News of an Activision-published Walking Dead FPS first shambled out over the summer, but all we've had so far is a few screenshots and art pieces to set the mood. This trailer give a first look at the gameplay in The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, which is being developed by Terminal Reality. Seems like some stealth and redirection tactics are going to be necessary amongst all the melee and shooting. What do you think, TWD fans? Does this clip make you want to play as one of the show's more controversial characters?

Get the lowdown on the epic, post-apocalyptic, Ice Age train movie Snow Piercer. Christopher Nolan reveals why Zack Snyder's job on Man of Steel is so much tougher than his own job on the Dark Knight trilogy. Plus a bunch of new Robocop set photos show off the reboot's crazy vehicles!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Man of Steel.

Justice League

Just in time to ring in the New Year, who's up for another round of insane Justice League rumors? These reports, supposedly from an inside source, form part of a larger constellation of Warner Bros. superhero movies, which involve Man of Steel serving as the beachhead for a new shared superhero universe, Darkseid showing up as the main villain, and a new, freshly rebooted Batman movie in 2016 — oh, and also maybe a standalone Aquaman movie, because why not?

Anyway, these latest rumors claim to flesh out the roles of the various group members, with a strong implication that Superman and Green Lantern will be the same versions of the characters as previously seen in their standalone movies... although, just to make this extra-complicated, that maybe doesn't necessarily mean we would see Henry Cavill and Ryan Reynolds take on these roles. Anyway, Zack Snyder is supposedly consulting on the portrayal of Superman — which flatly contradicts Snyder's statements that he's uninvolved in Justice League, but let's push on — and Green Lantern would be the same character, except "freshly written with a more serious tone."

The other characters include Batman (of course), the master strategist who doesn't want to hang out with all these superpowered characters, possibly because of deep-seated concerns that they are all too powerful. Wonder Woman will have been living in our world for only a few months when Justice League begins, Flash is beloved by the public but can be serious when the situation demands it, Aquaman is currently the King of Atlantis, and the Martian Manhunter has, in a bit of a break from the usual comics depictions, been living on Earth in secret for more than a century and has vital knowledge about Darkseid.

Speaking of which, Darkseid's Elite — a wonderfully bizarre bunch that potentially includes the likes of Desaad, Granny Goodness, Glorious Godfrey, Kalibak, Steppenwolf, and of course Virman Vundabar — will serve as the early antagonists in the film before the real threat shows up. Lois Lane and Alfred Pennyworth are also supposedly down for cameos, which means quick appearances by Amy Adams and Michael Caine — who has already said he would reprise the role if asked, no matter what Christopher Nolan has to say about it — aren't out of the question. Also, the military plays a big role, and this could eventually incorporate specific characters introduced in Man of Steel or even Green Lantern — which in the latter case pretty much just means Angela Bassett as Amanda Waller.

All things considered, there's still no reason to think that these rumors are any more true than any other possible Justice League scenario you or I could come up with. So, as long as you take this a big old heaping of grains of salt, feel free to check out the link for more. [Cosmic Book News]

Man of Steel

Producer Christopher Nolan, who also along with screenwriter David Goyer came up with the movie's story, offers some high praise for director Zack Snyder's work on the latest Superman movie:

"Zack was the perfect man to take this on. He is unbelievably skilled at creating a coherent, cohesive world — whether it's a very stylized world, like 300, or something that's more challenging, more varied, like he did with Watchmen. In my honest appraisal, taking on Superman and creating that world is far more difficult than creating the world of the Dark Knight. He has a lot of finishing to do on the movie — it has a very long post-production schedule because, unlike Batman, Superman flies. I actually feel guilty talking about it because I'm sitting here having nothing to do to it. I try to be as supportive as I can, and I'm just amazed by what he is doing. It's not something I would know how to do."

