And just like that, development for the Project4 PSP homebrew XMB shell lives on! It's been stuck in its beta phase for quite some time already, and now, Auraomega's promising to deliver the first official out-of-beta release come Monday! More details in the full article.

After hearing the news yesterday about Halifax not accepting payments from World of Warcraft subscribers due to fraudulent accounts, some of you might be thinking to switch their accounts to a different bank.

However, Halifax made sure that this not entirely necessary. Know more about this after the jump!

Xbox 360 games will now feature adverts on drink driving, as part of the Scottish government's campaign. Gamers will be exposed to these messages in a subtle and non-obtrusive manner while they are playing online. A few of the titles in the campaign are Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

More information about this campaign after the jump.

It is a common belief that asteroids were the ones responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago. Modern scientists now are wondering how such catastrophic occurrences can be prevented. According to their latest findings, the best way to protect ourselves is with the use of giant mirrors.

There are nine varied solutions proposed to the scientific community, such as nuclear blasts, gravity tractors, and kinetic impactors. Massimiliano Vasile of the University of Glasgow in Scotland and his team compared all of the provided solutions using these criteria:

• the amount of change each method would make to the asteroid's orbit
• the amount of warning time needed
• the mass of the spacecraft needed for the mission

Surprisingly, the use of giant mirrors seems to be the most viable solution. In the event that an asteroid comes near to our planet's orbit and a possible collision has been detected, it was suggested that we launched a swarm of mirror-carrying spacecrafts into space and concentrate sunlight on the asteroid's surface.

The gas coming out from the vaporized part of the asteroid will then push it out of the Earth's orbit. It is believed that this method will be able to generate enough heat (2,100 degrees Celsius) to vaporize the asteroid. Mathematical computations state that with this method, 10 spacecrafts each carrying 20 meter-wide inflatable mirror can deflect 150 meter-wide asteroid.

After cheating death countless of times as rally racing's most exciting driver, we regret to report that Colin McRae, 39, was killed in a helicopter crash with his five year old son and two others.

Some gamers not familiar to the sport McRae dominated in know his name from Codemaster's racing series, the latest entry of which is Colin McRae: DiRT (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) which recently arrived on the PlayStation 3.

According to Scotland's Strathclyde police, four people were onboard the helicopter supposedly piloted by McRae himself. The crash happened near the former rally racer's home in Jerviswood, Lanarkshire. The bodies were difficult to identify due to heavy burns, but authorities were quite certain that McRae was onboard.

As of now, it is difficult to confirm what went wrong. The weather was fairly good during the day of the incident, and rally journalist Jeremy Hart stated that McRae was a "very good, very measured pilot." Hart also mentioned that his friend knew the terrain and conditions at Jerviswood very well.

Check out Times Online via Read link below for the full report. Credit goes to Jason Smith for the tip.

An employee of GAME, one of the UK's largest game retailers, claimed that as much as 20,000 Xbox 360 Premiums meant for America has been shipped to the UK. According to his post in the Neowin forums, a customer who bought an Xbox 360 returned the console because the American cord was incompatible with the UK plugs.

The employee is from Scotland and is only known from his avatar named King Antonius. Antonius phoned other branches and eventually the head office and was informed about the mistaken shipment. It's not exactly a reliable source so we'll have to wait until Microsoft can comment, deny or confirm the mistake. But true or not, it won't hurt to ask to see the cord before readers from the UK decide to hand over the cash.

Street magician David Blaine has levitation in his repertoire of magic skills but it seems that all of that is about to change. Physicists from the University of St. Andrews have re-engineered the phenomenon known as the Casimir force so that it repels instead of attracts, therefore making an incredible levitation effect.

The said Scotland-based team is led by Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr. Thomas Philbin, the same guys who recently proved, albeit theoretically, that Harry Potter's invisibility cloak is feasible.

