Microsoft is teaming with the Companions in Courage Foundation to deliver Xbox 360 kiosks to children's hospitals across the country, the company announced today.

Each kiosk will include an Xbox 360 packed with select games, movies and television content as well asaccess to a private network that allows hospitalized children to play games and chat with one another across the country over Live.

The first kiosks will be showing up today at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children's Hospital of Orange County in California. Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, will even be on hand in Seattle to kick off the giveaway... and perhaps pwn some sick kids at Halo 3?

I kid because I care, seriously. As I've said before, I spent a chunk of one childhood summer in a children's hospital in Baltimore, so I know first hand how important it is to have toys and distractions when your hospitalized for long stretches of time.

Good for you Microsoft.

Play Game, Combat Malaria In Africa

The challenge: race the sun and hand out as many insecticide-treated bed nets as you can to African families. The more nets you deliver - before the mosquitoes come out - the more lives you save. Once you're done playing the game, sign up, confirm your email, and a life-saving bed net will be sent on your behalf!

It's no secret at this point that there are a ton of gamers in the armed forces over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Handheld video games are among the most requested items from our troops stationed in the Middle East, right up there with a home cooked meal and possibly going home sometime soon. There have been games for troops movements in the past, notably Fun For Our Troops and Cheap Ass Gamer's efforts, but this one's from the kids. Peter Gallagher and Jack Wilson created Games For Heroes after organizing a letter writing game to help cheer up the troops. Realizing that letters are nice, but video games are better, the two teens created Games For Heroes, now working in conjunction with MarineParents.com to gather 10,000 new and used handheld systems and games and ship them to the fighting men and women abroad. It's amazing what teens can do when they aren't busy playing video games all day, isn't it? Hit the link below for details on how you can help!

Games For Heroes [Official Site]

The Bungie folks are auctioning off the Halo Mountain Dew vending machine that's been sitting in their office forever. The machine is signed and illustrated by the entire team and features Halo's Master Chief from the second game. The machine has never actually been used, so it's in terrific condition. All proceeds for the auction will go to The Make a Wish Foundation. If you're a HUGE Halo fan this is probably a one-of-a-kind get. The auction is currently at a whopping $15,000 and doesn't include the shipping charge, which is likely to set you back another $200 to $2,000 depending on where you live in the U.S.

If Bungie really loved children they'd throw in a steak dinner with Luke Smith.

Signed Halo Mountain Dew Vending Machine! [eBay]

Canadian Blockbuster Video stores and Microsoft are once again teaming up for their Badges of Honour program, which features five limited-edition pins, available now through April 7th. As with last year's program, a $2 donation to the Children's Miracle Network nets you one of these five lovely pieces of flair. This year's selection includes Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden II, and Rock Band buttons, while the Guitar Hero II and Halo 3 buttons of last year are only a memory. Disappointing, yes, but you should have been charitable in a more timely fashion. Don't miss out this time!

Badges of Honour [Xbox Canada]

Halo 3 Helps Gamer Get New Kidney

Getting a gamer to sit down and play Halo 3 is easy. Getting them to throw in $10 for a tournament may, under any other circumstances, be slightly more difficult. But when it's for a good call, like raising money to help a fellow gamer afford a much-needed kidney transplant, I'm sure many of us wouldn't give it a second thought.
On March 22, the Femme Fatales will be holding a tournament to help their fellow clan member, Beenie (aka RagingJellyBean), raise money for a much-needed kidney transplant. For $10, you can enter in either a 4x4 or Free For All Tournament, and compete for a cause. Or, those not wishing to play can make a donation directly to the RJB Charity Paypal account.
According to a friend of Beenie's, there are two things you should know about her:
1) She is not sick. She has some medical issues, but she'll never let you call her sick.
2) She is a hard core Halo player.
For more info on how you can help out a fellow gamer, sign up here.

Play Halo 3, Help Beenie Get a New Kidney [Hawty McBloggy]

Bungie Helping Restore Kid's Erased Memories

Our team and the community as a whole is rallying to help fix this unfortunate situation. It's been awesome to see such an outpouring of sympathy and support from our community. We can't replace the exact item that was lost but, but we should come very close.

Glupod - A Game About Saving Real Lives

"A Glupod gamer has a real purpose and a human mission," says Ioannis, managing director and co-founder of Something Inc. "Glupod is more than a game. It's a simple, fun way to do good that anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can participate in."

An article from the New York Post is featuring a story on the softer side of video games. Sony recently donated eight new systems to the Children's Hospital of New Orleans including PS3s, PS2s and PSPs as well as two HDTVs. They also donated a couple of rolling storage systems so the units could easily be transported throughout the hospital. The systems will mainly be utilized in the "Teen Room" which provides a space where young patients can get away from the hospital setting. It also gives them a place to socialize and take their minds off of the pain they experience on a daily basis. Once again we see how video games and the video game industry are having a positive impact our society despite what certain parties would have you believe.

Sony adds more smiles to the Children's Hospital in New Orleans [New York Post]
[Thanks Al]

Cheap Ass Gamer Collecting Games For Troops

While Super Tuesday is over, the roles and consequences of the US military's involvement across the globe are left fresh in our mind. We'll save you the patriotic one-liners and instead just point out that Cheap Ass Gamer (yeah, we just said "ass") has organized a collection of used, current gen games for the troops in Iraq. The neat part is that after you mail the game(s), the troops will post a picture of themselves with the boxes. It's a nice way that the troops say thanks for us saying thanks for not being the ones in constant danger of bullets, bombs and "sand to butt hole infiltration."

CAG's "Donate Games to the Troops in Iraq" Campaign [CAG]

Who Will Win the Race to the End of Resident Evil 4?

