Google is going after the TV, with the launch of it’s Windows-only Google Gadget, the Google Media Server. Finding photos, music and video, Google Media Server makes content from your PC available over your network to DLNA devices, such as the Playstation 3 and most Media Center PCs. Unfortunately at this time the Xbox 360 (or Nintendo Wii), though supporting DLNA, is not supported due to signing issues. According to a Google Media Server developer comment, Google Legal did not allow developers to ‘trick’ the Xbox 360 into believing the GMS was signed (for DRM purposes) into believing it were a Microsoft Product, though the developer pointed out there were ways around the internet to achieve this on your own.

The Google Media Server acts as a bridge, allowing you to serve up videos, music and photos as well as Picasa Web Albums and favorite YouTube videos to your Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices. No word on when they’ll start streaming Google Ads to your TV however.

Read more: Google Media Server

We love us some Dawn of War and now that Relic is back in control we’re even more exciting about the newest addition to the Warhammer universe!

The first female Supreme Court justice has revealed the plans for her upcoming education game project, Our Courts, meant to teach children how America’s courts operate and exactly how their future is determined by a hand-picked few.

Justice O’Connor (78) believes the only way to preserve an independent judiciary is through public education, which in the past has failed to properly educate citizens about the three branches of U.S. government (legislative, executive and judicial). She hopes that using new tools, such as Our Courts, to reach younger students will achieve this.

Justice O’Connor served as U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1981 until her retirement in 2006. (VIA Reuters)

Ah good old JavaScript. Not thought of too fondly by game developers, but, web developers sure like to put it to good use to recreate games within your browser. Case in point, Jacob Seidelin is a dedicated hacker who is putting his talent with JS to great use. How you ask? By hacking together a prototype version of Super Mario Kart in Javascript! Or, Super Mario Kart JS, if you will.

Complete with two courses (Mushroom Cup Round 1 and 2), opponents and soundtrack, SMKJS runs on FireFox 2 and 3, Opera 9.27+ and Safari 3.1.1+. IE users miss out, as they should for now upgrading to a real web browser. It uses the canvas element to do most of the rendering and the code (available here) weighs in at a nicely minimal 11 Kb.

At the moment, there is no lap count and the AI is a bit crude, but there is basic collision detection, which at least holds you back long enough to determine where you can cut corners.

EA really wants Take-Two to hope aboard the mother-ship. So much so, they’ve extended their takeover offer deadline for the third time, this time giving Take-Two and their board until June 16th become one and plug in to the hive. Though EA still refuses to raise their offer of $25.74 a share for the Rockstar Games parent, many analysts are dropping the word that EA needs to suck it up and pony up a little bit more per share, in order to entice some of the more uncertain Take-Two stockholders. Take-Two recently hit paydirt again with the release of GTA IV, their trusty cash cow which seems to roll around every few years and a hundred million or so dollars later. (Via Gamasutra)

Bobblebrook, a relative newcomer to the Vienna, Austria games development scene, has launched as of May 1st! Consisting of childhood friends Philipp Seifried and Markus Mundjar, Bobblebrook aims to release new and innovate Flash games every four to six weeks, focusing on unusual ideas and concepts. So far, they have three games launched, “A Good Hunch”, featuring two time-traveling goats in a platform environment, “Twizzle”, a puzzler based on pushing a sphere through various circular orbigs and “Drifts”, a re-imagining of a previous game released several years ago by the duo.

Read the full press release after the jump or Go play at Bobblebrook

Read more of ”Bobblebrook, a new Viennesse casual games developer launches, welcome to the neighborhood!“

As an experiment in realtime poetry, The Graveyard can’t necessarily be classified as a game, but most certainly a work of art. In the game, you are an older lady, visiting a graveyard, who’s grave though is up to you to find out. You can explore the graveyard or even sit on a bench and experience the environment, creating an immersive, if not slightly depressing, tone for realtime visual exploration.

Experience The Graveyard: The Graveyard

That was quick! If rumors are to be believed, less than a year after the opening of 10tacle Vienna the studio has already been scuttled.

For now the 10tacle Vienna site is still up, with a link directing to the 10tacle mothership and an ominous “coming soon” message. It appears we’re sadly scratching one more games studio out of the Vienna industry, good luck to all of those affected by this.

If anyone can confirm / dispel these rumors, has more info on the closure, or as to what 10t Vienna was working on, feel free to leave a comment below.

Update 1: The as-yet unconfirmed closure of 10t Vienna could have a lot to do with 10tacle’s financial problems, recently outlined in their restructuring press release from last week, where they announced a 25% reduction in marketing and non-product development staff. Read it after the jump along with a screencap of 10tacle’s 3 month share chart.

Read more of ”10tacle Vienna shut(ting) down? How is the rest of 10tacle holding up? (Update 2)“

Created as a Master of Science thesis by a Computer Science student in Umeå University, Phun is an amazing little educational game giving players a rich physics playground where they can easily build and tear apart environments, creating havoc upon squiggly line blocks, water, bits and so much more. Great for teaching a young class about the concepts of physics or just a fun little toy to waste your time at work. Originally posted by our nerdy cousins over at Bunch of Nerds.

Download it at Phun.at

Our condolences go out to the family of a gaming legend. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons passed away this morning in his Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home at the age of 69. The rapidly deteriorating Gygax created the legendary role playing game in 1974, along with partner Dav Arneson, spawning years of medieval themed video games, books and movies. Final arrangement are currently being made. (Via CNN)