Following up creepy Christian Bale and tiny Gary Oldman, Hong Kong collectible company Hot Toys will also be releasing incredibly realistic Dark Knight Rises replicas of villain Bane and Batman's old Tumbler.

If you were hoping they'd be available in time to take with you to theatres, though, you'll be disappointed. Bane ($195) won't be out until March 2013 and the enormous, 13kg Tumbler ($470) won't be out until September 2013.

Bane [Sideshow]

Batmobile - Tumbler [Sideshow]

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Many Skyrim mods are there to enhance the game in a realistic manner. Better maps, easier menus, improved visuals, etc. This one doesn't do any of those things. It just turns the game into the most Nordic game of Minecraft you've ever seen.

Sure, all it really does is add some turn characters in Skyrim into Minecraft dudes. Steve, the default Minecraft avatar, is there, as are zombies and creepers to fight. It also adds a few new weapons, like Minecraft's trademark blocky bow, pick and sword.

Oh, and one last thing. There are Minecraft pigs in there. Which you can ride.

Aside from the novelty of it all, it actually looks great in motion. You can grab it at the link below.

MinerFriends - Minecraft [Steam, via PC Gamer]

It's been well over a year since the earthquake and ensuing Fukushima nuclear disaster took place. The crisis is not over, and people living near the reactors have been cleared out. They are yet to return. In their place, the plants are taking over.

Japanese website GetNews is running photos that depict reality in the 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) sphere surrounding Fukushima Daiichi.

The photos show roads being broken apart by vegetation sprouting up through the asphalt. They show vines making their way across roads.

A weed called Common Mullein, which is described as a plant that grows "in a place that has burned or otherwise been disturbed", can be seen sprouting in these Fukushima photos.

Found throughout the world, Common Mullein can grow to be ten feet high and produce seeds that can survive up to a hundred years. GetNews points out that the plant's tall growth is unconnected to radioactivity.

The photos show a desolate world that humans no longer occupy and one that plants are starting to overrun.

【原発20キロ圏内のリアル】警戒区域で見かけた謎の植物 [GetNews]

Video games used to be, quite literally for many in US politics, the devil. Or something very close. These days, though, you're more likely to hear about developers getting tax breaks than games being banned.

That kind of acceptance from a former enemy didn't happen overnight. It took years of education and lobbying. Oh, and games making billions of dollars. That helps as well.

This great video by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie charts the history of games and government, reminding us that rock n' roll, movies and comic books had to endure the same kind of "trial by fire" before becoming more accepted.

Nintendo enjoyed a rather strange relationship with Star Wars in the early years of its video game enterprise. We've already seen the weird shit that went down when Star Wars came to the NES, but a 1979 arcade game was even weirder.

This is art for Nintendo Space Launcher, one of the company's earlier arcade titles and one remarkable for not being a dirty clone of another game.

You can see it in action below. Space Launcher was a weird hybrid of Space Invaders and Frogger, but it's important to note that it pre-dates Frogger by two years, so don't go calling it a clone.

The Star Wars weirdness comes in when you look at the game's cabinet and promotional material, with, well, Imperial Tie Fighters used prominently. OK, so there are some extra antennae there, but come on. They're Tie Fighters.

Not that this is a bad thing! Space Launcher remains one of the coolest examples of early video game art (and one you may have seen before if you're a frequenter of the wonderful Tiny Cartridge).

Space Launcher also had amazing alternate cabinets; in addition to the standard type, featuring the Star Wars-ish art, it had two cocktail cabinets, one for sitting down, and one - which resembled a droid with a bad motivator - for standing at.

Nintendo Space Launcher (スペースランチャー, 1979) - Leaflet [Before Mario]

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It's easy to do something stupid. It's harder to publicly apologise and own up to it. In the past 24 hours, nerd rap superstar MC Chris has managed to do both.

"I don't have security, I don't have a manager," gets uttered at one point. Maybe today has changed his mind on that.

We're circumspect that a console do-over of Double Dragon could have the same appeal as the quarter-sucking vacuum cleaner that lined arcade walls in the 1980s. The air-guitaring at a stage's end seems to be a bit much. But Double Dragon Neon will get its shot anyway come Sept. 11. Majesco said the game releases that day on PlayStation Network and then Sept. 12 on Xbox Live Arcade. Price is $9.99/800 Microsoft points.

I still remember when I first watched Firefly, when I saw the final episode of its truncated FOX TV run. That episode is called "Objects in Space," and in it, a bounty hunter named Jubal Early boards Serenity in pursuit of Simon and River.

I thought it was such a peculiar episode at the time—it was written and directed by Joss Whedon, and it's an odd way for a series to go out. Not with a bang, but with a lot of tense one-on-one exchanges and bass clarinet solos.

I've rewatched the whole series a couple of times, and the each time, I'm more and more impressed with just how good "Objects in Space" is. The writing is outstanding, with all sorts of weird beats and tics, and Richard Brooks gives a tremendous, idiosyncratic performance as Early. It's funny, it's exciting, and at times, it's genuinely tense and terrifying.

I particularly like the scene above, in which Simon asks Early if he's Alliance.

"Am I a lion?"

"...What?"

"I don't think of myself as a lion."

Rest in peace, Jubal Early. You had a mighty roar. And you also got to have the final line of Firefly:

"Well. Here I am."

Have good chatting here, and feel free to weigh in over in the Talk Amongst Yourselves forum. See y'all tomorrow.

Three years ago, J.J. Hendricks (above, left) of Denver paid $17,500 for a rare Nintendo cartridge— Nintendo World Championships, one of about 26 copies of a game for a promotional tournament more than 20 years old. About a year later, he opened negotiations to buy a cartridge even more rare.

The game in question is Nintendo PowerFest '94 which, like the earlier World Championships was a suite of games modified for competition play. The competition was held in 1994 at more than 100 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Competitors had six minutes to play Super Mario Bros: Lost Levels, Super Mario Kart and Ken Griffey Jr Baseball. Winners advanced to a final round held in San Diego.

The Nintendo PowerFest '94 cartridges for were supposed to be returned to be destroyed. Only one was known to exist before Hendricks was contacted with an offer to buy a copy of the game, which came from the early rounds of the competition. You can see the owner of the rare cartridge, Rick Bruns, acquiring it in an image on this website.

Hendricks finally bought the cartridge, but not without arranging a summit in a Vermont hotel and paying with a purple sack containing $12,000 in cash. If it sounds like something out of a film, well, Hendricks has a gift for that type of narrative (as we learned in the Nintendo World Championships purchase.) Best part? After completing the deal, Hendricks and Bruns faced off in their own PowerFest competition, with Bruns smoking Hendricks both times.

Correction: An earlier version misidentified J.J. Hendricks in the top image.

How I Got Nintendo PowerFest 94 [PriceCharting/JJ Hendricks]

When I play Telltale's excellent The Walking Dead game, I rarely get hungry. There just aren't that many appetizing things in the game, particularly in the ghastly second episode, "Starved for Help."

And yet, when the folks at Gourmet Gaming get their hands on the game, my stomach starts growling. These biscuits from episode 2 or these amazing-looking energy bars from episode 1 both make me want to reach into my screen and eat the food, all of the food.

I have a feeling that neither of the pieces of food in the game tasted as good as these ones will, but I guess there's only one way to find out. The recipes are all over at Gourmet Gaming. Better get cookin'.

Walking Dead Energy Bar and Biscuits [Gourmet Gaming]