.95 AUD. Learn more about the Roccat Tyon at the product page.
