Portal

Those wanting to work for WibiData better have impeccable Portal problem solving skills. Part of the application process for the San Francisco tech startup involves completing a custom level, based on the company's offices, says the New York Times.

A teaser of the custom level can be seen above. WibiData, a computer engineering firm, created the mod as a test for new applicants. The company's CEO said that playing Portal (and Portal 2, upon which this mod is based) he felt the game challenged his reasoning in the same way as a complex programming problem.

WibiData commissioned modder Doug Hoogland to create the level, which features WibiData's offices and a secret (nonexistent) test laboratory beneath them. Hoogland, notes PC Gamer, came to WibiData's attention after he built a wedding proposal mod in Portal for a customer of WibiData.

The level is available for download at WibiData's website.

Start-Up Uses Portal Game as Recruiting Tool [New York Times via PC Gamer]

Unable to get any satisfaction from Glee, 20th Century Fox Television, or its lawyers, Jonathan Coulton has put his version of of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" on iTunes, called it "my cover of Glee's cover of my cover," and will give proceeds from its sale through February to charity.

Coulton put the song on iTunes today under the title "Baby Got Back (In the Style of Glee)." For good measure, he changed his iTunes icon to a picture of him making the L-for-Loser hand gesture, which is used in Glee's logo.

Coulton is the artist who wrote and composed Still Alive, the iconic closing-credits song of Portal.

Fucking Zachariah Scott, man. He is a visual genius, and his partnership with composer Lars Erik Fjøsne is a genius beyond comprehension.

The video above is a Turret Anthem, internally known as Megadub, and it's a fantastic song. The video is great too, of course, as you watch the tiny turrets slowly overtake GLaDOS in her confusion.

Definitely something I will listen to on repeat.

YouTube user Marflus1 has created this musical gem, which is described as follows:

An Arrangement of "Still Alive" from Portal, produced using the Wintersday Bell and Pipe Organ in Guild Wars 2, a little bit of pitch editing in Audacity, and an awful lot of time in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Whatever it takes!

Marflus1 previously figured out how to wring "Billie Jean" out of Guild Wars 2.

Portal's "Still Alive" in Guild Wars 2 [YouTube]

By now you've probably seen the ridiculous bikini-clad severed torso that publisher Deep Silver is packaging with the European/Australian special edition of zombie action-RPG Dead Island: Riptide.

It is gross and awful—to the point where Deep Silver just issued an apology for the statue—but hey, why let them have all the fun? We've put together some Severed Torso Special Editions for a handful of other deserving video games.

Above: the Portal turret gets the torso treatment.

Torso Mario isn't quite as useful as Raccoon Mario or even Frog Mario, but he's still an integral part of any statue collector's inventory.

There's nothing like cuddling up with a Cortana torso after a long night of shooting space aliens and getting called racial slurs on Xbox Live.

Dante from Devil May Cry apparently has no penis. Now he also has no arms or legs or head.

"Reach for the sky!" says Sheriff Woody in Disney Infinity. "Unless you have no arms!"

This lovely Princess Peach torso ain't gonna save itself.

Your turn, Kotaku Photoshoppers. What other games do you think need special torso editions?

3D printers are not machines. They are portals to a realm of dark magic, where you can conjure anything you want, in return for a plastic sacrifice.

Take this, for example: this is not an expensive, professional action figure (though you'll soon be able to get one of those). It's something made by a human being—albeit a very talented one—and a 3D printer.

That human being is Psychobob, a user whose work we've featured here before. Actually, we've featured this Portal figure before as well, before it was finished, but now that it's done, complete with lighting effects and base, it's worth another look.

3D Print: Atlas (Portal) Part2 [PsychoBob, via MAKE]

The cinematic adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan's beloved graphic novel series Y: The Last Man will be helmed by Dan Trachtenberg, director of the excellent 2011 Portal fan-film No Escape, Vulture reports.

It'll be Trachtenberg's first time as a feature-film director, which... could go either way. Given how strong No Escape was, I could see him doing something interesting with Vaughn's story. Then again, given the source material, he'll certainly have his work cut out for him.

Here's Trachtenberg's No Escape.

Y: The Last Man Director Is Named [Vulture]

When Pacific Rim's latest trailer (above) went out last month, a lot of people thought, "Wait! I know that voice!" And indeed, it sounds like Jax Teller reading from "The Life and Death of Sam Crow" as an enormous sea monster destroys a bridge. Oh yeah, GLaDOS from the Portal series can be heard as well.

That was deliberate, director Guillermo del Toro told the Toronto Sun. While GLaDOS actor Ellen McLain will supply an AI voice in Pacific Rim, she will sound different from the trailer. For that, Del Toro said he specifically wanted GLaDOS' voice running down a power-up checklist before the mechas go out to confront the monsters. He even sought (and received) Valve's permission.

"I wanted very much to have her, because I'm a big Portal fan," he said. In the film, however, "The filter we're using is slightly less GLaDOS. Slightly. The one in the trailer I wanted to be full-on GlaDOS."

Guillermo del Toro says 'Pacific Rim' A.I. an homage to 'Portal's GlaDOS [Toronto Sun via Game Informer.]