Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Announcement Trailer

YES! Coming to XBLA/PSN next summer is one of THE greatest fighting games in existence....Virtua Fighter 5: Final showdown.

It's going to have a huge overhaul, including new destructible arenas, a wealth of customisation options, and hopefully it's going to sell a fuck load.

It deserves to. Virtua Fighter is hardly mentioned these days. It's a shame, as it's one of those fighting games that if you're really good at it, NO button basher will EVER take you down.

And Kage for the win, by the way.

Sony release official PSN Q&A

Sony have recently announced that your personal details, including credit card information, may have been compromised during that attack on PSN.

If you haven't already shat yourself and deleted everything from your hard drive then this is the official press release just released from Sony, giving you some more details on what's happened and what you can do about it.

The following is a quote from Sony;

Q.1 When did you realise the system had been intruded?

We discovered between April 17 and April 19 there was an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network.

Q.2 How did you know that the system was intruded?

We watch for any issues that may be raised with respect to security and monitor for such issues both internally and externally.

Q.3 What is the main reason to this problem? Which parts of the system were vulnerable to the intrusion?

We are currently conducting a thorough investigation of the situation. Since this is an overall security related issue, we will not comment further on this case.

Q.4 What action did you take (are you taking)? Is there any possibility of further unauthorized access?

As soon as we learned of this issue, 1) we temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services in order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services, 2) we have also engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened, and 3) quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

Q.5 How many were affected? How many per each region? What is the latest status of PlayStation Network registered account/ operating countries.

Our investigation indicates that all PlayStation Network/ Qriocity accounts may have been affected.

Q.6 Does that mean all users' information was compromised? Tell us more in details of what personal information leaked.

In terms of possibility, yes. We believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password, login, password security answers, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data may have been obtained, including purchase history and billing address (city, state/province, zip or postal code). If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, it is possible that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained.

Q.7 Have you notified those users?

We are sending out e-mails directly to these users to their e-mail address registered on the PS Network accounts. Also, we have posted web notices, and additional necessary procedures have been followed by each region.

Q.8 Have you received reports or claims that their PSN ID information/ credit card had been used improperly?

Not at this point in time.

Q.9 I want to know if my account has been affected.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports. Additionally, if you use the same user name or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password.
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, postal mail or other scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking.

Q.10 What should I do to prevent any unauthorized use of my (credit card) personal information?

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, postal mail or other scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. Additionally, if you use the same user name or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password.
To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.

Q.11 Since when have PSN/Qriocity become unavailable and in which region?

PSN/Qriocity services have not been available since April 20 (US time) in all regions.

Q.12 How come it is taking so much time to resume the service?

We are taking the investigation seriously. We decided to keep the service down to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation and verify smooth operation of our network services.

Q.13 How serious is this? Have the hackers broken the security on PSN/Qriocity? Are you taking necessary measures to prevent such outage happening in the future?

Since this is an overall security related issue, we will not comment further on this case but we are working to restore and maintain the services, including countermeasures against future intrusions.

Q.14 When will the service resume?

We are taking the investigation seriously. We will keep the service down to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation and verify smooth operation of our network services but are working hard to resume the services as soon as we can be reasonably assured security concerns are addressed.

Q.15 Seems like SOE service was also not available/ suffering outage. Is this true? Is this due to the same reason as the PSN/Qriocity outage?

SOE's service is available although a service interruption due to an external attack did occur. A thorough investigation is ongoing.

Q.16 I want my money back (subscription fee, content) since the PSN/Qriocity was not available.

When the full services are restored and the length of the outage is known, we will assess the correct course of action.

Q.17 There seems to be some games that cannot be played even offline?

Depending on the game titles, but mainly PSN games, some may require access to PSN for trophy sync, security check, etc.

Contact Details
Country Customer Support
Africa sonycustomercare.mea@ap.sony.com
Australia 1-300 365-911
Austria 0820 44 45 40
Belgium 011 516 406
Bulgaria support@sbhbg.com
Croatia playstation.hr@arsvenatus.hr
Cyprus 22352282
Czech Republic 222 864 199
Denmark 90137013
Estonia 6543484
Finland 600411911
France 0820 31 32 33
Germany 01805 766 977
Greece 801 11 92000
Hungary 1 814 4800
Iceland 591- 5100
India 1800-103-7799
Ireland 0818 365065
Israel 09-9711700
Italy 199 116 266
Latvia 67046049
Lithuania 37338655
Luxembourg 0820 31 32 33
Malta 234 360 00
Middle East - All sonycustomercare.mea@ap.sony.com
Netherlands 0495 574 817
New Zealand 09 415 2447
Norway 82068322
Poland 0 801 230 000
Portugal 707 23 23 10
Romania support@sbhbg.com
Russia 8-800-200-76-67
Slovakia 232 112 209
Slovenia 1 510 31 30
South Africa 0861 773783
Spain 902 102 102
Sweden 9002033075
Switzerland 0848 84 00 85
Turkey bilgi@eu.sony.com
UK 0844 736 0595

New PSN outage rumours.....

