Namco Bandai Games Europe has today announced an exclusive Collector’s Edition of forthcoming tactical action-adventure game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, which will be available across Europe on October 8th, 2010. The custom Collector’s Edition retail box of Enslaved will contain a hard-backed high-quality artbook featuring concept art and exclusive images documenting the development process of the game at Ninja Theory’s studios in Cambridge, UK. The package will also contain a separate CD featuring the game’s original soundtrack, written and produced by the fantastic Nitin Sawhney.

Enslaved is a cinematic gaming experience inspired by the classic Chinese novel, “Journey to the West”, and features Lord of the Rings’ Andy Serkis as dramatic co-director, and lead character, Monkey. The story comes from the pen of Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later), and takes players on a gripping, surprise-filled journey as two ill-matched characters, Monkey and Trip, form an uneasy union in order to survive their way through a perilous, post-apocalyptic America.

Namco Bandai has today confirmed that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 will be released on PS3 on October 15th 2010. Prior to that, a playable demo will be available for download on the PlayStation Network across Europe and PAL regions from August 25th. On what has turned out to be an exciting news day for Naruto fans, Namco Bandai also revealed that a special Collector’s edition of the game will also be available on October 15th alongside the standard version. Included in this extra special package will be an individually numbered Laser Cell artwork featuring an original illustration of “Hokage-Naruto” drawn by Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, to mark the 10th anniversary of the series’ first appearance in Shonen Jump magazine. Also included in the package is the original soundtrack on a separate CD, and a DLC card giving players instant access to the playable character Minato, who is otherwise only available as the very last unlockable character in-game. The entire Collector’s Edition package will come in a specially designed retail box.

Namco Bandai Games has released some brand new action-packed screenshots taken from the forthcoming PS3 game, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2. The game aims to provide Dragon Ball fans with much more of everything they love about the series. The development team at Spike Co. Ltd. in Japan has been listening to the worldwide community of fans in order to make this second game in the Raging Blast series the most authentic and advanced experience so far. They’ve been working on improving such important elements as the camera and the controls, to create a game that is both accessible for newcomers, but tactically sophisticated enough to satisfy hardened Dragon Ball fans.

Doing away with cut-scenes, Raging Blast 2 will tell the game’s story as the action unfolds, bringing the experience closer than ever to the anime. The game will feature more than 90 of the most popular characters, over 20 of whom are new to the Raging Blast series. All the battle stages have been improved, with the addition of some brand new ones as well. The destructibility of the environments now has even more of an effect on the battles than ever before.

Also featured are seven game modes, original Japanese voices, tons of unlockables, and ultra-realistic HD visuals, not to mention a new combo system. Fans will have to wait until autumn for the game to be released, but for now they can feast their eyes on these hot-off-the-press new screenshots.

Namco Bandai has today announced third-person action-adventure game Knights Contract  for the PlayStation 3. As you can tell from the OTT screenshots, the game is set in an incredible, and incredibly gory, fantasy universe, in a time of swordsmen and magic, full of larger-than-life action. The storyline features Heinrich, an immortal executioner, and Gretchen, a resurrected witch. Having already been killed once by Heinrich, under the orders of the game’s main villain, Dr. Faust, Gretchen and Heinrich now find that they must work together to rid the land of the supernatural foes who have cursed the populace.

Your main battle tools are a razor-sharp scythe and explosive witchcraft, both of which can be combined to unleash devastating attacks and finishing moves by coordinating Heinrich and Gretchen. Heinrich is invincible, so there’s no need to worry about him, but it’s up to you to keep Gretchen safe and alive, as if she dies, that’s it, Game Over.

Knights Contract is due for release on PlayStation 3 in 2011.

Ninja Theory Ltd., the renowned Cambridge, UK, team behind Heavenly Sword, has been beavering away on a new PS3 game entitled Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, in partnership with Namco Bandai. Judging by these stunning new screenshots that have just been released today, they’ve been using their time very wisely. The screenshots feature the intense opening moments of the game, as the main character, Monkey, jumps free from the slave ship in which he has been held captive, just seconds before it crash lands.

