The Brandford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis was founded in 1984 by inter-dimensional theorist Bradford Rant to study the possibility of intersecting alternate universes, and they may have finally hit pay dirt. They've been tracking mysterious LEGO pods that have been falling to Earth from origins unknown, apparently drawn to locations that contain a significant number of LEGO bricks and large amounts of imagination.

The scientists who maintain the Institute have set up a website to track the progress of their discoveries, having already posted a video documenting the discovery of the first pod, found in LEGOLAND Park in Denmark. That discovery only led to more questions. What are the mysterious words on the side of the pod? Why are the pilots so damn cheery? What does it all mean?

The next Pod is somewhere in North America. Can you help them find it?

This is obviously some sort of alternate reality game for some sort of LEGO product, and we've got a hunch that it could be for LEGO Universe, Net Devil's upcoming MMO. When you start talking LEGO and parallel universes, it's the logical conclusion to come to.

Visit the Bradford Rant Institute website yourself to see if you can help solve the mystery of the LEGO pod people.

Another reader Farnic (thanks Farnic!) sends this image, pointing out that the same image that appears in the Episodes from Liberty City also appears in Grand Theft Auto near Star Junction.

Make of it what you will, but do not make apple pie. You cannot make apple pie with this. Sorry, we already tried.

You should all know how this works by now, but just in case we'll explain. At 12:01AM Pacific time on Friday, August 28th, Amazon will post a special discounted video game deal as its Deal of the Day. Then starting at 6:00AM Pacific, a series of Lightning Deals will appear, each with a limited window of availability. Miss one, and it's gone forever, or until Amazon gets around to doing it again.

Of course we don't know what the games are yet. It could be something spectacular, or it could be Amazon clearing out its $19.99 Wii shovelware back stock. Been in the market for a cheap copy of Go Play Lumberjacks? Friday might be your big day!

All Video Games Gold Box Event [Amazon.com - thanks Bakushu!]

Half-Life 2 sound effects, references to Black Mesa, and music from the television show Lost lead many Half-Life fans to believe that this first-person "demo film" is something more than a fan-made homage to the game, and the movie's website certainly lends itself to that idea. Whatsinthebox.nl features a pulsing cube with a question mark, along with credits naming Tim Smit as the primary creator of the video. Tim Smit is a young Dutch man who once won appeared on the Discovery Channel program Mythbusters, debunking a myth about phone books. The website's title promises that "Soon the world will find out", while poking about in the CSS files we find the phrases "Every medium, as its ancestors" and "Every pro, has his anti's, now you think about that."

Further poking about reveals an image, found here, which highlights some numbers in red and offers several lines of text, which YouTube commentors have discovered come from a variety of scientific papers.

So what the hell is going on? Honestly we've got no clue. It certainly could be a viral video of some sort, especially with the Game Developers Conference just around the corner, or it could just be a special effects demo for an up and coming effects studio, referencing the Half-Life series out of sheer love.

We've contacted Valve for comment on the video, but for now we'll just have to struggle over the initial question: What's in the box?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Authorities at Nintendo are forecasting an extraordinary celestial event this season. Expected to be visible on Sept. 18, this eye-popping occurrence will be best viewed from a handful of specific U.S. locations (see below). Experts are still deliberating over the scientific significance of this rare phenomenon, but evidence points clearly to the reemergence of a luminous entity that citizens from all walks of life will appreciate.

Could it be the long-awaited official announcement of the Kirby Wii title that Hal Laboratories has been working on? Seeing as Kirby Super Star Ultra for the DS is scheduled for release four days later, I very much doubt it. Hit the jump to see if you live close enough to any of these places to find out for yourself!

One-of-a-Kind Celestial Event Expected in September

Spectacular, Star-Filled Display Will Be Visible From Earth at Select Locations

WHAT:
Authorities at Nintendo are forecasting an extraordinary celestial event this season. Expected to be visible on Sept. 18, this eye-popping occurrence will be best viewed from a handful of specific U.S. locations (see below). Experts are still deliberating over the scientific significance of this rare phenomenon, but evidence points clearly to the reemergence of a luminous entity that citizens from all walks of life will appreciate.

WHO:
Fun-seeking families and anyone who loves a spectacular event

WHEN:
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008

Peak Viewing Hours:
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. C.D.T.
9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. E.D.T.

WHERE:
Optimum viewing locations are as follows and within a one-mile radius:

— Kirby Middle School - 1328 28th Street, Birmingham, AL 35234
— Kirby Historical Mill - 275 Church Road, Medford, NJ 08055
— Kirby Park - 301 Northampton Street, Kingston, PA 18704
— Kirby Gate Shopping Center - 6548 Quince, Memphis, TN 38119

What else has changed? The increased details around the eye area seem to rule out the Death Knight...the shape of the nose piece is wrong and there are no etched runes there. In fact, the whole thing feels more biological than anything, despite the straight line to the right where the cheek would be. Leaning towards Protoss now more than ever, though I wouldn't put it past Blizzard making a new Diablo image that coincided with the traits of the other two, just to throw us off.

