Reader Chris is doing the world a great service with his work transforming the Wii U's big pad into something you can use on a PC.

The video above shows how you can re-map the pad to almost everything needed for a game's input, meaning if you can configure it, you can use it for most contemporary titles as well (or, say, the Dolphin emulator).

Chris tells us the first pending update will add touch-screen support to the pad, while in the future he's also working on getting streaming working, so that you could play a PC game on the controller.

You can download the necessary files here.

Wii U GamePad to PC Controller - Download in Description [Chris Manning]

Your experience with the animated .gif file probably extends little further than it does for most; a cat jumping here, a retro video game there. Maybe even some pop culture or sporting highlights.

All of those things have their place, but let's not forget you can also use the format to create something new. And beautiful.

Croatian artist Paolo Čerić looks at the limitations of the .gif, knows the two key components are a limited number of frames and an infinite loop, and does his best to build hypnotic, computer-generated images that are a world away from the stilted clips that make up 99% of the stuff you see on message boards.

Paolo was just one of the artists featured in the recent Moving the Still exhibition; you can see more entries here.

Paolo Čerić [Tumblr, via Fast Company]

It's yet to go live on the magazine's website, [Update: it is now] but the latest issue of Game Informer is now available for download for some digital subscribers. And the game on the cover is the previously unannounced The Witcher 3.

The image is legitimate; Zinio's subscription page confirms The Witcher 3 is this month's cover feature.

Bigger version of the image below. So you can see that beard.

Some preliminary info supposedly contained in the article, courtesy of a NeoGAF user Indigo Cyclops with a Zinio subscription (my subscription is via the App Store, where this issue isn't available):

World supposedly 20% bigger than Skyrim's
30-40 minutes to cross world on Horseback
New streaming technology (CDRED Engine 3)
Geralt's Memory is restored
No chapters/acts
Dude is fucking DONE fighting for everyone else
Everything from solving MYSTERIES to slaying monsters
Coming out on "all top-of-the-line" consoles—I'd say that confirms next-gen is in.

The world would be a better place if that's what actual press releases looked like.

UPDATE - Game Informer has gone live with its official announcement. Alongside more artwork, there's clearer word on the game's size, the report saying it's "30 times larger than the previous game—an enormous setting even larger than Skyrim's vast expanse, made possible with the new REDengine 3 technology that developer CD Projekt RED is debuting with the game."

They also say that, alongside the PC, the game will be released on "all high-end platforms available", which is about as close to "those next-gen consoles that haven't been announced yet" as you're going to get from a developer.

I was in third grade when I first heard that they were making a live-action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My tiny little third-grader brain couldn't process it. This was well before I was cynical enough to start immediately complaining about how they were going to ruin everything—I was just gobsmacked at the very notion.

"Hey dude, this is no cartoon," the marketing materials said. Hey dude, indeed.

Over at Comics Alliance, they're rewatching the 1990 cult-classic and writing about the film as they watch. It is a very entertaining trip down memory lane. Remember the part where the foot clan all gang up on Raphael, and he falls to them because he's all alone? Man. Emotions in my third-grade heart.

Hope you are all doing well, and had an enjoyable weekend. Any big plans for the coming week? Feel free to debate turtles, weaponry, or anything else, here or over in the Talk Amongst Yourselves forum. Have good chatting.

As kids who were/are Pokémon fans grow up, their tastes are growing up alongside them. Just like you can find more "adult" tales based on, say, the Star Wars universe, Pokécenter is a comic by Ray Bruwelheide that isn't exactly you'll find coming from Nintendo themselves.

Down the bottom, it says "to be continued". God, I hope that's the case.

Pokécenter [Ray Bruwelheide]

Dedicated cosplayers will tell you that the real spirit of cosplay is supposed to be about having fun, making friends, paying homage to your favorite characters, and perhaps even about challenging yourself. Even so, some cosplayers demand absolute 'accuracy' when it comes to cosplay: and this can make things turn ugly.

What if, for instance, you're not the right gender? Body size? Or in Chaka Cumberbatch's case, what if you're not the right skin color?

Writing for xoJane, Cumberbatch explained much of the abuse and criticism she receives is because she dares to cosplay as characters that aren't black.

"After my pictures started making the rounds on deviantArt, tumblr and 4chan," she wrote, "it became pretty clear that my cosplay brings all the racists to the yard, and they're like… white cosplay is better than yours."

Despite going through painstaking measures to get a cosplay of Sailor Venus right (as an example)—from the accessories to the wig—she got some pretty nasty, racist comments. See, for instance:

"For a black cosplayer (not to be racist) she did an amazing job!" the original Tumblr post read. It was later was edited to include "I love her skin tone" after all hell broke loose.

Online, I was "Nigger Venus," and "Sailor Venus Williams" because I am black.

Some even accused her of ruining a character, which is completely absurd.

