What’s up, Freeks?  Remember that t-shirt contest?  You know, the one that we’ve been talking about since you got here?  Yeah.  It’s been a long road getting to the winner.  And we appreciate all of the feedback that you guys have given us along the way.

Before we show you the winner, we wish that we could have chosen more designs to print but we’d have to fire way too many people around the office to make it work—and that would just be rude.  No worries, though.  We will be working on adding some fresh gear soon and hope that you guys show the same kind of excitement for all of our upcoming announcements.

Anyway, we think that you’ll be happy with our choice for the very first KontrolFreek t-shirt.  The design that we’ve chosen really embodies the spirit of the FPS Freek: pulling off a nasty headshot and showing your friends how 1337 you are.  We hope you like it as much as we do!

Congratulations, Tim!

The best part of this announcement is that you can purchase the winning t-shirt right now in our store in both men’s and women’s sizes!  The first run of these t-shirts will ship starting next week.  You guys have been asking for it for a long time—now’s your chance to finally show your n00b friends how awesome you are by sporting our new gear.

Peace, Love and Killstreaks.

Good Friday afternoon, creative Freeks!  It’s been just over a week since we launched the “Design our Stuff” contest—you know, the contest that gives you the opportunity to (duh) design KontrolFreek garb for $250 buckaroos.  Since then we have had, literally, hundreds of ideas submitted.  Some have been good, some great, others—a little strange.  All told, it has been a smashing success and one of you will win that $250 and a whole bunch of love from all of us at KontrolFreek!

If you’re one of those procrastinators who haven’t submitted your idea yet—or if you’re just planning on entering another design—you only have a few days left until the deadline.  We will stop taking your submissions on Tuesday, June 15^th.

So forget about your town’s little Chili and Jazz festival this weekend.  Stay home, stay cool and get working on making gamers better dressers!

Good morning, Freeks!  We hope that you have all checked your email by now and found our “Kicking off the summer” newsletter in your inbox.  If you are subscribed to our newsletter and still don’t have it, check your “spam” folder.  You’d be surprised how often we get mixed-in with pharmaceuticals from Canada promising a “more satisfying” love life—which we actually do too.

You see, we know that our customers want t-shirts and other garb.  But here at KontrolFreek, we’re way too busy planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse to think of good ideas for clothing (you may laugh now, but you’ll see!).  So, if you can come up with the best catchphrase or design for a KontrolFreek t-shirt, hat, hoodie or wristband, we will pay you $250 BIG ONES for it!  All you have to do is think of an idea that somehow incorporates our name, logo or products and tell us about it.  Send us your submissions in any format you like (text, JPG, scan), just make sure you send ‘em.  You can snatch graphics from our webpage or make your own—anything goes.  This is your chance to let your creativity shine and help your favorite thumb-stick accessory company help fellow gamers become better dressers.  Have fun and good luck!

Click here for the submission page!

Good morning, Freeks!  We’re guessing that by now you have checked your email to find our announcement of our sweet, new colors.  If you haven’t, go check it now.  We’ll wait.

Pretty cool, huh?  You totally want some of those Stealth FPS Freeks, don’t you?

At KontrolFreek we listen to our customers—if you say “jump,” we say “we’re too lazy for that; how about we make different colored FPS Freeks instead?”  And that’s exactly what we did!

Allow us to give you a rundown of what we’ve done.

First of all, the Classic White FPS Freeks and Speed Freeks are still available.  They’re the time-tested original.  They won’t be going away any time soon.  You’ll want these if the standard white Xbox 360 controller is your weapon of choice.

People who prefer PS3’s DualShock 3 or the black Xbox 360 controller will likely want to accessorize them with one of our new black combinations.

If faster lap times in racing games are what you’re after, you’ll need the Midnight Black Speek Freeks.

If shooters are more your thing, you can choose either Stealth (black) on Stealth or Gunmetal (gray) on Stealth for your FPS Freeks—your call—either way, you’ll be fragging in style!

