PSN to be Down Until Tuesday

According to a source of Playstation Universe's, PSN will be down until Tuesday for NA & EU users, Monday for JP users. The source also added that the PSN servers were hit with a LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) which allowed a DDOS (Dedicated Denial of Service) attack to occur. The hackers were able to gain access to the user account database & admin Dev database. Because of this, Sony decided to take down PSN & Qriocity to transfer back-ups to new servers, reissue Dev accounts, & conduct a thorough investigation.

It will be interesting to see how Sony conducts itself after everything is brought back up. The once-a-day blog updates help add to the validity of this information and show just how serious this is to the network.

Tri-Ace Releases a Tantalizing Tech Demo

The video is called "Physically Based Rendering version 0.1" and shows off their in-house game engine. The theme of the video is set within the Star Ocean universe showing off elements of the third & fourth games. Tri-Ace goes into further detail on their Research & Development page about what is taking place.

Technical facts:

• Rendered in real-time on Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3
• Runs at 30Hz with 720p and is directly captured from the video output on the devkit
• Real-time lighting and shadowing used (no baked light maps)
• Key features are physically-based shading models, physically-based lighting and image-based global illumination

Ragnarok Online goes Free 2 Play

This weekend the team behind Ragnarok Online, GRAVITY Co., Ltd., announced that the game has gone "Free to Play." Doing away with monthly subscriptions, Gravity now offers the game free of charge to all of their users. Players can now instead pay a fee for a VIP package to get all of the bonus' subscribers had received (better drop rate, higher EXP gain, larger storage, and additional buffs). As an added bonus for this weekend, RO players can try-out the VIP package for 3 days to get a feel for what they could be playing with. To get in on the action, head over to Play Ragnarok and download the client.

Machinima Live Playing Halo Reach + X-Box Live Offer

Online TV Shows by Ustream


www.machinimagold.com

Machinima & Microsoft are teaming up to off a 1 year subscription to X-Box Live Gold for $39.99 (that's $20 off).

Thread Tracker

Another "personal" reference post so I don't have to dig through pages & pages of threads.

Threads I maintain;

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
X-Men: First Class
Daredevil (Reboot)
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Superman (Reboot)
Wonder Woman (TV Reboot)
Conan the Barbarian (Reboot)
The Smurfs in 3D
Upcoming Dreamworks Animation Films
Prometheus
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: The Movie
Silent Hill: Revelation
Tomb Raider (Reboot)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking
Terminator


Threads I update;

The First Avenger: Captain America
Underworld 4
Super 8
Thor
Sucker Punch
Wolverine
Batman
The Amazing Spider-Man
Iron Man 3
Green Lantern
Deadpool
Transformers 3
The Avengers
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Dominique Young Unique

Another tumblr find. Dominique is a Hip Hop MC making waves in the industry. I find her music to be much more enjoyable compared to a lot of other female MC's in the game. Her beats are also produced by David Alexander, the same guy who makes Yo! Majesty's beats. She hail's from Tampa Bay and can be seen this next week at SXSW. A recent single of her's, War Talk, is being picked up by a large number of blogs & video sites. Give her a listen & if by chance you are in Texas for SXSW, go check her out.

SXSW Shows

• Tuesday March 15, Spill, 212 East 6th Street, 12:30am - 3:30am
• Wednesday March 16, Club 1808, 1808 East 12th Street, 12:30am-3:30am
• Wednesday March 16, The Liberty, 1618 1/2 E 6th St, 2:00pm-5:00pm
• Thursday March 17, Cheer Up Charlies (Ms Bea’s), 1104 East 6th Street, 12:00am-3:00am
• Friday March 18, Peckerhead's, 402 East 6th, 2:00pm-5:00pm
• Saturday March 19, 501 Studios, 501 HWY I-35, 9:00pm-12:00am
• Sunday March 20, Beerland, 771 Red River Street, 4:30pm-7:30pm

Dominique Young Unique - Glamorous Touch Mixtape by Artjam Records
Dominique Young Unique Domination Mixtape by Artjam Records

Smokey Robotic

Discovered these guys via tumblr and have fallen in love with their music. You could probably stick them under the Indie Dance genre, but they also sound a little New Wave, Pop Rock, and even Hip Hop (to a point). Their single "Forever My Love" is currently making it's way through the internet, partially because Lindsay Lohan is promoting them due her brother being a band member. Give them listen, it's a fun ride.



Outside The Lines EP by Smokey Robotic
Smokey Robotic LP by Smokey Robotic

Bioware: No SecuROM on Dragon Age 2, Release Control instead

Dtoid is now reporting that Bioware has responded to complaints about SecuROM being "ninja'd" into copies of DA2. Instead they say the software is actually Sony's Release Control software which was placed to prevent early usage of the game. The two software's are very similar to a point that they share files that can easily raise concerns about SecuROM invading the machine. Bioware did go on to say that any RC files left over can be easily removed.

You can read Bioware's full statement here.

Square Enix Shuts Down Final Fantasty XI, XIV Servers to Conserve Energy

Japan's power company, TEPCO, has asked major businesses to try to conserve power in any way possible and Square Enix has decided to do that by shutting down their FFXI, FFXIV, & PlayOnline servers for at least a week, maybe even a month if need be. All current subscribers are being given the month of April free of charge as compensation. While the XI user base may survive if it does come down to having a month of no service, XIV may not. SE is still trying to build a stable following for XIV after its troubled launch and first few months there-after and any downtime will hurt their efforts. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Press Release:

"Due to the continuous earthquakes occurring in the eastern regions of Japan since Mar. 11, 2011, the power companies in Japan have encouraged everyone to cooperate by conserving as much energy as possible as it is feared there will not be enough power supply. Based on the current situation, we have decided to shut down the game servers temporarily, and therefore to suspend services of FINAL FANTASY XIV, FINAL FANTASY XI, and PlayOnline temporarily.

The services will be temporarily suspended for at least a week starting on Mar. 13, 2011 3:00 (PDT). We will provide an update regarding the reinstatement of the service as additional information becomes available. In connection with the temporary suspension of services, players will not be billed for any PlayOnline service throughout the April billing cycle. Additional information regarding this matter will also be posted as it becomes available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your understanding of this unusual situations."

link

Statement from TEPCO:

"A big earthquake occurred in the northern part of Japan at 2:46PM of March 11th 2011. Because TEPCO's facilities have been seriously damaged, power shortage may occur.
TEPCO appreciates customers' cooperation in reducing electricity usage by avoiding using unnecessary lighting and electrical equipment.
We are taking all measures to restore power, however, we expect extremely challenging situation in power supply for a while. We kindly ask our customers to cooperate with us in reducing usage of power"