Well, at least we can call ourselves veterans.....we will be able to look back at this moment in time in a few years and say..."yep....I was there....the great war of PSN 2011". We should get medals made up!

Yes, as of this moment the Playstation network is STILL down. Six days and counting. I'd imagine it's the longest some people have gone without scratching their online gaming itch. Well, if anything it's a good enough reason to own multiple consoles...but if not, well, it's not all doom and gloom. Are you telling me you have finished all of your games in single player? On all difficulties? Meh, I bet you're lying.

Get used to it, because there is no sign that PSN is going to be back online any time soon.

In a statement made today, Sony's Patrick Seybold states "I know you are waiting for additional information on when Playstation network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time"

So...no news there then. Could be a few days, it could be another week.

The rumour mill is still flying into overtime. Sony is saying that it's down to those pesky Hackers, but other such rumours are doing the rounds. Latest, emailed to me by a reader, has maybe a slight ring of truth about it, but it also smalls a little like bullshit.

Check out this first link!

Basically, it looks like a custom firmware to enable the user developer status on the Playstation network. Now it seems believable enough that Sony would want to stop this happening, but the bullshit alarm starts to go off when it's suggested that this hack will allow the user free reign to download whatever they want from PSN. I doubt, but i'm no expert, that Sony would allow devs access to make purchases from the Playstation network. I could be totally wrong, but if any of you have any news to back up this claim please let me know. This second link i've been sent seems to back this line of thought up.

Look at it here!

Hhmmmmmm.......as I say, these are RUMOURS. RUMOURS! NOT MY PERSONAL OUTLOOK......RUMOURS. I'm not posting them for the sake of getting hits. I'm posting them because maybe, somewhere in all of the bollocks floating around the net, there is a small grain of possible truth in there....somewhere.

I really don't know what to think. The rumours are flying around like a typical tabloid paper, Sony are being suspiciously quiet, and more importatantly PSN is still down. If it's down because Sony are upping their security to make sure peoples card details are safe, more power to them.

Again, i'll update this post as I hear more news. By all means if you have any details, feel free to comment on this post or email me at therealgamefreakblog@gmail.com with any further details.

While it's down, just take out some time to...well...you know....DO OTHER THINGS! Have you really completed all of those single player games?

Sources: Computerandvideogames

*EDIT*

Reader cleft palate has written a follow up article to his thoughts on the Playstation network going down which I linked to yesterday. You can check out HIS PERSONAL VIEW, HIS OWN THOUGHTS right about here.

*EDIT*

Breaking news. Sony have just issued a statement that says essentially, while there is no 100% concrete evidence, all of your personal info may have been obtained. PSN ID, address, what country you are in, PSN purchase history and more importantly, credit card information.

Full statement just here!

This is potentially huge. I'd recommend cancelling those credit cards people.

It's around about 99 hours and counting....

...that the Playstation network has been down. Unless you have your head buried in the sand, or you just don't play video games, you can't have missed that Sony are having a few "challenges" at the moment.

Last week, the Playstation network went down, and was at first thought to be scheduled maintenance on the service. After still being down for a couple of days, people started to ask questions...."is it Skynet?"....."maybe it's hackers?"...."maybe the people of Japan are still struggling after the tens of thousands that died in the Tsunami, and the countries infrastructure, while still in tatters, is taking a while to get back to normal operation levels....maybe that's why PSN is down?".

Regardless, Sony has finally announced that it indeed has been hacked. Who? Where? Why?...are the questions on peoples minds. Gamefreakblog reader cleft Palate has his ideas about why this happened, so pop along and check out what he has to say on his blog.

As with all of my reader contributions.....HIS THOUGHTS AND WORDS ARE HIS OWN OPINION. YOU HEARD, IT'S HIS OPINION. NOT MINE, NOT YOURS.....HIS WORDS!

You can find it right about here!!!


Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

*EDIT* I'm going all out to confirm this from a source, but i've just heard this;

"In case anyone was wondering, PSN HAS NOT be shut off due to an attack from anonymous.

What really happened was a custom firmware was released last week that allowed people to basically pirate games, add-on content, etc. from PSN. Once Sony caught wind of this, they shut the system down, and are now rebuilding with a new master key.

Still, the way they are handling it is a bit silly, but then again, it is a free service. They don't owe the majority of you anything."

As soon as I get any news, i'll add it to this post.

*EDIT* Some more details have come to light, regarding custom firmware and credit card details. Check out this link for some more details. I've fired off several emails now seeking details on some of the points raised. As always, as soon as I hear anything i'll post it back up here. Looks like certain concerns have been raised about the way Sony encrypts the data regarding your credit cards.


Look here for the updated news. -s

Outland Trailer

Wow....this came in under the radar.

Ubisoft's latest platformer, Outland, will see a release on April 26th on PSX, and a day later, that's the 27th for you thickos, on XBLA. It look stunning, and I for one am VERY interested.

What do you think? Looking good?

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.