Sony this morning offered some additional details on the hack that led to the PlayStation Network being shut down for nearly two weeks, and again offered cautious optimism that "there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken." In addition, Sony said it will begin reactivating some of the online services this week, and offer minor "welcome back" compensation, including some free PSN downloads and 30 days of free PlayStation Plus access. But is it enough for you PS3 owners? Has this episode permanently turned you off to Sony's game console? Or are you willing to forgive and forget? Take our poll: Has the PlayStation Network hack caused you to switch your gaming to another console?online survey ------------------------ **Follow me on Twitter!** Two weeks since after Sony's PlayStation Network was hacked Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, has addressed the issue in a press conference in Tokyo. Sony will turn on most features of the PlayStation Network within a week and offer its customers a selection of free downloads, it said early Sunday morning. The PlayStation maker's online service for its PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles will come back online this week following a massive security breach in which the personal information of [...] Hackers claiming to have credit card information stolen from Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) last week are trying to sell it on underground internet forums, but the veracity of the claims could not be confirmed. Gamers appear to miss their PlayStation games more than they might miss their money. BioWare unleashes weapons, armor, and follower items for each of the game's classes; available now for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3...when PSN comes back online. Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services. We are currently working to send a similar message to the one below via email to all of our registered account... Personal information of up to 70 million Sony PlayStation Network customers has been exposed in a breach in which the records were illegally accessed. Sony believes hackers obtained user account information, including home addresses, email addresses, birth dates, usernames and passwords, in an… The Playstation Network (PSN) entered its sixth day of downtime today and Sony is still mum about when the online gaming network would go live again, which could spark an exodus of gamers and developers leaving the system to work on other online networks. Sony said the network would be down indefinitely as it rebuilt it to make it more secure after an external attack forced the company to bring its online network down. The downtime has hurt developers, who can't release new games or content for existing games, and gamers that cannot access new content or online components of their games. It's a massive blow to Sony because it might cause many developers and gamers to flock to other online gaming services like Microsoft's Xbox Live. To make partial amends, the company extended the online beta for its next blockbuster title inFamous 2 — a sandbox-style game about a guy with superpowers. It's a little token of appreciation for avid PSN users, but it probably isn't enough to sate some of the growing frustration with the downtime because there are many other online games users want to play — the least of which is the recently ... There is no end in sight for the PlayStation Network outage after Sony said Monday that it didn't know when PSN would be back online. Sony shut down the service for PlayStation 3 users after detecting an "external intrusion" into the company's servers. Making it worse is Sony's reluctance to discuss what's going on and why it's taking so long for the service to come back online. Sony originally said the service would be back up in a "day or two." Sony has admitted it is unable to update PlayStation 3 owners on when the PlayStation Network will be back online or give any clarity as to why the online service has been unavailable for almost a week. The company took PSN offline last Wednesday, admitting over the holiday period that the measure was due to "external forces." Sony is in the process of "re-building" the system, a move it acknowledges is time consuming and frustrating for players that want to engage in any multiplayer gaming, download or purchase new content or use any of the other online services it offers. Read more... As of today, PSN Plus subscribers will be able to remotely store their PS3 save games to 'the cloud', with each user allocated 150mb of space to store up to 1000 save files. Saves are linked to PSN id rather than machine, so can be accessed from any other internet-connected PS3 with that profile installed. Sony has stated that whilst most titles already at market will support the system, all future games will do so. Sony first patented the "PS Cloud" back in 2008, but then the projected use was for streaming services and online gaming. Later that year, Steam began offering its customers the option of cloud saves, enabling them to access saves from multiple machines. Read more... All the best from a week of Gamesblog chatter... It was inevitable. Last week saw the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops and the Treyarch shooter (now affectionately known as Blops, or