After being laid off by Activision, Jason West and Vince Zampella have filed a suit against their former employer. Claiming breach of contract, wrongful termination, breach of good faith and fair dealing. This filing makes an interesting read. You might want to run out and get some popcorn and soda, as this battle is far from over. You can read the filing via the Kotaku link below.

Source| Kotaku.

Fat PS3s around the world are coming back online. It appears that Sony’s strategy to wait until the internal system clocks reached 12am 3/1 GMT paid off (I’m sure there are some Sony folks breathing a huge sigh of relief right now) Hopefully they will find away to fix the system clock before March 1, 2014. Else plan to do something other than using your PS3 on that date.

PS3 around the world starting started crashing yesterday evening.  The first sign of trouble was users not being able to sign into the PlayStation Network.  Others users then noticed that the date was changed to 12/31/1999.  To add to user frustrations games like Heavy Rain will not launch and trophy data disappears.   Sony has identified the problem as a bug in the internal system clock.   (Affecting all models other than the new slims)  Sony’s advise for now is “…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.” Sony is expecting (hoping) that this will be fixed within 24 hours (when the system clock changes to the correct date?)

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.

Source

Lots of news from Nintendo’s Media Summit today. This trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2 was shown, and a North American release date of May 23 was given.

The Official MAG Blog has put out an alert that a pretty hefty patch is incoming. The Current ETA is at 1am Pacific/ 4am Eastern/ 9am GMT, February 25. Patch details are below.

Patch v1.03

Available February 25, 2010 | 41MB (TPPS), 49MB (DLS)

Gameplay

* Overhauled tuning of multiple weapons of all types (see “Weapon” section below)
* Improved speed of weapon and gear swapping by approximately 500 milliseconds.
* Fixed bug in SVER’s Aralkum Mechanical Acquisition map and Absheron Refinery Domination map that allowed players to defuse a charge planted on a repaired gate or door.
* Added a “solid tone” sound effect near the end of a charge’s beeping detonation timer so that players know when the charge can no longer be defused and that they should vacate the area.
* “Medium Improved” Armor now works as intended with the speed properties of Medium Armor and a defensive value greater than Medium, but less than Heavy Armor.
* Changed resuscitated player’s camera orientation to match the last camera direction used while incapacitated instead of the pre-harm camera.
* Players no longer lose XP if a teammate is killed by an objective explosion caused by a charge they planted.
* Respec Point requirements in Barracks have been changed from 3K, 5K, 10K, 17K, 26K, and 26K-Repeat to 1K, 2K, 3K, and 3K-Repeat.
* Lowered the amount of damage necessary to kill an incapacitated enemy
* All fired projectiles (RPGs, Turret Rockets) have been given a steadier aim.
* Mines that haven’t been triggered are no longer removed from the map when the dead player that deploys them respawns unless that player changes their Loadout (note: The maximum number of mines you can plant cannot exceed the number you initially spawn with).
* Fixed bug that prevented “fully-resuscitated” players with more than 100 health points from receiving their full HP.
* Fixed bug that caused players to take unnecessary damage from both friendly and enemy vehicles when touching them.
* Players no longer lose leadership points after entering “Veteran Mode.”

Weapons

* “From the hip” firing for Light and Medium machine guns have stronger recoil and are less accurate when moving.
* Tuned weapon damage for all three factions.
* Modified all short-ranged weapons (pistols, PDWs, shotguns, SMGs) so that they’re less effective at long distances.
* Made Battle Rifles more effective.
* Reduced accuracy bonus for using iron sights and reflex sights so that players can no longer snipe with weapons that aren’t intended to do so.
* Increased damage values for all rockets to make them more effective (ex: three rockets can now destroy a DE turret).
* Shooting through thin materials (fences, tents, etc.) will be more consistent.
* Increased spread on shotguns.
* Improved animations for rocket launchers.

Graphics

* Fixed bug that caused the recoil animation to end early or stop animating if a player was firing their weapon for a long period of time.
* Changed detonation time on smoke and poison gas grenades to prevent them from exploding in mid-air to eliminate unintended FX issues.
* Added realistic fogging effects to sky-domes.

Technical

* Fixed most conditions that caused players to be caught in a “respawn loop” which kept restarting the respawn queue when the countdown clock reached 0.
* Changed in-game conditions to make it less likely to experience in-game freezes.
* Improved client-side stability.

Capcom Chief Operating Officer Mark Beaumont died suddenly yesterday morning from a heart attack. Beaumont was a popular industry figure who was promoted to the role of COO at Capcom in April 2008 having served as both senior vice president and executive vice president.

The Capcom-Unity Blog has a memorial post where you can leave a few words.

We’re all still recovering here at Capcom, and his loss has left us with a deep sadness. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will remember him for his humor, passion and commitment to Capcom and our industry. He was a great leader and visionary and his spirit will carry on in everything that we do. Please join us in memory of Mark. Thank you for your attention and ongoing support of Capcom.

Our condolences go out to his family and friends. May he rest in peace!

Battlefield:Bad Company 2 releases on March 2, 2010 (in the US). If you’d like a sneak peak at a flashback WWII mission check out the video below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8AupzYU2P0

Krome Studios has announced that it is bringing its Blade Kitten comic to life on the Playstation 3 this spring. This exclusive PSN title will release as a two part mini series.

“Blade Kitten invites players into the world of Hollow Wish, where they take on the role of Kit Ballard, one of the best bounty hunters in the business. With her pink hair and tail, Kit is part cat, part girl -- and fully lethal”

Checkout Game Trailers TV tonight (February 18, 2010) at 12:30 am ET/PT on Spike TV for trailer and gameplay video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEi2Fma7rEc

You can also read through the comic on the Official Blade Kitten Website

Update- The PlayStation Blog has posted more info from the developer along with this video.

Eternal Darkness was/is one of my favorite Game Cube titles. Now I would love to think that a sequel is in the works for the Wii, and the title of this post would probably lead you to think that one was. However, this filing was most likely due the recent lapsing of the Eternal Darkness trademark.

Source

SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 released today for the PSP. And there is something …special….about this title. FTB3 introduces us to Sony’s new method of fighting the rampant piracy on it’s portable system. New copies of this game will include a one time use voucher that will be locked to a user’s PSN ID once entered. In order to play this game online this “Online Entitlement” is required. So what does this mean if you buy this game second hand? Well in short the answer is it will cost you $19.99. (Nice way to take get some second hand market money back to the developers)

The Online Entitlement is used to activate the online / infrastructure features of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3. For those purchasing the game second-hand, the entitlement will need to be purchased and entered into a PSN account prior to activating the infrastructure co-op and multiplayer features. The entitlement will be tied to purchasing PSN account and cannot be used by another account.

If you purchase this via the PSN no code will be needed as it will automatically be tied to your PSN id. If you don’t want pay the full price (s39.99) for this new your best bet is to wait for an eventual price drop and then pick this up.