[Hollywood Reporter]

Guardians of the Galaxy

Writer-director James Gunn, whose previous oeuvre includes The Specials, Slither, Super — basically, if it's weird, violent, and starts with an "S", he probably made it — reveals he's doing some serious research for his superhero space opera movie with the talking raccoon:

Yesterday I spent a few hours with one of NASA's representatives from Jet Propulsion Laboratories, part of a group of scientists who consult [with] the movie industry (for free) to help bring a greater understanding of science to films. It was an utterly fascinating few hours with one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable guys I've ever met... [W]e made our way through a ton of information on the possibilities of space travel, alien life, etc...

[James Gunn on Facebook]

Star Wars: Episode VII

As is frequently worth remembering, we only know about two people who are definitely working on the new Star Wars film: screenwriter Michael Arndt and new LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy. In the final chapter of a five-part set of retrospective YouTube videos, Kennedy discusses the transition as George Lucas leaves and she slowly but surely takes over:

It's funny — I find it's been interesting between George and I because we've been talking about this for several weeks now as I've started to get to meet people and get to know how the company and whatnot. And usually at the end of my phone calls with him, I end up saying, "So how are you feeling about this?" Because he's going through a transition out of the company, I'm going through a transition out of just producing movies into running this company and so all of my emotions are caught up in new beginnings as he's seguing out. So it is a thing that I think the two of us constantly kind of check in with one another to see, "OK, where's the balance? Is the balance happening here?" You know, I have a tremendous amount to learn from George, there's things that I want to preserve in the spirit of this company and as it moves into Disney, I think it's vitally important to anything we create to hold onto the spirit of what started all this. So I'd say that's what's really important to me.

Here's the full video, and you can check out the four previous entries here.

Snow Piercer

Here's the first poster for The Host director Joon-ho Bong's upcoming adaptation of the French graphic novel, which follows the last remnants of humanity as they navigate a new ice age in a supercharged train. The poster mainly just plays up the movie's cast, but with a cast like that, why wouldn't you?

There's also a couple new interviews with members of the cast. Here's Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner to offer a succinct explanation as to why we should get excited about the film:

One I've just been doing recently is, a really exciting [one], called Snowpiercer, directed by Joon-ho Bong, Korean director who directed Mother and also The Host. That's a really exciting film with Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, and a really great cast. And a really exciting futuristic film, set on a train in an ice age, the last people alive on Earth, and it's about an attempted social revolution on this train and it's really... I've never seen anything like it, I'm really looking forward to it.

And the great John Hurt, who of course has been in everything from Alien to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, explains how his character fits into all this, because you just couldn't make a post-apocalyptic frozen train movie and not put John Hurt in there somewhere. Incidentally, if you've ever wanted to hear how a 72-year-old British acting legend wraps his mind around the out there, graphic novel-based premise of a movie like Snowpiercer, this is the quote for you:

"In Snowpiercer I play kind of a... because there is kind of a microcosm of humanity all on a train, which is going all around the globe. You know, in a small ice age. Um, it all sounds a bit preposterous, but the fact is that it's based on a graphic novel, which is a French graphic novel from round about the 80's. So, it is... kind of not real in that sense. It creates it's own reality, you'll see what I mean. And I'm playing an erstwhile leader, of revolutions, that is held in great regard by the young man who is leading the revolution at the moment. Because all the riffraff is at the back of the train and all the good ones live in the front of the train. So the revolution seizes through the train. And he (Joon-ho Bong) is a remarkable director. So, that is what I do there, but it turns out he is not as admirable as he might have been considered."

Here are the original video interviews. Bremner starts discussing Snowpiercer around the two-minute mark, and it's well worth checking out for his obvious enthusiasm for the project. [Comic Book Movie]

Robocop

Once Upon a Time

Showrunner Adam Horowitz has tweeted one last episode title, this one for episode sixteen. [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

It's called Full Bore, and it's an interesting-looking indie puzzler that's slated for release on PC next year. Also it's adorable. A-boar-able? No? Okay.

The tiny team behind Full Bore says they've completed about a third of it—and there's a demo available on their website—and they've started a Kickstarter to finish it off. They're hoping for $12,500.

