Welcome to The Black List, your one stop shop for all of the stories published on the site this week.

MONDAY l PODCAST l Episode 33 > In this edition of the Black Panel Podcast, we discuss Wii 2, Dragon’s Dogma, Gears of War 3, Dragon Age II, Torchlight, Homefront and the late, great Jerry Lawson. READ MORE

TUESDAY l NEWS l Wii 2 > After being beaten to the punch in each of the last three console generations, Nintendo is poised to launch its follow up to the Wii well ahead of the competition. The company has confirmed that it plans to announce new hardware in June. Although its press release is remarkably bereft of details, Nintendo has promised to unveil the system and its specifications at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. The new console will then hit retail in 2012. READ MORE

WEDNESDAY l NEWS l PlayStation Network > As Sony fans know only too well, the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been unavailable for the past week. The platform holder today issued a statement confirming that the two services were targeted by hackers between 17^th and 19^th April. The decision was subsequently made to take them offline. According to a follow up post, it wasn’t until yesterday that the full extent of the problem was determined. READ MORE

THURSDAY 2 l NEWS l nanoBITES 39 > The latest game from the creators of Greed Corp is less than a month away, with EA today confirming that environmentally themed twin stick shooter Gatling Gears will be coming to XBLA on Thursday 12 May and PSN on Tuesday 17 May. This is just one of the stories in this week’s edition of nanoBITES, our ongoing feature devoted to small but important news items. READ MORE

FRIDAY l NEWS l Inversion > Have you ever wanted to defy the law of gravity? Well, Namco Bandai is hoping Inversion will meet that want. Inversion is a new third person co-op shooter which revolves around the idea of gravity manipulation and destructible environments. READ MORE

Recent instalments of The Black List: 23.04.11 l 16.04.11 l 09.04.11 l 02.04.11 l 26.03.11

Have you ever wanted to defy the law of gravity? Well, Namco Bandai is hoping Inversion will meet that want. Inversion is a new third person co-op shooter which revolves around the idea of gravity manipulation and destructible environments.

The trailer, while light on actual gameplay footage, shows the basics of the premise well. Running up walls, gravity based weapons, floating debris and swarms of enemies all get some screen time in this action packed teaser. A crisp, yet ever so slightly dull, destroyed cityscape is the background for the mayhem, which sees the three protagonists take on a hoard of (presumably) evildoers on the side of a collapsing skyscraper.

The game itself promises gravity based action, puzzles and fully destructible environments powered by the Havok physics engine. The premise shows a lot of possibilities for originality and if the developers can deliver we could have a new hit IP on our game store shelves come late next year.

Inversion is under development by Sabre Interactive and Namco Bandai and is due for release in February 2012. The game is being released on 360 and PS3.

NanoBITES captures those small but important morsels of gaming information that otherwise might slip between the cracks.

ITEM! The latest game from the creators of Greed Corp is less than a month away, with EA today confirming that environmentally themed twin stick shooter Gatling Gears will be coming to XBLA on Thursday 12 May and PSN on Tuesday 17 May.

ITEM! After 10 months with nary a peep about ManiaPlanet, Ubisoft is finally pressing ahead with its ambitious user generated content system. TrackMania 2 Canyon will enter closed beta in July, with ShootMania and QuestMania betas also in the works.

ITEM! While Q Entertainment’s psychedelic shooter Child of Eden is due to arrive on 360 in June (complete with Kinect support), the PS3 version has been delayed until September. As reported by IGN, the PS3 edition will now be compatible with Sony’s Move controller.

ITEM! Two new DLC packs are on the way for Firaxis RTS Civilization V. As reported by CVG, both the Explorers Map Pack and the (deep breath) Civilization and Scenario Pack: Denmark – The Vikings will be available for download next week.

ITEM! The zombie map included in the forthcoming Escalation DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops will include the likeness of director George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) along with Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo.

Recent instalments of nanoBITES: 21.04.11 l 14.04.11 l 07.04.11 l 31.03.11 l 24.03.11

This is no time to panic... or is it?

As Sony fans know only too well, the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been unavailable for the past week. The platform holder today issued a statement confirming that the two services were targeted by hackers between 17^th and 19^th April. The decision was subsequently made to take them offline. According to a follow up post, it wasn’t until yesterday that the full extent of the problem was determined.

Sony has conceded that a range of data may have been compromised, including account holders’ real names, user names, birthdates, passwords, email addresses and physical addresses (city, postcode and country only). Sony has also conceded that it “cannot rule out the possibility” that credit card details have also been accessed, though it claims there is currently no evidence that this has occurred.

Sony is yet to set a date for the restoration of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity, stating only that the issue will be resolved “as quickly and efficiently as practicable.” The down time will apparently be used to investigate the breach and enhance security. At this stage, Sony is yet to announce if any form of compensation will be provided to subscribers. The company has elaborated on the breach in an extensive blog post here.

UPDATE (28.04.11) Sony has indicated that it hopes to restore some services within the next week. It has also stated that it will shortly require all users to change their passwords. The post also outlines a number of measures that users can take to minimise their exposure to data theft. Read the full PlayStation Network and Qriocity Outage FAQ here.

UPDATE (29.04.11) A new statement has appeared on the PlayStation Blog assuring users that the breach will not result in the loss of cloud saves, download history or trophies. The post also suggests that Sony is planning to compensate (in an undisclosed fashion) players of exclusively online titles such as Free Realms and DC Universe Online. The company claims it also working on a “goodwill gesture” to thank PSN suscibers for their “extraordinary patience”. Read the full PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services FAQ #2 here.

UPDATE (05.05.11) Sony has conceded that it knew that “data of some kind had been taken from the PlayStation Network servers” on Wednesday 20 April, though it claims that its team “didn’t know what the data was” at that time. As reported by Kotaku, the admission came in the form of a letter to the US Congress, which is investigating the privacy breach.