Say what you will about the in-game graphics (which look pretty good for a phone game!), this 3D character art for the Dark Knight Rises game is incredible.

The work of artists Uri So and Shenggang Dong, both from Gameloft's Singapore studio (another of whose artists we've looked at Kotaku previously), they're nestled right at the depths of the uncanny valley.

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Not a day after I get my hands on the official LEGO Minecraft set and this exciting stop-motion video has appeared, bringing the tiniest Creepers on the planet to terrifying life. Who shall save LEGO Steve?

The first in a series of animated Minecraft LEGO shorts from YouTube user ForlornCreature sets up an odd alliance between minifig and even more minifig against a deadly for no less dangerous for their smallish stature. An explosion is an explosion, after all.

Will LEGO Steve and his newfound friend lose everything they've built to the green menace, or will they live to brick another day?

The suspense is killing me. I die now.

Adventures of Lego Minecraft [YouTube via @LydiaWinters]

When Star Wars: the Old Republic launched last year, peripheral maker Razer was ready, delivering a stylish mouse and headset combo that evoked the feel of the Lucasverse at a modest premium over similar devices. Razer was not, however, ready with the $250 keyboard.

Delayed due to last-minute redesign (it used to feature a strip of indicators under the HOME keys) and fine-tuning the Switchblade technology that makes it so damn expensive, it wasn't until the spring of this year that the Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Keyboard made it into consumers hands.

It is stunning. It is well-crafted. It's strong with the Force.

It's also got a largely unnecessary and rather costly bit hanging off the right side.

From a purely typing things while doing things on my computer perspective, this is a highly capable input device. Despite my largely positive experience with Razer as a whole, I was not expecting that. It's the keys, you see. I'm a fan of chunky keys with a definite mechanical click. This is a keyboard with flat, silent squares for keys, much like the Razer Blade laptop, with which it shares several features.

It's the type of keyboard I will suffer on a laptop, but normally steer clear of in a desktop situation. That's been my loss, it seems. The keys on the Star Wars: The Old Republic keyboard are ultra-responsive, and the smaller form factor means my fingers are doing less lifting and more travelling, which really makes a difference when you spend all day writing. With my normal keyboard I often stumble over multiple presses; it hasn't happen with this unit yet. Once I ship this one back I'll be shopping for something similar (albeit a bit more practical).

The unit certainly doesn't skimp on style, either. The same silver-grey plastic that adorns its mouse and headset counterparts is present here, etched with geometric lines evocative of the Star Wars style. They keys are backlit with a pleasant yellow glow, which an illuminated strip at the top and bottom of the keyboard can be adjusted to any solid color, set to cycle through the spectrum, or even tied together with Star Wars: The Old Republic, acting as ambient lighting in sync with the game.

This is all easily controlled through the Razer Synapse software, the control panel for all your Razer peripherals.

Here you can set up your illumination, save profiles, or fiddle with the various options and configurations for the right side of the keyboard, where this thing sits:

The Switchblade user interface, an excellent idea that began life as what might have been the ultimate portable MMO-playing machine, eventually devolving into a row of ten programmable keys and a touch-screen track pad.

Here's a quick overview of the Switchblade's standard functions:

Let's boil it down to the very basics. The Switchblade interface is a series of programmable macro keys, each featuring a tiny LCD screen, and a touchpad that acts as a tiny display monitor. In a way it fulfills the promise of the Optimus Maximus keyboard that had so many PC gamers drooling back in 2007.

In a game setting, players can create and assign their own icons to the buttons, creating custom macros on the fly for any game they deem worthy of their attention. It's the same sort of thing you can do with many other gaming keyboards, only now you're paying a lot extra for fancy buttons.

And that track pad. While it works fine for the Razer Blade, I don't know a single person that would forego their gaming mouse to use a touchpad. The idea of having a default button dedicated to bringing up a virtual number bad in the stop a real number pad would be on a normal keyboard pretty much defines the absurdity of the device in this context. Is it useful as an additional screen for displaying maps or boss tactics? Sure it is. So's your phone.