I'm only about 120 years late to the party on this one, which really isn't too bad, since I wasn't alive for most of that time. Now that I am (more or less) alive, I don't have that excuse anymore, so I need to do what I can to right this wrong: the front-engine/rear-drive layout that is named after René Panhard should really be named after Amédée Bollée. This is important.

I'm sure by now at least half of you have flung your laptops at the wall in unrestrained rage. I'm just asking you to hear me out. I know the front engine/rear-drive layout pioneered by the firm Panhard et Lavassor in 1891 is a favorite of many of us. Hell, it was the dominant automotive architecture for decades, dominating until the mass-advent of FWD in the 80s. Even today, a front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels is still the preferred sports car layout. And it's been called the Systeme Panhard for over a century.

But it's time to change that. And this isn't change for the sake of change, it's about righting a wrong. It's about justice, and giving credit where credit is due. See, Panhard et Levassor were not the first ones to develop a car with the front engine/rear drive layout. I believe that honor should go to Amédee Bollée, way back in 1878.

Bollée's car was called La Mancelle (named after Le Mans) and was likely the first automobile to enter series production, with 50 built. This was Bollée's second car, after L'Obeissante which, while similar, did not quite employ a true front-engine transmitting power to a rear drive layout. La Mancelle did, having its three-cylinder steam engine up front, and power transmitted by shaft to the rear wheels. The car also had independent suspension (via leaf springs) and rack-and-pinion steering!

Yes, the boiler was still mounted at the rear, but in some ways one can argue that's closer to a gasoline car's fuel tank than strictly part of the engine. Still, in every way that matters, La Mancelle developed the template that all FR cars would follow for well over a century— from a 1902 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost to the Subaru BRZ someone just lied about their income to get today.

And yet for all this time, the credit for this wildly influential vehicle architecture has been given to Mssrs. Panhard and Lavassor. Sure P&L were extremely influential and pioneering auto makers, but the facts are the facts. If we're going to name the FR layout after the first to develop and produce it, Bollée's 1878 La Mancelle beats Panhard's 1891 offering by any kind of kooky math you want to try.

Maybe some people will try to defend the Panhard claim by saying that Bollée doesn't count because it's a steam car. To that, I'd cleverly and delicately retort that that's horseshit. The term refers to the layout, the general architecture of the car, not what sort of fuel is powering it. The type of engine just doesn't matter— a front engine-rear drive layout is just that no matter if that engine is steam, gasoline, electric, or a glowing orb of pulsing orgone energy. So there.

So, one of my personal new years' goals is to popularize the term "Systeme Bollée" to refer to front engine-rear drive cars, and to right an injustice that's been perpetrated for a century and a half.

And maybe if I do, the ghost of Amédée Bollée will finally stop making the walls bleed in my house.

Yes, it sounds like the name of an awful horror knockoff (this one, to be exact), but a 22-pound beast known as Megapiranha paranensis once roamed the water 10 million years ago, and its bite was truly something to fear.

An international team of researchers recently provided some of the first authoritative calculations of how hard modern piranhas can bite, something that's easy to estimate but hard to actually measure. Indeed, if you want to really know for certain how hard a piranha can bite, you've got to head into their waters, try to fish one out, then hold it by the tail and then present it with the plates of a gauge that can measure its force.

Only once it bites down on those plates do you have an accurate measurement of its bite — and while it's a myth that piranhas go around in swarms devouring any humans that cross their path, that's still not especially pleasant work. But from that data, researchers have determined that the largest living piranha, the 2.5-pound black piranha, can bite with a force of 72 pounds, or 30 times its body weight.

Here's where the good old phrase "for its size" has to do some heavy lifting. While other predators have fiercer bites in absolute terms, nothing really comes close to the piranha in relative terms. American alligators, for instance, can only bite with about 10 times the force of their body weight, meaning the black piranha has a bite three times harder. Even Tyrannosaurs rex, the most infamous predator in Earth's history, could "only" bite with 3,000 pounds of force, which sounds impressive until you remember they generally weighed around 15,000 pounds.