Codblops) dominated discussion on Chatterbox. Some stuck with Fallout, a few even ventured back toward PES, but most played their part in the Cold War activities of the CIA. But what's this? Glitches? Trouble getting on multiplayer servers? And worst of all, small windows?! Has Blops turned to plops? Did I actually write that? All will be revealed in this week's Best of Chatterbox extravaganza. **** ## Monday November 8 A new week and a new AAA rated game for the box to get its teeth into. The game? COD Black ops of course, with talk of whether to buy it, where to buy it and when to buy it... with Cameroon95 quoting a friendly member of staff at the nation's largest chain of supermarkets, "Yes, the store is opening at 12 for all you geeky types." The normal tales of NaN exploits abounded but special mention must go to the Battlefield NaN 360th regiment and the 14 strong Guardianista takeover of a Bad Company 2 server. Yes, yes PS3ers, I'm sure you've seen more wonders together on a MW2 Thurday, but that night must have been a thing of beauty, pixelated explosive destructible beauty. Veering away from shooters, to... well, RPG shooters, stories from the wasteland kept sporadically ticking in like a pip boy nearing a suspiciously green glowing barrel. Then Salubriousone began the big theme of the day: proudest online gaming moment. Catzillas' 25-man killstreak using nothing but a riot shield and a couple of rockets was an early contender, then came epic accounts of battles won against the odds in TF2, MW2, BFBC2, but I'm writing this and my favourite was Sheep2's unbelievable: "Holding the controller the right way up while playing PES 2v2 late on a Friday." However, I'm still waiting for photographic proof of this occurring, GWX style... Mid-afternoon, talk turned to our illustrious leader, GBCBBOTY2009 BeardofBees, who has shown a complete lack of commitment to his loyal and his not so loyal subjects by not being around for two months. The reason he's not around you ask? Lets just say he was a fool and failed to protect his tool! _[Should I have edited that out? – Keef]_ This lead to chat about who might be able to step up in his absence. Criticbots lack of recent posting was lamented, and some boxers reminisced about the previous incumbent Limni. St00 was surprised: "Limni got this? The same Limni posting currently? Great news! If Limni can do it with his chat skills, even I'm in with a chance." **Quotes of the day** "why must Hollywood destroy everything it touches... It'll be Justin-sodding Beiber playing Tetsuo next..." **Roblindsay Shhh! You'll give them ideas.** "The aptly named Sniper Rifle is good at long range" **Pokemon, Shhh! Thats a military secret you're divulging** "Anyone here on Twitter?...It's only the hottest social networking tool of 2007, the site that Friends Reunited could have been. Get on it. I think it's going to be massive. You heard it here first." **Treble – just Shhh!** **** ## Tuesday Tuesday kicked off with an early appearance of weatherblog – one of our favourites. WeeCooper piped up to say, "Never too early to discuss the weather. We're British after all." Indeed old chap. Wot wot. It was actually a bit of a miracle that anyone was around to discuss anything considering it was Call of Duty: Black Ops release day. Points go to Cameroon95 for queuing up in the rain for the midnight release and still making it into work (one assumes) by 9am the next day. Special nerd points go to the friend he bumped into whilst in the queue who had driven for an hour and a half from Banff just to pick up the game. In the words of the late, great Roy Castle – "Dedication's what you need, if you wanna be a psycho killer…" Later, after criticising queuing all night for games, Timthemonkey foolishly admitted to going to see wrestling at the O2 arena – "Should be shockingly entertaining." Crispycrumb kindly fixed it for him – "Should be shocking entertainment." Good work fella. St00's suggestion that wresting is fake, vacuous, talentless, exploitive, solely money orientated and for children prompted EasilyLead to state, "That makes it sound brilliant." The rest of the conversation is unprintable, but it did lead to an interesting discussion about whether Catholics should socialise with lesbians. A classic philosophical debate… There was some games talk during the day – about the excellent Valkyria Chronicles II, Fallout: New Vegas, Neptune's Pride and probably some others. But mostly it was about Black Ops (or CodBlops as it has become collectively known) – as expected. **Quotes of the day** "If you type '58008' in to a calculator, then turn it upside down, it says 'BOOBS'. Brilliant." **A random and unprompted comment from HereComesTreble. _[Also, the definitive version is 58008618 – Keef]_** "First day of working from home today in my new job." **SuperSmashIn posts an unintentional contradiction.