Not only can you send your friends to one of the nine circles of hell in the Facebook Go To Hell app, you can also vote to punish or absolve them, or simply torment them with lovely activities like beast massage or succubus castration. Oh those kids these days, with their succubus castration.

“This app is awesome! Not only will it be a blast to see who the world sends to hell, but it’s also a great opportunity to take Dante’s notion of the nine circles of hell and make it current and relevant for people who may not be familiar with the poem,” said executive producer Jonathan Knight. “Let the damning begin.”

Now in the interest of fair play and science or something, I went ahead and sent Crecente to hell. I am not saying you should click on this link and go torment him, but I am certainly not going to stand in your way.

The main attraction will of course be Facebook integration with your trophies, store purchases and in-game progress. Though, as someone who uses the feature all the time, the new improved photo galleries are also something to look forward to.

Oh, and yes, that means today is also the day your friends list should look a lot less awful.

Sony Releasing PS3 Update 3.10 Today [1UP]

Sony’s Facebook integration is the coolest aspect of the forthcoming firmware. It lets users bind their PlayStation Network account to their Facebook account, automatically feeding their status updates with Trophy information, PlayStation Store purchases and specific in-game events that developers can include in PS3 games.

Fortunately, all of these Facebook features are optional. It also appears the software will prompt users if they’d like to post these types of updates to their Facebook news feed at each occurrence.

The new photo browser makes better use of screen real estates, offering a grid of photo thumbnails for quick viewing instead of a long vertical list.

Finally, due to popular request…

A less visually offensive version of the PlayStation 3’s Friends list — perhaps the most reviled change in firmware 3.00 — is coming. Sony has listened to fan feedback, offering a more toned down look at who’s online in the XMB.

PlayStation 3 Firmware (v3.10) Update Preview [PlayStation.blog]

Here’s photographic proof. (Click the thumbs to enlarge.)

Facebook and Twitter are, as you might expect, cut-down versions of the social networks, tweaked to cater for the console interface. One nice feature of the Facebook integration is the ability to merge your Facebook and Xbox Live friends lists.

Movies On Demand brings streaming and downloadable movie rentals to the console, with titles available in HD and SD. But be warned: you’ll need a nippy connection to stream in 1080p. Around 100 movies are currently available in the preview, so expect a similar number for the public launch next week.

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Andrew Jenkins, product manager for Xbox LIVE Australia. “The difference for Xbox LIVE has always been our community and we’ve already seen a tremendous response to these features in our public preview. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”

One thing we will be missing out on is Last.fm, the music-streaming service launching in other territories as part of this dashboard update. Microsoft has yet to comment on why Last.fm will not be available in Australia.

Speaking to Fast Company, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten revealed the launch date for the eagerly anticipated dashboard update, which brings console-tailored versions of Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM to Xbox 360 users. With the release day announcement, Whitten stresses that these aren’t merely PC ports of the popular social networking sites, but entirely new entertainment experiences.

“We look at things like Facebook and Twitter as amazing social experiences, but also entertainment. We didn’t want to copy and paste from the PC.”

So who’s excited? I’m actually looking forward to seeing how many of my Facebook friends get converted into Xbox Live contacts. I’ll probably fiddle around with Facebook for a bit, and then turn on Last.FM and leave it running until the end of time.

Facebook and Twitter Come to Xbox Live This Tuesday [Fast Company]

Bejeweled Blitz is the Facebook version of PopCap’s popular jewel-twisting puzzle game, which gives players a minute to rack up the highest score humanly possible in order to brag to their friends. Now PopCap brings that functionality to the iPhone version of the game, allowing players to try and beat their Facebook friends anywhere in the bathroom world.

“Ultimately, social gaming is about being able to play games with and against your friends, and the new Blitz update for Bejeweled 2 on iPhone lets you play against your friends anywhere,” explained John Vechey, co-founder and director of PopCap’s social gaming initiative. “This is a natural next stage in our multi-platform and social strategies. Blending the Facebook and iPhone Bejeweled communities should prove very compelling for players.”

For those of you who’ve never played Bejeweled, it’s basically Puzzle Quest without the RPG elements. Captain Backwards Description strikes again!

With more than 60 million active player across all of its Facebook, MySpace, Google, and iPhone games every month, social network game developer Playfish was ripe for the picking. Now they’ve been picked. EA has acquired the company for $US275 million in cash and $US25 million in equity retention agreements, with up to an additional $US100 million in variable cash consideration, pending the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31st of 2011.

Playfish will now operate as a part of EA Interactive, a division of the company dedicated to web and wireless games. More than 150 million Playfish titles are installed and played around the world, with titles like Pet Society, of which I am a big fan, generating more than 1 billion play sessions a month.

“Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space,” said Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive. “EAi has been successfully leading the charge for EA, and with the addition of proven expertise from Playfish, their broad consumer base and strong game brands, we’re moving ahead aggressively in our plans to lead in the category of cross-platform social entertainment.”

If there was any doubt that EA was completely serious about the social networking games space, this should get rid of it. This is an aggressive move into the growing industry segment that could only be topped by the acquisition of Mafia Wars creators Zynga, which I am fully expecting some major game company to announce any day now.

Teens participating in the Xbox Live dashboard preview program have been irked by the fact that there was no way for them to access social networking site Facebook and music finder Last.FM. They couldn’t even Twitter about it, as the update currently contains no parental controls governing those three applications — either you are over 17 and can access them, or you can’t. Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb explains:

As some of you might be aware, those under the age of 18 are not able to access Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm in our public preview. I want to you let you know that this will remain the case when it launches to the world soon. We made this decision because as it stands now, parents aren’t able to use Family Settings to customise which of these applications their children can access. In order to offer an age-appropriate environment for everyone, we decided to turn off these applications for those Gold members under the age of 18.

Being far past the ages of 13-17 but having spent a good five years as a member of that age range, I can imagine the frustration this must be causing. Worry not, my underage friends. Major Nelson reports that help is on the way.

As expected, this has been a hot topic with the preview users. We want to make sure everyone was aware, however, that the development team is working on an update that gives parents the choice of which social applications their children can access. This means that Xbox LIVE members between the ages of 13 and 17 will be able to use Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm as long as their parents approve. The team hope to roll this out several weeks after launch and I will update you on the exact date as it gets closer.

Now all you’ll have to do is make sure your parents approve. My suggestion? Attempt to talk to them about it. They’ll activate it immediately, just to make you leave them alone for five damn minutes.

Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM and Xbox 360 Family Settings [Major Nelson]

“I find the in-game uses, OK, may be interesting, the out-of-game, hey, it’s a camera, use it to connect to Facebook or whatever – I don’t find that at all interesting,” says Neustadter. “Don’t we all have phones that do that? Why do we need our gaming device to do that?”

Yeah. Good question. Why would anyone integrate Facebook with a gaming platform, anyway?

To be fair, maybe Neustadter meant just a gaming handhheld, not a console. To be more fair, hey, at least he’s being an honest gamer. And earlier, Neustadter and security boss Stephen Toulouse said they were gaming more on their phones than their DSi, which is where one might also be more likely to use a Facebook mobile app.

But I think I did detect a semipregnant pause from The Major after e piped up (31:30 of the podcast). Like “Oh man, someone’s gonna stick this on a blog.” And, I guess someone just did.

Show #337: DJ Hero, MUA2, Lego Rock Band and MW2 [Major Nelson, thanks elektrixxx]