Based on analysis of megapiranha bones, their bite force could have been anywhere from 280 to 1,070 pounds — potentially as much as 50 times their body weight. Megapiranha's chompers were even more brutally effective than that of its smaller, living relatives, as it could both tear through tissue and crack thick shells and bones. We don't know exactly what it ate, but it clearly lived at a time when some gigantic prey was available for the eating, as study co-author Stephanie Crofts of the University of Washington explains:

"If our calculations are correct, Megapiranha was probably a bone-crushing predator taking bites of anything and everything. We found the Megapiranha teeth had the same maximum strength like you saw in regular piranha, but then the patterns of stress distribution within the tooth was also similar to fish able to eat hard-prey."

You can read the entire original paper at Science Reports.

Image of modern piranha by Instant Vantage on Flickr.

So of course when the clock at last ran out on Andy Reid in Philadelphia, nobody knew what the heck was going on. He was fired before the final game Sunday and coached anyway. No, he wasn't fired till after the game Sunday. No, not that either; he wasn't fired till Monday morning. One last utter clusterfuck of an endgame for the Eagles, thank you very much, Andy Reid. For 14 years of service, here's a gold watch. When the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 1, next Sunday, it's nap time.

Bless his weird, stoic, confused heart, and off with his head. There will be plenty of people lining up to tell you that Reid was the worst fourth-quarter tactician in the league, a big-game choker, a bullheaded misuser of talent, a nincompoop, a slowly sinking barge to nowhere. Most of that is true. He was also a better coach than most franchises—and certainly the eternally scattershot and dysfunctional Eagles—usually see.

That is why Eagles fans hated him so. Andy Reid's Eagles were good. At times, they were very, very good. For 14 years—or rather for the greater part of 12 of those years—the Eagles were about as good as anybody else in the league. Sixteen times each season, or 17 or 18 or even 19 times, Reid's teams took the field with an undeniably plausible chance of winning.

For the second year in a row, Slate and Deadspin are teaming up for a season-long NFL roundtable. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries. And click here to play the latest episode of Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen.

It's a strange thing to be galled about, when you step back and consider it, but it was galling. The number of times they actually did win topped out in 2004-05, at 15: 13 regular-season victories, two playoff victories, and the ball in Donovan McNabb's hands with 5:40 to go in the Super Bowl, within striking distance of a beatable Patriots team. The Eagles needed two scores, and they got one of them—on that still-baffling three-minute-45-second slow march down the field, their relentless downfield progress matched by the even-more-relentless draining of the clock. It was the Andy Reid-iest sequence of Andy Reid's career; I watched it with a friend who hates the Eagles, and he abandoned his rooting interest and started yelling at the TV set in sheer objective disbelief and frustration. How could any team be so stupid with so much on the line?

Reid set the standard, and then Reid failed to live up to it. The nightmare of the Super Bowl aside, the indelible memory of the Reid era for me is a September 2006 home game in which the Eagles came out and battered the Giants all over the field, rolling up a 24-7 lead by early in the third quarter. It could easily have been 35-7, but it was such a mismatch, the Eagles mislaid a couple of easy scoring drives without putting the points on the board.

And then every single bounce started going the Giants' way, and the still-callow Eli Manning started making plays, and the Giants almost got close enough to tie it—and then, with 10 seconds left, the Eagles committed a flagrant personal foul, moving New York into range to kick a tying 35-yard field goal. The Giants won in overtime, but not before Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Two years ago, after what turned out to have been Reid's last playoff game with the Eagles, I concluded that Reid was best understood as a powerful but slow football thinker—a coach with a rare gift for building sound, successful teams, but with no corresponding gift for rapid adjustment and decision-making. On balance, his strengths did outweigh his weaknesses. He had nine winning seasons and only three losing ones, for a .584 winning percentage. It's just that his weaknesses were on display in the 3 p.m. hour. Or in January.

