Eagle-eyed conspiracy theorists might recall a certain survey that did the rounds some months ago.

Asking how best to celebrate Kratos’ triumphant return in God of War III, one possible suggestion was re-releasing the big guy’s two previous outings on the PS3.

Some saw this as tacit admission of full backwards compatibility returning to the PS3, others didn’t care and just wanted to know if the survey was hinting at the ultimate God of War fantasy.

Thanks to our friends over at the official PS blog, that (wet) dream has just come true.

One of our awesome team members is taking a three month sabbatical to travel the world, and we wanted to make special mention here so that our regular readers can leave him a ‘bon voyage’ message or two.

And unlike the song lyric above, we do know when he’ll be back again…

Bleach is a cultural phenomenon.

Starting off as a popular comic, the ongoing story of how a young man accidentally embodies the cultural equivalent to Japan’s version of Death is now serialised, on lunch-boxes, has its own anime series on TV and has even been the subject of a number of rock musicals. Bleach is big business.

It’s therefore of little surprise to see Bleach extend its reach into the gaming domain.

Gameplay, graphics, storyline; these have always been the defining element in video games. Not to be outdone, the score of a game is becoming equally important.

Below are some of the games that have left lasting impressions, sometimes even more so than the gameplay itself. Rhythm games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, are not included as they revolve around music, and let’s face it, we already know how awesome their soundtracks are.

Europe, stop giggling. Yeah it took longer than usual, but thanks to some expert help the North American PS Store update is up and running. It also took us a little bit longer to post it but hey, we were a little busy.

Invincible Tiger debuts in super-duper 3D. Finally! We can use those Rad Racer glasses again. This week’s PSone classics are brought to you by the number two: CoolBoarders Two, Tomb Raider Two and SimCity Two…thousand. There are four demos this time around, all of them previously available elsewhere, if you happen to own a ‘summer home’ abroad that is.

The Ratchet & Clank series have always been about exploration and collecting. Up until now, this feature has been targeted at the various worlds that the duo explore. Space has always been seen as just a glimpse from the cockpit of your ship or as a brief shooter style level in which you are hindered to a set path.

With A Crack in Time, you’ll be able to take full control over your spacecraft and travel wherever you wish to go; exploring moons, asteroid belts, and whatever other surprises you might find.

This weeks new arrivals to the PSN Video Store include action, comedy, magic, and a little bit of mystery. To top off the list is Zach Snyder’s amazing adaptation of the graphic novel 300. Watching it will make you think why is this just now making it to the PSN?

Also near the top of our suggestion list is I Love You, Man staring Paul Rudd and Jason Segal. If you’re a Harry Potter fan then The Order of the Phoenix is the choice for you. If you can’t seem to find a film to your liking, then perhaps one of the hundreds of television shows will catch your eye.

For the last three weeks we’ve been running a competition for our most coveted prize ever – an uber-rare LittleBigPlanet Golden Crown for the winner’s Sackperson to wear within the game.

We’ve been blown away by all the entries – over 100 designs of every possible type – and we take our collective hats off to all those people that entered the competition. You have truly amazed us with your brilliance.

But there can be only one winner, and the time has come to announce who we’re ‘crowning’ as the designer of the new Official PS3A Sackboy.

While Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao was supposed to hit the North American PSN yesterday, a little hiccup has caused a delay in the update. In case you couldn’t wait any longer for the game, Blitz Games have kindly put the entire soundtrack up online for everyone to enjoy.

There are a few things this particular writer used to be good at in the ’80s, but that can no longer be managed without the aid of a team of assistants.

Skateboarding, BMX, rock climbing and turntablism to name but a few.

But now thanks to the nice people at Activision, it is possible once again to spin ‘the wheels of steel’ and sound like you actually know what you’re doing. Welcome to the world of DJ Hero.

The latest issue of Famitsu brings us details of two new characters to the Final Fantasy XIII universe; Jill Nabato and Yaag Rosch. Despite appearing in the latest trailer at E3 this year, up until now, we have had no details on these two antagonists of Lightning.

Welcome to the PS3 Attitude Retro Review, where we take another look at titles that were released at least six months ago and discover whether they still ought to garner your attention. This time, it is the turn of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.

Sadly something went bananas over at PlayStation Network HQ and the weekly store update is running a bit late. No worries, top men are working on it with the aid of their feline counterparts (pictured). Someone give that cat an HDMI cable or this could take all night.

That’s right, Disgaea 3 has dumped a massive amount of DLC into today’s Europe’s PS Store.  EA style.  But today’s update is much more than that.
Crash Commando gets a price drop, Smash Cars and Battle …

It’s been a while since we checked out what is going on in Japan. Since the Japanese PS Store does have some gems to offer us even if we are not fluent in Japan’s lingua franca.

Zany preview videos or exclusive Japanese demos have been known to pop out here and there, so we have decided just to give you the highlights so you don’t miss anything worth checking out .

It’s been a while since we checked out what is going on in Hong Kong. heh, that kind of rhymes. Since The Hong Kong PS Store is usually light in content (only often), we have decided just to give you the highlights so you don’t miss anything worth checking out for us English speaking folk.

An English version of topatoi is hovering around Hong Kong, could that mean that a North American version could soon follow? Not necessarily, taken into consideration the vague official ‘fall release date’ and the fact that it technically isn’t fall yet. You can also grab three topatoi wallpapers to make the waiting a bit more palatable.

Well don’t look so shocked former Geico Guy turned PlayStation’s new VP of Enough is Enough/Director of Rumor Confirmation, these ads are just too awesome for one site to host and we think you knew that.

That’s right, the US PlayStation.Blog favorite video service Viddler has buckled under the awesomeness of Sony’s new PlayStation 3 ad campaign. YouTube must be giggling right now.

Electronic Arts has teamed up with retailer GAME to create a pretty cool new competition – the Need For Speed: Shift UK Championships.

Starting on August 28th 2009, gamers will be able to put their racing skills to the test as they compete in GAME stores across the UK to post the fastest lap times onEA’s latest driving game.

Heats will take place at 49 GAME stores across the country, with the fastest winners going on to face off in a final set of time trials to be held at Thorpe Park, Surrey, on September 26th.

Welcome back to another Homerun PlayStation fans! This week we will be giving more news and views on all the new content for PlayStation Home that has arrived in Europe and North America.

In an unusual turn of events, content for Sony’s biggest game this year so far is arriving in North America nearly two months after Europe. We are so used to seeing it being the other way round, although we would rather everyone got it at the same time.