Hone your karate chop in Fruit Ninja Kinect before it slices Facebook

Prepare for your arms to feel like jelly all week. As we patiently await the day when we can slice virtual fruit from the comfort of our Facebook, Halfbrick Studios has released the equally awesome Xbox version of its hit fruit-flaying mobile game, Fruit Ninja.

Titled simply "Fruit Ninja," the game is available now for the Xbox 360 Kinect for 800 Microsoft Points, or $10, in the Xbox Live Marketplace. The game features all the same modes of its mobile versions, meaning Classic, Arcade and Zen modes are all present and accounted for.

The latter two modes are timed affairs--the first of which has special fruit with super powers, while the other is a 90-second romp with no frills and no way to lose. Players can compare scores over Xbox Live, and whenever a friend bests one of your scores in either Classic or Arcade mode, you'll be sent a notification.

Fruit Ninja Kinect Frenzy
There are two new modes unique to Fruit Ninja for Kinect: a Challenge mode and a multiplayer component. We had an early look at Fruit Ninja Frenzy for Facebook at this year's E3, and are psyched to see how it takes advantage of the platform with its Bejeweled Blitz-like power-ups and competitive leaderboards. If anything, consider this a friendly reminder that you'll soon be able to slice fruit on screens that range from a mere four inches to those wider than you are tall. With all of this available training, you officially have no excuse to be anything less than a banana bushido blade.

Sony PSN misses restoration deadline, SOE games still down due to a third attack? [Updated]

PlayStation Network is down
Update: Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold told VentureBeat that the news circulating that PSN and SOE might not return until May 31 is falsely informed. He said that such reports stem from an inaccurate Bloomberg report posted over the weekend. "There is no accuracy to that report," Seybold told VentureBeat. "We're focused on ensuring the security of the network before bringing the services back online."

And yes, SOE massively multiplayer games and Facebook games are still down, too. Mashable reports that Sony's PlayStation Network missed its promised restoration deadline, within a week of an announcement made eight days ago. Sony shut down both its PSN network in response to an intrusion made on about April 20, and later SOE followed as a result of another intrusion. During the invasion, over 100 million players' account information has been reported stolen along with possibly 2.2 million credit card numbers. However, Gamesindustry.biz reports that the network might not come back until May 31, and the extended shut down time could be thanks to a third attack made over the weekend.

Could it honestly get worse? According to a 10-year-old Sony-affiliated sweepstakes website found and exploited by hackers on May 7, yes, it just might, Reuters reports. Hackers have posted 2,500 contestants' names and addresses from this websites archives, but Sony assured Reuters that no credit card numbers, passwords or social security numbers were stolen. And shortly after Sony indirectly blamed the hacktivist group Anonymous for the PSN intrusion, two members of the group came forward and suggested that the group was likely involved.

"If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it," said 'Kayla' to the Financial Times. "Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn't mean Anonymous didn't do it." However, Anonymous has officially denied involvement in a press release. Sony has already offered a "Welcome Back" program to US customers, and the details surrounding its European counterpart have just released. Until both services come back by hopefully no later than the end of this month, I guess we'll have to dream about enjoying these reunion gifts online.

[Image Credit: WCG News]

How have you coped with being without PSN or SOE games for the past few weeks? How do you think Sony will recover from this?