I would love to see a version of the Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming keyboard that utilized the same style and mechanical parts, but did away with the expensive gimmicks. That, in my mind, would be the perfect companion to Razer's other Star Wars peripherals and a fine way to enjoy the game you soon won't have to pay for.

As it stands I just can't see recommending the product in its current configuration. Save your credits for other bits of bantha pudu.

Cave exploration has been all the rage this summer. Well, virtual caves, at least. With deadly, deadly consequences.

In other words, everyone keeps playing and talking about Spelunky ever since its July debut on Xbox Live. But what if you really need to get yourself killed in new and creative ways when you're someplace with no Xbox 360? What if you desperately need to sacrifice someone during a moment of downtime at work?

You're now in luck. That's just what the HTML5 browser version of the game is for. It's by developer Darius Kazemi and while it's not perfected yet—there's no persistence for saving, and it doesn't have sound—but it's playable. And fun. And disturbingly addictive. Unlike many people, I am allowed to play video games at work, but I should probably stay away from this one. Because I can try it again, and again, and again...

Spelunky HTML5 [Tiny Subversions]

Joining the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Electronic Arts, developers and online retailers Valve have announced changes to Steam's subscriber agreement that seek to prohibit users from filing lawsuits against the company.

Saying that they "considered this change very carefully", a Valve statement explains that "It's clear to us that in some situations, class actions have real benefits to customers. In far too many cases however, class actions don't provide any real benefit to users and instead impose unnecessary expense and delay, and are often designed to benefit the class action lawyers who craft and litigate these claims."

"Class actions like these do not benefit us or our communities. We think this new dispute resolution process is faster and better for you and Valve while avoiding unnecessary costs, and that it will therefore benefit the community as a whole."

On the one hand, they have a point! Many class action lawsuits are a waste of everyone's time and a pain in the ass. But what happens if something terrible happens to Steam one day, and there are actually grounds to instigate such a case? As the statement reads, in some situations, class action lawsuits do benefit customers. By removing that option, they're essentially depriving you, as a consumer, of a valid means of protecting your rights and gaining compensation should Valve one day mess something up.

In addition to the attempted block on class-action suits - remember, some American states are questioning the legality of these kind of clauses - Valve is also trying to put a stop to users launching individual lawsuits against the company, instead introducing "a new required process whereby we agree to use arbitration or small claims court to resolve the dispute."

This sucks. Why? You normally can't appeal the findings of a private arbitration hearing, nor is there an independent or public means of reviewing an arbitrator's decisions. Such hearings are also designed to be conducted privately, out of the public eye.

The move ensures that even if Valve screws something up, or something terrible happens to Steam and/or your games collection, any compensation or dispute will be handled on their terms, not those of a court and jury.

Should you actually need to resolve a dispute via such a hearing, "Valve will reimburse your costs of the arbitration for claims under a certain amount". Also, "Reimbursement by Valve is provided regardless of the arbitrator's decision, provided that the arbitrator does not determine the claim to be frivolous or the costs unreasonable."

You can read the new agreement in its entirety here. Importantly, it appears that, much like Microsoft's changes, there is no "opt-out" clause.

The new agreement is part of a Steam update that has already gone live.

Updated Steam Subscriber Agreement [Steam]

Graffiti's played an important part in video games since early days, especially on console. Who can forget Jet Grind Radio's neon-colored spray paint? And, of course, Marc Ecko's Getting Up centered its entire essence on the politics around graf writing.

But upcoming PS3 game Papo & Yo might boast the most painterly street art ever. As shown off on the official PlayStation blog, the adornments on the buildings in Minority's magical realist adventure will sport the work of three real-life celebrity graf artists from Latin America:

Sebastian Navarro (AKA Charquipunk), Simon Paulo Arancibia Gutierrez (AKA La Robot de Madera) and Inti Castro (AKA INTI) are the three celebrity graffiti artists lending their work to Papo & Yo. Charquipunk is known for his intricately detailed large-scale designs of cats and birds, while La Robot de Madera focuses on elaborate portraits. INTI is known for his work with kusillo, the Altiplano carnival clown whose costumes consist of clothing scraps. When they collaborate, which is often, each artist's style is still distinct, but their synergy is electric.

