It's not actual gameplay. There's no HUD, no mouse cursor. But at least give Creative Assembly credit for releasing a cutscene for Total War: Rome II that's made up entirely of in-game assets, something they did to good effect in Shogun 2.

As this series evolves, I get the feeling Creative Assembly are some of the only people, alongside Firaxis, Blizzard and Relic, who understand that the key to making better strategy games isn't necessarily in messing with the fundamentals—strategy games have been on top of those for years, thanks—but their presentation.

Rome II, the first new Total War game to be released since 2011's Shogun 2, will be out on PC in October.

Cartoonist Stephen Lester is "currently on a mission to fill his home with vintage video games and video game memorabilia". Part of that involves his guest bathroom, which is becoming a themed shrine to Valve's Portal series.

Colour-coded and filled with merch, it's... certainly... something. Especially since I'm pretty sure that's a talking Cave Johnson portrait. Which, I don't know, could cause some people problems.

Portal Bathroom [Viva Las Segas, via Gamefreaks]

Crowsmack has the walls of Dark Souls fans in mind with these two vintage-inspired posters based on the game, which are available as prints here.

Dave Bolton is a concept artist who has worked for 343 Studios, ArenaNet and Hourglass Studios. So we're about to get a look at some fantastic art from, among other things, Halo 4 and Guild Wars.

If you like what you see, you can check out loads more at Dave's personal site and CGHub page (thanks Concept Root!)

Artist Finni Chang does what Nintendon't. Pairing the pocket monsters with Nobunaga's Ambition was a total waste when they could have been combined with Zelda instead.

These sweet-as-pie illustrations are, if you're that into them, also available as prints. $15 will get you one, while $25 will get you all three.

Legend of Zelda x Pokemon!! [Finni Chang]

id Software legend John Carmack doesn't just work technical wonders and make great games. He also spends a lot of time (and money) on Armadillo Aerospace, an amateur outfit that is trying to make a space rocket that, instead of flying into space never to be seen again, can be re-used.

Last month, Armadillo's latest rocket, the STIG B-III, blasted off from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, near the site Virgin Galactic hopes to build the world's first commercial starport.

Building on the team's experiences with past rockets, STIG B-III, as you can see, started off pretty well, before a tiny and random fault—due to a small metal ring—sent things spiralling off on a one-way-ticket to a hard landing and impressive fireball.

Not that this is something to dwell on. Rockets explode in space exploration all the time, even those built by national governments with billion-dollar space programs. The cool thing here is the progress being made by a small but enthusiastic team, who are displaying a passion for the next frontier at a time when the US government is displaying anything but.

You can check out the full mission report, if you're interested, below.

STIG B-III mission, January 5, 2013 [Armadillo Aerospace]

My wife asked me this the other day, and what I thought was a pretty inane question actually turned into an absolute mind-tearer. Why? Because I wouldn't take my favourite game.

That game is Wind Waker. I love it with every ounce of my heart, but faced with the prospect of playing only one game for weeks, months or maybe even years at a time (my desert island has power but no internet, OK?), I had to pause. It's my favourite game, sure, but it's far from the one I play the most.

In fact, I don't think I've played through it in the last five years. I'm even getting hazy on plot specifics. The impact it made on me at release was profound, one that may never be beaten, but it's just not something I replay over and over, nor is it something I put on when I've got a rainy day to myself.

That's different to, say, my favourite comic. Or movie. Or album. Of those, the ones I've consumed the most are my favourites. That's why I've consumed them the most.

If I had to take one game away, though, it would probably be Empire: Total War. I've played over 400 hours of it since release, and when you add the 300+ I've spent on its sequel Napoleon: Total War, you can see I have a love for sending colourful men with muskets to their deaths. I can spend entire days playing this game, and regardless of how much I've played previously, I just keep coming back for more.

The reason it's on constant repeat, and Wind Waker isn't, is because of its narrative. I don't play games for challenge, or competition. I play games for escape, for story, for immersion in another world, and the fact Wind Waker's was so enjoyable and so complete played a big part in why I love it. But the second time you play it, you're playing the same story. The game doesn't change.

Total War, on the other hand, builds you a new "narrative" every single time you play it. Each alliance, invasion and conquest writes a new story, one that will only play out once. The King of France might be your sworn enemy one game, your best friend the next. It's a structure shared by games like Crusader Kings II and Civilization, which explains why I love those to death as well. Each playthrough is like an all-new story, one you're writing with each turn.

Comparing the two games, and why I've played one so much more than the other, has been an interesting exercise. One that's got me reconsidering my criteria for how I determine what my "favourite" video game really is. Simply comparing playtime is crude and ineffective; of more use was looking at why I spent way more time with Empire than I did with Wind Waker.

In the end, I couldn't budge. Empire may have a stranglehold on my spare time, but I couldn't sit you down in a bar and shout at you—like some current and former Kotaku writers can attest—about how "fucking magical" it is like I can with Wind Waker. That passion is about as good a criteria as any to keep Nintendo's adventure at the top of my charts.

What about you guys? Do you play Pokémon every day but prefer Deus Ex? Pass your train ride with Temple Run but still saddle up with Skyrim? If so, ever ask yourself why?

Zachariah Cruse, the same guy responsible for that awesome replica Zelda chest from a few years back, has built plenty more cool nerd props, from working Pip-Boy 3000s to custom Game Boys.

My favourites, though, might be these Avengers Xbox 360 mods, turning Microsoft's console into something Captain America and Iron Man could enjoy.

Not only are they great paintjobs, but each has a bit of custom flair; Cap's features a metal shield (raised so as not to block the fans) while Tony Stark's lights up just like his arc reactor.

Zachariah Perry [Official Site]

Yep, there have been enough movies to do something like this. In 2010, Multimedia artist Christian Marclay created "The Clock," a 24-hour long film installation cut together from clips of time passing in movies. This clip, via Boing Boing, was shot HLF Films at an exhibit of the piece. They make this suggestion:

In order to respect the concept of Christian Marclay's work, spectators are kindly requested to play this video at 0.04 pm, local time. If time is passed, please wait for tomorrow or another day same time. Thank you.

That may seem over the top, but bear in mind that this is a very small piece of a massive work, and that the work itself plays in line with local time. It's coming to the SF MOMA on April 6, and I am totally going to go check it out. Though probably not for 24 straight hours.

Everyone doing well? Having a good week? It's already almost Friday. Time flies when you're having fun. Feel free to talk clocks, movies, time, or whatever else, here or over in the Talk Amongst Yourselves forum.

Andrew Mason is the CEO and founder of Groupon, a deal-of-the-day website. Or well, he was—he was fired recently. Notifying the Groupon staff about his departure in an email, he made a ridiculously specific video game reference to Battletoads, which Wired breaks down for us.

Mason wrote:

I'm OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through.

What does that even mean? If you recall, Battletoads is an infamously hard video game. It's often referenced as the most difficult video game ever, actually.

Wired's Chris Kohler muses two possibilities for Mason's comment:

1. To get to the Terra Tubes on one's first try, having never played the game before, would be a Herculean, almost impossible, achievement. Therefore, getting this far with Groupon was in and of itself either a colossal feat of genius or a lucky miracle, depending on how charitably you want to interpret the metaphor.

2. Dying on the Terra Tubes, which are designed to make you die over and over, is no shameful thing.

You can read a more specific breakdown here, but aside from that, all that's left is choosing how you interpret Mason's statement. If nothing else, I'm sure that we can all agree that it's an interesting metaphor that most staff members probably didn't get.

What Ousted Groupon CEO's Battletoads Reference Meant [Wired]