The game’s storyline, set in a post-apocalyptic America, centres around Monkey, a strong, athletic loner who has fallen prey to one of the many slave ships which take people off to the wilds of the West, and Trip, a tech-savvy young woman who manages to escape from the same slave ship as Monkey, and decides to team up with him, believing him to be her best chance of staying alive amidst the chaos. To this end, she hacks into a slave headband and fits it on Monkey, literally linking their fates together in the sense that if either one of them dies, then so does the other.

The relationship between these two interesting main characters is the foundation of this tactical action-adventure game, as players are challenged to employ a mix of combat, strategy and exploration. A top music score and outstanding graphics are also promised. Well we know they ain’t lying about the graphics, that’s for sure! Look for the game on PS3 in late 2010.

Following on from its hugely successful release in North America and Japan, Demons’ Souls has finally been given a release date for Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. The acclaimed RPG will be launched on June 25^th 2010, as an exclusive limited-edition pack containing the soundtrack cd, an artbook, and a strategy guide.

Demons’ Souls is very much a hardcore RPG for the PS3, including revolutionary online features, such as having the opportunity to team up with other players in simultaneous cooperative play, working together to topple some of the game’s huge bosses.

Gamespot called Demons’ Souls “Brutally challenging and utterly engrossing”, and named it their Game of the Year 2009, so European and Asian gamers are clearly in for a long-overdue treat. Here’s Olivier Compte, VP Marketing, Sales & Publishing, Namco Bandai, talking about the game:

“We’re very pleased to be working with SCEI to bring the fantastic Demon’s Souls to gamers outside of Japan and North America. The game is exactly the kind of quality experience with which we are continuing to grow the Namco Bandai Games portfolio of titles, and we will be working hard to ensure it’s at least as much of a success in our markets as it has already proven to be elsewhere.”

Namco Bandai Games Europe has today announced the forthcoming launch of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 for the PlayStation 3, marking the first time a game based on the worldwide smash Naruto Shippuden manga and anime has appeared on Sony’s console. For the uninitiated, Naruto is the Number 1 best-selling manga across Europe, and the hit anime TV series is broadcast worldwide to huge audiences.

The game is being developed by Japanese studio CyberConnect2, and will be “impressively faithful” to the universe of the anime, according to Namco Bandai. Players will be faced with choosing the right fighting companions to give them the best chance of victory as they together unleash the Team Special Techniques on their enemies.

Players will come face-to-face with many different criminal Akatsuki characters in the game, and in an astonishing story twist even get to see Sasuke wearing an Akatsuki costume. Fans will also be treated to the original Japanese voiceover, a whole slew of unlockables and power-ups, lots of all-new environments, as well as a two-player offline multiplayer mode.

NARUTO Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is scheduled to launch in fall 2010.

Namco Bandai has today announced Inversion, a third-person shooter with an upside-down twist. The game is set in the near-future, when Earth is invaded by a mysterious enemy called the Lutadore. Wielding deadly gravity-controlling weapons, the Lutadore run riot all over town, completely messing with the laws of physics in the way that only pesky aliens can. Not content with just being generally menacing, they also induce pockets of zero-gravity in certain parts of the city-under-siege, making things really difficult for would-be game heroes Davis Russel, a hot-headed cop, and his neighbour Leo Delgado, who are on a mission to find Davis’s missing child.

Using their Grappler weapon, players can manipulate gravity to suit their own ends in the game, effortlessly lifting even huge objects such as buses in order to flush hapless enemies from cover, or to solve puzzles.

“Inversion will turn the shooter genre upside down, literally,” said Todd Thorson, director of marketing and public relations at NAMCO BANDAI. “Saber Interactive’s innovative gravity manipulation feature will blow away any preconceptions of what a contemporary shooter should be.”

“Working with NAMCO BANDAI Games on a project of this calibre is a complete thrill,” said Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive, who are developing the game. “We are doing things in Inversion that most people didn’t think possible on the current generation of consoles. We can’t wait to get Inversion in the hands of gamers across the world.”

Inversion is also one of the first games to use the physics-based Havok Destruction software, designed to realistically simulate rigid body destruction.

“We are delighted to see Havok Destruction incorporated as an important gameplay element in Inversion,” said David O’Meara, managing director for Havok. “The talented team of developers and artists creating Inversion has really embraced the Havok Destruction technology and we can’t wait to see the final result.”

Look for the game to hit stores sometime in 2010.