Custom Xbox 360 and Mega MUNNY

As part of the recently passed Toronto Fashion Week, fashion/toy designer, Kidrobot, launched its latest apparel line with an event called “Project MUNNY”, which includes a number of vinyl toys custom designed by top Canadian designers, toys which will be auctioned off in support of War Child Canada. The company also unveiled a top secret “Mystery MUNNY” and custom designed Xbox 360, designed by Nelson, B.C. Artist, Patrick Thompson, and commissioned by Xbox Canada.

The custom painted Xbox 360 and 18” MUNNY toy portray iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, a man widely recognized as one of the most influential fashion designers of the late 20^th century. The custom designed Xbox 360 and Mega MUNNY are currently up for auction on eBay, along with the rest of the custom designed “Project MUNNY” toys. Benefits from all of the purchased auction items will go to War Child Canada. For more information on War Child Canada, visit www.warchild.ca. To check out Kidrobot's line of toys, fashion and more, check out www.kidrobot.com.

EA updates PS3 version of The Orange Box

Electronic Arts recently released a software update for the Playstation 3 version of The Orange Box , which is meant to fix a number of issues with the game. The update is currently available in North America and should be launching for Europe soon. Bug fixes in the update include:

• Fixed a graphical issue whereby a player would have the explosion effect left on the end of their Rocket Launcher when attempting to Rocket Jump.

• Fixed a memory leak to improve single player stability.

• Fixed an issue whereby the players name would not appear on the Stats comparison screen.

• We have fixed an issue that would cause the vote tallies to disappear when you viewed the scoreboard between rounds.

• Fixed an online server issue.

• Fixed an issue that caused a crash when a player that wasn’t in Division 1 entered ‘Your Leaderboards.

• Fixed an issue with players not always being added to the ‘Players Met’ menu on the XMB.

• Fixed a bug where a player viewing a friend without an EA account would have an empty entry in the friend’s Leaderboard.

• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to connect to the EA servers if you had more than 30 friends.

PS3 Firmware V2.20

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) recently announced that its upcoming firmware update for Playstation 3, set to release by the end of this month, will add a number of new entertainment features through the new Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, also known as BD-LIVE. BD-LIVE will allow Playstation 3 users to experience interactive features like downloadable video content, ringtones, games and more. Scott A. Steinberg , SCEA's vice president of product marketing, spoke about the new Blu-ray features saying, “ With Blu-ray established as the high-definition optical disc standard, more consumers are ready to jump in and take advantage of everything the format offers . Whether you want to download movie extras, send ringtones to your phone, or play interactive games, BD-LIVE will offer exciting new ways to enjoy a Blu-ray movie.”

Steinberg also reiterated Sony's plan to maintain 10-year life cycles for their consoles, a feat which the company is close to accomplishing with the Playstation 2. Speaking of the frequent firmware feature updates Steinberg said, “With these regular firmware updates and future-proofed technology, SCEA is making the 10-year lifecycle of PS3 possible.”

Playstation 3 users wishing to download the update will require at least 1GB available on their HDD for BD-LIVE. Some of the features which will be available as part of BD-LIVE, though specific features will vary by movie, include interactive movie-based games, downloadable content, such as bonus scenes, shorts, trailers, subtitles, ringtones which can be sent to mobile phones, and images. In conjunction with the firmware update, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be releasing two BD-LIVE enabled titles on April 8 – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and The 6th Day . Both titles will include exclusive downloadable content that goes beyond what is available on the actual Blu-ray discs.

Aside from BD-LIVE, the new update will enhance the Playstation 3's interoperability with the PSP, allowing users to take their favourite music and photo playlists with them. To copy a playlist, PSP and PS3 must first be connected with a USB cable, and the PSP must be in USB mode. Then, on PS3, select “Copy” in the option menu of each music or photo playlist, and choose PSP as the destination. Now the playlist order, and the songs or photos themselves, will be accessible on the PSP’s Memory Stick PRO Duo anytime, anywhere.

Cover Mascot Challenge winner

This past week, EA Sports announced the winner of the NCAA Football 09 Cover Mascot Challenge, a voting based challenge to see which team mascot would appear on the cover of the Wii version of NCAA Football 09. Though it was a close race, Michigan State University's Sparty the Spartan came out on top. The rest of the top ten included mascots from Central Florida, Washington State, Auburn, LSU, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa State, Alabama and Penn State.