It seems like there's not going be any kind of game mechanics attached to the artists' work. I like that the trio's contributions are there to add eye-popping touchstones to the real world in the a surrealist game. Papo & Yo will be one hell of a visual feast when it comes out in two weeks.

Jay-Z, the hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur, is indeed the executive producer of NBA 2K13, but what exactly that means as far as features within the game, 2K Sports isn't really saying yet.

"I don't want to get too into detail right now, because we've got a lot of stuff coming down the road," Jason Argent, the vice president of marketing for 2K Sports, told Kotaku. "But when we got into this, we really wanted everyone's expertise to lead us, so the things Jay-Z is an expert at are what we weighed the most."

Jay-Z, also a minority owner of the Brooklyn Nets, is aboard apparently because he's a big fan of the series. NBA 2K is rightly a big seller, year round, and has cultivated a strong portfolio of celebrity backers over the past couple of years, particularly through social media. Argent said 2K Sports reached out to Jay-Z about partnering up, but after initial meetings that explored a traditional endorsement or promotional arrangement, "neither of us really wanted that.

"One of the most important things to both of us is that this would be a true collaborative effort," Argent said.

So Jay-Z didn't just curate the game's soundtrack (at right). "The level of detail he wanted to talk about—down the road, you'll find out about some of the ideas he had—was really surprising," Argent insisted. "Getting a phone call from Jay-Z in the middle of the day, with him saying 'You know, here's something I've been thinking about,' is a surreal experience."

Argent referred a couple of times to professional basketball as a sport where the intersection of lifestyle, competition and culture is more visible than in other sports. It would seem that Jay-Z coming aboard would help deepen NBA 2K's appeal as a broader lifestyle product, as opposed to a hardcore sports simulation.

I figured that a natural fit for Jay-Z's creativity would be in developing the storylines, contexts and role-playing features of NBA 2K's "My Player" mode, in which a player controls a single NBA star through his entire career. Argent acknowledged the point but wouldn't budge on what areas of the game are getting the Jay-Z treatment, nor when I asked if, as executive producer, Jay-Z had any override authority on gameplay features.

"If we took Jay-Z out of the equation here, 100 percent you'd see the gameplay has taken an incredible leap forward," Argent said. That suggested to me that the Visual Concepts team responsible for core gameplay features wasn't the unit most involved with Jay-Z.

But having the hip-hop superstar as a playable character in the game doesn't seem to be on the table either. "That didn't feel authentic to the game of basketball," Argent said. "We chose each other as partners on this to add to the presentation side of things." That would mean Jay-Z's influence will be seen in the introductions and epilogues bracketing games played in all of NBA 2K13's modes.

"We're looking on it as NBA 2K, but through the eyes of Jay-Z," Argent said.

Kotaku columnist and actress Lisa Foiles recently told readers about A Fistful of Rupees, a Zelda-themed spaghetti western. This is the official trailer, but for background, check out Lisa's behind-the-scenes report.

The three-part Fistful of Rupees will premiere on the GameStation's YouTube channel starting August 7.

FISTFUL OF RUPEES TRAILER - Zelda / Western Mash-Up [YouTube]

Amaterasu of Okami fame is a majestic creature. One that is definitely worthy of artistic mediums, far and wide.

And of these art forms includes the delicate nature of papercraft, seen above by artist Richi89. You can see older shots on his deviantART page.

Ammy and Chibi [deviantART via Ian Brooks]

The executives at Take Two Interactive, publisher of such video game franchises as Grand Theft Auto, BioShock and Civilization take questions from investors every three months. The major bosses of all publicly-traded companies do this. Usually they don't take prank phone calls. Today, they did.

(Image inspired by the clean-thinking chaps at Game Developer/Gamasutra.)