The recurring theme in reviews of God of War III, released today for the Playstation 3, is “epic,” a word that’s often tossed around when a game’s scale is too large for more descriptive words. Normally, I’d expect more caution with this sort of thing, but it appears that God of War III has left several reviewers gasping for adjectives, only able to communicate in cliché how good the game is.

Destructoid’s Nick Chester notes that “epic” is an overused word, but then says God of War III “truly redefines ‘epic’ in shocking and unexpected ways you may not have thought were possible.”

In fact, from start to finish, the game never really lets up. It’s full of more “holy crap” and “seriously, did that just happen?” moments than any game in recent memory, pushing the boundaries of both violence (yes, Kratos is at his most brutal here) and presentation.

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Here’s an interesting patent from Sony describing a video game demo whose features degrade over time. The illustration above spells it out: You download the entire game, and at first all its features are available to you. But after several hours, your character becomes less powerful. In another scenario, Sony describes a racing game that depletes the number of available tracks with each race. Eventually, you’re left with very little, unless you choose to unlock all features you once had. The patent even allows for subtler changes in a game’s sound effects, lighting and color. Sony says it could distribute these demos on physical media — it’d have to, given that Blu-ray-based games would be inconvenient to download.

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7-Eleven is supposed to be selling a Slurpee in honor of the upcoming Playstation 3 blockbuster God of War III, but the “Kratos Fury” flavor (blood and entrails, perhaps?) may not last until the game’s March 16 launch. The folks over at The Kartel searched for the God of War III Slurpee and came away disappointed. For starters, one of the 7-Eleven stores stopped carrying the flavor due to poor sales, even though it’s supposed to be available until March 31. It was reportedly the most unpopular Slurpee the store had seen in a long time, surpassed in sales even by Fanta Banana.

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Sony has confirmed that problems with the Playstation Network are due to a bug in the clock functionality of non-slim Playstation 3 consoles. The company is advising owners of any PS3 models besides the 120 GB or 250 GB PS3 Slim not to use the console until the problem is resolved. If you’ve got a PS3 Fat, turning on your console “may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data,” Sony says. It’s not clear whether this means you’ll lose previously earned trophies, but if you were able to play during the outage, the trophies you earned during that time might not register.

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As a Playstation Network outage killed gamers’ plans for some Sunday night PS3, game developers discovered that PSN was down for their debug units as well, making it hard to get work done. Develop reports that “various developers and studios” claim their debug units are failing. Of interest to you is that these industry insiders corroborate earlier reports of internal clock issues, which throw the debug consoles into an endless loop of error messages and reboots. Sony has yet to comment on any of these unconfirmed reports; its latest Twitter update, from 12 hours ago, only says that PS3 Slim models (120 GB and 250 GB) aren’t affected according to users. It’s safe to say the situation has escalated from temporary glitch to nightmare for Sony. Here’s our original coverage. We’ll keep you posted as the story unfolds. [Develop via Kotaku]

Update: Sony confirms many problems users are reporting, and says owners of non-slim PS3 models should avoid playing until the problems are resolved, hopefully within 24 hours. For details, please see the latest coverage.

Update: Sony confirmed that this was a leap year problem, and service is restored now that it’s March 1. I’m not going to post a proper update unless more information is provided.

You’re not the only one having problems with the Playstation Network, as Sony confirmed that PSN is down for many users. “We’re aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we’re looking into it. Stay tuned for updates,” says the official Twitter feed for Sony Playstation. Joystiq reports that those affected are seeing an 8001050F error code, which results in corrupted trophy information, in turn barring players from certain games including Heavy Rain. GameInformer reports that maintenance to the Playstation Network could be to blame, but that’s only according to some forum posters who say they’ve spoken with Sony tech support. The only thing that’s confirmed right now is that PSN is having problems, and Sony’s trying to fix it. I’ll post an update when new information comes in.

Update: Sony says it’s “narrowing down the issue,” and that PS3 Slim models (both 120 GB and 250 GB) are working normally, according to user feedback. We’ll keep you posted, or keep an eye on Sony’s Twitter feed.

Update 2: Interesting theory floated by one of our commenters, that this is a leap year issue, even though 2010 is not a leap year. There seems to be some discussion of issues with the PS3′s internal calendar on Joystiq and NeoGAF, noting that calendars on PS3 Fats are reverting to 12/31/99. Stay tuned.

Update 3: Develop reports that Playstation 3 developers and game studios are also suffering. Still no updates from Sony. Full story here.

Update 4: Sony confirms many problems users are reporting, and says owners of non-slim PS3 models should avoid playing until the problems are resolved, hopefully within 24 hours. For details, please see the latest coverage.

Update: Sony confirmed that this was a leap year problem, and service is restored now that it’s March 1. I’m not going to post a proper update unless more information is provided.

Commenters: If you’re not already registered with IntenseDebate, your comments need to be moderated by hand before they’re published. Hence the delay — thanks for your patience.

Yes, bring on the puns about frozen water, as Heavy Rain players report freezing, glitches and the inability to load saved games. There’s a lengthy thread on the official U.S. Playstation forums (roughly 300 posts long as of now), and a slightly shorter list of complaints on the European boards. Anecdotally, I know of a few people who have experienced freezing, though I personally haven’t felt the effects in the three or four hours I’ve spent with the game.

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It’s no Duke Nukem Forever, but Gran Turismo 5 seems to be caught in nasty case of development hell. Do a little digging through Google, and you’ll find way, way too many stories about how the Playstation 3 exclusive racer has been delayed. Now, Sony’s doing it again, delaying Gran Turismo 5 indefinitely. Sony had previously targeted a summer 2010 release date for , and a March 2010 release date in Japan. Because the release date is now TBA, it’s not clear how far off the game is from those dates. Sony cited production-related matters according to Reuters.

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Sony’s hardware marketing director John Koller gets my props today for saying something that would send other flacks into panic mode. He recently showed astonishment that people buy virtual goods for their Playstation Home avatar with real currency. “It’s amazing to me that someone would buy a 50 cent chair for their PlayStation Home apartment with real money, but the revenue that comes from that is significant,” he said at iHollywood’s Digital Living Room conference in Santa Clara, according to The Register. Koller said Home is a profit maker due to the advertising revenue and, of course, the things people buy for their virtual selves. Koller didn’t provide figures, but at E3, Sony noted that branded virtual goods for Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 sold 200,000 units over two months.

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