** **** ## Wednesday Prompt as always, SuperSmashin was up and atom at 8:20 with his first blog contribution. One decision was hanging over many bloggers today: Call of Duty or Fallout. And with Game offering them both for £65, only those bloggers with liquid assets where going to make their choices without the sage advice of the gamesblog. The first reports of Black Ops started to trickle in, freezing menus, slow pace, and small windows, were just some of the complaints. I presume a small window restricts your field of fire, or kill zone, as one might say. I for one think small windows are an environmental staple, and should be imposed on all of us really. Turns out BarryEans also has a small gaming window, how very green of him. Speaking of things green, PES league games are still a big hit, mostly 0-0, but you know, so lifelike. EnglishRed blamed his preparation – the rest of us know the real reason. Apologies, etc. Router blog, reared it's head for a moment, as some people failed to get invited into Black Ops games. SerenVikity spent some time talking about opening up the NAT settings on the BT Homehub, before realising Cameroon and Count Ginula just didn't have any friends. Turns out SuperSmashin also had a brief window for gaming, if these are anything like the small windows our environmental friends above were talking about, and not a pair of briefs with a window, then we forgive him. Briefs with windows are just wrong. Crispycrumbs window was more of a porthole – it's the sea man in him. StiLteD doesn't have any windows, and seems to live in an Austrian's basement. Foolsgold74's window was just large enough to tell us about his PES League A game – show off – and finally, SandySleaze thought there may be a window after the Manchester derby. Of course that window won't have any glass in it. Something to do with corrupt glazers, if I understand correctly. The conversation then turned to mashed potatoes, the freeze dried instant kind, and my mind sort of wandered and I failed to pay any attention to anything after 1pm. I'll leave you with HereComesTreble's culinary skills: > Grilled egg and mashed potatoes? I've never heard it called Egg in a Nest before. I call it The Babymaker. Never fails. _[Seriously, what?! – Keef]_ **** ## Thursday – Remembrance Day If Thursday had a child and it was called 'BlackOps' then it would definitely have far to go. Once again the latest outing of CoD dominated discussion on the Chatterbox. Unfortunately it seems that many bloggers were disgruntled at the number of glitches the game appears to have but it was agreed that it was best to persevere at least until Treyarch have released some patches. _[Weird, I didn't notice any of this, I will have to investigate – Keef]_ Another discussion with legs was scrambled egg blog. Opinions varied on the best way to cook scrambled eggs but the consensus definitely agreed that Crème Fraiche should never be included. The evidence of cooking prowess amongst the Chatterbox community moved the discussion into Michelin chef blog. Heston Blumenthal appears to hold little appeal to TimtheMonkey: "I thought he just lobbed random ingredients in a bowl and poured on some liquid nitrogen." In other news, Crispycrumb discovered Scotscare – a charity for Scottish people living in London. SirGiggidyMMVIII was straight on the phone setting up his travel and accommodation funds for the 2011 Awards. Loser answered EdibleVision's complaints about the absence of a similar charity for English people in Glasgow: "you don't need a charity, we gave you fecking Edinburgh...". **Quotes of the day** The NaN spirit summarized by ChilliOil: "The atmosphere was so casual, with hijinks aplenty and talk of plans for the weekend that I half expected to see my squad mates wearing jeans and sipping on pints rather than wearing battledress and toting machineguns." (Fact: every round of BFBC2 was lost that night). CunningStunt lets slip about his weekend plans: "Does anyone know where I can buy a cheapish gimp mask?" And Bloatboy lets slip about his weekend hobbies: > I once built a red light district out of toilet rolls and clinical waste from the local hospital; and filled it with rodent sex workers. Mice breed like rabbits so I thought it would be a good way to make money from the dirty rats. I call the place Hamsterdam. **** ## Friday Hello, are you still with us? Well give yourself a virtual pat on the back and let's plough on through to the end together. Like a team. Friday started, as much of the week did, with plenty of Black Ops talk (the abbreviated Blops seems to have reached critical mass already). The usual Thursday night games were hampered somewhat by some continuing issues with lag and people joining games, but the majority managed to have an enjoyable time with UnbelievableJeff being hailed as coming into his own after honing his craft carefully on Modern Warfare 2. It wasn't all Black Ops. Bloodbowl, PES and Fallout were all discussed early doors, Herecomestreble was even introduced to one of the unfortunate staples of online gaming: "I got my first ever abusive PSN message last night: 'In a single game, not only have you shown yourself to be a poor player, but a horrible personality.' I thanked him, both for his honesty and his brevity, and I assured him that I would continue to work at these development areas. I also requested to add him as a friend. He hasn't accepted, yet." Aside from possibly thinking he was on the wrong blog, Hayers also managed to accidently kick off 'afterlife' blog with an Alan Partridge quote. A shame on everyone (except Limni) for forgetting Rule 1 of the box there. _[I thought rule number one of the 'box was not talking about the 'box? – Keef]_ In better news, Sorbical announced he had a new job starting on Monday, something I think we can agree to wish him all the best for. Talk