Would it have been better to have spent the past decade-plus rooting for the Cleveland Browns? Philadelphia got its answer this year. Actually, at 4-12, the Eagles were a game worse than the Browns. It was miserable and humiliating. They went out with a 42-7 beating by the Giants, leaving them with the third-worst scoring differential in the league.

There's no vindication for Eagles fans in this. Reid's world had been wobbling on its axis ever since the resignation and cancer death of his defensive coordinator, Jim Johnson, in 2009. His once-chosen quarterback, McNabb, was traded and faded away; the miraculous revival of Michael Vick flatlined.

And his son Garrett died of a drug overdose during Eagles training camp this year. For another coach, at another point, with another team, that could have been a storyline or an explanation or a point of sympathy. It's hard to imagine that the coach's unthinkable personal tragedy didn't have something to do with his team's complete disorder and unpreparedness this year. But the relationship between Reid and Philadelphia was already too embittered and exhausted for anyone to do anything with the sad fact but leave it there.

Top image via

Your 2013 New Year's Eve celebrations are probably over, but if you want to add some pizzazz to your next party 364 days from now, grab a set of these special champagne flutes that feature a laser-etched sparkling point on the bottom producing a non-stop stream of bubbles.

The glasses rely on the same science that produces a cola eruption when a Mentos is dropped inside a bottle of Diet Coke. But on a less grandiose scale that won't leave your home or party guests soaked in champagne. A set of two will set you back $25, and for an extra $18 you can even get them engraved with a custom message. [HomeWetBar via The Green Head]

Perhaps you're upgrading to a newer iPad and you really like your case or you want to adapt a cheap 1st-gen iPad case to your Android tablet. Either way you can adjust for size differences and add camera and port access holes when needed by using a small precision drill such as that found on a rotary tool.

Design weblog Apartment Therapy points out that the old adage "measure twice, cut once" applies here. You'll want to measure where you need to make a hole for your camera or headphone jack, draw the hole on the case, and drill the hole. Trim around the hole with a small pair of scissors and if you want a more finished look you can use bias tape, needle and thread, or Mod Podge glue.

Hacking a 1st Gen Case for a New iPad | Apartment Therapy

Good morning, little buddy! How ya feeling? If you celebrated the new year with most of America's drunkards, you probably feel like vommy, achy, swoony garbage. But why? What's happening to you? And what do you do now?

Well, here's an explanation of precisely why your body is currently telling you to go fuck yourself, from my favorite doctor-scientist:

Alcohol strips the body of water and salts, mostly by aggravating the kidneys. The stomach also doesn't take kindly to being pickled. The liver, furiously busy trying to process away the alcohol, doesn't have as much time to maintain blood sugar. All of these things contribute to the misery, but the way we get rid of alcohol is the real culprit. Your body quickly turns the alcohol (relatively harmless itself) into aldehyde-not so harmless, the same chemical family used to preserve dead bodies-and only slowly turns the aldehyde into really harmless acid. It's not the wisest process. Make the poison quickly; get rid of it slowly. Thanks, intelligent designer!

What is a committed drinker to do? Fluids. Convince a doctor or nurse friend to give you an IV. If your salvation must be by mouth, water alone won't cut it. Drink a liter of Pedialyte-find it in the infant section, used to treat children with massive diarrhea-or make Pedialyte yourself (eight teaspoons of table sugar, one teaspoon of salt, and a splash of orange juice in a quart of water), and you'll be happier in the morning. It works for cholera victims and it can work for you. If you find yourself getting hangovers regularly, it's time to think about cutting back on the drinking.

And while you work on becoming a human again, you may as well embrace the hangover's three lonely upsides:

1. Watching a full season of television in bed in a day. (Recommended: Loooooofaaaaahhhh!)
2. The part when you finally finally finally finally don't feel nauseated anymore and the world's most satisfying CHINESE FOOD or PIZZA HAPPENS.
3. Hangover Sprite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, it's like you can feel it mixing with your blood.

