An Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign to create an ad blitz (some are calling it a harassment campaign, and in incredibly poor taste given the current climate on social media) for the sole purpose of pressuring Valve Software to get Half-Life 3 into the hands of its fans, has launched. While the game has long been rumored to be in development at Valve, the company has never confirmed its existence.

"Hatred," a new game from Polish game developer Destructive Creations, sounds like it was written to give parents nightmares and politicians the kind of fodder they crave to criticize the gratuitous and violent nature of games. While the video released today for the game is ultra violent, the description of the game on its official web site drives home that point even more:

According to Time's Techland, flight attendants are suing to reinstitute a ban on using electronics during flights. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the largest union representing flight attendants in the United States, filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday, saying that the federal agency should have upheld a ban on the use of smartphones and tablets during takeoff and landing.

A new study from Florida State University finds that Portal 2 might be better at "brain training" than software designed specifically for the task.

An MCV report claims that - according to information it received from an anonymous retail source - Xbox One sales jumped 155 percent week-on-week to beat out the PS4 in the United Kingdom. This, the source claims, was due to a price cut for the Xbox One in the region and the release of FIFA 15, which managed to top the UK video game software charts during the week in question.

You know you are starting to get a bad reputation when you have to assure customers that your "game will work" at launch. That is what Visceral Games is saying today about Battlefield Hardline, the company's militarized police versus dangerous criminals shooter. The spin-off game based ever-so-loosely on DICE's popular military shooter series is being developed by Dead Space creators Visceral Games, in case you didn't know.

Comcast has a popular argument it likes to use when discussing the proposed merger between it and Time Warner Cable with the FCC: since it doesn't compete against TWC in any city or town in the United States, there's no harm in approving the deal.

The Sims 4 modders are certainly proving to be a creative bunch, allowing players to do everything from filling in gameplay holes to adding new features into the game. Of course, sometimes people make mods to allow the game to do things that are a little bit questionable, as highlighted in this Kotaku report.

A video on YouTube titled "Grand Theft Auto: Salil al-Sawarem," (roughly translated from Arabic to English as 'the sound of swords coming together') made the rounds this weekend. The video is being attributed to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (which we have not been able to independently verify), promising a new video game about fighting Western forces in Iraq and Syria.

This Imgur! page suggests that the code powering Hyperkin's RetroN 5 borrows liberally from several open sourced emulators. Hyperkin's RetroN 5 is an all-in-one console system that lets consumers play games for NES, Famicom, SNES, Super Famicom, Genesis, Mega Drive, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, & Game Boy Advance. It features enhanced resolutions, HDMI output, improved sound, screenshot capture capabilities, and the ability to create and load saves states on demand.

Verizon has long opposed net neutrality rules and was one of very few companies to sue the FCC in Federal court. Ultimately it prevailed, with the D.C. District court ruling that the FCC did not have the authority to enforce them because broadband and wireless service providers were not classified as common carriers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. It has also spent - according to San Francisco-based data firm Quid - $100 million to lobby Congress on net neutrality since 2009.

Cleve Blakemore, the man behind Grimoire: Heralds of the Dark Exemplar (a game that has been in development since 1997, by some accounts) is threatening to file a trademark dispute with Kickstarter if developer OmniConnection does not shut down its crowdfunding campaign for its similarly named game, Grimoire.

Marin County, California District Attorney Ed Berberian's office is co-sponsoring a toy and videogame trade-in program alongside the Center for Domestic Peace and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream in the month of October. The DA's office is co-sponsoring the event because it found great success with a similar buyback program for real guns two years ago. That firearm buy-back program saw people line up to sell an estimated 857 weapons for a total of more than $100,000. The funds for that program came from donations and $40,000 provided by county supervisors.

If you missed Saturday's live broadcast of Super Podcast Action Committee (Episode 114), you can watch the video replay on YouTube or download it below.

Update: Genna Bain, CEO and Managing Director of The Cynical Brit, points out in a tweet that Youtuber TotalBiscuit is actually the first shoutcaster to get O-1 visa (thanks to Matthew Wilson for the tip):

Not trying to take anything away from Benson @gamespot, but @totalbiscuit got his O-1 visa as a shoutcaster to work for IGN 2 years ago.

