Black Panel Tweet Squad provides you with a fortnightly digest of vaguely game related Twitter posts from our staff and contributors. You’ll hear from Erin Marcon (@ErinMarcon), Karen Jacobson (@KarenMJacobson), Jenn Christodoulou (@Jennacide77) and Matthew Hewson (@Hewso81) and more! You can follow the site itself at @BlackPanelDaily.

10 RECENT TWEETS

@Hewso81 – Playing aoe online last night til 1:30 seemed like a good idea. Now that I am at work I am thinking it probably wasn’t.

@Erin Marcon – My Dawn of War II download is complete. If it isn’t great, I’ll be holding @Hewso81 and @DarthHomer personally responsible.

@Hewso81 – we will have to hook up a mp session at one point. I haven’t played mp yet

@Erin Marcon – @Hewso81 If you annihilate me, it will be due to a mystery illness that I plan to contract just prior to our game. #DoWII.

@Hewso81 – Is mixing a Classic RTS with MMO sensibilities a good idea? I am starting to think yes, it is a bloody good idea #aoeonlinebeta

@Erin Marcon – I just watched @KarenMJacobson wrench somebody’s head off in the #Gears3Beta. She seemed like such a nice girl when I met her.

@KarenMJacobson – @ErinMarcon does wrenching somebody’s head off mean that I’m not a nice girl? If that’s the case, I don’t want to be a nice girl.

@Jennacide77 – can’t stop making #FFXIV characters. I think I have a problem

@Hewso81 – @Jennacide77 @ErinMarcon you had better put your crazy away Jen, The boss is putting our tweets on the site now

@Jennacide77 – So the other night I played FEAR 2 and kept getting all these headshots. Picturing @Hewso81 as my enemy has helped my aim a whole lot

OFF TOPIC

@KarenMJacobson – Hey Roger Corman, give me back the 89 minutes I wasted on #Sharktopus last night.

COMMUNITY TWEET

We’re also interested in hearing from our readers. Insert the tag #BPTS in your game related tweets and we’ll include a selection of them here.

@MangieV – Now that Bin Laden’s dead, I wonder how soon we’ll see games and movies take advantage of the situation? Two years? Three? #BPTS #Osama

And for my next trick...

UPDATE (25.05.11) Sony has confirmed that it will compensate PSN users registered prior to the recent downtime. All such users will receive 30 days of free PlayStation Plus membership, with existing PlayStation Plus subscribers to receive 60 days. PlayStation 3 users will be invited to download two free titles from the following list: Dead Nation, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty and Wipeout HD. Meanwhile, PSP users will have the opportunity to download two of the following: Killzone Liberation, LittleBigPlanet PSP, ModNation Racers PSP and Pursuit Force. Of course, these benefits are dependent on restoration of the PlayStation Store. While a range of services have been brought back online, Sony is yet to announce a date for the relaunch of the PlayStation Store.

UPDATE (16.05.11) It may have taken a little longer than the suggested week, but Sony has today commenced restoration of the PlayStation Network in a range of territories, including Australia. Sadly, the influx of new users (many of them eager to change their passwords as per Sony’s advice) has resulted in the system going offline yet again. All going well, however, we should soon have uninterrupted access to a range of services, including online play and friends lists. While this would have been a golden opportunity to quietly retire the PlayStation Home feature, Sony has inexplicably resurrected that as well.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Two weeks after it pulled the service offline, and one week after it conceded that confidential user data may have been compromised, Sony has outlined plans to restore some elements of the PlayStation Network. According to its latest blog post, we will soon regain access to several core features, including account management, online play and movie rentals. The restoration program is set to commence this week.

Sony has also announced that it will offer a number of “welcome back” incentives to its PSN members. Returning users will receive complimentary access to the PlayStation Plus program for 30 days and be invited to download unspecified “entertainment content” at no charge. The multiplatform Qriocity service is also set to return, with users to be offered 30 days of free membership.

Will these measures be sufficient to draw the curtain on what has been one of the more traumatic episodes in Sony’s history? The platform holder’s corporate reputation has taken a battering not only from mainstream news outlets but also from countless disgruntled gamers on social networking platforms. As reported by The Age, it has also been targeted with multiple class-action lawsuits related to the security breach. It seems likely that this will be an event not soon forgotten.

It seems everyone’s been waiting for more news on Rockstar’s upcoming game L.A. Noire and finally our curiosity is satiated with a shiny new trailer to salivate over.

New gameplay features include the introduction of a partner to help Cole work his way up from patrolman to hot-shot detective, as well as replayable cases (for all you perfectionists out there). Each success earns Cole “intuition points” which aid him in decrypting some of the darker, more twisted crimes you’ll come across later. There is also a myriad of extra content, such as anonymous cases and searching for landmarks around the city.

We are told “Make no assumptions until you’ve seen the evidence,” but based on this trailer I think it’s safe to say that Rockstar are going to have another hit on their hands.

L.A. Noire is set to be released on Friday 20 May for both 360 and PS3.

Presented in glorious alphabetical order, New Media: Retail Roundup is your indispensible checklist of the home console and handheld titles arriving in stores this week. What will you be playing?

MICROSOFT XBOX 360 Virtua Tennis 4

NINTENDO Wii Virtua Tennis 4 3DS Nothing DS Nothing

SONY PLAYSTATION 3 Sniper: Ghost Warrior * Virtua Tennis 4 * Zumba Fitness PSP Nothing

VARIOUS PC Men of War: Assault Squad * The Next Big Thing

New Media: Downloadable Digest is your handy reminder of the new downloadable titles released during the past week.

MICROSOFT XBLA The Fancy Pants Adventures * Section 8: Prejudice

NINTENDO WiiWARE The Ignition Factor DSiWARE Zoonies: Escape From Makatu

SONY PSN Nothing (here’s why) PSP MINIS Nothing

VALVE STEAM Darkspore * Hector: Badge of Carnage – Episode 1 * Yar’s Revenge * Your Doodles Are Bugged

Recent instalments of New Media: 24.04.11 l 17.04.11 l 10.04.11 l 03.04.11 l 27.03.11