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I'm not one to throw stones at service outages -- computer systems will have problems from time to time -- but when I fired up my PS3 for the first time in a week to check the Store and play online and found myself kicked off the PSN repeatedly I was miffed. For VoodooExtreme it's downright ugly: PSN Goes Down like a $10 Whore. Yikes.

The PS Blog today reiterated that yes, they are still having service problems and no, they don't yet know when it'll be back to normal. They even went so far as to say it may be a full day or two.

Am I totally wrong in thinking their integration with Steam for the launch of Portal 2 might in some way have caused this little snafu? Microsoft may be sitting off in their tall green tower smiling smugly at Sony being so eager to connect to those heathen, unwashed PC Steam gamers... who are totally cool if they want to pre-purchase Fable III on Steam, you know.

From Aeropause.

The massive tiger-like Valjra leapt down the ruined city block, slammed into Tatsumi, knocking her out, and spun 180 degrees to get ready to charge again. Soma was flat on the ground off to my right, also unconscious, and I downed a restore pill to get some health back. We can do this, I thought as Gina, up on a chunk of building to one side flipped her large blade into gun mode and took potshots at the feline Aragami. We just have to be cautious, be more defensive-- Just then my communicator blared and the mission timer overlay started ticking down from five minutes.

Portal 2's PC release is tied to the Steam game store and distribution platform, and that platform has been pre-loading the game's assets for those who have preordered it for a little while now. Given that the release date is a matter of one final patch or key being released to the target systems to unlock the mass of binary data just waiting to spring to virtual life, Valve decided to turn their marketing up a few notches and have some fun along the way.

The release date for Portal 2 has been given a community co-op twist. The more time spent actively playing one or more of a collection of indie titles available on steam called the Potato Sack games, the greater the chance of moving up the release date for the game and unlocking it early. An Aperture Science page named glados@home charts the progress thus far.

The Minecraft creepers would just like to remind you that while it's all well and good to use a bed to skip over nighttime, and it's nice to get excited about taming a wolf, don't get so excited that you run out of your house first thing in the morning to see if wolves spawned without looking out of every window first. We are silent, we are relentless, and we will get you when you let your guard down. SSSSSS BOOM!

Minecraft 1.5 is headed our way next week with a bevy of updates including statistics tracking, achievements, powered minecarts, lightning, snow, and rain. The Nether is a zone I've never tried going in single player, but apparently one of its inhabitants will be coming out to play in the normal world in this update. If one of the many harmless pigs -- normally just a pork chop food source -- is struck by lightning he will become a zombie pigman.

For a test video of what this is looking like so far, check after the jump.

April is another strong month of releases on Sony's platforms, even on the PSP which is always said to have “no games out for it”. The PS3 gets a game that promises cross-platform play and integration of the PlayStation Network with perhaps the premier PC gaming delivery system and network. But more on that towards the end of this month's release list.

April 5
StarDrone (PS3)
At first glance the colorful screens remind me of Flow, another top-down game that was built from a Flash title, but the videos reveal that this Move title is very much a pinball-flavored physics game in sci-fi clothing. Score chasing will likely feature prominently in this one.

Red Faction: Battlegrounds demo (PS3)
The next chapter in the destroy-it-all-and-have-a-blast-doing-it franchise Red Faction lands on the PSN instead of at retail with Battlegrounds. This one's a vehicular combat game with the trappings and weaponry of the war on Mars.