Anyone Want to Buy Free Radical?

TimeSplitters developer Free Radical Design is now officially up for sale, providing the end-all verification to a set of rumors about the company about a week ago. The word last week had Free Radical founder Steve Ellis setting up shop at a new studio, called Pumpkin Beach, taking with him some of his former company’s…

Week in Games Returns Next Week

No new releases to discuss — go play the ones you got for Christmas! See you next week.

Sunday Funnies: 360 Origins, Console Reviews, Storage is Gangsta

Here’s another roundup of multimedia laffs culled from the Interwebs. I make no representations of the freshness/expiration/ enjoy-by dates of any of this, only that I consider it gaming germane, and, at minimum, grimace-inducing. First up, a 4chan MS paint rage-meme cartoon figures out the origin of the Xbox 360 name. Oh Microsoft! You steal…

Home is Where You Can’t Say “Hello”?

Anything as deep and complex as PlayStation Home is bound to have its growing pains. SCEA’s hometown paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, took a look at some, including some hypersensitive chat filtering. For a time, seems “hello” was filtered out of chat (I’m assuming this is if a user entered it from a keypad himself,…

Former NBA Big Man Now Serious Pinball Gamer

Earlier this decade, Todd MacCulloch was a center with a lot of promise, and a lot of money. A foot injury sent him into early retirement. Now he collects and plays pinball machines. MacCulloch was forced into retirement at age 28 by a nerve condition in his foot — basically, parts of his feet would…

Castle Crashers with Major Nelson

Tune in to hear Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb talk about the year in Xbox 360, his confidence of Xbox Live stability during this year’s new adopter holiday crunch and the bet I more than likely lost. Don’t forget to check out our other Holiday podcasts: A Very Special Kotaku Holiday Podcast Media Molecule Talks LittleBigPlanet…

WeeP5: Badass Case, Same Old Rate of Fire

When Nintendo says it puts more smiles on more faces, I’m sure it’s not including the maniacal grin one must get blasting away raving Rabbids with this gangsta MP5 mod. User THeOReos joined Instructables on Christmas day just to show us how to put this bad bastard together. Disappointed with the variety of gun cases…

Study: Video Game Physiques Give Guys Body Image Issues, Too

Playing as super buffed up hunky dudes can make men insecure, according to a Kansas State study. But read on, if these stories are correct, this piece of scholarship has some serious problems. The study’s investigators themselves say other factors may contribute to one’s perception of body-image. But, after watching groups of men and women…

Chatting With Samus and Naomi Hunter — at the Same Time

This week, Maxim named Metal Gear Solid’s Naomi Hunter the top babe in gaming. Sadie Ultraneko talked to her voice actor, Jennifer Hale (right), who also voices Metroid’s babelicious Samus Aran. Hear her hold forth on being considered a gaming babe, the vagaries and challenges of voice acting a good death (“I hate when I…

Monolith Guy: Expansions, Ports Sunk F.E.A.R.

Dave Matthews (not this guy), the primary art lead for F.E.A.R. 2, has an idea what tanked the franchise: expansions and console ports — ones not made by Monolith. Talking to CVG, Matthews said the Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate expansion packs, made by TimeGate Studios, may have brought some new people to the brand…

Retro Edutainment: Talking with Speak & Spell’s Dev

The talkies of video games wouldn’t come until 1980, with Berzerk, Gorf and Intellivoice. But 1978’s Speak & Spell undoubtedly contributed to the DNA of early gaming. Vintage Computing talked to Richard Wiggins, the man who wrote its voice processing algorithms, and reminds us just what a thunderbolt this so-called child’s toy was when it…

Gatling Glitch > Rocket Jump

Here’s a trick for those rompin’ and stompin’ with zombies this Christmas: A physics glitch that enables you to charge up a gatling gun and launch yourself across the map in Left 4 Dead. Basically, wham on the gun like Engineer fast-building a sentry gun in Team Fortress 2, and when you think you’ve hit…

Gore Verbinski Making BioShock Movie

“Of all the games out there, I think Bioshock is the one that’s the most engaging."

Japanese Game Developers In Trouble

As someone who has as-of-yet not visited Japan, I still imagine it is a place where cutting-edge game development technology is lurking around every corner – stuff so far beyond what we have in the U.S. that we look like cavemen in comparison. Apparently my imagination is a little bit off, as according to Konami…

Pocket God/Doodle Jump Gallery

Pocket God/Doodle Jump Gallery

Warmonger Debuts Today

NetDevil’s PhysX-powered, totally destructible (mostly) shooter Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction is now available for free download on the official site. It’s worth noting that not only is the game free, it doesn’t actually require AGEIA’s PhysX card to play. You need the card to get the total experience, but don’t let that stop you from…

Be The NBA Ballers Chosen One

If you thought NBA Ballers was a snicker-worthy title, Midway has a real treat for you next year. They’ve just announced the latest installment of the basketball lifestyle series, entitled NBA Ballers: Chosen One, heading to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this Spring. “NBA Ballers: Chosen One will allow players to live the life…

CGS Announces Pan-Asian Finals

In preparation for the Championship Gaming Series 2007 World Championship being held in Los Angeles (6-14 December), CGS has announced the Asian final. Teams coming from Seoul, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lampur, and China will meet to determine which four teams will be heading on to LA. So if anyone’s going to be running around…

Feature: The Colossus and the Comedian

Click to view By: Brian Ashcraft Jeremy Roush let the game do the talking. Adam Sandler watched the plasma television as filmmaker Mike Binder looked on. They were demoing a video game for the Hollywood actor in hopes of convincing him to include it the upcoming Reign Over Me, co-starring Don Cheadle. In-game save posts…