"The characters might not be real, but the racism is," Cumberbatch lamented.

And this isn't an isolated case; on websites like Tumblr, seeing comments like these are common. It's a shame because it's clear that many people who might not be "within range" of a character truly love cosplay anyway: and isn't that what matters?

Plus, as Chaka smartly observes: who in the world can actually say they look like people they cosplay, when so many characters in media are completely unrealistic?

Here's hoping that cosplay enthusiasts don't get discouraged from pursuing their passion because some of the community is hurtful. You should be able to cosplay as whatever you want.

But when you look at the harassment cosplayers undergo, could you blame someone for hesitating?

You can see more of Chaka Cumberbatch's great cosplay here.

I'm a Black Female Cosplayer And Some People Hate It [xoJane]

I rarely get too caught up chasing down achievements in games, but every so often they get under my skin. "Make it through Ravenholm without using a gun, eh? Alright, it's on."

The feeling of accomplishment that comes with earning an achievement can be fleeting. What did I get, other than a little note that will only ever be noticed by weirdos who open my profile to compare achievements? Not much.

Thanks to 3JIou's new Skyrim mod "Achieve That", you can chase achievements in Skyrim and actually get rewards for completing them. Will this system ever match the old George Mallory-style intrinsic reward of climbing the mountain just because it's there? Probably not. Is it still kind of cool to chase 'em all down? Sure.

To use the mod, you'll need to have the Sky UI mod, which adds a Mod Configuration Menu to the game. There, you can access all 109 of the added achievements.

If you, like me, are considering starting up a new Skyrim character (for some ungodly reason oh god please stop me), it'll probably be fun to start fresh with new, useful achievements. For a more detailed look at the mod, head over to its Nexus Mods page or watch the video above, by Gophers Gaming Mods.

This weekend, we reported that some players took umbrage with Tiny Tina, a character from Borderlands 2 and how she used "black lingo." Gearbox was receptive to these players, listening to their concerns and even offering to change the character in future updates should they be convinced that Tina's dialogue was racist.

Mike Sacco, a creative developer with the World of Warcraft trading card game, was one of the players involved in the dispute. Today, he tweeted that he no longer works at Cryptozoic, where he was previously a contractor.

The reasons why are not clear.

I reached out to Sacco for comment, but he said he cannot legally say anything on the matter. I've also contacted Cryptozoic, and will update this story if I hear back from them.

UPDATE: Cryptozoic responds as follows:

To clarify, Mike Sacco was never an employee of Cryptozoic Entertainment. He was a contractor.

We asked him not represent himself as an employee of Cryptozoic. After the message was delivered, Mike quit. We like Mike and we are as surprised by his reaction as you are.

UPDATE 2: Mike's original tweet has been deleted, though you can still see what he said. He offers the following reason for the deletion:

Image Credit: The Crimson Hammer

It's possible that my first sexual relationship began just like yours. I met someone cute and we started talking on instant messenger, where we exchanged an embarrassing number of kissy face emoticons. We held hands at the high school football game, followed by a fumbling attempt at making out underneath the bleachers.

But this next part might be where our stories diverge: her parents leave the house and we steal away to her attic bedroom. We're finally alone. What's next? I discover that she has secreted away a shoebox in the corner of her closet, something special that she's been saving for this occasion. She carefully uncovers it while I stare eagerly over her shoulder.

Inside is a motley collection of leather straps ripped off of purses, jackets and shoes. Stripping her clothes off, she explains to me precisely how she wants me to use them. Put this one here and this one there. Connect this one to that one. Pull. Harder. She wants it to hurt.

My introduction to masochism was sudden and brutal, much like pain itself. But it also became a feature of my sex life ever since, whether I'm the one getting spanked or the one literally pulling the strings.

Over the last decade, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how my penchant for masochism intersects with my gaming habits. But in order to start talking about masochism and gaming, we need to think more deeply about the terminology often used in these kinds of conversations.

When we call ourselves "masochists" for enjoying games like Super Meat Boy and Trials Evolution, we're not telling the whole truth. It would be more correct to say that we're "switches," which is BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) lingo for individuals who can shift between sadistic and masochistic roles, between being the top and the bottom, or between being the domme and the sub.

Because games are interactive systems that require our input, we are simultaneously sadists and masochists when we play a "masocore" game like Super Meat Boy (masocore, as in, masochistic "genre," if there was such a thing.) We don't just sit on the couch passively while Team Meat punishes us; we actively press the buttons that deliver the shock. In BDSM language, Team Meat may have manufactured the harness, but we are the ones who strap ourselves in.

"Masochism" describes a complex phenomenon but, in our discussion of uncompromisingly difficult games like VVVVVV or Demon's Souls, we use the term loosely and only define it informally, if at all. For example, in Brendan Caldwell's survey of masocore platformers, it's not clear what he means by "masochism" apart from some vague sense of enjoying frustration. Each of the game designers he interviews offer their own, equally nebulous definitions of the term.

