Mad scientists and evil masterminds are classic villain archetypes, and defeating them is always nerve-wracking. Instead of facing you, they'd rather hide in the shadows and rely on their minions. And when it does come to combat, they usually love to show off their deadliest creations.

We gathered some well-known crazies; a mustache or a white coat seems to be a must-have.

Dr. Eggman (Sonic The Hedgehog series)

source: Sonic Generations

Dr. Wallace Breen (Half-Life 2)

source: Half-Life Wiki

Professor Hojo (Final Fantasy VII)

source: AshleyCope's fan art on Deviantart

Dr. FunFrock (Little Big Adventure 1-2 / Relentless)

source: The LBA Relentless Movie Project

Dr. Wily (Mega Man series)

source: Dr. Wily Boss Fight In Mega Man 6, splash image by Hitoshi Ariga

Don Paolo (Professor Layton series)

source: Professor Layton And The Curious Village

The Elite Of Rapture Society (BioShock)

source: BioShock Wiki

Albert Wesker (Resident Evil series)

source: Resident Evil Wiki

Professor Monkey-For-A-Head (Earthworm Jim)

source: tuwoa's LP

Make sure to submit below the craziest evil scientists you know with visual support.

"Stories are the filter through which we understand the world." Those philosophical words come from Susan O'Connor, a writer who's worked on BioShock, Far Cry 2 and Gears of War. In the TEDx session above, O'Connor discusses how her work scripting characters for video games led her to an epiphany about the people who may not be the heroes in their own lives. It's a surprisingly poignant talk that could make you re-evaluate the way you interact with people.

If you went to school in the 1980s, well, you'll probably find this to be one of the best video game trailers you'll ever see.

Here are the minimum and recommended specs for running BioShock Infinite PC. We can't say for sure whether you should run the game on PC, as opposed to Xbox 360 or PS3. But, judging by how good the first 4 1/2 hours of the game are, we recommend your run it on something.

These specs are from Infinite studio Irrational Games' official site:

MINIMUM

OS: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB free
Video Card: DirectX10 Compatible ATI Radeon HD 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT / Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics
Video Card Memory: 512 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

RECOMMENDED

OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit
Processor: Quad Core Processor
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 30 GB free
Video Card: DirectX11 Compatible, AMD Radeon HD 6950 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Video Card Memory: 1024 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

If you want to know about control options and other PC options, read the full post.

PC Specifications for BioShock Infinite Announced! [Irrational Games]

Kevin, Jake and Stewie of website Hungercraft are to thank for this incredible recreation of BioShock's Rapture in Minecraft, captured perfectly not just in block form, but in a fantastic trailer as well.

If you're over Minecraft recreations, imagine it's LEGO BioShock. That'll get you there.

The map recreating the underwater metropolis will be released on January 19.

Bioshock in Minecraft [FPS General, via VentureBeat]

Sad that this March's BioShock Infinite won't be set in Rapture? You'll get a chance to re-visit the beautiful underwater city of the first two BioShock games with the newly announced Ultimate Rapture edition, which will boast an all-new Museum of Orphaned Concepts filled with concept art and character designs that weren't used for Irrational's hit franchise. The new bundle comes out on Jan. 14 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, at a cost of $30. Here's a full rundown of what's inside:

• Museum of Orphaned Concepts: Take a tour of a never-before-seen BioShock museum and view early concept art, character models and more set within the halls of Rapture.
• Plasmids Pack: Includes four additional Plasmids and Gene Tonics—Sonic Boom, EVE Saver, Vending Expert and Machine Buster—for use in BioShock.
• Challenge Rooms Pack: Previously exclusive to PS3™ and now available for Xbox 360 for the first time, the pack tests the player's mettle by requiring them to utilize the skills learned while traversing the halls of Rapture to survive three separate puzzle rooms in BioShock.
• Sinclair Solutions Tester: Contains a number of customization features that allow players to further their character's development in BioShock 2 multiplayer modes and provides a deeper multiplayer experience.
• Rapture Metro: Includes six additional multiplayer maps, an additional multiplayer gameplay mode and a rank increase to level 50 for BioShock 2 multiplayer.
• The Protector Trials: Features frantic combat and fast-paced action designed to push players' mastery of weapons and Plasmids in a BioShock 2 single-player experience spread across six maps.
• Minerva's Den: A substantial narrative experience that puts players in the role Subject Sigma and introduces new characters, locations and mystery to the world of Rapture in BioShock 2. Set in a new environment, Rapture Central Computing, Minerva's Den adds a gripping new storyline to extend the BioShock 2 experience.
• Also included, is an exclusive collectable sticker pack from BioShock Infinite's world of Columbia to get gamers ready for the next chapter in the BioShock universe.

Otherwise this post would be about pre-order information, high-fives and strong hugs, not lustful gazes and dreams of commission builds.

These amazing models are the work of Pate-keetongu, with plenty more to see on their personal site here.

Pate-keetongu's photostream [Flickr, via Super Punch]

A little under two weeks ago, Irrational Games asked you to vote on a design for the alternate side of BioShock Infinite's reversible cover. Today, Irrational revealed the results, and this is the image that came out on top, with 38 percent of the vote.

It couldn't possibly be more different from the game's standard box art, though that's certainly not a bad thing.

You can now watch the first few minutes of March 2013's BioShock Infinite online or read about the game's first four hours in a preview we published a couple of weeks ago. But BioShock beginnings are not the kinds of things BioShock fans have precedent to fret over.

BioShock endings? That's another story.

Ken Levine and his team at Irrational have long been open and frank about the awkwardness of the first BioShock's ending. Remember that boss battle? Not the game's finest moment. You'd hope that kind of thing won't happen in Irrational's Infinite.

I recently asked one of the game's writers, Drew Holmes, about the new game's ending. He wasn't going to spoil it, of course, but he said this: "It's certainly going to be something that is going to be new and unique and that people will be talking about." He added, "This is an ending that I am proud of."

This alone is encouraging, because it makes it sound like the ending of BioShock Infinite won't be conventional, which the end of BioShock 1 was—more conventional than just about anything else in the game, in fact. And it makes it seem like it's not an afterthought.

Ultimately, players will judge how good an ending it is. "Our feeling about the ending is sort of irrelevant," Holmes said. "It's up to the players to decide. I think it's definitely not an ending that people are going to be expecting."

UPDATE: Ken Levine speaks a little more about the new game's ending at 9:30 of this interview. No spoilers there, either.

If you don't want to know how to get to Columbia, then watch no part of this video, which Irrational Games released just this morning. It's the opening to BioShock Infinite, a mostly cinematic sequence that is plainly an homage to the opening of the original BioShock, which we've included below if you want to refresh your memory.

I didn't catch any "Would you kindly" or obvious ties other than the destination through which Booker travels to Columbia. Its entrance evokes the original lighthouse of BioShock but certainly not as secular in tone.

For those who don't mind seeing how the game begins—there is essentially zero action here—have a look, I'm sure we'll uncover more similarities and callbacks to BioShock as this is deconstructed further.