Leap year bug causes units to have technical difficulties.

For those of you who thought about powering on the PS3 today may want to find something else to pass the time. Sony released the following statement earlier today:

“As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3. “We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system. “Errors include: The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”. When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.” When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)” Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date. “We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data. “As mentioned above, please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

With bonus Space Giraffe offer, too!
It’s been a long time in development but Gridrunner Revolution has finally been made available for download.  The high-speed, pleasantly mad shooter has a legacy spanning 27 years and counting, and time has treated its evolution very well.  The graphics are much nicer, and the gameplay better developed, but the classic arcade action is as intense as it’s ever been.

The basic premise is pretty simple- move with the mouse, the ship auto-fires, and when sheep power-ups are collected the ship adds more guns.  There are gravity wells around the single-screen playfield, and creating loops of bullets around them increases the score for everything.  The Revolution of the title comes from being able to rotate the ship a full 360 degrees, meaning not only can the entire screen be covered in firepower but you can more precisely position yourself for prettier bullet arcs, which directly increase the scoring potential.  Playing for the sake of blasting everything in sight is fun, and making complex bullet patterns is pretty.  It’s eye-candy mayhem at its finest.

Sweetening the deal is an early-bird buyer promotion.  Gridrunner Revolution is $20 by itself, or $25 with the excellent Space Giraffe.  Either way it’s an excellent application of the gaming budget.

Zombies on the way!

Capcom granted the wishes of more then a few survival horror fans when they announced the coming release of genre classics Resident Evil 2, 3 and Dino Crisis for PSN.

Thankfully, Capcom PR has said that gamers won’t have to wait much longer before they can play the classic titles on their PS3 or PSP.

According to Capcom’s Chris Kramer, the games will be out “within the next three months.”

While Kramer stressed that they “can’t be more specific at this time,” with that kind of timeline it can’t be too long before scare junkies have a date to salivate over. Now if only they’d add Dino Crisis 2 to the list…

Hat Of Sheer Awesomeness!

By now it should be a given you’ll be buying Scribblenauts when it comes out mid-September.  If Scribblenauts doesn’t nab a Game of the Year award or two then something has gone horribly wrong somewhere, and its sheer charm and creativity make it a must-have.  Still, Warner Bros. and 5th Cell seem worried that Maxwell, the main character, is too intimidatingly awesome, and have taken steps to make sure that the player is properly prepared to control him.  Simply put, if you reserve the game you get a rooster hat.

This giant red hat comes exactly as you see in the game, with three red blobs sticking out the front and white ear coverings that, sadly, aren’t actual headphones.  Despite its technological limitations there’s pretty much nothing you can’t do with headwear like this, making it one of the most useful pieces of swag ever.  It’s only available at GameStop and EB Games in the US and Canada, but seeing as there’s one on every street corner that shouldn’t be too much of an impediment.

Croteam’s been busy lately.

It’s almost time for the 10-year anniversary of one of the most pure shooting action series ever, and there’s no better way to celebrate than to retool the originals to modern graphic standards.  Majesco and CDV Software announced today that they’ve got a remake of Serious Sam: The First Encounter coming to XBLA this summer, with the nearly meaningless title of Serious Sam HD.

Serious Sam HD will relaunch the Serious Sam series using Croteam’s new Serious Engine 3, making it look, in technical terms, awful purty.  Other than that this is looking to be a straight port, although that could be subject to change due to the scarcity of information outside of “this game exists” that’s been released so far.  The only solid detail is the four-player co-op multiplayer.

Serious Sam HD hits at an unspecified point this summer for XBLA and later this fall for PC.  It seems that Serious Sam: The Second Encounter will be getting an upgrade as well relatively soon-ish after that, although details on its release are still sketchy.

One thing worth clarifying, though, is the development path.  CDV is co-publishing the PC version and Majesco the XBLA one, both in conjunction with Devolver Digital, and Croteam is developing the game in-house.  So if you don’t love Serious Sam HD you’re disappointing a whole lot of people who only care about the well-deserved revival of the most monster-filled and adrenaline-pumping arcade FPS ever made.