then, bizarrely, turned to Ghostbusters, with Lazybones trying to remember whether or not Dan Ackroyd was seduced (the polite term…) by a ghost. In the end it turns out he was, but it wasn't Zuul. Or something. It was a highpoint of chat regardless that saw us strongly into lunch. The final few hours of the week meandered along with discussion of the latest (possibly final…?) release date for GT5 and its 1000+ cars, and people's favourite Mario Kart track. Of which there was little agreement. And so the week ended with a whimper, rather than a bang, as the 'box's habit of finishing well before 5 o'clock was in full effect, much to the annoyance of Cunning (and others) who's schedule is less lackadaisical. **Quote of the day** "Sometimes, recently, I have thought about the infinitely small and the possibility of universes at the subatomic level … You could have an infinite number of universes inside you own head, and when you die these universes might keep living, because the matter is still there, and it's all just various energies, fluctuating. Then I think that I am not a particle physicist and I probably sound like I've eaten some drugs, and am just boring someone at a party ..." **Lazybones expands all of our minds once again.** **Quote of the Week** "I think you've grossly misjudged the situation. This is not the place to talk about computer games." **Mr Tony Hayers** ## **Other stuff** **Games:** COD:Black Ops, Fallout: New Vegas, PES **Films & TV: **Let the right one in, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Ghostbusters, Getting On, Full Metal Jacket **Recommended Books:** The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth ## **End game** Join the official Gamesblog spotify list and share your own favourite tunes. Last addition – Don't Let's Start by They Might Be Giants Check the Gamesblog wiki for everyone's game tags and more! This week's 'Best of' was written by SerenVikity, OneDaveofMany, OfficePest, Tjvs and a mystery Fool's Gold stand-in. It was edited by Smellavision. "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." **Plato** Keith Stuart guardian.co.uk (C) Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Xbox 360/PS3/PS2/Wii/PC; £49.99; cert PG; EA/Criterion In generations to come, when futuristic space children put their hands up in class and ask, "what was the first truly 21st century arcade racing game?" the answer they'll receive from their robot teachers will be Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. While the under-rated Blur dabbled in social networking functionality and Disney's showy Split/Second revelled in cutting edge automotive destruction, it is Criterion's game that successfully fuses those elements together into one exhilarating ride. The action takes place in the fictitious coastal country of Seacrest, where petrol-head nutjobs are engaged in turbo-charged battle with the traffic cops. Through a series of unlockable events and challenges, players swap between the two sides, earning points and unveiling shiny new vehicles as they go. One minute you'll be competing in a four-car Hot Pursuit, angling for first place as the cops attempt to shunt you all off the road; the next you'll be in a squad car on an Interceptor mission, desperately trying to smash boy racers into trackside barriers. As you progress, more areas of the map open up, each offering a range of new missions – including against-the-clock time trials, duels against single enemies and the mouth-watering preview sessions where you get to try out scorching hot exotics like the McLaren F1 and Pagani Zonda Roadster ages before you're able to unlock them for real. Typically for a Criterion racer, players are free to attempt unlocked events in any order they like. Racers get a gold, silver or bronze medal at the end of each task depending on their performance, while cops get a distinction, merit or pass – so there's always room to come back and try for a better rating if you've only just scraped through. Better still, connect the console to the net and the game monitors all of your Xbox Live or PSN friends, showing your best times against theirs and letting you know when a pal performs better. The neat "Autolog Recommends" mode also picks out key times achieved by mates and lets you go straight in to challenge them; this creates a beautifully seamless sense of competitive multiplayer action, even if you're never all online at the same time. But if you do manage a synchronised cyberspace get-together, Hot Pursuit really comes alive. Via a vast range of customisable race options, drivers can engage in thrilling multiplayer road fights, ranging from straight-up eight- car races to four-vs-four challenges, where police squads face racer gangs. The latter are just ridiculously enjoyable. Cops must work together to shut down racers, while the racers themselves are competing for first place while occasionally teaming up to see off squad cars. The perfectly judged power-up system provides both sides with spike strips that can be dropped to pop the tyres of pursuers, as well as electromagnetic pulse systems that target vehicles just ahead of you with a system-crashing boost of energy. The police also get to call in road blocks and helicopter support, while racers get a one-off turbo boost that sends their vehicles scorching into hyperspace. These power-ups