According to this GameSpot report, legal representatives for former WWE wrestler CM Punk (real name, Phil Brooks) are in talks with WWE officials to sort through a number of unsettled issues - including CM Punk's inclusion in 2K Games' upcoming WWE-branded wrestling game WWE 2K15. According to the report, which cites "sources connected to the matter," CM Punk is upset over being included in 2K's upcoming game.

According to what GamesBeat describes as "a credible source who is close to the matter," Ouya is in preliminary talks about a possible acquisition or investment in the company.

YouTube's most popular personality PewDiePie has decided that, going forward, he will turn off comments on all of his videos. In his latest video he explains in great detail why he thinks comments on his videos are mostly useless and an aggravation to deal with.

"I go to the comments, and it's mainly spam, it's people self-advertising, people that are trying to provoke, people who reply to all these...just all this stuff that, to me, it doesn't mean anything," he says in the video.

Grand Theft Auto V maker Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive responded to Lindsay Lohan's lawsuit in a Manhattan Court filing on Tuesday. The companies said in their response to Lohan's lawsuit that the Hollywood star "filed [the lawsuit] for publicity purposes." They also called the lawsuit frivolous.

They are asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit and for Lohan to pay its legal fees.

Prior to yesterday's announcement that Amazon had purchased Twitch, the prevailing rumor was that Google was going to snap up the video streaming service for over $1 billion.

A new report from Re/code featuring data from a recent Nielsen study seems to indicate that console brand loyalty isn't all it's cracked up to be...

According to the Nielsen study, 31 percent of PlayStation 4 owners already owned an Xbox 360 or Wii, but not a PlayStation 3. Around 17 percent didn't have any of the last generation consoles.

Ahmed Muthana, the father of two ISIS members fighting in the Middle East (Nasse and Aseel Muthana), claims that Jihadist in Britain lured his children into the cause using Call of Duty.

According to research firm DFC Intelligence, 92 percent of all PC game sales across the world were digital in 2013. Speaking to PCR , the firm also said that it expects this number to increase in the years to come. DFC said earlier this year that the PC games market had surpassed the console gaming sector in terms of total revenues.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable have pulled $132,000 in donations from an event honoring a current FCC commissioner, according to Ars Technica. Earlier this week the news that the donation was being given to the dinner honoring FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn set off a firestorm of accusations that the companies who would like to become one giant ISP were trying to buy Clyburn's vote on the proposed merger.

Speaking to Computer & Video Games at Gamescom this week, PlayStation EU boss Jim Ryan said that Sony is not chasing third-party exclusives. With all the talk surrounding Rise of the Tomb Raider being a one year exclusive on Xbox One this week, it's not surprising that media outlets want to know what Sony thinks about the situation. The short answer is that it seems to be voicing a disinterest is securing third-party exclusives for PlayStation 4.

What are the most pirated games state-by-state? According to data collected by Movoto (as detailed by GamesBeat), the most popular game to download illegally from filesharing sites in the United States is Ubisoft's Watch Dogs. By state, Watch Dogs was downloaded the most in Washington, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and a host of other states. It is by far the most pirated game in many regions in the country.

The future looks bright for Kinect if you believe Phil Harrison, corporate VP at Microsoft. Despite the separation of the motion sensing camera device from the Xbox One at retail earlier this year and a real lack of news about third-party developers supporting it, Harrison tells IGN that there's no need to worry about the Kinect's future despite the lack of big screen time at the Gamescom Xbox media briefing earlier this week.

Kim Kardashian appeared on NBC's morning program The Today Show  to defend her ultra popular mobile title Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Last week New York Times best-selling author Ayelet Waldman took to Twitter to lambaste Kardashian, blaming her for her son spending $120 in the game for virtual goods. Waldman called her an "evil scumbag."

2008 Republican presidential candidate and current governor of Texas Rick Perry used some interesting language in a speech at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa on Saturday. Perry seems to be throwing out hints about a possible run at the presidency in 2016. In his speech Perry said that he is ready to be sent "somewhere."

"Here am I. Send me," Perry said in a speech at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames on Saturday, quoting from the book of Isaiah. "That is your challenge. That is our challenge."