Some feisty gamers embarked on a charity mission this weekend. Their goal: to play through four Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess in forty-eight hours. While the playing is happening, you can go on to their website to watch some streaming video of the action as well as donate some money for their efforts that will go to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity.

The four friends have been going since 5pm Friday and according to their latest update, they have completed Ocarina, but hit a snag at the end of Majora's Mask due to multiple console freezes right on the last dungeon. They decided to skip the end of MM and moved on to Wind Waker in which they are currently immersed. The plan is to finish WW, complete Twilight Princess and then loop back around to complete the end of Majora's Mask.

With less than 12 hours to go, will they be able to make their goal? Whether they make it or not, it was a herculean effort that will be rewarded by a nice donation to Child's Play. So far they have raised over a thousand dollars for the charity. You can catch up on all their antics as they race to the finish at 5pm tonight at cameronbanga.com. Good luck, guys. The eyes of the internets are upon you!

Win A Copy Of Grand Theft Auto III, Signed By Jack Thompson

We've seen people go to extreme lengths for both charity and eBay auctions, but this particular item, a copy of Grand Theft Auto III allegedly signed by fan fave Jack Thompson at VGXPO, combines the two in an attractive package. According to the listing, the PlayStation 2 version of the game can be yours (we think) for the low, low price of $4,000, the proceeds of which will be redirected in full to the Child's Play charity. There's even a picture of the signee and auction lister—who we're told is not TV's famous Wil Wheaton—to aid in the proof of authenticity.

What is suspect, however, is whether you actually get the signed copy of the game for your four large, seemingly the entire point of dropping this much cash on a used PS2 game. The eBay listing comes with the unclear note "Please note: I do not actually want to sell this. I am just listing it for show and to hopefully win a contest. However, if you want to spend $4000 on this then I will donate 100% of the proceeds to Child's Play Charity." The seller does have a 99.9% positive rating, so I wager you'll be satisfied. If you do decide to give up the cash, let us know when (and if) you get it.

Grand Theft Auto III Signed By Jack Thompson (PS2) [eBay - thanks, Rick!]

Ru Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn co-founder, dropped me a line to let me know that his studio has put two eBay auctions up to hlp raise money for Child's Play.

The studio managed to get their hand on one of the last Daxter PSP Entertainment packs around and then had everyone at Ready at Dawn Studios. As if the cool autographed, hard-t0-find PSP weren't enough, the Ready at Dawn folks are throwing in an autographed piece of original production art from the game.

All proceeds go to Child's Play. Hit up the link for the U.S. auction, and check out Ready at Dawn's other auction if you live in Europe.

Ready at Dawn eBay Auction

The folks over at NCSoft have amassed quite an interesting collection of eBay auctions for Child's Play this year. The auctions, which will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to Child's Play, includes signed copies of games and posters, rare finds and, the best one, having a Tabula Rasa NPC named after you.

City of Heroes Poster Signed by Dev Team Signed City of Villains Collectors Edition City of Villains Lord Recluse Statue Tabula Rasa Signed Game & Bonuses Tabula Rasa Signed Game & Bonuses Tabula Rasa NPC Named After You!

So far the auctions are up to more than $2500, but NCSoft is hopping to hit twice that figure, so get to the link below to find the auction of your choice and get to bidding/donating.

Help Child's Play [NCSoft]

Fünde Razor Child's Play Total Rolls In

Two years ago Joel Johnson emailed me to tell me he was going to start a local fund raiser in Brooklyn for Child's Play. It was going to be at Barcade and he was, among other things, bringing along a copy of Guitar Hero for people to play. I tried to help by promoting the event on Kotaku. He ended up raising about $1,500.

The next year I was able to pitch in about 50 pounds of schwag for Joel to give away at what had become an annual event in Brooklyn. This year, finally, I was able to ask Joel if I could host my own Fünde Razor here in Denver. I won't say it wasn't frustrating at times to arrange, or stressful to kick-off, but the tremendous showing made it more than worth it and we managed to raise a spectacular $1,839, almost twice what I had expected from a first-time event.

Meanwhile Joel's Brooklyn Fünde Razor hit an all time hight raising $5,161 (including the eBay auction), bringing the grand total raised for Child's Play to $7,000. Wow... just wow. (I dropped in a little cash to make it an even $7,000 because I apparently have OCD)

A very special thanks to NetDevil, LEGO, Bond Street, Dawdle and Neuros for their donations as well as Scott Alexander, Mark Wilson, Robert Workman and all the people who showed up to have fun for charity.

So, what do you think? Should I host another Denver Funde Razor next year?

Fünde Razor

I know a lot of you read my story last week about the Big Texan Steak Ranch waitress in Amarillo, Texas who wanted a Wii for her son so I just wanted to give you all an update on what is happening with it. A terrific guy named Scott Rays stepped forward and donated a brand new Wii and as I write this I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival so I can wrap it and send it down. After being sure I had acquired the Wii I started a round of phone calls to my contacts at the various publishers to see if I could track down some games. EA, Namco/Bandai, Capcom and a few others who have requested to remain anonymous have all donated some games so this lucky guy and his mom should have a lot to open on Christmas morning.

To everyone who wrote in with offers of systems and games, etc: I received so many responses that it would have been impossible to write everyone back personally, so I'll take this opportunity to tell everyone thank you. Due to the huge response they will be well taken care of on the games front. But if you still want to help out this holiday (or any time for that matter), please consider donating to Child's Play or another of the many well deserving charities out there.

I spoke with Rachel (the waitress) personally this morning and she wanted me to thank everyone for all their kindness and well wishes. She said she will be sending some pictures from Christmas morning that I will be sure to post as soon as I get them.

Happy Holidays, all!