Gaming news: 29/4

This is a bit late, but the PSN was put offline last Wednesday after it was hacked. What you need to know is that your personal details (Whatever you gave to PSN when you signed up) have been stolen. If you had credit card information on the PSN it may have also been stolen. Sony have said in their Q&As that there is no evidence that the encryption that holds the details has been broken but you should still check your account regularly and report anything that is unusual. I can’t actually post the Q&As because of copyright reason but I have posted a link to the Playstation blog so you can read them and stay up to date with the latest. The PSN is being rebuilt and Sony have said that they hoped to restore some features within the week. This has been raising many discussions about the PSN being free and "you get what you pay for" I'll be talking more about that in a later article.

In other news, the Gears of War 3 beta will be free and available for all X-box Live gold members around Monday May 2 in America. I'm not sure if Australians will get it on May 3 or also May 2 because of the different time zones. The beta will finish on May 15 so make sure you get in there and have a play or you will have to wait until around October.

Last week Nintendo announced that they are in the production of a new console that they have codenamed “Project Café”. Not much has been revealed when it comes to what the controllers or the actual console will look like but there have been several rumours that the controllers will have dual analogue sticks and a LCD touch screen. There is also talk that you will be able to stream games to the controllers and play them as a portable device. This sounds a little like the Gameboy to Gamecube connection type thing. Nintendo have said that the graphics will be better then the PS3’s. Could this mean that Nintendo are going to focus on more of a hardcore gaming style rather than the family/ mini-game style games of the Wii?

For this next console to be successful I think Nintendo will have to start making new games instead of just relying on third-party games. What I mean by this is that Nintendo have to stop making updated remakes of older games. Some people are even getting bored with the likes of Mario and Zelda. But in my opinion it’s these characters that make Nintendo who they are.

Nintendo have said that ‘Project Café’ will be playable at E3 in June. April is nearly over and we have heard nothing about the next Call of Duty game. I think they will announce it next month and maybe get some gameplay ready for E3.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has had some patches done and is now 4.1. The 4.1 patch is called ‘Rise of the Zandalari’. I’ve never played WoW, which makes me one of a small minority of gamers. Cataclysm is the 3^rd expansion for the series. The expansions are optional but are recommended as they allow you to access new areas and advance your character further.

Mortal Kombat (US: M    Europe: 18+) and Portal 2 (US: E10+    AUS: PG    Europe: 12) were the big releases this week. Mortal Kombat wasn’t released in Australia because the classification board decided it was too violent for an MA 15+ rating. This brings up more discussion about giving Australia an R18+ rating. We forget that adults play video games too. I’m sure they would love to play this game and a lot of other games that don’t get classified too.

That’s all for this week. Happy Gaming.

-Check out IGN, stay up to date with all the latest games and news:
http://au.ign.com/
-Stay updated with the PSN: http://blog.us.playstation.com/
-World of Warcraft:http://us.battle.net/wow/en/
-You can contact me at blaze_fury@hotmail.com.au