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Does your dead-eyed Home avatar lack a bit of that buccaneering spirit? LucasArts has a sure-fire way to fix your lack of nautical flair: During its pirate-themed party at GDC, the company announced that Monkey Island costumes (pictured above) would soon make their way to PlayStation Home.

Now, we rarely get excited over virtual duds for our virtual manifestations -- but Stan's coat could really add a certain savoir-faire to our terrifying craft.

With the latest downloadable update to the "beta" (version 1.35, for the record), Sony has officially fixed every problem with PlayStation Home. Well, maybe not every problem. But there are some big changes. Sony has replaced Home's world map with an XMB-like interface; through which you can connect with your friends, move around through your own spaces and quickly visit "Featured Spaces" (so you can effectively be advertised to!). You'll also be able to make a list of "favorites" to which you can navigate quickly.

Home will be down briefly tomorrow as Sony implements this update. But when it comes back, in addition to the new functionality, there will be Final Fantasy and Indiana Jones stuff to buy, a Sodium update and a sale on Home decorations and items. Yes, we were just thinking we should take the day off, too.

Want to decorate your virtual home with a knife-wielding monster, or an elusive sentient cactus? Of course you do. And for you, Square Enix is offering a selection of Final Fantasy XIII items for PlayStation Home starting this Thursday.

"Items to collect," the press release reads, "include a sofa, table, chair, shelves, planter set, Cactuar and Tonberry figures, and stuffed animals." You can see some of the goods with which you can festoon your nonexistent digs above. Square Enix didn't price any of them, but it ranges from 100 to 200 yen (around $1-2) each in Japan. It's a small price to pay for your very own Tonberry.

If you're one of the countless Americans that has been stricken by halftuck, you'll soon be able to bring awareness to this serious, chronic disease by rocking one in PlayStation Home, thanks to some new Uncharted outfits slated to hit the service this week. You don't have to be afraid anymore, halftuckers, you get out there and fly that flag.

Sidenote: The Drake to Chloe switch provides some terrifying new opportunities for the Quincy enthusiasts out there preying on unsuspecting Homers. Consider yourselves warned.

PlayStation Home has expanded quite a bit in 2009, with 50 spaces and over 100 games now available within Sony's virtual world. It has been a modest success, but perhaps it's fallen shy of the lofty expectations placed on it when it was initially unveiled at GDC nearly three years ago. Since then, Sony's online service has managed to cut advertising deals with Red Bull, the US Army and Fox -- but has Home been able to maintain interest?

According to a report by Brandweek, advertisers are largely ignoring PlayStation Home, opting to pursue opportunities on Xbox Live instead. Ad agency Publicis Denuo's John Rafferty told the site that "from moment one, it kind of felt clunky. And once you got through that, there wasn't much there." Regardless of the robotic nature of the service, the high cost of entry is proving to be a huge barrier against Home, with "labor-intensive six-figure deals" required to create content for the community.

Jack Buser, director of PlayStation Home, argues that it offers "a chance to cut through the noise and actively engage directly with a large, targeted, and highly desirable consumer base." However, it appears that advertisers that want to work with Sony are interested in pursuing a different relationship -- one with the PlayStation Network itself. "Sony is a little more conservative in embracing their system as an ad platform," the report notes. However, the addition of the What's New screen, and advertising on the PlayStation Store, show that the Sony team is adapting, slowly transforming the PS3 into a system that advertisers can genuinely pursue.

[Thanks, ugotmesij]

LucasArts has invaded PlayStation Home today with a bunch of new virtual goods and a space to hang out in. Without all of the crime and sudden de-limbing that goes on in the Mos Eisley Cantina, the LucasArts storefront will offer patrons a safe environment to purchase virtual goods -- sorry, no power converters available.

Here's the list of goodies:

• Yoda shirt (for male avatars)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi shirt (for male and female avatars)
• Jedi Order shirt (for male and female avatars)
• Indiana Jones costume – torso, pants, shoes
• Indiana Jones costume – hat, hair
• Stormtrooper costume (for male and female avatars)
• Imperial Officer costume (for male and female avatars)
• Blue Lightsaber (for male and female avatars)
• Jedi banner (for avatar personal space)
• Sith banner (for avatar personal space)
• Star Wars The Force Unleashed poster (for avatar personal space)

LucasArts promises more updates to come. In the meanwhile, feel free to peruse select avatar items in our gallery below, but there may be a slight chance these aren't the images you're looking for.