Its Monday, April 25^th and here is what is making news today: PSN outage continues, New releases this week, Hitman: Absolution, New Nintendo controllers, DS Lite, and more to come.

PSN outage

Update

PlayStation Network continues to be down (about four days as of this posting) and members who use the networks online gaming are getting increasingly frustrated.  As we reported earlier, Sony did admit that they have been dealing with what they termed an “external intrusion” of the network.   The anxiety for users only continues given that Sony has only announced suspension of services but has not given any indication regarding when service will be back up .  Sony may have to do something for its customers if this outage lasts much longer, even though they don’t pay for the service, it may be in Sony’s best interest to offer some type of compensation to its members…. Just my thought.

What’s Happening This Week?

New Releases

Not a lot by way of new releases this week, pretty typical following a holiday, but here is what we found will be available for gamers this week:

Tuesday, Dark Spore, Assassin’s Creed: Ultimate Collection, Blazing Angels Bundle, and Brothers in Arms: Complete Collection will be released for the PC.  Man vs. Wild will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.  Shift 2: Unleashed – Legends will be released for Xbox 360 and PS3.  Outland will be released on the PSN provided it is up and running by then (fingers crossed).

Wednesday, XBLA will release Nin2-Jump, Trouble Witches Neo! and Outland.

Hitman: Absolution

Rumors of game five in the Hitman series

The popular stealth-action Hitman series is now rumored to have fifth installment in the game series on its way.  Square Enix has filed an application for trademark with the European Union registry for the term “Hitman: Absolution.”  The Hitman games follow the exploits of Agent 47, a genetically engineered killer. We hope the rumors of a new Hitman game are true!

New Wii controllers?

Update on the new Nintendo console

Project Café, the code name for the new Nintendo console, is reported to have a “revamped” AMD R700 GPU and a triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset with faster speeds than is currently available in the Xbox 360′s processor.  The system could cost between $350 and $400 USD.  The new system reportedly has two types of controllers, a touchscreen-equipped controller so that games can be streamed to it from the console, and your typical Wii remote-style, waggling controller.  There has also been the suggestion that the touchscreen controller will include a camera.  All the rumor and speculation will be put to rest in June when Nintendo does the official reveal of the new console at the E3 press conference.

Good Night DS Lite

Handheld to be discontinued

Its been about a month now since Nintendo’s 3DS became available in the United States, and now it appears the DS Lite is on its way out.  GameStop stores have reportedly received a memo stating that the DS Lite is being discontinued and stores won’t be receiving any more shipments of the handheld device.  While Nintendo isn’t confirming this memo, it hasn’t denied it either.  There appear to be no plans as of yet to discontinue the DSi or the DSi XL, although this does set up a situation where both could drop in price.  Another one of those wait and see kind of speculations.