If you’re a regular shopper on the PlayStation Network, this could come in handy. Using the Cyber Monday promo code, you can get $50 of PSN credit for $44.91 and it’ll be delivered instantly.
UK buyers can also take advantage of this if they have a US PSN account. This way, you can buy items from the US PSN store without having to own a US bank card. Continue reading Get a $50 PSN Gift Card for $44.91 / £30.59
PSN will be down briefly next week on August 18th for some planned maintenance. This is a regular thing for Sony, but a necessary nuisance we feel in order to avoid larger outages, oddly slow downloads or security breaches that have become an all too familiar conversation while discussing Sony’s network. Continue reading PSN maintenance scheduled for next week
We’re getting multiple reports that PSN is down again and gamers who are online are reporting downloads taking much longer than usual.
The main issues seem to be affecting Europe, although that could be because other areas of the world like the West coast of the USA are still in bed. Take a look at this map to see the most recent spread of outages. Continue reading PSN outages and slow downloads strike again
Hacker losers have once again screwed over gamers by hacking into PSN and Xbox Live just in time for one of the busiest times of the year. Sure, the hackers think they’re punishing the big companies, or ‘sticking it to the man’, but in fact, they’re affecting regular folk who want to enjoy a bit of online gaming with friends over the holidays before heading back to work. Let’s face it, Destiny is more useful as a coaster when offline. Rather than list the painful punishments we wish on the hackers, we’ve come up with seven things to do with your consoles that the hackers can’t interfere with.
Continue reading 7 Ways to Stop Hackers Ruining Your Christmas Gaming
It’s taken long enough, but you can now access the PSN Store as a regular website instead of only via your PS3. This new service allows you to buy games and DLC or pick up free demos from your PC, laptop, netbook, smartphone or tablet. You can also access your account history to check previously downloaded items and add funds to your digital wallet. While a similar service has been available for years on the Xbox 360, Sony have been a little slow off the mark.
When buying items or grabbing demos they will be added to your download list, which you access on your PS3 either in the Store or under Account Management and manually start the download. It would have been better if it downloaded automatically the next time the PS3 was online to be honest.
The recent 4.30 PlayStation 3 patch included a complete overhaul for the PSN Store, which now resembles the clunky setup on the Xbox 360. I’ve been waiting for a few days, just in case any tweaks were made, but now it seems this is what Sony are happy with. So how does it compare with the old store?
Well, I’ve logged on a few times since the re-launch, at different times of the day, and I’ve waited on average about 40 seconds each time to get the store to load up. The previous version usually took under ten.
Survival horror continues its search for a new host as this promising download-only effort fails on all fronts. A technical nightmare that feels rushed, untested, unloved, thoughtless and irritating. Amy, we are upset and disappointed. More so because before we got to hold your hand we thought this would be the post-Ico hit we’ve needed.
The premise was so deliciously tangible it was hard not to get excited about this ambitious studio bringing survival horror to the downloadable market, especially seeing as the genre has ebbed in recent years on modern consoles.
The DLC Sale is the biggest highlight this week with some tasty reductions to content from Borderlands, Mafia II, GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption. Demos include Dungeon Hunter: Alliance, Gatling Gears, Star Raider, Homefront multiplayer and MotorStorm: Apocalypse. If you still have your PlayStation Plus subscription going or you bought Infamous 2 you’ll be glad to know that the Uncharted 3 Multiplayer beta is now live. I’ll presume you’ve just dashed off for that right away.
A new compulsory firmware update greeted PS3 gamers today. The US PlayStation blog said: “With this minor update, system stability during use of PS3 format software and network services has been improved.”
Q-Games have today announced a new title from their beloved PixelJunk series. What we initially thought might be PJ Shooter 3, has since turned out to be a new IP, PixelJunk SideScroller.
These guys love giving us their take on multiple gaming genres and side-scrolling shooters should be a piece of cake for them. So expect lots of traditional side-scrolling blasting, going left to right and shooting forwards-only while moving around the 2D environment trying to back away from swarms of bullet patterns.
PSN will be back online any day now (well… fingers crossed), but we need a back up plan for how to cope in-case this happens again. Ten important steps to safeguard us from making crazy decisions like going outside, getting sunburnt, or even staying home pressing the ’sign-in’ button, hoping it works for so long that you forget to get your girlfriend an Easter egg and end up getting a kitten from the farm down the road because it’s closer than Sainsbury’s. Her name’s Kairi by the way.
Sony today announced the most encouraging details so far on when we can expect PSN to be up and running again. That’s great news, but we were more enticed by this statement:
“Our global audience of PlayStation Network and Qriocity consumers was disrupted. We have learned lessons along the way about the valued relationship with our consumers, and to that end, we will be launching a customer appreciation program for registered consumers as a way of expressing our gratitude for their loyalty during this network downtime, as we work even harder to restore and regain their trust in us and our services.”
