On Sunday, Sony announced that "some" PSN services, including online play, would come back this week. With very little of this week remaining, you might be wondering if it's still going to happen. Well, it isn't.

In an update on the PlayStation Blog, Sony's Patrick Seybold passes along the bad news that service renewal has been delayed to an unspecified time. "When we held the press conference in Japan last week," Seybold said, "based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week. We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system." He didn't flat out say this week is out of the question, but that's definitely the implication.

Seybold apologized for the delay. To those of us (all of us) waiting to get back to our online services, he said "trust me when I say we're doing everything we can to make it happen."

For those of you who need a bribe in order to be pushed into a purchase of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Activision has prepared its cornucopia of goodies, divided up by retailer and by console.

GameStop pre-orders for Xbox 360 and PS3 will get you a code to unlock Sideswipe, while Amazon pre-orders get you Ratchet (and a $10 credit). But the Wii and DS games, pre-ordered anywhere, get you actual toys -- Bumblebee with the Autobots game, and Lockdown with the Decepticons version.

Other bonuses announced by Activision include an in-game Bumblebee skin for the 3DS version at Toys R Us, in-game "Deco" character skins for the Wii and DS games at Target, and a, "original, limited edition Transformers: Dark of the Moon comic book" at Kmart and Sears, seemingly not tied to any particular version.

Or you could pre-order from Best Buy and get a "free movie ticket upgrade to 3D." Thrilling.

We're in the final stretch before E3 2011. This is the time when the rumors start flying fast and furious, some will pan out... others will fizzle out before the sun sets on the day they began.

What's everyone playing?

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The Financial Times reports that two "veteran" members of Anonymous say some element of the organization was "likely" behind the attacks on Sony earlier this month. At least, they're saying that as much as any two people can take credit for a large, essentially unconnected group of strangers. There was an "official" Anonymous movement against Sony called "OpSony," say the veteran members, and according to them, "if you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it."

That's the problem Sony is having with the non-organization -- members of Anonymous have both now taken credit for and denied being behind the attacks, but since Anonymous is by definition a decentralized, self-defined community, it can't really "take credit" or be held responsible for anything itself.

That said, while the Anonymous movement is hard to pin down, it is made up of a group of real people, and those people are being investigated as "one of the key targets" by US law enforcement. If and when charges are brought in this case, "Anonymous" won't be on the stand -- it's not a real organization you can arrest or subpoena. But the hackers who were reportedly acting in conjunction with the online movement likely will be.

Sure, Escalation is out and there are new maps to play in Call of Duty: Black Ops, but that doesn't matter to you. You don't play for the fun of exploring a new map and discovering new strategies -- you just want cold, hard progression points. If you can't level up from it, you're not interested.

Fortunately for you, Treyarch has your back; the company's kicked off a Double XP weekend, so everyone playing BlOps, in the new maps or elsewhere, picks up double the points the whole time. Whew! Close one there -- you almost had some fun in that new content completely outside of the standard XP grind.

[Thanks, gandrade]

As if there weren't enough Shy Guy permutations in various Mario games haunting your dreams as it is, custom action figure crafter Jin Saotome has gone and created an even more terrifying one than normal. As seen above and more thoroughly on his personal site, Saotome's interpretation of Shy Guy is just a tad darker than Nintendo's version.

Naotome's site details the figure's composition, a careful combination of a PVC Shy Guy character mask, the body of DC Comics' Desaad and the hands of The Spirit, and a gatling gun comprising an Iron Man weapon and a Spawn weapon. The piece is currently up on eBay, fetching around $60 as of midday Friday EST, but it's also really sweet and one-of-a-kind, so you may wanna jump on that soon if Dark Shy Guy is for you.

Though Sonic's new outing Sonic Generations may still be a ways off, it looks like we may get an early double dose of hedgehog. Sega is planning to release a demo of the game, according to Australia's Classification Board, which recently awarded the demo a family-friendly G rating.

It would seem like good news for Sonic fans, though it's unusual for most game rating organizations to assign a rating to an individual demo. Ratings are usually reserved only for individual retail products. One possible implication is that the demo could (could, mind you) be a paid product of some sort, or perhaps bundled with an upcoming Sega game.

Sony is sending out thank you cards and T-shirts to some of the most active participants in the PlayStation Rewards beta that ended on March 31. According to the card, the "exclusive" tee is "only for Beta testers who reached one of the Tiers" in the loyalty program. "Wear It Proud," declares a bold statement at the top of the note.

Coincidence or not, the shirts are arriving as both Sony and its PlayStation brand face a customer loyalty crisis. Having its most faithful followers out rocking PlayStation apparel might be just the street team campaign the company needs to augment the bigwig apologies and consumer protection promises. Of course, the "PlayStation" lettering is perhaps illegible (it's in Japanese!), and "the shirt is pretty lame" otherwise, notes one recipient on BigBadBob's Blog.

As for PlayStation Rewards, its public launch remains in doubt following an unspecified delay. "We remain committed to providing the best overall consumer experience for our users," a representative said in late March, "and we will be refocusing our efforts in the near future to further developing PlayStation Plus and our other network services." No kidding.

