You’ll Want These Portal Action Figures Next Christmas

They’re from ThreeA, so your loved ones will need the time to save up, but look at them. They’ll be worth it. We’ve seen these before in their unpainted prototype state, but these painted models are just to die for Still no word on a release date or price. ThreeA x VALVe Portal [ThreeA]

Nintendo Is To Thank, And Blame, For The Dead Metroid Movie

There was, once upon a time, a serious plan to bring a Metroid movie to the silver screen. With John Woo directing. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but various things conspired to sink the project, chief among them Nintendo itself. As former producer Brad Foxhoven tells IGN, while Nintendo at first surprisingly…

EA Sports Server Shutdown Next Week Means NBA Live is Finished

NBA Live 10 is one of six EA Sports titles that will lose online support on Jan. 11., according to a notice from Electronic Arts. While retiring online features for sports titles more than a year old is not uncommon for any sports publisher, killing multiplayer support for NBA Live 10, which released in 2009,…

Grand Theft Auto IV Now Looks Even More “Next Gen”

Thanks to a dedicated community, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has been continually polished and upgraded since its release all those years ago. To the point where, now, it looks like something from the future The iCEnhancer series of mods, which we’ve featured before, are being updated to 2.5 (this is an…

Achievement Unlocked: Chris Warcraft Makes the Postseason

A 29-yard field goal as time expired put Minnesota and our favorite MMO/XCOM-playing punter in the playoffs. Well done.

Four Stories to Follow in a Pivotal New Year for Sports Video Gaming

2K Sports hasn’t said specifically when its infamous exclusive pact with Major League Baseball ends, but it’s a good bet that day comes on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. If someone picks up that license, it’ll be the first big story of the year for sports video gaming. If no one picks up that license, it’ll…

Sure, blame the dog. We know what really happened.

Black Ops II‘s First DLC will be a Timed Xbox 360 Exclusive

Images purportedly of in-store promotional materials suggest that Call of Duty: Black Ops II‘s first map pack extension will be a timed Xbox 360 exclusive arriving on Jan. 29. Five maps are included. “Revolution” sports five maps, one of which—”Die Rise”—appears to be a zombie map. The others are named Hydro, Grind, Downhill and Mirage.…

Zen Pinball‘s Wii U release is delayed “until January.” Sorry. Thirteen tables will be available when it does arrive.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Year-End All-Star Extravaganza

B.A. Baracus. The Michael McDonald Fight Stick. Some dude taking a 3DS picture of himself smoking pot. We’ve had some ups and downs with the ‘Shop Contest this year, but we still have a ton of good memories—10 of our most popular exploitables, to be specific—to look back on in an All-Star Extravaganza closing out…

Some Germans Said They Want to Burn Video Games in Front of the Bundestag [Update: It’s a Hoax.]

There’s a movement afoot in Germany to hold a mass burning of “killerspiele,”—their word for violent video games—in front of the Reichstag in Berlin on Jan. 27. Leni Riefenstahl died eight years ago, so if this really happens, someone else will have to film it. [Update] As has been pointed out by many, this “movement”…

Sunday Comics: Development Hell

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Dec. 26. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Dec. 24. Read more of…

How Long Will EA’s CEO Sit on the Hot Seat in 2013?

The company’s share price dropped by a third in the past year, and expensive incursions into mobile and social games development haven’t yet panned out. Adding insult to injury, Electronic Arts was booted out of the NASDAQ-100 Index for poor performance. Figure in the continuing decline of video game sales on traditional platforms, and John…

Throw another yule log on your pile o’ shame: Steam’s giving steep discounts to BioShock The Witcher, GTA and Skyrim

Free, Fan-Made Mega Man Christmas Carol is Back to Wish You a Happy 20XX

If you didn’t take a crack at Mega Man Christmas Carol when it released two years ago, give it a shot now (.zip, 16 MB). The fan-made game reimagines the Ghosts of Christmas (plus miserable old Marley) as boss showdowns in Mega Man. Sprites, Inc. has remade its first game with a new engine, and…

The NFL tracks some players’ data through chips in their shoulderpads. This could help improve the ratings in Madden

DayZ Stalker Wants to Dismember You, Be With You Forever

Only in a game featuring permadeath could this stalker encounter become as macabre and hilarious as it is. “This crazy guy starting following me and threatening to cut my head off during a DayZ live stream,” says the video’s uploader. He really is running for his life, and his stalker really is suicidally obsessed with…

No One Knows How Big Claptrap is, Really, but Let’s Call This a 1:1 Model Anyway

Reader Parrish E. admitted to tooting his own horn by sending this tip to us, but we’ll allow it, because his life-size construction of Claptrap—with a functioning headlamp, mind you—is straight up awesome, and the best part, it’s a gift for a friend. Parrish and his wife were introduced to Borderlands by a friend shortly…

This Week Year in the Business: ‘Someday We’ll Be Living in the Matrix’

A look back at what happened in the business of video games in 2012. QUOTE | “Someday we’ll be living in the Matrix.” – Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talking about the huge aspirations some game developers still have and why today’s games “suck” by comparison to where they should be QUOTE | “No sex please,…

Corporal Hicks Cameos in the Latest Aliens: Colonial Marines Story Trailer

We’ve known for a while that fan favorite Cpl. Hicks was going to be in Aliens: Colonial Marines—the story fits in between Aliens and Alien3. But, for old time’s sake, here he is in Sega and Gearbox’s latest story trailer for the game, along with a very grim setup of the job that lies ahead…