In the spirit of the many "Meet The" videos from Team Fortress 2 comes this fan-made video by Harry Callagan. Made mostly in Premiere Pro and Photoshop (not in Source Filmmaker!), it's an impressive showing, considering that Callagan describes it as something that "started as a very quick visual test, but grew into something a little bigger."

Props to the voice cast for doing their best to keep up with Stephen Merchant and Nolan North. The whole thing is a lot of fun.

Duke Nukem is Sylvester Stallone. Kind of.

The Rocky actor wants you to believe that he can still explode the living hell out of armies of bad guys. So does Duke. And, with the right vitamins (or developers), they both can! We hope.

The meta-hook for The Expendables movies is audiences are in on the over-the-top action franchise's central conceit, which is that the tough guys of yesteryear can still do what they used to. But Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li and Chuck Norris are all over the hill and don't have the drawing power that they used. Hence, their teaming up.

Surely, there's a video game equivalent to this idea. An all-star cast of former superstars, banding together to grab the limelight that just one of them used to command. A Kotaku brainstorm cobbled together the characters in the image above, but you can probably do better, right? So, post the rosters of your video game Expendables line-up below and let's see what your dream team looks like.

(Top row, from left to right: Jak & Daxter, Jazz Jackrabbit, Shinobi, Sonic, Super Joe from Bionic Commando Re-Armed

Bottom row, from left to right: Lance and Bill from Contra, Crash Bandicoot, Duke Nukem, Earthworm Jim, Ralf and Clark from Ikari Warriors)

(Jazz Jackrabbit illustration by Espen G from DeviantArt)

This Wednesday edition of Kotaku's The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can't wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon.

Software

• Aug. 14 release Sleeping Dogs (PS3, Xbox 360) is $47.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $60. [Dealzon]

• Sep. 18 release Dead or Alive 5 (Xbox 360, PS3) is $47.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $59. [Dealzon]

• Sep. 18 release Borderlands 2 (PC download) is $40, free shipping from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $54. [Dealzon]

• Oct. 23 release Zone of Enders HD Collection (Xbox 360, PS3) is $29.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Oct. 23 release Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (3DS) is $29.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Risen 2 Complete Pack (PC download, 4 titles) is $48.88 from GameFly. Next best is $73. [Dealzon]

• This week Best Buy has a "Buy 2 Pre-Owned Games, Get a 3rd Free" sale with 5,069 eligible titles. [Dealzon]

• Rock Band 3 PRO-Guitar Bundle (Xbox 360) is $45.99, free shipping from Buy.com. Next best is $130. [Dealzon]

• Dirt Showdown (Xbox 360) is $35.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $43. [Dealzon]

• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (Xbox 360) is $29.99 plus $3.49 shipping from GameStop. Next best is $47. [Dealzon]

• Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition (Xbox 360, PS3) is $29.99 plus $3.49 shipping from GameStop. Next best is $48. [Dealzon]

• Street Fighter X Tekken (Xbox 360, PS3) is $25, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $30. [Dealzon]

• Disneyland Adventures (Xbox 360) is $14.99, free shipping from Buy.com. Next best is $19. [Dealzon]

• Mortal Kombat (Vita) is $9.99 plus $3.49 shipping from GameStop. Next best is $24. [Dealzon]

• Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Limited Edition (PC) is $4.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $12. [Dealzon]

• Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking (PC) is $4.99, free shipping from Best Buy. Next best is $10. [Dealzon]

Hardware

• PS3 Slim 320GB Console plus Move Bundle is $299.96, free shipping from Walmart. Next best is $350. [Dealzon]

• Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures, Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja Kinect is $99.99, free shipping from eBay Deals. Next best is $150. [Dealzon]

• Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset is $59.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $73. [Dealzon]

• Corsair 180GB Force Series GT SSD is $139.99 after rebate, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $179. [Dealzon]

• OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD is $69.99 after rebate, free shipping from TigerDirect. Next best is $91. [Dealzon]

• Dell's 17-inch Alienware M17x with 1080p 3D display, Quad Core i7-2670QM 2nd Gen, 2GB GeForce GTX 580M is $2,099 after $450 coupon, free shipping from Dell. That's cheapest ever by $75 and $450 off the usual price of $2,549. [Dealzon]

• Asus G75 Ivy Bridge 17.3-inch laptop with Core i7-3610QM, GeForce GTX 660M, 12GB RAM, Blu-ray Writer is $1,199.99 plus $9.87 shipping from TigerDirect. That's cheapest ever by $100. [Dealzon]

• Dell XPS 8500 Ivy Bridge desktop with Quad Core i5-3450 (3rd Gen), GeForce GT 640 1GB, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD is $699.99, free shipping from Dell Home. That's cheapest ever by $100. [Dealzon]

As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you've run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.

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DayZ is the kind of game that leaves you on edge at all times. You never know when you're going to be ambushed and killed, or get taken for a ride to a deathcamp, or be ambushed by sprinting zombies.

Or, as is the case here, when you're going to see a totally freaky bug that may not be a threat, but sure is creepy. Man, I would've emptied my entire clip into that thing, especially if I'd been listening to the X-Files theme while I played.

In addition to a big, head-trippy single-player campaign, the upcoming Far Cry 3 will feature a fleshed-out 4-player co-op campaign. It's more than your standard "kill the enemy waves" setup; FC3's co-op has a story, complete with four different playable characters. There's the hardassed chick, the goofy older russian dude, the wiseass cockney (or some such accent?) criminal, and the big tough action dude.