So good luck today, kiddos. And if you're still feeling like living death tomorrow, there's always dried bull penis (also call 911 maybe?).

Photo credit: wavebreak_media / Stockfresh.

Sometimes I think Dubai exists in its very own dimension, an alternative over-the-top world where everything has to be the best of the best. This amazing photograph by Gerald Donovan is proof: the biggest and tallest firework show in the world, shot on New Year's Eve 2013 at the Burj Khalifa, the highest man-made structure in the world at 2,722 feet (829.8 meters).

Gerald told us how he shot it:

It was taken from The Address Downtown on the 40th floor. Phase One IQ180 medium format digital back (80 megapixels) on a Hartblei HCam which pairs the sensor up with a Canon 17mm TS-E lens. This gives the widest possible rectilinear field of view on a medium format sensor. Basically, an impossible shot with any other kit.

He sent us two more photos, taken as the show was starting:

Here's the official video of the show. It's crazy.

After almost killing the fiscal cliff deal over the course of a few bizarre hours yesterday, you'd think it'd be impossible for House Republicans to make themselves look any more cruel and petty...

...And yet here's a video of Rep. Steve Womack, presiding officer in the House of Representatives last night, adjourning the House as he pretends to not hear the loud objections of house members furious that Republicans had reneged on a promise to take up a vote on an an emergency supplemental disaster aid bill for Hurricane Sandy relief — a decision that's led at least one New York Republican to threaten to switch parties.

A few hours before Womack lost his hearing, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had given the go-ahead for floor debate on a $27 billion bill with a $33 billion amendment (matching the amount passed by the Senate last week) — the idea being to pass it as quickly as possible and secure the aid before a new congress is sworn in on Thursday, necessitating a new bill be drafted and passed by both the House and Senate.

Boehner's said he'll bring a bill up again in the new congress by the end of the month. But this means weeks of negotiating the bill — and passing it through the Senate — were worthless. And as Politico details, "the failure of the House to act could have immediate consequences":

Current estimates are that the [flood insurance] fund will have exhausted its borrowing authority by the week of Jan. 7, and the White House has requested an increase of $9.7 billion - included in the Senate bill. It is believed that damage from Sandy will generate as many as 139,000 claims, but without an increase in the borrowing authority only about 12,000 of these can be covered from existing funds.

As you might expect, Republicans from New York and New Jersey are furious — Michael Grimm (whose Staten Island district was among the hardest-hit by the storm) called the broken promise "a betrayal.".

But the "going ham" award goes to Peter King, who represents part of Long Island, told CNN he hasn't ruled out switching parties. "Everybody played by the rules, except tonight when the rope is pulled out from under us," King said last night (on CNN, he used a slightly more violent metaphor: "what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans"). "Absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible. We have a moral obligation to hold this vote."

Motorists in Florida had a strong showing in 2012, and now it looks like they're off to a strong start once again in 2013!

This Lamborghini Aventador reportedly lost a tire and suffered body damage after it was struck by a 79-year-old woman in Sarasota, Fl. No one was injured, and no word on what the old lady was driving, but given her age and the location of the crash, I think we can all assume it was a Buick or a Town Car.

Any guesses how this happened?

Photo credit Wrecked Exotics

Far Cry 3 should not be my nomination for 2012 game of the year. I'm not a huge fan of first-person shooters. While I appreciate the technical accomplishment of the first two games in the series I've not felt compelled to complete either. I felt absolutely no excitement leading up to the third installment's late November release. I expected a visually pleasing shooter that would keep me occupied for an hour or so before I moved on to more compelling things.

What I got was the only open world action-adventure game I've ever loved.

Don't cry for Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption. What we had was special — it was just never love. I watched them blossom from compelling ideas into full-bodied games, breath catching with each new screenshot and trailer. As soon as I was able I took them home, carefully peeling away the plastic and slipping them gently inside my game console. I entered their worlds with the best of intentions, listening to their stories unfold attentively. For a moment it felt as if I truly cared.

