Test footage from the ThunderCats CGI movie (Flixist)

Sunday round-up of gamer webcomics (Kotaku)

Somebody leaked a completely playable Crysys 2 online (Destructoid)

Duke Huggem trailers, behind the scenes footage, news to hug your eyes (Mega64)

Pigs, Angry Birds, friendship (Dorkly)

Gallery of Brilliance: Vintage Documentary-SciFi Edition (io9)

This link is about dinosaur sex. (Smithsonian)

(Top pic via Neatorama)

Throughout the months leading up to the 2010 holiday season, J.C. Penney ruled Google Search results for various items including dresses, bedding, small appliances, and skinny jeans. While J.C. Penney does indeed sell such items, are they really the most popular place to buy them? Maybe for some, but definitely not for most. So, how did the struggling retailer repeatedly make it to the top of the Google Search list? By doing shady, illegal things, that’s how. By using what Google considers “black-hat” tactics, JCP successfully (and temporarily) became the go-to online store for everything imaginable. Until they were caught.

You can try to be too cool for Valentine’s Day all you like, but it’s going to happen anyway, and you can’t avoid it. You don’t have to like it, because it’s nearly impossible to like a 99% commercial holiday. But don’t try to escape it, because there is no escape. It is a zombie out to get you, and it’s here. (You were probably one of those “Was there some kind of game happening today?” people on Super Bowl Sunday. Guess what? Everyone knew that you knew there was a game that day.)

But in case there is still a tiny, microscopic neutron inside of you that feels an urge to do something, even something weird, snarky, or slightly mean, then here are some (mostly) printable Valentine’s Day cards just for you, lovingly scraped from a few corners of the Web.

Rémi Gaillard, insane Frenchman, prankster, performance artist, has returned to terrorize/entertain the law-abiding citizens of France by staging a real-life game of Mario Kart. He did this back in 2008 and has returned for another round. Watch for the stuffed turtle in place of the classic shell (around 1:38), which obviously would have caused real-life trouble. Probably worse trouble than the traffic tickets he clearly gets.

(The Daily What via Neatorama)

Zach Anner is back! (ZachAnner on YouTube)

A Love Poem to Video Games (Kotaku)

93% of parents are around when video games are purchased. Hm. (Entertainment Software Association)

LEGOs make even A Clockwork Orange adorable! (Surf With Berserk)

Neil Gaiman on Internet piracy, selling more books (OpenRightsGroup on YouTube)

How to introduce your kids to D&D (The Mule Abides)

Anatomical sleeping bag. Thank you, Japan. (Weekly ASCII Store)

(Top pic via Neatorama)

So, some guys got together and figured out a way to take down the entire Internet as we know it. One guy was like, “Dude — remember that time we were talking about conquering the Internet? … Wanna try it?” And his buddy was all, “Pssssssht, come on, man! … You think we could?” So the first guy, totally seriously says, “Totally.” And they did!

Okay, maybe this isn’t exactly how it went down, but Ph.D. candidate Max Schuchard of the University of Minnesota and his colleagues did have the idea to design the ultimate cyberweapon, an attack that would render the Internet dead, useless, and blacked out, for at least a few days before it could even start to be repaired. And then save it for a rainy day. They don’t see anyone trying to wage this kind of attack any time soon, so in the meantime, they are going to work on how to defend against it. But here is what they came up with:

You know that back when you were playing The Legend of Zelda, you wondered, “What was really going on with Link? And Zelda? Was it … like … weird for them?” Obviously, John Hughes knew the teenage mind the best in the ’80s and early ’90s, so why wouldn’t he have taken a crack at video game fan fiction? So here, in glorious VHS quality, is what that trailer would look like.

“I gave her my heart … she gave me … a jar.”

(Joystiq)

Daisy gets pancakes every Saturday, damnit! So does Casper, but he’s less shouty about it. Hope you enjoy your Pancake Saturday!

(YouTube via Reddit)

Oh, sweet, sweet heaven. Beer and marshmallows. Surely someone has thought of this before, but thought it might only appeal to stoners when (obviously) this is something that could benefit the entire human race. This is the kind of thing that could bring people together on religion, politics, cats versus dogs, anything you can think of. I’ll bet you’re wondering how you can find a way to put this in your mouth and eat it.

When NBC fired Conan O’Brien last year in favor of giving Jay Leno his time slot back, they worked out a deal in which O’Brien was forbidden from appearing on TV and/or disparaging the network that dangled the Tonight Show in front of him and then snatched it back. What we do know is that not long after that deal was made, O’Brien took to Twitter. What we didn’t know until now was that NBC wanted that Twitter account shut down. Because when you’ve already disappointed so many fans in the 18 to 49 demographic, why not go big or go home? Definitely go after a former employee’s Twitter account. Brilliant!