Do you ever get the feeling you're the only real human in Skyrim? Of course you do. Because you are. All those other humans (and humanoid bipeds!) aren't really humans at all. They're clockwork people, driven not by AI, but by tiny cats.

It's a shocking truth, but one uncovered in this mod by FancyPants, which lifts the veil on Skyrim's feline-powered economy and reveals the populace for what they are.

It's just one of many amazingly creepy mods on FP's Steam Workshop page, including chair faces, dog people, two-legged ponies and assorted other horrors.

Crimes Against Nature [Steam, thanks Argh!]

Ever since the breakout success of the stripped-down horror game Slender: The Eight Pages, we've been seeing Slenderman-related stuff cropping up in every corner of the internet. So I wasn't that surprised to fire up the app store today only to see a game called "Slenderman" in the #2 spot of the top 10 paid apps.

Unfortunately, the game is a shoddy rip-off of the original, and is in no way affiliated with Parsec's Slender: The Eight Pages. It may only cost a buck, but it's a dollar you could spend on something more worthy.

Right from the start, Slenderman's description struck me as a bit off:

Experience the game they're calling "The most scary game of all time".

Slender-Man is a BRAND NEW survival horror game based upon the Slenderman urban legend and "Der Großmann" myth. See how long you can survive before Slender-Man gets you, with only your wits and a flashlight to aid you!

A BRAND NEW game, huh? "They're" calling it the scariest game of all time, are they? Hmm. I seem to recall playing this exact game on PC. Then I read the first few user reviews:

This game was so slow it could be a good game of they fix all the errors. Until they fix the errors DON'T PAY FOR THIS GAME!

I was so excited for Slenderman to arrive for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch but when I started playing it, it was extremely choppy and lagged way too much. I am disappointed.

I was so excited for Slenderman to arrive for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch but when I started playing it, it was extremely choppy and lagged way too much. I am disappointed.

I hope you do make an update soon, then I'd feel less ripped off. This is janky.

Many seem to be under the impression that this game is made by Mark Hadley, the man behind the original PC game and the upcoming updated sequel.

However, this is not the case—the iOS game is made by someone named Rory Harvey, and it has nothing to do with the original game. Pocket Gamer noticed that when the iPhone version was first released, it was described as being "finally available on iOS." That doubtless misled a lot of people into buying it, thinking they were getting a bona fide mobile version.

A spokseman for Blue Isle, who are working with Parsec on the follow-up to Slender: The Eight Pages, had this to say:

It's a bit unfortunate to see this kind of thing happening. Mark Hadley and Blue Isle are not involved with this game in any way. We'll take the appropriate actions and follow up with Apple. We have considered doing an Android and iOS version of Slender, and if we want to move forward on that, we'll take our time to do it right.

I went ahead and dropped the $.99 to pick up the game, and... well, it needs work. It's got the basic atmosphere right—you walk around in a darkened park, with only a flashlight. But there are no sound effects—just the sound of a beating heart. Your footsteps make no noise, you can't run, and crucially, you're not picking up notes, you're just kind of… walking around. Until eventually the Slenderman turns up and I guess you run? But then you die. And when you die, nothing happens, the screen just gets static-y and you can't move your feet anymore. Slenderman just sort of stands there.

All in all underwhelming. Slender: The Eight Pages was stripped down but in an effective way—it had just enough meat to keep you going, and Slendy himself was just scary and odd enough to be truly disconcerting. The iOS ripoff is just plain lazy.

But beyond the fact that it's not a very good game, it's also a wholesale reproduction of someone else's idea. At the bottom of the App Store game description is this: "COMING SOON: Objectives, new hiding locations, performance improvements and more!" A number of App store reviewers are, therefore, hopeful that the game will be updated and become less bare-bones and maybe even fun.

But I'm hard-pressed to imagine an upgrade that would make this game less of an obvious and uninspired cash-grab. Maybe they'll issue an update that somehow turns it into an entirely different, original game?

Slender-Man [App Store]

Mmmm deep fried metal. Photographer Henry Hargreaves certainly knows how to make a Game Boy look appetizing. Maybe I can convince Fahey this should be the next Snacktaku entry.

Check the selections below, and hit the link for more deep fried gadgets.

Deep Fried Gadgets [Henry Hargreaves via Slow Show]

If you'd like to get with your RPG-loving friends and spend some time getting a little bit sauced, you could certainly do worse than either Drinking Quest or its sequel, Drinking Quest 2: Yeddie Vedder's Yeti Adventure.

The game is designed as a light (very light) card-based role-playing game with a few rules built around drinking. Namely, that if you die, you gotta chug.

I thought I'd shoot a quick video to show you what it's all about—as a tabletop game, it's kind of a mess, but then again, it's a drinking tabletop game, so perhaps messiness is the point.

You can buy both games together each game for $25 direct from the Drinking Quest website. Good luck, and drink responsibly.

Here's the official video announcement for a new promotion Nintendo is running this fall.

Buy Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone!, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Style Savvy: Trendsetters, or Crosswords Plus on Nintendo's eShop by January 6 and you'll get a copy of Donkey Kong: Original Edition, a special version of Nintendo's old classic.

That's right: Nintendo actually wants you to buy games on the Internet. Enter pandemonium, cats and dogs living together, etc.

