Reader G.W. Smith points us towards this adorable little Portal headpiece, which can help the ladies (or long-haired gentlemen!) look like the villainous GlaDOS is sticking out of their scalp.

The ornament was made by Luke Walker. What I like about it is how weird it is. It's not just turning an existing thing like a headband or regular hairclip into sometihng with a bit of Portal guff on it. It's something weird, novel and unique.

OMG! A miniature GLaDOS – to wear in my HAIR! [TbW]

For a relaxing time, sit back and watch this terrific PBS short documentary on the artistic merits of video games. The video runs only about 7 minutes, and features NYU's Eric Zimmerman, game designer and researcher Jesper Juul, Kotaku contributor and secret nerdcore superstar Leigh Alexander, and Babycastles curator and designer Syed Salahuddin.

"Even though games are ancient," says Zimmerman, "there is something about this moment in history that is special. We are now entering a ludic age, an age of play."

"Every game you play," he continues, "it's like a little laboratory for understanding how systems work."

Juul points to some examples of how simpler games have become more prevalent lately, using Minecraft as his main example. Leigh talks about the journeys that games can take us on, as well as the ways they subvert our expectations of narrative, using Bioshock and Portal as examples (while the video's editor sneaks in a quick Grim Fandango shout-out, which I aprpeciated).

Salahuddin discusses the offbeat indie developer Cactus, pointing to Hot Throttle, as well as Jason Rohrer's Passage.

It's a remarkably convincing video, mainly because of how matter-of-fact it is. Four experts talking about the things they value in independent, experimental game design, and doing so in a way that even the skeptical can understand. Good stuff.

Some of gaming's most cunning foes have been computers. Think GlaDOS from Portal, or Shodan from System Shock 2. At least part of what makes them so memorable is that their artificial intelligence is brought to life by a cold, calculating, female voice.

Friendly artificial intelligence usually skews female as well. Anyone who's played Deus Ex: Human Revolution will know this, while Halo and Mass Effect are two other big franchises with prominent computers voiced by female actors.

Actually, when you think about it, a lot of real fake robot voices sound like fake women as well. Apple's new Siri, for one (at least she is for American users). Or just about any automated subway announcement system. Or default GPS navigator.

Ever wonder why this is? Why designers and engineers the world over choose a woman's voice for their systems and not a man's? A great piece on CNN seeks to answer this question for the ages.

Stanford University Professor Clifford Nass has an idea. "It's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes," he says. "It's a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices."

While this is a primal theory, there are more historical ones too, such as the fact early telephonists and aircraft navigation aides were voiced by women, creating a precedent.

Silicon Valley analyst Tim Bajarin has a cooler idea, though: He reckons HAL, the evil computer from 2001, is the reason most artificial voices are female. He was so evil, and so memorable, that he scared companies off using a male voice. "A lot of tech companies stayed away from the male voice because of HAL," he said. "I've heard that theory tossed around multiple times."

Why computer voices are mostly female [CNN, via PC Gamer]

Iain Andrews' site Steam Postcards has long been my wallpaper supplier of choice. Why? Because he plays games and takes screenshots that aren't the kind of thing you'd find in a magazine or popular internet video game website.

He instead takes, well, postcards. Scenic shots of the background, or the walls, or the sky, or whatever, finding stuff that just looks good, instead of stuff that makes the game look good.

His current subject of choice is id's RAGE, but scroll down the Tumblr page and you'll see games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mirror's Edge, Mafia II, Team Fortress 2, Red Orchestra and even Kane & Lynch.

The images maybe aren't nice enough to print out and frame, but like I said, they're perfect for wallpapers!

Steam Postcards [enwandrews]

This Peanuts x Team Fortress 2 image was available as a shirt on TeeFury over the weekend. But by the time I sat down to write this, it was no longer available.

Ah well. While the shirt is gone, the image (by queenmob) is not, and thanks to the wonders of the internet you can enjoy it now and forever.

The second big update to Portal 2 will feature "an easy to use in-game map editor that will let users design, build and share their own single-player and co-op test chambers with the community, who will be able to view, play and vote on them with a simple click," Valve revealed today. It will be out in early 2012. We shared more details earlier this week (time warp!).

In December, there'll be a soft, cuddly Portal turret available to buy. Those who like their Portal companions a little squarer (but just as cuddly), you get yours a month earlier.

In November, NECA will release its first piece of official Valve merchandise, in the form of a plush Companion Cube. No word on price yet, but it'll be 6″x 6″ (x 6″!). And soft.

And, for series purists, probably quite flammable, too.

Portal – Plush – Companion Cube [NECA]

Comics artist Alex Garner whipped this Portal 2 tribute up in his spare time. It feels strange calling it fan art. There should be a better name than that for pieces like this.

As the original image wasn't in wallpaper dimensions, and it's so damn pretty people are going to ask, I've taken the liberty of putting together a 1920x1080 version, which you can grab here.

Portal 2 [Alex Garner]

Well, not you specifically, "you" as in "people who don't work for Valve".

Ever since Team Fortress 2's recent Manniversary update, players have been able to show off fan-made weapons and items in The Workshop, a central spot where other players can vote on them. The best ones then get taken by Valve and turned into actual in-game items.

PC Gamer has dug through and found some of the better items uploaded so far, my favourite being the amazing "Mobile Engineer Pack" above. Other awesome examples include an umbrella for the Spy that turns him into Mary Poppins, and a very dashing moustache for the Heavy.

You can see more awesome fan-made contributions in the gallery above.

Team Fortress 2: the best of the Steam Workshop [PC Gamer]

The people who made Portal 2 want to make it easier for you to make more Portal 2, according to a new report about the making of the game's Peer Review expansion written by GTTV host Geoff Keighley.

In a free expansion to his PC, Mac and iOS behind-the-scenes article/app The Final Hours of Portal 2 that will be available today, Keighley explains that Valve people are working on "a Photoshop for test chambers," a user-friendly editing tool that would allow amateurs to easily craft new Portal 2 levels. These folks are also developing a system that would allow Portal 2 players to access the new levels from within the game, without having to go outside the game to access them. "Now maps will appear on an easy to use menu, dramatically expanding the potential audience for fan-created content—and hopefully making it available on the consoles as well."

Exciting as this might be for Portal 2 fans, the cleverest idea is that, as Keighley writes, "the writers are even discussing the idea of adding a personality to the editor... [I]magine what it would be like to have GLaDOS berate you every time you spell something incorrectly in Microsoft Word and you'll have a sense of where this can go."

Valve may have worked with Keighley on this app and given him access for this info, but they don't confirm if all this is definitely going to be released—or just is in the experimental stages.

Keighley's update shares many more details about the making of this month's Peer Review DLC and some tantalizing details about ideas considered but scuttled for the expansion. Let's just say, we could have had DLC in outerspace, if only Valve had more time and resources. Bummer!

Check out the app for more details. If you have it, look for all this and more in a bonus chapter that should be available any minute now.

The Final Hours of Portal 2 [iTunes, $2] [Steam, $2]