But as soon as the talking stopped it was all about me. I plowed pedestrians from their streets with reckless abandon. I rode their trails hard, unloading my weapons on anything that moved. I ignored their pleas for plot progression, instead seeking out random actions that satisfied my carnal nature, repeating them over and over until I was spent. I left them unfulfilled on the entertainment center shelf, collecting dust with their cases just out of reach.

With Far Cry 3 it was different. It was the friend of a friend (Kirk Hamilton) that I only hooked up with out of courtesy. It was attractive, sure, but I wasn't expecting much more than a brief encounter. I'd hang out for an hour or two and then move on.

It wasn't love at first sight. Beers and bros on the beach isn't my idea of a good time, and the follow-up activity – running through the jungle being chased by maniacs moments after my brother put the "special" in "special forces" and nearly got my head blown off – well that was just awkward.

I soon found myself in another open world, armed to the teeth and given free rein to do as I pleased. There were cars to drive, creatures to shoot, people to kill and plenty of things to set on fire. I was fully prepared to take Far Cry 3 like I had taken so many other sandbox games before it.

Then I made a startling discovery – I cared.

As implausible an action hero as slacker-turned-mercenary Jason Brody is, I found myself invested in his mission to rescue his travelling companions from the clutches of cruel and sadistic pirates. I reveled in the slow destruction of his inner fratboy while feeling the same trepidation as his friends over the darkness slowly consuming him. I felt that same darkness growing in me as I exacted satisfying revenge on the minions of the maniacal Vaas – easily one of the greatest new villains in gaming, even if he's only a mini-boss.

It almost felt like Far Cry 3 understood the sort of gamer I am, with compensation for my shortcomings integrated into the game's design. I am not good at first-person shooters, so in my case Jason Brody wasn't the superhuman commando many players complained he was. Most of the time he was just lucky. I appreciate that.

This is not to say my relationship with Far Cry 3 was all pure and innocent. I strayed now and then, indulging my base nature by partaking of the islands' more carnal delights. I was all over those sexy hills and valleys, leaving burn marks and bodies in my wake. I spent several afternoons shark-fishing with the old boat-mounted chain gun, if you know what I mean. I may have cheated a little bit, dallying with some of the game's lesser quests in-between massive set pieces.

But I always came back. That's what love is. That's why Far Cry 3 is my 2012 Game of the Year.

The writers of Kotaku are nominating nine games for 2012 Game of the Year. The nominations will be posted throughout the first week of January. The winner of our staff vote being announced on the Monday following and that game will be our 2012 GOTY, shifting 2011 GOTY Portal 2 a little further down our imaginary trophy shelf. Read all of our 2012 nominations, as they're posted.

When Wired posted its list of "The World's Most Annoying Technologies" a few weeks back, "The Most Useless Machine" (a box with a toggle switch, which, when flipped, causes a mechanical nubbin to emerge from inside the box, flip the switch back, then retreat back inside the box) didn't even get an honorable mention.

Perhaps by adding more toggle switches, and attaching the machine's toggle-flipping appendage to the sliding track of a printer's ink-cartridge rail, the "Useless Machine Advanced Edition" will earn a place among 2013's most irritating tech.

[forn4x]

Tripods are a necessary tool for photographers of all types, but they're pretty bulky. If you don't need too much height, Instructables user searx shows off how to build a 19-inch tall camera tripod that fits in your pocket.

The pocket tripod is incredibly easy to build yourself. It requires a couple lego parts, three antenna pieces, a bolt, and a small piece of metal. Once you collect together all the parts, you'll just need to piece it all together with a little glue. The antenna's act as the tripod, and you can adjust them as you see fit. Head over to Instructables for the full guide to make one yourself.

