Ever wonder how Santa Claus manages to work his way down chimneys way too small for him? Or how he seems to stop time in order to visit all of the world's good boys and girls every Christmas morning? LucasArts and TT Games know the answer: Santa Claus is a Jedi Knight whose amazing Force powers allow him to pull off such spectacular feats. A long time ago, he came to us from a galaxy far, far away to exile himself from the Jedi purge led by Darth Vader. (No... that's not official canon.)

You better not pout, I'm tellling you why. Because I'll kill you.

But what would have happened if jolly ol' Saint Nick had stuck around to assist the Rebellion? Find out by creating him in LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Here's how:
Step 1: At the Mos Eisley Cantina, enter the following two codes:
CL4U5H (for Santa hat and red clothes)
TYH319 (for white beard Extra)
Step 2: Go to the Character Customizer and create the proper costume. Use a human head, the appropriate red clothing...and don't forget the red cap! Santa can wield the weapon of your choice -- we recommend the green or red lightsaber to seasonally complement his shiny red duds. (Remember, the color of his lightsaber decides whether his Force powers are naughty or nice.)
Step 3: In the Extras menu, activate Disguise 3.
Step 4: Enter the character-based level of your choice in Free Play.
Step 5: Spread holiday cheer to a galaxy in pieces.

Good news for our friends in Canada and the U.S. The Xbox 360 standard warranty is now one-year for all new purchases, as well as those folks that are still within their first year of ownership.

Complete details on Xbox.com

Call of Duty fans,

A quick note to check in and let you know that we’re in final test for the Call of Duty 3 multiplayer Title Update and that we hope to be released to the Xbox Live community in the coming days.  We really want to thank everyone again for their continued support and feedback – you have been a tremendous help.

When it propagates, the update will download automatically upon logging into Xbox Live and running Call of Duty 3. This update addresses many of the Ranked and Player Match issues that we’ve discussed over the last few weeks.  While we’ve made a number of enhancements, the most significant improvement is that Ranked Matches join lobbies much faster through both Custom and Quick Match.  Player Matches through Quick Match will now query a higher number of games before attempting to join, thus returning a better variety and better quality for the player. 

Additionally, we’ve added some gameplay, HUD and options enhancements.  For example, brightness settings will be saved across both single-player and multiplayer; players will be able to instantly punish medics who maliciously team kill and revive continuously; Auto Team Balance will remain turned on after multiple map rotations, ensuring that each team always has an equal number of players; and players will be able to select either Axis or Allies in Ranked Battle games.

These enhancements will create a more streamlined gameplay experience; however, please be aware that online play is always complicated by players with non-optimal router and connection settings – don’t hesitate to refer to Xbox Live’s “best practices” for router configurations, as it will prove helpful.

Thanks!

- COD3 Multiplayer Team

This Nintendo Wii hasn't exactly been billed as the media entertainment mecca like the PS3 or Xbox 360, but it is still an SD (both the resolution and the card) capable alternative.

Wii Transfer is software that will recompress video exclusively for Wii playback including Itunes video podcasts. While Quicktime Pro can get the job done for power users, those with only $9 in their pocket can convert their porn with the best of them. – Mark Wilson

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REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 11, 2006 — Your World. Your Game. With today’s release of Microsoft^® XNA™ Game Studio Express and the launch of the XNA Creators Club, this phrase has never been more true. Based on the easy-to-use Visual C#^® 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework, XNA Game Studio Express opens up the world of game development to the masses and is now available for free to anyone with a Windows^® XP-based PC at http://www.msdn.com/XNA. With the release of XNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft Corp. unveiled the XNA Creators Club, opening up video game development to untapped creative minds, enabling anyone to affordably build and play amazing game ideas on Xbox 360 systems for the first time ever.

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