When we talk about masochism, we're implicitly talking about Freud. In Sigmund Freud's theory of sexuality, the libido—our energy for everything from life and work to sex—is inherently aggressive. Sadism, or "the desire to inflict pain upon the sexual object," is not some bizarre sexual perversion, it's a fairly "common" exaggeration of this natural sexual aggressiveness.

When we take a special delight in hunting down the same inexperienced Halo player over and over again, we're being good sadists.

Masochism, on the other hand, is the "reverse" of sadism. More precisely it is "sadism turned round upon the subject's own ego," or sense of self. Because Freud sees human sexuality as a contrast "between activity and passivity," he understands masochism as the passive form of sadism, less its opposite than its complement.

Sadism and masochism are two sides of the same coin. For Freud, masochists are just sadists who want to inflict pain on themselves but let someone else do the work for them. They want to sit back and enjoy the pain.

But video games blur the distinction between activity and passivity, between sadism and masochism. A game like Super Meat Boy is a system that is totally inert until we pick up the controller and press start. As soon as we do, we become the motors of our own masochism.

The interactivity of the video game medium becomes the vehicle through which we turn our sadism against ourselves. Because we subject ourselves to the pain, we're both sadists and masochists simultaneously.

Although we might curse the seeming sadism of the developers as our Meat Boys land time after time in the same pile of salt, we are the sadists every time we try again and the masochists every time we enjoy the numbing grind of perpetual failure.

Team Meat created the game, sure, but they aren't coming into our homes armed with whips to force us to play. Whatever pleasure Team Meat may take in the thought of our failure, our own sadism turned inward is what keeps us coming back to the same nigh impossible stages.

It shouldn't be surprising that "masocore" games require us to be sadists as well. As early as 1905, Freud observed that sadism and masochism "are habitually found to occur together in the same individual." What is surprising is that video games provide a unique platform for both sadism and masochism to be expressed at once.

Video games allow us, "switches" that we are, to be active and passive simultaneously, to be the agents of our own pleasurable pain. Echoing Thomas Jefferson's famous statement that "we are all Republicans, we are all Federalists," those of us who play "masocore" games are all sadists, all masochists, all at once.

It's 5:30 AM and my partner sleepily wanders into the TV room. I have just one achievement left in Trials HD: "Marathon." The description reads: "Complete the Ultimate Endurance tournament without any faults." Twenty tracks. Zero faults. I can't fall off the bike once.

At 3 AM, I had faulted on the 19th and penultimate track. It was devastating but I quickly transmuted my devastation into a determination to complete the tournament before allowing myself to sleep.

As she registers what I'm doing—-what I'm still doing—my partner's posture stiffens. She's irate but also deeply concerned. I haven't moved since she went to bed and now she has to leave for work in thirty minutes. She storms out of the room to get ready.

I sit there and, pathetically, I keep playing. I hate myself. I hate myself for letting this stupid achievement create friction in my relationship. I hate myself for not being good enough at the game. I hate the controller. I hate my sweaty hands. I hate the game. I hate the people who made it.

At 6:15 AM on December 7th, 2010, I maneuver my bike over the final obstacle of the final track. I feel terrible and hollow as I cross the finish line. I haven't slept or eaten in twelve hours. The apartment is quiet and my partner is gone.

But as "Achievement Unlocked" flashes on the screen, I feel strangely sick and satisfied all at once.

Samantha Allen is a transgender woman, an ex-Mormon and a PhD student in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University writing a dissertation on sexual fetishism. She has contributed to The Border House and is also an erstwhile singer-songwriter. You can find her on the web or on Twitter.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Surreal stages, events, or gameplay that somehow just don't fit have always been present, and even expected. Their crazy graphics, weird aesthetics and ideas make sure that we have absolutely no idea what's going on. But they have their charm, they are funny, or they're simply part of the experience—and so we love them.

We collected a bunch of them below.

Bad News in DmC

source: DmC Chapter 10

The Cardbridge In Alice: Madness Returns

source: Alice Wiki

The Nightmare Scenes In Max Payne

source: Max Payne's first nightmare

LSD Dream Emulator

source: LSD Dream Emulator Wiki

Inside The Red Dragon In Rayman Origins

source: Rayman Origins Dragon Trailer

Yume Nikki

source: Yume Nikki Wiki

The Space Harrier Stages In Bayonetta

source: Bayonetta Chapter 14

The Final Stage In Beautiful Katamari

source: superadamsworld's LP

Goro Majima's Karaoke Minigame In Yakuza: Dead Souls

source: Yakuza: Dead Souls - Goro Majima Karaoke

Stage 7 In Parodius

source: cubex55's LP

There are probably a lot more mind-cracking levels or games, so you should submit your own picks below (with visual support)!