With the new slim PS3 came its new firmware: version 3.00.  This we know.  We also knew that it was going to come with some snazzy new dynamic themes that were animated and changed with the time of day and what-have-you.  Well, didn't we?  Of course we did.  Well, I've spent the requisite £1.59 per theme on the PlayStation Store to tell you a bit about the three available packages and if they're worth bothering with.

What's out there, then?  Well, you've got a MotorStorm-inspired theme with a gentleman walking around and inspecting his less-than-sturdy-looking climbing frame on wheels in an enclosed workshop.  Does it change with the time of day?  No, no it doesn't, but it does have a rather snazzy-looking yellow spray paint effect on about 90% of all the icons on the XMB.

Then there's the WipEout Fury effort.  This shows a mechanical automated workshop, tinkering and testing out a ship from the game.  It's a Triakis, if you're interested.  It too has the wow factor with about 90% of the icons (all those, that is, excluding things like Home, the Store, Life with PS, iPlayer etc) being beautifully designed to conform to futuristic art style of the title for which it was designed.  Doesn't change with the time of day, however, which is again, a little bit shit.

Finally, the LittleBigPlanet theme, a flagship and also, at 12mb or so, the heaviest of the downloads, is probably the best, but while it does change with the time of day, you get sun versus moon and clouds versus stars while your little Sack-person runs and jumps their merry way over the teeny-tiny planet.  And while the header XMB icons and some of the generic sub-icons are cutely customised to look like corrugated cardboard, the LBP theme lacks custom icons where the other two have them, meaning that it's possible, but just hasn't been done.  Hmph.

As a fan of the game, I'd say the only theme worth paying £1.59 for is the LBP theme.  I'm sure I'm not the only one to bemoan the WipEout Fury theme's shunning of the amazing particle animation graphics that the addon itself has going for it.  While the LBP theme has holes in its customised icons, it really is the only theme of the three to be dynamic in the way that was advertised when the firmware was exhibited.  The other two are not similarly dynamic, but do still keep your PS3's XMB looking pretty cool.  But at £1.59 a shot, you'd have to be pretty low on choice in the PSN Store to decide to go for a new theme, particularly when the PlayStation wave is now so pretty with its glitter!

Lucky Japan-based owners of the console were treated to this dynamic background when they upgraded:

Paint me jealous.