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#chronocross Certain games constantly get name checked when people are assembling the highlights of video game creativity. Originally released during the last days of the PS1, Chrono Cross is one of those games and Square Enix has announced that, starting today, it'll be available on the PlayStation Network in the U.S. You'll be able to download Chrono Cross for play on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. More »

It's dangerous to spend time in the world of Amy without the game's eponymous little girl. For instance, the disease that's killing the game's other main character? That will totally ravage you should you step away for too long. Talk about strict punishment for poor babysitting!

#playstationstoreupdate Up this week at the PlayStation Store is the free-to-play addition of DC Universe Online, as well as Hydrophobia Prophecy and a demo for the upcoming Move game Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest. More »

#playstationstoreupdate The two big releases this week on the PlayStation store are Infamous 2's bloodsucking add-on Festival of Blood and the highly-anticipated-by-Stephen-Totilo Pixeljunk Sidescroller. More »

When it comes to release dates pertaining to the Gran Turismo series, fans know better than to expect developer Polyphony Digital to actually meet those deadlines. It should come as no surprise, then, that Gran Turismo 5's first big DLC release, originally intended to launch on October 18, will now be drifting to October 25 in North America.

As previously explained, the DLC can either be purchased in one big $11.99 bundle, or piecemeal as tracks, cars, racing gear, and paint jobs. Sony apologized for the delay but didn't provide a reason for it. Instead, the company will include a "special bonus" with the DLC on October 25, so you've got that going for you.

#playstationstoreupdate PlayStation 3 owners looking for something new, original and exclusive to their system of choice may want to investigate Sideway: New York, the action platformer that leads this week's North American PlayStation Store update. More »

#playstationstoreupdate It's true. You can finally download PlayStation 2 classic God Hand to your PlayStation 3, people. That's the wonderfully wacky beat 'em up from the people who made Okami. IGN labeled it awful, while Kotaku contributor Tim Rogers likened it to "being a professional chainsaw-wielding glacier demolisher at a party where the penguins are going to need a lot of ice cubes." More »

As if you don't have enough games to worry about this torrential fall, Sony is adding to the downpour with its "Only on PlayStation Network" campaign. Every Tuesday this month, we'll not only be getting exclusives but a selection of "rare classic games" including God Hand, GrimGrimoire, Maximo, Odin Sphere and Ring of Red, all coming tomorrow. (We guess that since your PS3 doen't play PS2 games any more, those really are only on PSN.)

Industry Gamers reports PlayStation Plus members get every title at 20 percent off during launch week and those that spend more than $60 in October on the service will get a $10 credit for November. Here's the lineup so you can plan your buying accordingly:

• October 4 - Eufloria and Rochard
• October 11 - Sideway: New York
• October 13 - Sodium Collection
• October 18 - Okabu and RocketBirds
• October 25 - inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood and PixelJunk Sidescroller

#playstationstoreupdate North American PlayStation Store shoppers may have some difficult decisions ahead of them. Tap into Dreamcast nostalgia with some Resident Evil Code Veronica X HD? Experience Castlevania multiplayer with Harmony of Despair? Or buy the interesting looking Rochard? More »

After teasing us with gorgeous footage, press demos, and a beta, Flower dev thatgamecompany today announced intentions to launch its next game, Journey, in Spring 2012. As with previous TGC games, Journey will arrive exclusively on the PlayStation 3's digital store.

"While there is still a ton of care and polish needed, we can't wait to finally deliver Journey, TGC's take on an online adventure game," creative director Jenova Chen writes on the PlayStation blog. "Like all our games, Journey is an experiment. In the end, it's what you think that matters."

After a few hours offline, Sony's PlayStation Network is back in working order. Sony tweets "If you encountered issues logging in today, try logging in now. Apologies for the inconvenience!" PS3 owners, you good to go? More »

#ps3 For the better part of the day, PlayStation 3 owners have been unable to take their consoles online via Sony's PlayStation Network, a seemingly unplanned network outage that the company says it's "working hard on restoring." More »

Nope, that guy didn't just rage quit on your Super Street Fighter IV match ... it's worse. PlayStation Network's down, we're sorry to say. It seems that Sony wasn't planning the outage, as a Twitter message from the company states that its "working to resolve the issue," without acknowledging what led to the sudden loss of service.

Interestingly, the message is only directed at "some of you," rather than "everyone," so let us know if your service isn't experiencing any hiccups -- two of our US-based staff members were unable to connect as of this writing. Sony also notes that it'll keep folks updated via Twitter, so keep an eye out.View Poll

#playstationstoreupdate It's a big week for old games on the North American PlayStation Store. Resident Evil 4, Saints Row 2 and even Altered Beast are new to PlayStation 3 owners who prefer to buy their games over the internet. More »

Unsurprisingly, the nearly month-long PlayStation Network outage and related security breach resulted in the inevitable class action lawsuit. And while that's fair game, Sony isn't taking it lying down. The Japanese consumer electronics giant has amended its online gaming service's Terms of Service - that's the giant wall-o-text that consumer have learned to gloss over while hunting for the "Agree" action. Sony's solution: Why, a mandatory system update, of course!

