Turn your office into a miniature Aperture Science testing facility with Ryan Howerter's awesome lil' Portal turret made from LEGO. There's more than just a handsome model to follow, Ryan's put together a full-on step-by-step Instructables tutorial showing you how it's done, from materials to construction.

It looks more organic than robotic.

The four legs march under the barrel chest of the robot, snapping up two at a time in perfect precision. But when Boston Dynamic's creation, BigDog, is pushed, or it walks across ice, it suddenly looks very much alive as it stumbles to correct itself, and succeeds.

Designed to be the robotic replacement for pack animals or small vehicles, this future day robotic mule almost resembles the product of video games like Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life 2 or Portal.

Video of the quadruped robot first hit in 2008 and last month the company behind the design got an order for a super fast version and a human-like two-legged robot leading readers to liken their look to works of fantasy and fiction.

But robotics design company Boston Dynamics says the design similarities are purely coincidental. Their U.S. military funded robots are products of pure functionality, aesthetics doesn't enter into their creations.

"We did not do any aesthetic design on BigDog," said Marc Raibert, former MIT professor and founder of Boston Dynamics. "We talk about getting a designer to work on (the military version of BigDog), but have not done anything about it. We sometimes use artists to create concept sketches when developing new ideas for robots, but the robot designers do not use the sketches when doing the designs."

When people see his company's robots in action and think Transformers or robots from video games it's because of their own imagination, not his company's designs.

"I think much of what a person sees when viewing a robot comes from what is already in the person's head," he said. "Like a Robot Rorshach test."

Raibert says that the company has been in touch with some high-end car designers about the Legged Squad Support System, the follow up to BigDog destined for military use, but that they haven't hired anyone yet.

"We are working on LS3, which is the follow-on to BigDog and closer to fielding," he said. "It might get skins to help keep the dirt and water out. Right now we are focused on functionality. We might make a cosmetic pass later, but there are quite a few constraints just based on functionality, such as packing everything in and retaining mobility."

I asked Raibert if his company plans, during the final stages of design, to change the look of the robots meant for military use. Would he want to design them to instill a sense of fear in those that see them, or perhaps to help an operator form some sort of bond with the bots.

No, Raibert says, instead the company's focus is on "mobility, reliability, ease of use, range, load carriage, etc."

Raibert says his designers aren't even that worried about the uncanny valley. The notion of the uncanny valley first came up in robot design and later became a concern in video game graphics. The theory is that the more robots look and act like humans, the more revulsion real humans will feel toward them.

While Boston Dynamics is working on two robots that will take on the form of humans, PETMAN and the military-funded Atlas, the designers don't seem too worried about that valley.

"We sometimes talk about uncanny valley with respect to them, though the focus in our discussions is on their behavior and the quality of their motion, rather than on the exact robot shape and coverings," Raibert said.

And what of those first soldier destined to work alongside these bulking, four-legged and two-legged robots? Is it possible that a robot design could fail simply because the people who will work with them must are repulsed by them?

Raibert says his company hasn't done any studies to look into the possible effects of the uncanny valley on soldiers in the field, but he thinks Atlas, Cheetah and LS3's usefulness will outweigh any aesthetic issues.

"I think if the robots we built help soldiers and marines carry heavy stuff, so they don't have to carry it themselves, they will think LS3 or BigDog is a beautiful thing, no matter what it looks like," Raibert said. "Same for any other function that helps them with their jobs. For all I know, they may like it better if it is ugly, like the family mutt."

Well Played is an internationally syndicated weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

What if, instead of action figures and comic books, our favourite video games inspired classic, dog-eared works of literature instead?

These images by A. J. Hateley show us just such a scenario, taking some fairly random games - a little Half-Life 2 here, a little Deadly Premonition there - and basing torn old books on their stories and worlds. Some are literal interpretations - much like those we all so enjoyed back in 2009 - while others go a little further, becoming pieces of fiction merely based upon (or inspired by) the source material.

As a man who has allergic reactions these days to heady works of literature, I think I might just settle in with a glass of wine and that "Green Influenza" survival guide. You never know when it'll come in handy!

Wilderness As A Girl [AJ Hateley, via it 8-bit]

The intentionally, unabashedly offensive School Shooter: North American Tour 2012, designed to be "the most realistic student slaughtering modification ever made," has lost support from its former host. ModDB, original host of the Half-Life 2 mod—and hundreds of other mods—has pulled School Shooter from its site.

ModDB founder Scott "INtense!" Reismanis says site administrators yanked School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 after "getting quite a bit of mainstream press due to the controversial nature of the content" in an open letter to the site's users.

Designed by Checkerboard Studios, School Shooter lets players carry out their own versions of the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech massacres, with weapons based on the ones used by killers Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold and Seung-Hui Cho. The game's singular goal is to kill as many "students" as possible, with the option to commit suicide at the end of each round.

"The possibilities are endless," reads the game's description. "You are free to do whatever you want. As long as it involves shooting people."

Reismanis writes that ModDB dropped the mod after "receiving quite a bit of threatening mail as people believe we are the creators, supporters and makers of this content."

"We have never encouraged or made any content, we disagree with the mod but at the same time believe in freedom of speech and the unique ability modders and indie developers should have to create games (good-or-bad) about topics, issues and events considered risky or taboo," Reismanis says.

"There is also quite a bit of confusion from non-gaming press, who state that games like this are the reason why all bad things occur, spreading misinformation and fear. As a result of this confusion and hate, at the moment we feel the best course of action is to remove the mod. We don't want the hard work of thousands of other mod developers to be threatened by people misunderstanding this one mod/game, and assuming all others are like it."

Reismanis tells the ModDB community that the site's admins "believe in the freedom of speech, the right to share information and be creative" and enjoy "watching mod developers push the boundaries." School Shooter appears to be too hot for ModDB to handle, however, and reaction from site users seems mixed, with many arguing that the site should not have removed School Shooter North American Tour 2012 based on its content.

We've contacted Checkerboarded Studios to get their opinion the removal of School Shooter.

Update: Jamie "pawnstick" Lombe from Checkerboarded Studios says his team was "never contacted by ModDB [about the removal of School Shooter], even though they insist they did" and that the team plans to use the studio's site to promote the game mod.

"We are absolutely planning on releasing," Lombe tells Kotaku, "and since the removal of the mod various people prominent in the Half-Life 2 mod community have come forward wanting to contribute for School Shooter."

"ModDB should not have handled it in such a rash way," Lombe feels. "I would have been willing to make modifications to the page to state that ModDB is in no way affiliated with the development instead of removing the mod suddenly and not even sending me an email informing that my mod was removed."

Why we removed the school shooter mod [ModDB]