Owlchemy Labs' game about transporting cute animals but secretly about smuggling illegal immigrants is now overtly about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Cautious driving brohoof!

Packed inside Steam copies of Smuggle Truck and available as an in-game purchase in the free iOS version, Brony Mode transforms the cuddly animals of Apple acceptance necessity into the ponies of kindness. A vaguely Spike-like dragon drives a truckload of colorful ponies to the zoo and beyond, carefully navigating the hills and valleys so as not to spill a single magical mare. Baby dragons soar through the air in a graceful arc, hopefully landing safely in the back of your rainbow-spewing pickup.

Yes, they are serious.

"We love the brony community." stated Alex Schwartz, Chief Scientist and Fantasy Equine Specialist at Owlchemy Labs via official announcement, "We began design on Brony Mode in response to fan requests, we wanted to make something to give back to the community. Snuggle Truck's "cuddly-with-a-hint-of-badass" humor lends itself well to the stories and characters of the brony universe."

In celebration of the release of Brony mode (as well as Snuggle Truck being the $2.50 Daily Deal on Steam today), Owlchemy Labs will plant a tree for every 200 copies sold or updates downloaded. You're not a dirty tree hater, are you?

Snuggle Truck [iTunes]

Snuggle Truck [Steam]

I may have spent an ungodly number of hours wandering around Skyrim, but I still miss Morrowind, the setting of the third game in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. The swamp-covered, volcano-tormented realm of the dark elves just had so much character; it was an endlessly interesting place to go questing. (The soundtrack really was the best, too.)

Morrowind's graphics can look a bit dated by modern standards, but thanks to a dedicated modding community, Morrowind regularly gets a very intense graphical overhaul. The version 3.0 overhaul, seen in all its resplendent glory in the trailer above, is now available for download.

Be warned, though: This isn't some easy as pie Steam Workshop mod—it's a very involved process. Fortunately, the people behind the mod have also uploaded this walkthrough for how to install all the files needed to make it run properly:

I have been meaning to go back to Morrowind, and when I have a moment I'm going to give this a shot. I also want to see the version of the game that's been modded into Skyrim. Then again, I kind of just want to replay the actual game Morrowind; better graphics are just a bonus.

Morrowind Overhaul V. 3.0 [Ornitocopter via Rock, Paper Shotgun]

I may have spent an ungodly number of hours wandering around Skyrim, but I still miss Morrowind, the setting of the third game in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. The swamp-covered, volcano-tormented realm of the dark elves just had so much character; it was an endlessly interesting place to go questing. (The soundtrack really was the best, too.)

Morrowind's graphics can look a bit dated by modern standards, but thanks to a dedicated modding community, Morrowind regularly gets a very intense graphical overhaul. The version 3.0 overhaul, seen in all its resplendent glory in the trailer above, is now available for download.

Be warned, though: This isn't some easy as pie Steam Workshop mod—it's a very involved process. Fortunately, the people behind the mod have also uploaded this walkthrough for how to install all the files needed to make it run properly:

I have been meaning to go back to Morrowind, and when I have a moment I'm going to give this a shot. I also want to see the version of the game that's been modded into Skyrim. Then again, I kind of just want to replay the actual game Morrowind; better graphics are just a bonus.

Morrowind Overhaul V. 3.0 [Ornitocopter via Rock, Paper Shotgun]

Meet the Mantis, a new a vehicle/mech in Halo 4. Your best Spartan soldier can get in it, step on enemies and, when he or she has them down, commence with the teabagging (you know, the, uh, victory crouches). It's all in the official trailer.

This is Microsoft knowing its Halo audience.

HALO 4: MANTIS TRAILER - Footage on Ragnarok [YouTube, upoaded by AirGuitar901]

Game publishers and developers have spent a great deal of time dreaming up bizarre ways to get people to vote for their games on Steam's crowdsourcing Greenlight program, but this might be the grossest.

In a bizarre, misguided attempt to get people to vote for their game Edge of Space, publisher Reverb Publishing is promising to donate $5,000 to the Humane Society, an animal protection group.

If Edge of Space doesn't get approved by October 15, Reverb won't donate the money. And... well, I'll let them explain what happens then. Here's the press release we got today (emphasis mine):

Reverb Publishing and HandyMan Studios' upcoming terraforming space-adventure, Edge of Space, recently broke the top 50 on Steam's Greenlight project, but the game needs help getting the final push to the top 10 and approval. In honor of one of the many bizarre characters players will meet in the game, an armored space cat, Reverb Publishing is issuing a pledge to donate money to the Humane Society if the game sees approval on Steam.

If Edge of Space is approved by October 15, 2012 through Greenlight, Reverb Publishing will donate $5000 to the Humane Society, which will go towards providing necessary care and safety to homeless cats. However, if the game doesn't get approval, that money will disappear, like a puff of smoke in the uncaring wind, leaving poor kitties to survive in the harsh elements, be placed in harm's way and possibly scheduled for euthanasia. The challenge is out there, and for a simple "yes" vote on Steam's Greenlight consumers can actively take a role in saving the lives of kitties. So, do your part, save some cats, and see a great space sandbox adventure get onto Steam's platform. It's a win-win!

So does that make you want to vote for their game?

(Photo: Shutterstock/ADA_photo)