The Casimir force, in simple terms, is the reason why atoms stick together. This same force, however, is causing problems for nanotechnologists because it is the cause of friction in the nano-world, particularly in some micro-electromechanical systems.

The team added that this discovery could lead to frictionless micro-machines with moving parts that levitate. Quite interestingly, Leonhardt explained that the reversed effect can also be used, at least in theory, on bigger objects and even on human beings.

Some ace attorney may have found a new game to sue, as a Scottish girl claims Nintendo's Animal Crossing swore at her. The 11 year old school girl Khloe Leslie was shocked when the game called her a "f***ing cow."

As most of us know, Animal Crossing is not a mature game about monsters or humans with animalistic nature. Leeanne, 28, the girl's mom, banned her from the game that she thought was for kids.

Nintendo UK's spokesman said "it is either a pirate copy or it is user-inputted text". Swearing on a game rated 'E', huh? How likely was that?

(Sorry for the mini-censor bar in the pic! We have to keep the blogs clean of *udder* cursing. LOL!)

A couple of days ago, we got a preview of Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, 360) from The Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM). Today, we get the details from its Microsoft counterpart in publication, The Official Xbox Magazine (OXM). The gta4.net website was able to scrape out the new info from the publication and drafted the list of details that you guys might be dying to know.

We've paraphrased the whole list below:

• GTA IV is now 66% complete.
• Crosshairs pop up when Niko pulls out a gun. This could imply manual aiming in the game.
• When using your mobile phone, the camera will show a zoom-in panel of the mobile phone's interface at the bottom-right corner of your screen - allows you to view your address book for "jobs" and view other contacts.
• Exterior fire escape staircases are accessible; some meetings will happen high up in skyscrapers too - which could lead to you throwing people off the building from that height. Rawr.
• Hand to hand combat will feel "much more natural" and is currently being reworked.
• Camera angles can be changed even while in a car, but this feature is still being experimented on. Rockstar promises to make it more practical and functional though.
• Getting to control boats has been confirmed, steering them is "really nice." Huh?
• Central Park has also been confirmed to be in the game. The fictional name though hasn't been revealed yet.
• Dan Houser confirms that Liberty City in GTA IV is the biggest GTA city they've done so far. He says that details are a big thing.
• Houser also says that they're evolving how the radio works into the game, as well as how police behavior reacts to the things you do.
• The Rockstar developer studio in Scotland has been asking the NYC studio about more specific information on buildings and traffic flow in the Big Apple.
• There's an "Eastern European-sounding" dance station in one of the radio stations.
• Rockstar's "69" humor is back. There's a sign for a "69th Street Diner" and a building called "Twitchins" - that's GTA's version of Brooklyn's Domino's Sugar Factory. Easter eggs!
• "Fun ridiculous" weapons are also in the game because they don't really want to be too "naturalistic".

 

We know you are all familiar with Anung Un Rama. He was born in Scotland sometime around 1944. His background, though quite publicized, still escapes most of us. He used to be with the Nazis but circumstances led him to the arms of U.S.' Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. People who met him personally have mixed feelings at best.

He sports red skin, a tail, and horns, not to mention his might right hand made out of stone. Sometimes he is good, sometimes he is bad - but he is never evil. Yes, you all know Anung Un Rama. It's just that you call him Hellboy. QJ recently sat down with Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. Producer Paul Armatta and talked about the upcoming video game adaptation on PSP.

Here's what transpired in our meeting...

QJ: What's the current status of Hellboy in terms of development?

Paul Armatta (PA):The game is coming along very nicely. The basic gameplay and levels are complete, and we're getting close to the point where we can really start fine tuning everything.

QJ: To what extent are Mike Mignola and Guillermo Del Toro involved in the game's production?

PA:Mike and Guillermo have been really great to work with on this project. They have made themselves available to bounce ideas off of and have given us great creative direction in the areas of storylines and art style.

Read the full interview after the jump! Just click on the "Full Article" link below.