Pocket Tripod | Instructables

Azealia Banks, queen of the tweeted song release, has started off 2013 with a bang by releasing new track "BBD" — standing for "Bad Bitches Do It" — on her Tumblr. In typical Azealia fashion, the song is a rave-y mix of high energy beats, low-key verse and a strong undercurrent of '90s hip hop influence.

2013 ought to be a big year for Miss Banks. No longer just a darling of the fashion industry, she will soon be realeasing her debut major label album Broke with Expensive Tastes. Because bad bitches do it.

[Vulture]

How was your New Year's Eve? Good? Good. Bet you got down. Bet you rocked out to some jams. Bet you waited at least until it got dark to start partying. Latrell Sprewell didn't wait. After neighbors called about music blasting from a house in east Milwaukee Monday afternoon, police arrested Sprewell and charged him with disorderly conduct.

Police said they had received two noise complaints within an hour of each other, and had received numerous complaints over the preceding months. Sprewell was booked into jail at 4:15 p.m. Monday, and quickly bonded out.

Sprewell is from the Milwaukee area, and moved back after retiring from the NBA in 2005. Since then, his home has been foreclosed upon, his yacht auctioned off, and he's been named Wisconsin's biggest tax deadbeat. Go on and lose yourself in the music, Spree.

[Journal Sentinel]

What's it like working with a Gat Man on Emily Blunt's futuristic farm? Why did Thomas Dekker's character dredge up so much fear? The first-ever deleted scene from Rian Johnson's Looper shows the trigger-happy Gat Man searching for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis on Blunt's family farm. It's a pretty slick clip that demonstrates Dekker's antagonistic nature and Blunt's icy side. This is only one of 22 scenes that didn't make the movie's final cut and are included as extras in the Looper DVD/Blu-ray, available now.

Click to view

After the family dog passed away last year, Philip Michaels knew he would have to wait a while to allow his father time to grieve before bringing a new puppy into the house.

Sensing it was finally time, Philip and his mother visited the same shelter that introduced them to their previous pet 15 years ago, and brought home a precious Havanese-Maltese mix for dad.

Above is the moment the two met for the first time, on Christmas Day. Below is a photo of the now-inseparable pair watching puppy videos on YouTube together.

[H/T: Reddit]

In November of 2011, Cindi Leive, editor in chief of Glamour magazine, wrote the coverline "12 Ways to Get Your Sh*t Together." Then for the September 2012 issue, there was a coverline "Sh*t Girls Say About Clothes." Yes, in both cases, the "i" in "shit" was an asterisk, but still. It should have been a pearl-clutching moment: A four letter word, on a magazine for ladies?

As Christine Haughney writes for the New York Times, Leive "waited for the angry letters to pour in. They never came."

No one gave a shit about "shit."

"The culture has changed, so we've changed," Ms. Leive said. "It's how our main staff, many who are under 30, talk. Certain words have gone from being shocking to being neutered."

What Leive doesn't say is that we've been doing this shit for ages on the internet. Before "Shit Girls Say" was a YouTube sensation, there were approximately one zillion "fuck yeah" Tumblrs. This site has had four-letter words in headlines from the get-go. In the year 2000, one of the hottest sites was called Fucked Company. And so on. Of course the internet is full of all kinds of graphic stuff, from porn to corpse photos, but it does seem like How We Talk Now is influenced by the way we communicate online: In addition to abbreviations and icons like brb, wtf and smiley faces, we're uncensored, using words like fuck, shit, hell and ass to help convey emotion in the world of pixels.

Historically, cursing has been considered unladylike. But we've come to believe what's good for the gander is also good for the goose, and ladymags are keeping up with the times.

Still, the New York Times doesn't believe in using "unprintable" words, so the piece about using the word shit never actually uses the word shit. That shit's for ladymags and the internet, I guess.

As Graydon Sheppard of "Shit Girls Say" puts it in the Times piece: "Complaining about swear words on the Internet is like complaining about sand in the desert."

50 Shades of Vulgarity [NY Times]