That sounds like free awesomeness. Click through to read the rest of the story and see what you’re getting and how the PSN will be turned back on.
Continue reading News | Sony: PSN potentially repaired this week and with free gifts
Summary of the News articles I’ve posted at Dealspwn.com in April 2011.
Sony today announced the most encouraging details so far on when we can expect PSN to be up and running again. That’s great news, but we were more enticed by this statement:
Our global audience of PlayStation Network and Qriocity consumers was disrupted. We have learned lessons along the way about the valued relationship with our consumers, and to that end, we will be launching a customer appreciation program for registered consumers as a way of expressing our gratitude for their loyalty during this network downtime, as we work even harder to restore and regain their trust in us and our services.
That sounds like free awesomeness. Click through to read the rest of the story and see what you’re getting and how the PSN will be turned back on… Continue reading Sony: PSN potentially repaired this week and with free gifts
The PSN is out of action once again, with the Sony tech team working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Usually, when Sony have had scheduled maintenance to do, they have been quite specific with communicating the downtime. This is not a scheduled session though which means there’s no clear time-frame as to when we can expect to get back online. Worryingly, this is affecting the servers worldwide.
So what problems will this cause you? You can’t sign-in to the PSN (you’ll be greeted with the error code: 80710A06), so you can’t get access to the PSN Store or the Qriocity service. More importantly, you can’t play any games online, particularly annoying if you’re in the middle of reviewing SOCOM: Special Forces. If you have any pending downloads they will at least carry on downloading, handy if you’re trying to download that 870MB Battlefield 3 video.
Continue reading UPDATE: PlayStation Network Worldwide Crash
Strange one this. Zero gravity pinball with a grappling hook is the best way to think of it. It may look like another arcade shooter set in space, but there’s no shooting and you can’t freely control your movement.
After pushing off with one initial boost you then navigate by using your analogue stick to select a beacon to anchor your grappling hook on. Once you’re hooked up your ship will fly around the beacon until you release the tether. The momentum will carry you forwards until you bounce off a wall or until you grab another nearby beacon. Continue reading Stardrone (Review)
The first title in this 2D HD remake of the 80s game was a game I desperately wanted to enjoy. Alas, it’s old-school reluctance to move with the times ultimately made it a relationship that was doomed from the start.
I am of course referring to the lack of a jump button. Nathan Spencer solely relied on the use of the grappling hook on his bionic arm to swing around the levels and climb up platforms. True to the original it may have been but it was also frustrating, unforgiving and clunky. Continue reading Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 (Hands-on Preview)
Talk about delayed, Castle Crashers originally appeared on XBLA in 2008, it then hit the US PSN Store in August, which is where the demo ensnared me. I’ve had to wait until now for a European release PSN release. But was it worth the wait? Hell yes. Hell, yes.
This retrotacular title is a side-scrolling beat-‘em-up with a few simple RPG elements thrown in for good measure. It’s great fun on your own, but to get the most out of this game you should really fire up the multiplayer. You can have up to four players with drop-in co-op action. You can even play it online, but this can throw up problems when you both want to be the same character (because it’s the only one you’ve spent ten hours levelling up) so one of you will be on Level 30+ while the other is Level 1. At least you can revive team-mates. Continue reading Castle Crashers (Review)
A brave mission indeed releasing this PSN first-person-shooter less than a week before Call of Duty: Black Ops. It would have fared much better on PSN a few months back, when it was originally released on XBLA. So does Blacklight have the game to back up this ballsy approach? Well…
The main focus of the game are the online matches. There are a few single player levels but the one-life approach means you’ll only bother until you have a grasp of the controls. You can play them co-operatively but the only way I got this to happen was when trying to get into a deathmatch, it seemed to default to it when there were only two of us in the match lobby. Continue reading Blacklight: Tango Down (Review)
The Last Chapter is the expansion pack to Soldner-X 2: The Final Prototype which I found to be an enjoyable, if over-priced blast. It packs in three new levels, 11 Trophies and 13 new Challenges. The challenges though, in true Soldner-style,require you to actually earn the right to play them. There’s even a new difficulty mode, Massive Attack, to unlock. When you get around to unlocking Extra Hard that is.
The extra levels can be played through straight away, you don’t have to replay anything for hours on end in a similar way to the way levels were unlocked in the main game. The levels themselves are excellent to play and outpace the original game’s content immediately. Enemy numbers and their attacking fire patterns are perfectly balanced between manic and fair. Continue reading Soldner-X 2: The Final Prototype – The Last Chapter (DLC Review)
The No Sleep Gamer 