Through the PS Blog, Sony has announced that the rebuild of the PSN is complete, and it is now being tested internally by “global network and security teams” and they are in the “final stages of internal testing of the new system, an important step towards restoring PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.”
Its tough to say how soon the PSN will be back online for everyone, but hopefully it will be soon.
Meanwhile, CNET has obtained some info that another hack might be on the way. A person watching the Internet Relay Chat channel used by the hackers said today that a third hack is planned this weekend against Sony. The publication of information like credit card numbers and addresses copied from Sony’s servers is rumored to take place as well. The hackers say they still have access to Sony’s servers.
This situation started a a few weeks ago when the hacker group Anonymous targeted Sony websites because of the alleged unfair legal treatment of a hacker named Geo Hot. Later, the Qriocity service and Sony Online was the subject was the subject of an attack that that exposed the information of over 100 million people. Sony took these websites, including PSN, offline in order to fix the problems. Anonymous has denied responsibility for the information leak saying, “While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our ‘leadership’ does not condone credit card theft.”
However, Sony has stated that files left on their servers indicate that Anonymous is indeed the enemy. Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, told Congress that the file contained the statement “We are Legion,” which is Anonymous’ tagline.
Whatever the case, it appears that once the sites are back online, Sony better prepare itself for another attack by the same people who hacked them in the first place.
Sony has also faced public backlash due to the fact that were reportedly lax in their security measures before the attack and they did not involve law enforcement until several days after the attack happened. Customer notifications of the problems were also delayed, as was a public apology by Sony executives. Several lawsuits and governmental investigations have been started.
Anonymous has also faced criticism by gamers and the public.
Although probably not every detail of this situation will ever be known, both parties, and possibly others, appear to have performed some bad actions. Hopefully at least gamers can just get online soon.
Coming May 10th is a huge patch from TRIONWorlds for the game RIFT. This patch offers a range of interesting new features, as well as some features lifted from other major MMORPG games on the market.
The patch title ‘The spoils of War” adds these new features, features such as a new raid instance and social networking integration. Users of the game are now able to link to their facebook from the “Plane of bragging rights” in the form of youtube videos, screenshots and achievements from within the game. But not only does the update provide a new social networking feature, it also comes with some interesting gameplay additions, such as the long awaited 5th soul slot, the new wardrobe feature for outfit sets; as well as the highly anticipated new 10-man raid, Slivers, which promises to be a challenge for all players.
As with any major patch from TRION, starting from now in game, players can experience the prelude to the patch, which involves fire and earth Rifts opening all across Telara for players to defeat, as well as Golden Dragon Egg Fragments and other kinds of monsters.
Below is a full list of features coming from the 1.2 patch.
Full list of Rift 1.2 Features:
· Facebook Integration – Post updates, screenshots, or Achievements from Telara directly to your Facebook profile!
· Looking for Group– Automatically form groups for dungeons, rifts, and group quests. Complete random expert dungeons for additional bonuses, both for the daily player and the weekend warrior!
· Wardrobe – Players can configure up to five outfit slots to choose between – look however you want, and break out those costume items.
· New Ascended Powers – Omen Sight (Guardian) and Quantum Sight (Defiant) reveal openings to Slivers and even more in the future.
· Additional Role – By popular demand, players can purchase a 5th role for even more class flexibility.
· Many UI Improvements –Auction House, Crafting, and Artifacts all receive useful new refinements.
New Content in Rift 1.2:
· Gilded Prophecy Sliver – Rift extends its support of 10-player raids to this new type of instance! Fight against Golden Maw cultists from another reality to prevent them from gaining relics of vast power.
· New Dynamic Content –Two new raid rifts, one new expert group rift, rifts specifically designed around rewarding crafters, and easier access to expert group rifts.
· New Zone Events:
o Planar Chill – Control strategic locations in Iron Pine Peak against planar onslaught
o Scourge of the Sands – Defend precious resources as they are moved to critical locations in Shimmersand Desert, then launch a counter attack
o An Eye for an Eye– Guardians and Defiants summon their respective champions in order to defeat the Colossi in this end-game brawl.
The Witcher 2 is getting an MA 15+ rating in Australia, and that means that certain features in the game must be censored. Luckily, the censors present in the Witcher 2 are small: the Witcher can’t accept sex as a reward for completing a side quest. Namco Bandai removed the “feature” but the quest and NPC are still in the game; the reward options are simply different. For example, maybe upgraded weapons and armor will be available. So far, its the only change made for gamers in Australia.
Later this summer, legislation is supposed to be enacted that will quell most, if not all, censorship issues in Australia.
