Last week Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter and noted World of Warcraft and RPG fan, cast his team's season opener in terms of an MMO quest. He's done the same thing this week so we'll hold him to it and chart his progress.

Although, I do wonder who the quest-giver is: Is it head coach Leslie Frazier? Or Commissioner Roger Goodell, as the league performs the scheduling?

This week's quest:

Update: The Warriors of the Northwoods failed, 23-20. Says Chris Warcraft himself:

Last week:

Result: QUEST COMPLETE (Minnesota 26, Jacksonville 23. Kluwe: 5 punts, average 48.4 yards, long of 59.)

Right now the Vikings trail the Colts 10-6 at halftime.

As promised, the R&B singer/songwriter Frank Ocean brought John Mayer to last night's performance on Saturday Night Live. The two performed on a stage surrounded by some arcade cabinets with nondescript glass and cabinet art, but they were running ROMs of real games in attract mode.

It appears to be a big coup for Namco PR, whether intentional or not, as every game I could identify seems to be one of theirs. Tekken 3 was spotted right of Ocean as you face him. Tekken also is just right of Mayer (left of Ocean) on stage. Dig Dug can be seen, and there appears to be a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga dual cabinet at far left.

Things got strange in the second song, "Pyramids." During Mayer's guitar solo, Ocean blew on the microphone for a little bit, then walked over to the Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man cabinet and started playing. See for yourself in the video below while everyone from the U.K. complains in the comments that they can't watch it.

[h/t Jalopnik]

Alright, hang with me here. While gazing at Dishonored's box art, I convinced myself I was looking at a deranged steampunk Destro. I've been too cute with topical subjects lately, so I'm just going to give everyone a concept and let you run wild with it. I want to see insane G.I. Joe cameos in video games this week.

That's it. That's all. Don't consider that above to be a source image. Nor are you limited to using Dishonored. You can stick cartoon or movie Joes or even box-art Joes and Cobra in any video game, or vice versa. I'm banking on the inherent humor of the Joes' ridiculous costumes, largely represented by the old Sunbow cartoons when Flint or Footloose or someone would stand there, hands on hips, telling kids why it's a bad idea to drink rubbing alcohol.

So, simple crossover: G.I. Joe, or Cobra, cameos in video games, or vice versa. I think you guys can do this blindfolded, or with a carcinogenic beryllium steel mask affixed to your face. Go to town.

Remember, you have to post submissions in the new forum for the Kotaku 'Shop Contest. I know it's not as fun as seeing everyone's creations underneath this post, but this way automatically displays them in chronological order, which everyone seems to prefer.

Because of this, comments are disabled in this post to avoid confusion. You must visit the 'Shop Contest Forum to participate or to see this week's subissions. After you create your 'Shop, you'll need to post it there. Here are the rest of the guidelines for doing so.

1. Go to the 'Shop Contest Forum
2. Click "Add Image" in the upper right above the comment window.
3. Click "Upload an Image Instead." Then click the "Choose File" button. Browse your desktop, find the image, and click "open."
4. If you prefer, you can upload the 'Shop to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. Then click "Add image" in the upper right above the comment window. Paste the image URL into the field that says "Image URL."
5. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, paste the image URL as a comment.
6. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. If you're still having trouble uploading the image, try to keep its longest dimension (horizontal or vertical) under 1000 pixels.

All set? Great. Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!

Just because a series celebrates its 25th anniversary doesn't automatically mean we're going to see a new game out of it. Metroid is a notable example. And 2010 came and went without any kind of re-release of Duck Hunt.

That said, Rockman/Mega Man fans note the game turns 25 on Dec. 17, and the last title published in the series is Mega Man 10, from two years ago. So one took to the "Ask Capcom" forum of Capcom-Unity to ask what gives, and if anything's in the pipeline, why wait until December to tell us about it?

Christian Svensson, the Capcom senior vice president, responded that the company does have plans to celebrate Mega Man's 25th birthday, but don't get your hopes up about a game.

In December "some but not all" plans for the coming year of celebrations will be shared. There are many moving parts and not everything will be done and final come December. No one has promised a game or even an announcement of one at that time. Please do keep expectations in check.

As of now, the only game planned is Mega Man Xover, which, as a social game for the iPhone, understandably does not excite many. Especially as Capcom canceled both Mega Man Universe and, most notoriously, Mega Man Legends 3. That decision set off a furious response in 2011, and the series' creator said he had offered to finish the game, although his departure from the company probably gave Capcom little incentive to take him up on it.

Real talk: Mega Man [Capcom-Unity via Game Informer.]

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week's best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic.

Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 15.—Read more of Nerf NOW!!
Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Sept. 10.—Read more of Awkward Zombie
Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Sept. 12.—Read more of Penny Arcade
Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto published Sept. 11.—Read more of Brawl In The Family
Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie published Sept. 10.—Read more of Virtual Shackles
ActionTrip by Borislav Grabovic and Ure Paul published Sept. 10.—Read more of ActionTrip
Legacy Control by Javis Ray published Sept. 12.—Read more of Legacy Control

The WTFery of Konami sponsoring lifelike horseheads as a costume item in PlayStation Home gave rise to this week's 'Shop Contest, which I am proud to report is brony free. Keep your friends close and your 'Shops closer with double-finalist and overall winner uscg_pa, inside!

Let's get started: ZeroToad supplies an equine take on Infinity Blade (15). Pan_1da7 (8) conjures up a new take on Beta Ray Bill, while mooglegiant (6) gives us the original Wyld Stallyns. Longtime finalist sciteach (10) is not impressed by any of this.

Our first animated .gif finalist in a long time belongs to Abrahim Ladha (1). Riley King (9) gives us armored horses for free. I thought arniejolt (3) was going for a headswap but not quite. He still makes the cut.

Overall No. 1 is uscg_pa (13), with the first and best take on why Konami would be fooling around with horseheads. Snake's look is perfect (note also the Oscar on the table behind him). Runner up also is uscg_pa, with a fresh take on another iconic Konami game and character.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. We have another 'Shop Contest tomorrow.

Abrahim Ladha
Angryrider
arniejolt
Vigafray
EROLE
gameproblems
mooglegiant
Nude_Eskimo
Pan_1da7
Rile King
sciteach
Snufkin
TomasLacerda
uscg_pa
uscg_pa
ZeroToad

On one hand, this seems like a painfully obvious thing: Broken hardware typically can be replaced under warranty or through the manufacturer for a fee, and the Nintendo GamePad is hardware. On the other hand, it's a controller, and Nintendo is deliberately not selling GamePads on their own in North America. So that raises the question of what happens if yours breaks?

Gimme Gimme Games got the answer from a Nintendo of America representative: "Individual replacement Wii U GamePad controllers will be available from Nintendo Consumer Service for a fee," they were told, but there was no word on how much a replacement will cost.

What about the warranty? Well, NOA has "no specific announcements" to make regarding warranty coverage for the GamePad, said the rep, but he noted that Nintendo warranties don't cover physical damage. Fair enough.

Extra GamePads will be sold in Japan for the equivalent of about $172. So if in North America, a GamePad costs $150, and if its replacement fee is lower than that, you probably can expect to be asked to ship back the old one, even if you broke it. Otherwise, what's to stop people from claiming they broke their old controller, buying up an extra one at discount and saving it for gray market resale once two-GamePad support arrives here, believed to be sometime after March.

I can't wait to see the Will It Blend Guy disintegrate a GamePad and ship them back the dust. "Wii U GamePad Dust! Don't breathe this ..."

Broken Wii U Game Pad replacements will be available ‘for a fee' says Nintendo [Gimme Gimme Games.]

Last week's vigil in Paragon City was misunderstood (including by me) to be a protest against the announced shutdown of City of Heroes, the eight-year-old superhero MMO. It was intended as a statement of support and tribute, particularly to the Paragon Studios development team that, let's not forget, is seeing the end of something it cares for, as well as the end of all their jobs.

The City of Heroes community followed that up this week with a touching gesture that can't be mistaken: In just three hours, they raised $1,000 for the sole purpose of treating the City of Heroes team to dinner at a restaurant they were known to frequent.

More events are being organized in-world to show support for the game. Massively has the details.

City of Heroes fans buy Paragon Studios a meal and proclaim allegiance [Massively. h/t amori]

Late last night, reports WoW Insider, Death Knights in World of Warcraft contracted a bug which allowed them to cast plagues upon friendly targets. The afflicted death knights, as per their namesake, went apeshit with this newfound power, laying waste to Azeroth's population in a way not seen since the infamous "Corrupted Blood" plague—which celebrated its seventh anniversary on Thursday.

The Death Knight bug was patched out very early this morning, WoW Insider said, but what makes it different is the fact this plague couldn't spread by itself. It required action by the knights themselves. It still was the worst epidemic seen since Corrupted Blood, a 2005 incident later studied by epidemiologists.

Here's an image from the outbreak, via WoW Insider; there are four more at the link.

Death knight plague epidemic strikes Azeroth [WoW Insider]

We've seen some swell Borderlands cosplay leading up to Tuesday's release of Borderlands 2, but those were in still photos. Here's a video tribute to the original characters from Gearbox Software's smash hit from three years ago.

Don't go looking for much of a big story, surprise or sight gag—though I do like the post-production attention paid to the loot drops and Lilith's Phase Walk (and the shitheaded AI of the bandits at the beginning. Seriously). It's just a love letter to Borderlands from some skilled cosplayers and filmmakers.