Earthquake in England!

About 40 min ago, I felt a strange shudder and heard a rattling noise. I thought there was a helicopter nearby. So I looked out the window to find nothing. I was on the phone to my brother at the time who said "OMG, the building is shaking" approximately 10 seconds afterwards. That was my first earthquake experience. Did anyone in the UK feel it too? Let me know what you felt by leaving a comment.

Anyway, for those who are interested, it was measured at 4.7 magnitude which is pretty strong for the UK. The epicenter was at 53.321°N, 0.314°W which is close to Grimsby, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Check out this website for more.

UPDATE: It seems the British Geological Survey estimates it as a 5.3 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. Check out their website. You might have a few problems loading the page as the website seems to be a bit busy!

The next generation of 3D gaming?

I was pointed to this video today and I was simply blown away. So we all think we're playing 3D games? Think again! Just watch this video and let me know what you think.

Red Ring No More

My Xbox 360 went through an amazing transformation today. Last night, it was blinking three red lights at me. Yes, it suffered from the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Today, it's gone! No more Red ring of death. Not only that, it has turned black too! Awesome!

I packed up my 360 last night in its original box and headed down to my local Gamestation with the receipt. I politely asked if I could upgrade to the Xbox 360 Elite. They had no problem with that. All I had to do is to pay an extra £20. You see, my receipt stated that my faulty Xbox 360 was worth £300 when I bought it. The Elite at its current price plus a game was worth only £20 more. I happily paid it to get the Xbox Elite and a copy of Ace Combat 6! Sweet deal! There's a slight downside to all this though. I've lost all my game save files.

There are two immediate things that I noticed when I unpacked my xbox elite. The first was that the power brick felt significantly lighter (though I may be wrong). The second is that the ethernet cable provided was much shorter than my other one.

So I guess the question now is, how long will this xbox last? Will I be heading down to Gamestation again in a further 10 months? The answer to these questions will probably depend on whether I got a new type of Xbox codenamed Falcon. The Xbox 360 Falcon uses a 65nm CPU instead of the old 90nm CPU. The advantage of this is that the 65nm CPU is much cooler. However, the red ring of death is usually caused by the GPU overheating and there are a lot of suggestions that the GPU is still a 90nm processor. The Falcon was originally released onto retail shelves back in August 2007 so it is a bit early to say how reliable these Falcons are.

So is my new Xbox Elite a Falcon? I think so but I won't know for sure. The power brick is 175W compared to the 203W power brick of my dead xbox. Also the date of manufacture is in December 2007, at a time when Falcon models should be the only models being produced. I'll certainly report back if my Xbox dies any time soon.

It has finally happened...

That's right. Tonight, I have been cursed with the red ring of death. Originally purchased 31st March 2007, this Xbox has only survived for just over 10 months. I'll be heading into town tomorrow to see if I can exchange it. Wish me luck!

Mass Effect DLC announced!

At last, the first installment of the Mass Effect DLC has been announced. For those of you who have read Mass Effect: Revelation, which is a prequel storyline to the game, probably wondered where the hell the Batarians buggered off to? Well, they're coming and the nice screenshot above shows us what they look like. The DLC is coming 10th March for 400 MS points. I wonder if this DLC will also improve on some of the original game's flaws like framerate issues etc?

"The Bring Down the Sky downloadable content pack will be released to Xbox LIVE Marketplace on Monday, March 10 at 2 a.m. PST, and will be available for 400 MS points. This is the first in a series of planned downloadable content that further expands the Mass Effect universe and continues the adventures of Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew."

"Bring Down the Sky includes a new uncharted world that introduces the notorious and feared alien race of the Batarians. A Batarian extremist group has hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova. Only Commander Shepard can save the millions of innocent civilians before the asteroid completes its deadly descent."

"Bring Down the Sky contains approximately 90 minutes of heart-pounding action and a new Achievement worth 50 Gamerscore points."

GTA IV release date announced - April it is!

It's not speculation anymore. Guess I was right, April it is. Today, Take Two Interactive have announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will be released worldwide on Tuesday 29th April for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Sweet!

Press Release here

GTA IV looking likely for April?

A new round of previews for GTA 4 have been released. It looks like the game has been completed and that the next two months will be spent bug fixing and tweaking the game code. I would say that the odds are good for it to be released in April but of course, this is still just speculation. Check out the previews below. Expect further previews in the coming weeks.

GTA IV Previews:
Kikizo, GamesRadar, IGN, VideoGamer , ComputerAndVideoGames