Four prequels and a First-Person Shooter

Big news for fans ofGhost in the Shell! Barely hours ago a live event was held announcing a bevy of new projects related to the franchise, and Japanator’s own Elliot Gay was there to catch new reveals like malware at a cyberbrain orgy.

The biggest news of the event wasthe reveal ofGhost in the Shell: Arise, a prequel story exploring the career of series protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi before her involvement with Public Security Section 9 (where she worked during nearly allGhost in the Shellstories to date).Arisewill be written by Tow Ubukata (Mardock Scramble) and animated by Production I.G. Its first part (of four), titledGhost Pain,enters a limited theater run in Japan June 22nd, with a Blu-ray release on July 26th. Check out the first trailer forAriseabove, and a character lineup featuring the other members of Section 9 below.

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Coming in distant second was the actual videogame announcement, coming from Nexon. Dubbed a “hacking first-person shooter”, the PC game boasts customizable cyborg characters and features the “Tachikoma” spider-tanks as AI partners, and is due in 2014. However, the most notable point of the announcement was the title,Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Online, meaning it’s not actually connected to thenewanime project, but to the 2002 series. What’s up with that?

Ghost in the Shell: Arise gets a trailer[Japanator]

The opening area of the Whisper mission, in a small grove.

The Divide in the Cosmodrome, where the Guardian was resurrected.

A holofoil Ribbontail, as seen in collections.

The Phoneutria Fera hand cannon, inspired by the Season of the Haunted armor set. It has a unique, galactic glow.

Three Fuses appear in a match of Apex Legends' Wild Card mode.

Mad Maggie opens a supply bin and an item with a symbol indicating infinite ammo appears.

Legends slide through a zipline in King’s Canyon in Apex Legends.

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The Yeartide Apex tex Mechanica SMG with a Holofoil glow.