In addition to these exciting new color options, we’ve also thrown together some money-saving Gamer’s Packs for you hardcore players.  You can now get your choice of three killer combinations.  You can order the Classic Speed Freeks and Classic FPS Freeks bundle, the Midnight Speed Freeks and Gunmetal on Stealth FPS Freeks bundle, or the Midnight Speed Freeks with Stealth on Stealth FPS Freeks bundle.  These Gamer’s Packs are for the gamer who needs precision no matter what they’re playing and want to look good doing it.

Oh yeah, and if you’re the kind of person who likes sweet deals, we’ve set-up a coupon code for you that will give you 10% off any purchase through the end of May.  So, don’t wait!  Go buy some already!  And stop by our forums to discuss our new colors and drop us some suggestions in our “New Product Ideas” forum.  We’re obviously listening.

Coupon Code:  KFMAYROCKS10

I love co-op as much as the next guy.   Well, maybe a little more than the next guy.  Okay, so I'm a junkie for co-op, whatever.  And I have been to some pretty shady places to get my next fix--like Army of Two, and yes, even 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.  Sometimes I just need a break from playing competitive multiplayer with a-holes and a nice, casual game of co-op is just what the doctor ordered.

So that's why I'm always disappointed when a top-tier game comes out and there's no cooperative campaign to be had.  I have seen a trend building by which more games are including, at the least, an independent co-op mode.  But this rarely cools my importunate co-op fever.   Let’s focus the stank-eye on Ghostbusters: The Video Game for a moment.  I loved the campaign—and the included cooperative multiplayer was fun.  But in a game so naturally fit for cooperative play, the lack of a true co-op campaign seemed like a serious missed opportunity.

Now, here comes Modern Warfare 2, ready to set the world on fire with its Michael Bay-esque campaign and top-notch multiplayer modes—the perfect recipe for an unforgettable co-op romp!  But to my dismay, the game will only include an independent co-op mode.  I'm sure it will probably be fun for a few minutes at least, but why do game developers continue to shatter my dreams?

Well, Infinity Ward's reasoning for not including a full co-op campaign is sound: they don't want their vision of the campaign experience to change by adding another person to the mix that could break the immersion.  I know that they are just protecting their game from cut-scene-chatterboxes and run-ahead-and-steal-all-the-kills-guy, but I just wish that I could have made that decision for myself.  Many times I like to play a game through the first time by myself and then invite a friend (not an obnoxious stranger) to play along with me.  This assures me the optimal gaming experience and adds replayability to a single-player campaign that I would otherwise never play again.

What do you guys think?  Are your cooperative fixes met by these independent co-op modes, or do you think full co-op campaigns need to become the standard?

I used to be good at Halo.  So when ODST came out I decided to plug in the Halo 3 Multiplayer disk and relive some of my former glory.  Sure, I figured that I’d be bit rusty from not playing for a while, but I never thought that I would still be getting straight-pwned after multiple hours.  Ouch!  This concerned me.  So after a lot of frustration—and maybe even a few tears—I decided to get to the root of the problem.

My first thought was the obvious: I suck.  Then, right before hanging myself, I decided that I wasn’t really as bad as my stats were demonstrating.  I mean, I’m not god’s gift to gaming or anything, but I do have nearly a 2.0 kill/death ratio in Modern Warfare.  My conclusion: everyone must be cheating (well, maybe not everyone--but you can see what I'm getting at).  I have certainly fallen victim to cheaters in the past but it was usually something relatively obvious.  When you are constantly getting shot from outside the map in Call Of Duty, Ghost Recon, Halo, Gears of War, and every other popular game in the history of multiplayer gaming, you know when the C is O (“cheat is on…” stay with me).  But this was different; I was being outgunned—by the same guns that I was using!  I decided that I was being beaten by hardware mods (rapid fire controllers, specifically).  Had this exception to the rule become an epidemic?

Now, I’m all about obtaining advantages (that’s why I use FPSFreeks, after all) but when does this lust for the upper-hand become cheating?   Where do you stand on the issue?  Where do you draw the line in your quest for that tangible edge?