can also be gradually unlocked through the career mode, and they add a hugely satisfying competitive twist to the events. They're not as visually captivating as the weapons in Blur or WipEout HD, or as entertainingly destructive as the scenic special moves in Split/Second, but they're certainly better balanced and less intrusive, providing an augmentation to good, solid driving rather than a scene-stealing get-out-last- place-free card for slow coaches. This certainly isn't the bruising smash-happy joyride some misguided fools may expect from the catchall term "arcade racer". With a handling model that nudges in somewhere between the Burnout series and the more sim-like Need For Speed: Shift, it's a technically demanding racer that takes its array of beautiful motors seriously. Sure, muscle cars like the Corvette ZR1 and Dodge Challenger oversteer with throbbing abandon, while the low slung exotics stick more resolutely to the surface, but there are dozens of variations in between and mastering the cornering and drifting potential of each model takes genuine skill. While you can certainly bash into rivals and grind along barriers, no one is going to wait around for you to recover – there is a touch of rubber-banding in the AI, but it never approaches the taut, springy farce of Mario Kart Wii. You need to _drive_, you need to grip the racing line, you need to learn the shortcuts and use them brilliantly. And while you're learning, there are wonderful heart-stopping moments of drama and tension. What fun it is to spy, in the far distance, two rivals clipping an oncoming truck and spinning across the road in a confetti shower of shrapnel, allowing you to slip by amid the carbon fibre corpses. And how terrifying, when you scorch over the brow of a hill, only to hit a spike strip or a damaged car resting across your path. Hot Pursuit is a game of millimetre escapes and of awesome, high-speed pile- ups that are Ballardian in their lustful depiction of splintering metal. Every environment is rendered in gorgeous HD detail giving us everything from dust- churning desert tracks, to wintry peaks, to sylvan passes along glittering lakes. Meanwhile, the lighting engine works minor miracles every time a swirling police light hits the walls of a tunnel, or the sun glints off the chassis of a Maserati Gran Cabrio scorching along the coastal freeway. All that's missing perhaps, is the free-roaming anarchy of the Burnout series; the road layouts constructed as much for stunts and choreographed smashes as for race events. Hot Pursuit is much more conventional in that sense. But at the same time, it points the way in terms of social functionality, investing every single-player session with asynchronous multiplayer potential, and allowing cautious gamers to segue almost seamlessly into the world of online play. Hot Pursuit, like the high-end vehicles it fetishises, has been crafted with genuine care, with great insight, with technical brilliance. Gran Turismo 5 will grab the headlines and the purist vote, but it surely won't live like this game does; it will be an austere cathedral to Criterion's joyous modernist structure. **• Game reviewed on Xbox 360** Rating: 5/5 * Games * Xbox * PS3 * PlayStation * Wii * PC Keith Stuart guardian.co.uk (C) Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Key Words: psn back online
References:
http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/05/poll-has-the-sony-playstation.html
http://www.cnet.com.au/compo-service-return-for-sony-customers-339314161.htm?feed=rss
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/Gamelife/~3/rGTqoTGhkdg/
http://www.cnet.com.au/hackers-claim-to-have-stolen-sony-info-339314120.htm?feed=rss
http://feeds.wsjonline.com/~r/wsj/biztech/feed/~3/PeEluW84gvk/
http://www.gamespot.com/index.html?part=rss&tag=gs_all_games&subj=6310548
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/DqMf/~3/KEezAumQK28/full-text-of-sonys-statement-on-massive-hack.html
http://www.cnet.com.au/70m-users-at-risk-in-playstation-network-breach-339313902.htm?feed=rss
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/wm0d3zMfZfw/
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http://www.itnews.com/firewalls/31577/sony-playstation-network-outage-your-faqs-answered
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-04-26-sony-unable-to-update-gamers-as-psn-remains-offline
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-03-10-online-saving-to-cloud-for-ps3-psn-plus-users-begins-today
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/nov/18/chatterbox-blogpost
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/nov/16/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit-review
http://pixelhat.net/
Monday, May 2, 2011
Poll Has the Sony PlayStation hack caused you to switch your gaming another console Compo service return for customers Details Network Revival ‘Welcome Back’ Gift Hackers claim have stolen info Gamers Lament Outage New Dragon Age II DLC out now Full Text Of Sony's Statement On Massive Hack 70m users at risk in Playstation breach User Account Information Compromised In Attack Will Developers and Flock Other Consoles as Sony’s PSN Remains Offline Your FAQs Answered News unable update gamers remains offline Online saving cloud Plus goes live Best of Chatterbox here comes Blops Need For Speed Hot Pursuit review