[Image credit: BigBadBob113; thanks, Xakdublin]

NeoGAF user SolidSnakex has posted a breakdown of this month's Game Informer coverage of the just-announced Assassin's Creed: Revelations. First off, let's get the protagonist problem out of the way: In Revelations, you'll play as both 12th century stabber Altair and his 16th century descendant Ezio, now over 50 years old. Ezio will be looking for "seals" which will allow him to access Altair's memories, similar to how Desmond used the Animus to access both Altair's and Ezio's memories. Speaking of Desmond, he's unsurprisingly back in the Animus "where he finds a safe mode called the 'Black Room.'" The gameplay in Desmond's mode is described as "narrative-fueled puzzle sequences," geometric shapes and all.

The lion's share of the game will take place in Constantinople (or, as it's known today, Istanbul) separated into four districts: Constantin, Beyazid, Imperial, and Galata. If you want a change of scenery (fairy chimneys!) some of the game will also take place in Cappadocia. Inside the cities, you'll be able to establish Assassin's Dens, a sort of expanded Borgia Tower mechanic from Brotherhood. Complete various scenarios, take down the regional Templar presence, establish a Den, and then "upgrade the buildings in that region along with adding ziplines across the rooftops."

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When Game Informer revealed the contents of its new issue yesterday, buried under the Assassin's Creed: Revelations hoopla was the promise of Ubisoft news that has nothing to do with white hoodies or hidden knives: "six pages of new details and assets on the gorgeous new platformer, Rayman Origins."

For those assets, you'll have to wait to see the issue for yourself, but NeoGAFfer SolidSnakex summarized the new information about the platformer -- information welcome to those of us who get nervous when they don't get regular status updates about Michel Ancel games.

First announced as a downloadable, episodic title, Origins is now a retail game, and it's due this holiday season. It features four-player local co-op, though whether that is also online is unclear. According to the preview, it's designed to be accessible to players of different skill levels, and for each level to be enjoyable alone or in multiplayer. "I Dare You" challenges will allow players to bet on whether they can complete a "complex, acrobatic chain" to win in-game currency ("Lums.")

The EA Steam Week continues with deals on Crysis games. Right now, you can get Crysis for $7.49 through the digital storefront, or Crysis Warhead for $4.99; however, true, hardcore saving-money-on-Crysis fans will be more interested in the Crysis Maximum Edition, which combines the two for just $10. Those prices will help you maintain enough savings for the rest of the stuff you'll be impulse-buying on Steam this week.

These deals are active in North America, but a quick warning -- they may be different in your region. And they'll definitely be different Saturday at 1PM EST, when the deal expires.

It seemed like a fine idea for a feature.

Armed with a early preview disc for Ubisoft's upcoming Child of Eden, I would compare the game's two methods of control, the good old-fashioned thumbstick and buttons and the newfangled Kinect method. Then, when comparing the scores for both, I'd have a pretty good idea of which method is superior.

So what was the problem? The fly in the ointment? ... Well, see, one of the methods made me cry.

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Team Fortress 2 updates tend to be good news for everyone, and the latest one is no exception. If you actually play TF2, you can now download the "Replay Update," allowing you to save and edit video replays of your matches, share them on Steam and upload them to YouTube. The update also brings new achievements and, like everything else that happens in this game, new hats.

But if you don't play Team Fortress 2, you still get a hilarious comic. You'll also get some entertainment in the form of the "Saxxy Awards" -- Valve is offering prizes for the best videos in 20 categories. If you think you can record a really spectacular death, get to it! You have until May 19. If you don't want to contribute, just get some popcorn.

Spore's "Creature Creator" let you build your own freak in advance of the release of the actual game. THQ is taking a page from Maxis' book, allowing you to design your own, well, freak for Saints Row: The Third. The "Initiation Station" app for PS3, PC and Xbox 360 will allow you to design a character, share it via the official community site, and even download other users' characters to import into the game.

There's a catch. Early access to the build-a-scumbag app is tied to pre-orders of Red Faction: Armageddon. "Early purchasers" of Volition and THQ's other upcoming game get a one-week head start in the Initiation Station. The app will be available for all some time before the "holiday" release of Saints Row: The Third.

According to reports from Gamasutra and Eurogamer, Crysis developer Crytek is planning on laying off a number of employees at its Budapest studio. The team at Crytek Budapest was knee-deep in developing the Xbox 360-exclusive fantasy title Kingdoms (which both reports also mention will be Kinect-compatible) -- however, the project has now been placed in the charge of Crytek's Frankfurt studio. The reports claim that Crytek Budapest will now focus on tablet-based games, and will see its staff size cut from 80 down to 30-35 as a result.

Crytek managing director Avni Yerli did not directly confirm the layoffs, but did respond to the reports, saying, "We can confirm that our Budapest studio is getting a new direction and focus." The reports claim that whatever changes might go down will happen in the next few weeks, so we're sure to know more soon.

According to an unnamed source speaking to Develop, development kits for a new Microsoft console are in the offices of one of EA's studios. The source, which does not work for either EA or Microsoft, had no specific information about the hardware except that it came in a PC shell and was shipped to EA last month.

That little information is actually enough to rule out the updated Xbox 360 dev kits revealed last month, since those come in Xbox-shaped cases. The source believes ("but did not have certain information," Develop disclaims) the new console will launch at the end of 2012, which would put it in direct competition with the Wii successor, and, if true, would make an E3 reveal seem likely (again, to compete with the new Nintendo console).

However, a Eurogamer source responded to this Develop article to note that a new Microsoft console probably won't be revealed at E3.

Update: EA's director of corporate communications, Jeff Brown, told IGN that the story was "a total fabrication -- 100 percent not true."