Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jan 28, 2012 in Tech, XBOX 360
While playing Call of Duty: MW3 on my old Xbox 360 Elite, I noticed some strange black lines appearing in the background. I switched around cables, ports etc as I assumed it was a cable issue, but the problem stayed.
So ‘google is your friend’, and I found a handful of forum posts suggesting that the Xbox was on it’s way out, and these black lines were early signed of the Red Ring of Death, and I could soon expect to see the E74 error message.
Now Microsoft have given an additional 2 years warranty to cover the RROD, but unfortunately the Elite is nearly 3 and a half years old…..so time to buy a new shiny one !
Same as the Halo Reach special edition Xbox, it comes with a custom paint job, custom sounds and 2 custom controllers, and obviously a copy of Gears of War 3. The guy who served me at Game also threw in a copy of Crisis 2 (via download code), so all in all quite a bargain at considering it has the 320Gb hard drive.
One final thought, the controllers are the new type with the transforming D pad, it’s still early days with it, but WOW what a difference !
Just a quick post to show you a bargain I got. As some of you may know, I have a handful of remote control vehicles, for example the Millennium Falcon and the Delorean, Well this one is just another cheap toy for the collection.
This one dropped from £40 to £8.99 with £1.99 shipping from the Argos outlet store
The description on the eBay site is ‘Fully functioning radio control van, featuring working lights and sound effects. A team theme tune is activated by pressing a button on the handset, with illuminating spotlights, headlights and tyre screeching sound effect.’…..for £11 I couldn’t really pass it up.
Well, it arrived yesterday and I’m pleasantly surprised. I have to admit, it does feel a bit cheap, but it drives well, and the A-Team tune did make me smile as I had it blearing out as I chased the cats around the room. The speaker is in the back of the van, so if you want to hear it over the sound of the motor whining you will need to open up the back doors.
Again, the ‘tyre screeching sound effect’ made me smile, take a corner hard and you’ll get the screeching noise.
All in all, a fun piece of kit for £11
As always, unboxing photos below, and a video of the A-Team tune you get when you press the button on the controller.
Wow ! What a busy, and expensive week, only 2 days ago the Halo Reach XBOX 360S turned up (and I’m blogging instead of completing that fantastic game).
So what do I think of the Playstation Move, will it replace my Wii ? Well let me tell you.
First of all, the controller feels pretty solid. I’ve always found the Wii controller and Nunchuk to feel like toys in my hands instead of controllers. Now don’t get me wrong, I still use the Wii , probably a lot to do with the face that it runs a lot of the games from the external hard drive (You can find that post here)
The buttons on the Playstation Move Controller seem to be well placed, on the main controller you have all the 4 usual buttons, a select and start, a playstation button and a trigger on the back. There is also a “move” button in the middle, this seems to get used as the “Select” button
The Navigation Controller is simplified, and reminds me a lot of the Nunchuk. It has a D-Pad, Anagolue stick, the X and O buttons and the playstation button. There are 2 trigger buttons on the rear, very similar to the Nunchuk. Both devices feel solid in the hand, and benefit from the curved shape (instead of the squared off WiiMote).
I did notice one slight annoyance, there were no USB cables in either of the boxes, it’s a good job I bought the charger, otherwise I’d have been unplugged other USB devices to charge these.
So how do they work ?….Well, very well to be honest, the tracking is spot on ! I realised today, that the Playstation Move didn’t come with any demo games, so had to buy something on next day delivery just to try it out. I then decided to check out Playstation Store, only to find there’s a handful of demos on there.
So far I’ve only played the demo of Sports Champions, and it’s really good. it works very much like the Wii with the motion plus attached, however a lot better graphics. It did however want me to calibrate the controller every time I started a new game, however this could just be because it’s a demo. I played table tennis, and Frisbee, both of which were ultra realistic, (each of my frisbee’s would end up in the trees )
You can also control the XMB with the Playstation Move, simply hold down the trigger on the back, and move up, down, left and right.
All in all, a good purchase, and look forward to more games to come out, and think that this could be the end of my Wii usage.
