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While Namco Bandai was regaling the gaming press with their line up of titles yesterday, the announcer said, “What kind of Japanese gaming developer would we be if we didn’t have an RPG in development?” As an avid fan of JRPGS from back in the day, I couldn’t really argue that point. So, enterMagnacarta 2— Namco Bandai’s follow-up to the PS2 and PC outing,Magna Carta. Although the Xbox 360 exclusive was announcedearlier this year, not much has been seen about the upcoming title until now....

Though I’ve yet to play a minute of it for myself, I love reading and hearing aboutEVE Online, mainly because there’s nothing else quite like it in the current MMO scene. Also, the folks at CCP can put out some good-lookin’ trailers. This one is one of them, and while it’s not as “in-fiction” as I’d normally expect, the fun thing it does do is pretty much endorse mass griefing. In most other MMOs this kind of corporate gambit would be subject to the banhammer, inEVE‘s ultra-laissez-faire landscape, it’s fair game....

Nintendo has released some new screenshots ofPunch-Out!!‘s “Head-to-Head” mode, which can be played via split-screen when the game ships this May. While each player will be able to control a character that looks like Little Mac, you won’t actuallybeLittle Mac. It appears you’ll be able to name your character, as shown in the above screenshot with Little Tucker and Little Pete. I think seeing “Little Valerie” or “Little Katherine” is going to look funny below the Little Mac character model, and I hope Nintendo at least lets you put a bow in your player’s hair....

What’s better than playingSuper Mario Bros.? How about storing your peanut butter and jelly sandwich inside Mario? Nintendo has released a bunch of Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii accessory kits that come packed in their very own lunch box. You can choose from aMario,2 differentPrincess Peach,YoshiorLegend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglassdesign kits for the DS, and aLimited EditionLegend of Zelda: Twilight Princesskit design for the Wii. I’m pretty sure that there is another Mario design available, because I remember seeing two Mario designs at HMV, but I can’t seem to find a picture of it....

[New releases is your weekly look at all the hot new titles coming out this week.] Not much going on this week but that’s probably a good thing asDragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skiesfor the DS would outshine anything this week. Dragon Questfans are easily going to like this latest entry to the series. DeathSpankis another title you should pay attention to this weekend. It’s actually pretty fun and extremely funny....

Nexus of snobberyThe New Yorkerhas a pretty bang-up article about why it doesn’t always blow to bring up the end. Columnist James Surowiecki makes the point that I’ve been trying to drill into the collective unconscious since this idiot “console war” first tumbled forth from the sticky womb of the early 90s: it doesn’t matter whowins. From the article, which employs novel journalistic techniques like “reason” and “evidence”: “Nintendo’s success is not an anomaly, either....

Nicalis’ latest releaseNightSkyis interesting. I have a review that I’m working on for the game, which is a sort of marble-physics puzzle thing. While I am not quite ready to issue a final verdict on the title, I will say that the soundtrack is exceptional. Very atmospheric and generally soothing, I would often stop playing to do something else and then forget to close the program for hours while it lazed along in the background....

Oh no! Everybody said thatFinal Fantasy XIIIcoming to the Xbox 360 wouldruinthe game because only Blu-ray could handle it, and it’s all coming true! In a recent Q&A session, producer Yoshinori Kitasehas revealedthat the game might not ship with a Japanese voice track when it hits the US, because the Xbox 360 is rubbish andwrong. The prophecy of PS3 fans has been made flesh! “Obviously, when we talk aboutXIIIit’s for PS3 and Xbox — with PS3 being on Blu-ray there would be enough memory, but on Xbox probably not....

Remember when it took you over an hour to bust out of the sewers inOblivion? Sure, you were eager to play the game, but that nose was just too wide and those cheekbones a bit too gaunt to save the world with. BioWare is hoping to kill this problem in the PC versionDragon Age: Originswith the release of theOrigins“Character Creator,”the exact tool players will be using at the beginning of the game to build their unique characters....

[Monthly Musingpromotions have begun for May! Our first promoted blog is from ImmortalWaster, who tells us about his time spent on a Neverwinter Nights roleplaying server. Promotions will be ongoing throughout the month, soget startedon your blogs! — JRo] Long before I indulged in the sinful time sink of MMOs, I preferred my gaming served up with a side of solitude. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the occasional two player bout in the variousStreet Fighters, or running my buddies off impossibly high sky-ways inF-Zero, but in general my gaming time was all about me and the single player experience....

Industry analyst Michael “Dreamy Torso” Pachter has declared Kinect the victor over PlayStation Move. Nothing jawdropping there, but apparently Microsoft has done more than won — Pachter alleges that Move has beendominatedwith 5:1 sales in Kinect’s favor. “Under one-fifth of PS3 sales included bundles with Sony’s Move controller, suggesting another modest month,” said the glistening stud. “Over 2/3 of Xbox 360 sales included bundles with Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, as Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles again outsold PS3 Move console bundles by over 5:1....

As it did withKillzone 2, Sony Computer Entertainment America is once againrestricting a US demo to pre-orders only, this time withPatapon 2. American PSP owners will need to reserve the game via GameStop or Amazon … or of course just use the fake European PSN account that they made for theKillzone 2demo. There’s a free “Lordy Hat” in it for you, too. Sony’s insistence on this backwards form of demo distribution still puzzles me....

At the conclusion of his keynote at the Penny Arcade Expo today, Junction Point’s Warren Spector revealed the second half ofEpic Mickey‘s opening cinematic. In it, Mickey finds himself trapped by the Mad Doctor, where he encounters an old foe — Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. You can see thefirst half of the intro here. If you weren’t there, you missed the reveal. Sorry about that. But lucky for you, it’s right here....