Tzai Entertainment has announced today that SHMUSICUP, their rhythm driven shoot ’em up, is now available for download onto PCs. While the game is still in its beta release, there are several enhancements that this downloadable version includes over its browser-based counterpart. First of all, the game now supports tons of file types instead of only MP3. In case you aren’t familiar with the game, SHMUSICUP is a bullet hell shooter where players import their own songs as the soundtrack, and the boss’s bullet patterns will be based on individual songs. In addition to MP3’s the improved SHMUSICUP now accepts AAC, m4a, MP4, and FLV. The game can now also be played in full screen mode and with support for controllers for gamers who have an aversion to keyboards.
One of the biggest improvements Tzai has included in the new-and-improved version of SHMUSICUP addresses one of the main concerns from our review of the game. Previously, bosses would die as soon as the song ended, no sooner and no later. This means that no matter what, skilled players couldn’t down the boss early and unskilled players couldn’t fail. Now it seems that if the song ends while the boss is still alive, the player loses any score bonuses that would normally be awarded. The game also rewards players who are able to kill the boss prior to the end of the song by sending it into an overdrive mode which drastically increases point values. On top of that, bosses also now appear to have varying hit boxes depending on what part of the body at which you are shooting. These things increase both the challenge and the strategy involved in achieving a high score.
Because of its beta status, SHMUSICUP is still in the pre-order stages of availability, with a pre-order scoring players access to all six stages. Players who purchase the game prior to its full release will also get it at a discount, paying only $9.99 instead of $14.99. If you’re interested in trying it out, SHMUSICUP can be downloaded here or you can try to in-browser version.
If Portal 2 is not present in your game library, then now is the perfect time to buy it as it is $34.99 on Amazon. But if instead of puzzle solving, crime solving is more your style, then LA Noire can also be had for the pre-order price of $44.99 on Buy.com. Another deal on Amazon is to buy two games for the Kinect for $60.
A new 160GB PS3 system with a $50 promotional credit can be had at Amazon as well. Xbox 360 consoles are also on sale on Amazon.com.
The final deal is at Toys ‘R’ Us. Buy a 160GB PS3 through May 7th and get a $50 gift card and a $20 PSN card for free.
Other cheap games on Amazon can be had here. The Force Unleashed 2 Collectors Edition and Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom are the highlights in that Amazon deal page.
To get the creative juices flowing and to make their make game historically accurate, Team Bondi researched every newspaper that was published from January 1 to December 31, 1947. These true stories inspired many of the cases that will be available to solve in the game. Now, Team Bondi has released the LA Noire 1947 Edition Crime Map and you can check out “the original clippings of these stories as they appeared in the L.A. Times that year, and see exactly where they happened in Los Angeles with the 1947 Edition Crime Map at www.latimes.com/lanoire.”
A select few of the articles that were researched include a:
“72-year-old oil man, E.J. Miley, who picked up three hitchhiking youths as he left on a drive from LA up to Fresno. The trio were petty thugs who thought they had an easy mark on their hands…
A pair of weightlifting rivals in Pacific Palisades who agreed to head to the gym to “settle the question of superiority”, but it winds up being far from a fair lift-off…
A horrible account of a young, disturbed returning veteran who, with no warning or apparent cause, murdered his bride and himself at his in-laws house one evening…
Acrobat burglars who broke into a market by ripping off a skylight, chopped a hole in the ceiling, and slid down a pole to make off with $2500 in cash (yes, that was a LOT back then) along with several hundred pounds of meat – but not before stopping to apparently chug several quarts of milk.”
Keep checking back, as more articles will be added to the website during the week.
Call of Duty: Black Ops has recently hit 10 million fans on Facebook, and Treyarch has also just recently released new maps for multiplayer. As a result, they have decided to celebrate by throwing a double XP weekend party. Starting on Friday the 6th at 10am PDT, and extending to Tuesday the 10th at 10am PDT, every match played will get you a step closer to achieving another rank.
Will you be going for another run at Prestige? Maybe your just trying to unlock some more add-ons? Let us know in the comments how excited you are.
Steam has had huge sales on nearly all of the major Electronic Arts franchises this week. But this may be the best deal yet, as you can pick up both Mass Effect 1 and 2 for nearly 50%-75% off. Mass Effect 2 is only $9.99, while the digital deluxe edition is $19.99. The digital deluxe edition includes the soundtrack, full game and an art book. A comic and exclusive video are also included.
And the original game? Get it for only $5.00. So that is $35 for two games, or almost 50% off what one of those games would have been when it first released.
Date: Fifth of May, 2011 Time: 11:00am Location: Ubisoft Headquarters Mood: Long train rides suck…
We were seated in a gaming room inside the ominous Ubisoft headquarters in Sydney with the fabled director of the game Driver: San Francisco, Mister Martin Edmonson; founder of Reflections and creator of the Driver series. During our time with Martin we were given an overview of the game as well a decent amount of time playing the game ourselves. Overall, I have to say that we were all very impressed by the title and would definitely like to give it a proper go when it launches in September.