Here, a Ubisoft representative walks us through the ins and outs of a couple of co-op missions. Cool.

If you're sick and tired of Madden NFL, or if you just don't want to wait until the end of the month to complain about it, why not get a real downloadable roster update for a sports video game really released two years ago, the way everyone says it ought to be.

Backbreaker, the flawed but earnest challenger from 2010 that presented American football as it's played, not as it's watched on television, now has a custom roster file reflecting the league's 2013 rosters and, as best as the editors could render them, the uniforms and helmets for the league's 32 teams. The file was created by RateSports.net and was completed on Sunday.

If Backbreaker isn't your cup of tea, don't worry, "NFL 2K13"—a roster file for All-Pro Football 2K8, offers the same thing. It launched back at the end of June.

Both files are available here from RateSports. You'll need a PC and some helper programs to get them onto your console.

With the world's eyes on the 2012 Summer Olympics, commenter GiantBoyDetective, awash in newly-discovered marital bliss, takes a moment out of his busy husbandry to ponder the perfect video game Olympics in today's Speak Up on Kotaku.

Oh man! I just had an awesome idea. There should be an Olympics for video games. They could call it (Drum Roll)... The Pixelympics!

Different events, like FPS games, speed runs on platformers, fighting games, racing games. Holy crap it could be awesome! I need to figure out how to pull this off on a global scale. Or maybe just a national scale. It could be every 3 or 4 years just like the real Olympics. How in the world could I pull this together... Kickstarter? Hmmm. I love this idea. Toughts?

Well here's an interesting coincidence.

The image on the left is a monster from a 2002 Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual called the Nightmare Beast, drawn by artist Wayne Reynolds.

The image on the right is the August edition of talk show host Rush Limbaugh's newsletter, the Limbaugh Letter.

The similarities are uncanny. So uncanny, in fact, that when alerted to Limbaugh's letter, Reynolds himself said the legal team of Dungeons & Dragons license-holder Wizards of the Coast might be interested in this story.

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The Limbaugh Letter credits designer Christopher Hiers for the image. It does not seem to credit Reynolds, Wizards of the Coast, or any other party involved with Dungeons & Dragons.

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I've reached out to Hiers to ask if he took this illustration from D&D. I'll update if he responds.

(Thanks, Paul!)

Mexican gymnast Elsa Garcia Rodriguez Blancas did her Olympic qualification routine to an arrangement of music from The Legend of Zelda. Specifically, an arrangement by violinist Lindsey Stirling.

Awesome, no?

For reference, here's Stirling's lovely arrangement:

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Sadly, the judges did not recognize Blancas's prowess at taking Zelda medleys from YouTube stars: she ranked 35th in the event.

Elsa Garcia Rutina Legend of Zelda [YouTube via ZeldaUniverse — thanks Adrian!]

When Origin PC sent me their EON15-S laptop for review, time and time again they stressed that while I was getting a plain cover unit for the system, they were also available with a shiny colored plastic lid, special molded to evoke futuristic technology.

To which I say hey, Origin PC, you don't need to get all fancied up to impress me. You don't have to put on that red, silver or black dress tonight. Just keep a low profile and keep kicking Crysis 2's ass and we'll be the best of friends. A gaming system does not have to look like a gaming system — only play like one.

I much prefer the look of the Origin EON15-S I received. It's a bit chunky at 1.4 inches deep and nearly seven pounds, but that's the price we pay for power in these days of underperforming slim laptops. It's go big or go home.

Simple and elegant.

Not that the EON15-S is the biggest thing going. Only 14 inches wide it straddles the sweet spot for portable PC gaming, it's 1920x1080 display sharper and more substantial than that of a smaller high-powered gaming laptop, while more dainty than the devourer of Starbucks table space that is the 17-incher. This is the sort of gaming laptop Goldilocks would buy if she had a spare $2,500.

Inside that unassuming black box is one hell of a PC gaming performer. Packed with all the goodies I put in the sidebar so I wouldn't have to type them again, the EON15-S took on Crysis 2 (with the DirectX 11 pack) on ultra settings, outputting a relatively stable 40 frames per second — pretty damn good for a portable PC, with similar performance for both The Witcher 2 (which I will never stop playing) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.The unit stayed relatively cool throughout my interactive assaults, never getting hot to the touch, something I've experienced far too often in the world of high-powered gaming laptops.

Another surprise came in the form of the unit's sound. The installed Onkyo speakers deliver richer, more satisfying sound than I'm used to from an Origin unit. They're no 7.1 surround set-up (though the EON15-S supports it), but the drivers lurking underneath the grill above the keyboard are definitely doing something right.

It's got power. It's got performance. You want fancy?

There, they keyboard is back-lit with glowing, pulsing and dancing colored lights that can be configured as garishly as you'd like. Make it constantly wave your college colors. Set it to red, white and blue when you're feeling particularly patriotic (adjust colors to suit your region). Or just leave it on a solid color and enjoy the flat, responsive keys without having to hold a rave.

And you can always opt for the colorful candy shell, which won't cost a penny extra, or a custom paint job, which will cost you an arm and a leg.

Or you can just keep it plain and simple.

That's the sort of laptop that looks comfortable sitting next to some peanut butter and Wheat Thins. And should your gaming friends poke fun of you for your old man machine, open it up, load up Crysis 2, and blow their faces off. Then cover their skinless skulls with peanut butter and stick Wheat Thins on it to make faces.

Perhaps that's a bit too far. Anyway, lovely laptop. Starts at $1,529. Go look.