It seems Factor 5's financial problems has led to even more trouble after the developer shut down last month. Former Factor 5 employees are now suing the Lair developer for fraudulent behavior in order to get out of paying their debts, Gamasutra reports.

So apparently the Kojima FPS and DMC-style Strider game weren't the only rumors in EGM's latest issue. NeoGAF member SuperSonic1305 let us in on a few more rumors, including one that could have quite an effect on PSP gaming.

Ready for another round on the rumor mill? Word over at the PlayStation forums is that somebody's managed to get an official launch list of the PS3's games for this year. Titles included in the list include MGS4, GTA4, and Fallout 3. More details are available in the full article.

Ah, E3. The legendary convention where all the big boys of this industry show their hands and reveal just what they have in store for the video game community and pretty much the entire world in general. The first to do so was Microsoft, with a quick follow-up by Nintendo - and now, it's Sony's turn.

Sony's press conference began with Jack Tretton's Home avatar chatting some virtual ladies up at Home Square, before finally getting onto the stage himself. We're then treated to news bits we've already covered - the big price drop for the 60GB PlayStation 3, 80GB with MotorStorm.

He then promised to show a total of 50 PS3, PS2, and PSN games during the presentation, with some of them being playable after the show.

The big news and the rest of the details after the jump!

Alright, so you've been browsing around the intarwebs absorbing the latest news. And you've probably come across a few sites reporting this so called "PS3 Firmware Update bypass hack." And maybe you guys were wondering why we didn't cover it. Or maybe you weren't. Anyways, while the "hack" does work, it's nothing more than sensationalism since most of the supposed advantages are either outright fake or uneducated speculation.

First, details about the hack. It's nothing more than hosting your own DNS server in your network, modifying a couple of entries to redirect the PS3 update check host to a different IP and using that DNS server on the PS3 instead of the one provided by your ISP. What happens is that the PS3 will now try to check that modified IP address for the update information. Since you've now modified it, it will look in the wrong place. Not finding any update information, it will think that it has the latest update available.


This is all good. Unfortunately, the hack is pretty useless unless all you do on your PS3 is browse around the PlayStation network. Here's the list of advantages that a few other sites have been listing:

• You can now access the official PS3 store without updating your current PS3 Firmware version! - Only for now.
  
• You can now play PS3 games on-line, without updating your current PS3 Firmware! - Fake.
  
• You may be able to downgrade the PS3's Firmware through this circumvention technique. - Fake.
  
• You may be able to 'install' your own desired PS3 store items using this method. - Fake
  

While you might want to think of it as a PS3 hack, it is nothing more than a small bypass for network update. Here's why:

• Since nothing has been exploited on the PS3, you still have to update your PS3 to the latest firmware if the game requires it. There is no way around it since you're not spoofing the version on the PS3 itself.
• You cannot downgrade your PS3's firmware using this method. The PS3's OS will not run any code if it isn't signed by Sony themselves. Simply spoofing a DNS entry and "trying" to send rogue files will not make it run on the PS3, it would still fail the sign checks.
• With regards to the PS3 Store items, they're probably signed too, which means that you can't simply install your own stuff.
• As for accessing the official PS3 store without updating your firmware, it will only work as long as Sony lets it work. They can simply move the update-check host to the same domain as the PlayStation Network, which will mean that you can either use the network by updating to the latest firmware, or not being able to connect to the PlayStation Network at all.

If there's a real hack/exploit, it will have to be found in the PS3's firmware itself. And for now, there doesn't seem to be one. So while you might hate us for saying this, the truth is that the PS3 is still not hacked and it will take a lot more than some simple DNS spoofing to hack one. And you can be rest assured that if there is a real hack around, you will know about it here.

Bethesda Softworks has recently announced their plans to publish Rogue Warrior. The game is a tactical first-person shooter based on the book series by Richard Marcinko. This of course serves as Bethesda's return to the FPS genre.

The game is set to have versions for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3. Developers claim that Rogue Warrior is a story-driven shooter that will provide gamers with team-based tactical combat. They’re proud that the contiguous levels will be using Unreal 3 streaming technology. Bethesda says that the game’s stages will feature a "freeform battlefield," wherein players will have the freedom to choose how to complete a given objective.

They say that this freeform battlefield should allow for allowing for creativity and surprises, instead of heavily scripted events and tightly contained spaces traditionally used in this genre. The say that the AI system will empower the NPC’s to react realistically, see and hear others, and respond as a team. In short the smartest bots known to man. Again, this is what the devs say.

As far as multiplayer is concerned, they announced that there will be 10 gameplay modes and a system whereby maps are created using tiles that are selected by each team. The tiling system will allow users to experience over 200 maps in both day and nighttime settings. The campaign features solo and on-the-fly cooperative play for up to four players, where anyone can join or leave an existing campaign game at any time without having to go to menus or save progress.

We’ll update you if we get more word about Rogue Warrior. The game is scheduled to hit shelves by fall of 2007.

More info on the games back story after the Jump.