At the beginning of the session, the Martin told us about the inspiration behind the Driver series, which is that they wanted to recreate the 70s style car chase sequences from movies into a playable format on a gaming console, as well as a little about the new mechanic within the game. After a brief demonstration and discussion of the title, we were thrust into a hotseat session playing through the begining of the story, with each of us taking turns in doing objectives and the like.
The game has you playing as the protagonist of the first game in the Driver series, John Tanner, who has to chase down a recently released/escaped criminal, Charles Jericho, who seems to be quite the nasty sort. This is done in cinematic car chase style; with drifts, high-speed chases and as well as the classic high-speed jump down a hilly streets of San Francisco. I have to say that the team have brilliantly captured the feel of the chase and it can provide quite the pump, especially with a handful of people in the room all giggling uncontrollably and passing the controller along. [rant about how gaming is better with friends at your place]. Of course, a car chase without a reason could potentially be less sweet, so the gameplay is accompanied by the cliché, but also somewhat, unique story.
The game may sound like a rehash of Drivers previous, but it is not. The feel is simply amazing and with the title featuring a proprietary engine in order to attain maximum detail and an incredibly smooth frame-rate of 60 fps (even in the pre-release build that we were playing, that still had noticeably under construction parts included). Though, that is not all that the title features. It also contains over 120 fully licensed and real cars (each rendered beautifully within the game), a fully immersive open-world (with flowing traffic and pedestrians, all rendered real time, and all accountable from within any portion of the game), and lastly, an awesome new feature that will feel very familiar to those of us who have played the game Geist on the Gamecube. Though, it should be noted that, we may not have had hands-on time with all the features of the game in our limited time at the event.
Yes, in this version of Driver, players can (SPOILER WARNING!) instantly turn themselves into a corporeal entity and possess another Driver somewhere else in the game. Reading this back, it may seem a little silly, but actually playing it and realising its place within the story, it actually isn’t. And even if it may seem a little silly logically, it is incredibly fun to mess-about with, as well as finely tuned and intuitive to use. In fact, the whole game felt very polished (in the mechanics department, we were playing a pre-release build, so there was incomplete sections that we had a chance to witness) and everything worked the way you expect them to. From the controls to the minimap overlay, it was all very comfortable and intuitive, I don’t think this game will be getting many complaints about the controls.
Driving around and possessing other drivers isn’t the only thing to do in the game however. Scattered throughout the city are various missions for players to complete, with a large amount of them being replayable for some extra fun. Most of the missions are accessed via possession of a character with a relevant mission marker above their cars in the overlay. If you hover the cursor over the car you wish to capture, you can listen to a preview of what the npcs are saying to each other and if you select that mission, you’re treated to some witty banter between occupants. Most of this banter is related to the mission, but is also quite entertaining to listen to. What makes it even better though, is when the protagonist actually possess one of them, via the player accepting the mission, and then doing regular pro driving. The player character often makes hilarious remarks to the passengers of his inhabited vehicle which makes some of the missions even more hilarious than you would expect them to be.
I should probably note that players can possess any vehicle currently in the city, regardless of whether or not they are mission related. You can set up some crazy stunts by doing this as well as finding some alternate ways of completing a mission that would normally be a bit difficult without some crazy planning. Doing missions and crazy stunts will earn you Will Points which are the currency within the game.
Even though every car in the game is available in the city somewhere at some point in the game, there is no guarantee that a car you need at that particular moment will be available at the exact moment that you need it in. But, by spending your WP in any garage that you own, you can have a series of reserve vehicles that you can call upon as needed.
All up, Driver: San Francisco is looking like it’s going to be an amazing game; with its amazingly smooth controls, intuitive interfaces and surprisingly gripping story. We here at Capsule Computers (MasterABBOTT and LinkageAX) loved the title, and are definitely looking forward to the retail release. The title is set to be released in September 2011, on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. There is also a Wii Driver title coming out at the same time, but will feature a different story and possibly characters.
As you all know Capsule Computers is an official Starlight supporter and today is HAPPY STARLIGHT DAY! So all the CREW here at Capsule urge all you gamers out there to dig deeps and make a donation for all the seriously ill children and their families. A lot of the action is happening in Australia but that doesn’t mean our international readers cant help out. If you want to help out click on this link to make a donation Official details below from the Starlight Foundation.
Happy Starlight Day!
Across Australia all supporters, volunteers & businesses will be selling merchandise & taking donations to help seriously ill children & their families.
There will be plenty of action & attractions across Australia for Starlight Day including; side show alley, street performers, delicious food stalls & live lunch time entertainment, find out what’s happening near you by clicking here.