The next time users log into PSN, they'll be greeted with the all-too-familiar request to update their consoles; however, this update includes the aforementioned new Terms of Service which, amongst other things, include the following notable enhancement:
ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LEGAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE SONY ENTITY WITH WHICH YOU HAVE A DISPUTE SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION. THIS PROVISION DOES NOT PRECLUDE YOUR PARTICIPATION AS A MEMBER IN A CLASS ACTION FILED ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 20, 2011. Naturally, this change isn't going to sit well with consumers but it is in Sony's best interest to try any and everything it can to protect itself from retaliation if and when this happens again. Sony's Patrick Seybold addressed the change, saying, "This language in our TOS is common and similar to that of many other service related Terms of Service Agreements. It is designed to benefit both the consumer and the company by ensuring that there is adequate time and procedures to resolve disputes." You can opt out of this easily, by just ... sending a letter? Sony is keeping things simple, and offers this easy opt-out method:
RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER WITHIN 30 DAYS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN THIS SECTION 15, YOU MUST NOTIFY SNEI IN WRITING WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE THAT YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MUST BE MAILED TO 6080 CENTER DRIVE, 10TH FLOOR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90045, ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT/ARBITRATION AND MUST INCLUDE: (1) YOUR NAME, (2) YOUR ADDRESS, (3) YOUR PSN ACCOUNT NUMBER, IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND (4) A CLEAR STATEMENT THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH ANY SONY ENTITY THROUGH ARBITRATION. We'd love to know what kind of postcard you're using for this letter and, as Ars Technica points out, you may want to get signature and tracking service. For more thrilling reading from the new Terms of Service, head on past the break where we've embedded the entire thing, with changes marked in red.

#sony Have you agreed to the new PlayStation Network terms of service yet? If you have, then you've agreed not to take Sony to court or participate in a class action lawsuit against the company. You really should read things before you sign them. More »

#playstationnetwork This week's North American PlayStation Store update is here, dropping an eclectic mix of downloadable games that includes a pair of PSP remakes in God Of War: Origins, god game From Dust and... the import version of Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness?! More »

#psn Later today, Sony is bringing the PlayStation Network down for a little spring maintenance. I know it's not spring in the US, or Europe, but it's spring here, so that's what I'm calling it. More »

#playstationstoreupdate This week's North American PlayStation Store update is live, an update that might convince you to dust off that copy of Red Dead Redemption or seriously consider investing in a BloodRayne video game. No, seriously! More »

Though Sony's initial reaction to the enormous PlayStation Network breach earlier this year may have been less than stellar, the company responded in force as time went on, even vowing to hire a "Chief Information Security Officer" eventually. This morning, the company named the person filling that position: former director of the US National Cyber Security Center Philip Reitinger. Serious business!

Reitinger is actually filling two roles, as he's been hired on as senior vice president as well as chief information security officer, reporting to executive VP and general counsel Nicole Seligman. A Sony spokesperson reconfirmed that the appointment of Reitinger was due to this year's PSN breach, and specifically noted, "We are looking to bolster our network security even further." May we suggest hiring a certain superhacker known as "Zero Cool"?

PlayStation Network has had a hell of a time with public relations this year. After the well-publicized attack on the service (which potentially exposed the personal information of millions of users), Sony has done everything it can to regain the trust and goodwill of its customers. It would seem those efforts appear are paying off, according to claims conveyed by CNET.

The site reports that Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently addressed the subject at the IFA conference in Berlin, saying that PlayStation Network is "more secure and better than ever." He added that the company is working to expand the service, which has added 3 million new customers since the attack. Furthermore, Stringer noted that PSN sales have actually increased relative to pre-attack levels.

According to Stringer, "the summer of our discontent is behind us."

#psn Howard Stringer, the chief executive of Sony, said at a Berlin electronics show that the PlayStation Network has recovered from this spring's attack and 23-day outage by adding 3 million new users in the three months since. More »

#psn Sony is putting all its online services for music, movies, TV, and gaming under a single umbrella: Sony Entertainment Network. That means, the PSN is part of, ahem, SEN. More »

#playstationstoreupdate It's a big week for the North American PlayStation Store, with an impressive collection of new downloadable games for PlayStation 3 and PSP owners. Not only is Deathspank sequel The Baconing here, so is a three-way Mortal Kombat combo. More »

After an apparently successful start in July, Sony has announced that the $0.99 movie and television rental program will become a permanent part of PlayStation Network. Every Tuesday, a selection of movie and TV rentals will see a week-long discount to $0.99 for SD versions and $1.99 for HD versions.

We haven't heard of most of this week's selections, apart from Michael Moore's Sicko and Fred Durst's The Longshots (yes, that Fred Durst). See all of this week's selections after the break.

#playstationnetwork The arrival of Freddy Krueger in Mortal Kombat might take headline precedence, but Madden NFL 12's demo gets the lead image glory. Sorry, Mr. Krueger, but you're simply lacking in screen shots. More »

#downloadables What new digital treasures await North American PlayStation 3 owners? Let's take a look at the latest additions to the PlayStation Store, shall we? More »

#paydaytheheist For all those tired of the same old squad based FPS scenarios, Payday: The Heist offers new settings to take on. More »

#downloadables PlayStation 3 owners, you are now cleared to download last year's excellent puzzle platformer Limbo, one of the dark highlights of this week's North American PlayStation Store update. Already played that? Well, there's a lot more. More »

#itonlydoesoffline Losing the entire PlayStation Network service for 23 days and its online marketplace for more than a month is not many people's idea of a good time. Nor is it Tim Schaff's, though the Sony Network Entertainment boss called it "a great experience," at a forum before, as the politicians say, he revised and extended his remarks. More »