We'll know for sure in a few hours! Until then we can only ponder the secrets the new winking smiley-face rune holds within. It's almost over folks!

Hit the jump for comparison pictures and decide for yourself, and get a look at the full secret pic revealed!

The reason I am leaning Protoss mainly lies in the shape of the bit between the eyes, which in my opinion matches the Protoss much better than it does the Death Knight.

Then again, look at the frost emanating from the eyes. Seems to emulated the eyes of the Death Knight, and the glow even matches up.

Does this mean no Diablo III? Well, not exactly. It could very well mean that the splash page image has nothing to do with the new game being announced, lining up instead with the release date for Wrath of the Lich King or StarCraft 2. The more we see the less we seem to know. Fun, eh?

The secret images are indeed the Lost numbers, as I speculated yesterday. Now 8 joins the previously revealed 4, 15, 16, and 23, and 42.jpg is in there as well, though not commented out in the CSS file. Finally, the secret picture revealed: It's a purple penguin. Okay then. Great. I have no earthly clue. I'm just going to type Lost Vikings here because I like seeing it.

All of this, and a brand new snowflake rune for us to wonder over. Join us tomorrow when this whole damn thing actually makes some sort of sense.

And where did those Vikings get off to? I cannot seem to find them anywhere?

Then there is the question of the latest rune, which I cannot seem to place. It looks like a solar system, doesn't it? I've been pouring over Blizzard stuffs but cannot for the life of me place it. I checked out various Diablo-fan forums to see if anyone had a clue before the sheer number of people fooling themselves into seeing things that weren't there made me too frustrated to continue. When you want something so badly you start deluding yourself you just need to take a step back and relax a little before people start looking at you funny.

Finally, here is the secret picture as it stands now, with four images in place. It's quite obvious to me now that we're dealing with an eggplant with tiny feet, a tail, and a mohawk.

Two more days and we'll know for sure, and then I can finally get some sleep. Damn you Blizzard. Damn you to hell.

They've also uploaded another portion of the puzzle-piece picture, this time numbered 23. With 'W' being the 23rd letter of the alphabet, the popular theory that the picture numbers would end up spelling out Diablo 3 is also shot, unless they've got Barbara Walters announcing it. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Diobwo 3!”

Here's what the hidden picture is looking like so far: If it's Barbara Walters in a purple fur hoodie the Diablo theorists are still on track to win this one!

(Well, pretty sure Blizzard does. Good for Blizzard.)

A few minutes later I received a reply: "At 3:30 a black car will arrive to your house to pick you up. The mission should take no longer than three hours." Three hours, eh? What the hell, I went ahead and cleared my schedule for the afternoon and got ready to embark.

At 3:30 on the dot I went outside and lo and behold, there was a black car with a card with my name on it in the window. Not only was the car out there at the assigned time, but they had managed to get a parking spot right in front of my house. If you know anything about parking in San Francisco, you'll know that this is no mean feat, especially in the Mission. My driver was waiting by the car and told me he would be taking me to my destination as he opened the door for me to get in. I looked and made sure the door locks hadn't been sawed of and got in.

We drove all the way across town and eventually ended up at Fort Mason Center out by the water. If you've ever seen the movie Copy Cat you'll have an idea of where this is. We drove over by the firehouse and the car stopped. The driver told me to go get the information case and return to the car. As I got out, I saw a large metal briefcase type deal sitting in the middle of the pavement. I got out and grabbed it and returned to the car. Inside was a postcard of Coit Tower and instructions to direct the driver to take me there.

Once we were on our way to Coit Tower, the driver received a phone call and then informed me that he had new orders and a new destination for us. What else could I do but say yes? Didn't seem like I had too much of a choice. So I sat and watched the city slide by the windows as we passed Pier 39 and wound our way through The Embarcadero. We finally arrived in a very warehouse-y area down by Third Street and Twentieth where the driver told me it was time to get out of the car. We had reached the final destination.

I took my case, got out of the are and was greeted by a fellow who welcomed me to the assignment and asked if i had any idea what this was all about. I admitted that I didn't but that I had some ideas. We walked into a nearby warehouse and started making our way up the service elevator and through the halls towards the final reveal.

We arrived in front of a door which was opened for me and I entered wondering what I would find. As some of you speculated in the comments of my previous articles, the whole thing turned out to be for... the new Bourne Conspiracy game. Three of the developers from High Moon Studios were there to discuss the project with me and show me a little bit of what it was all about. Unfortunately I can't say much about what I saw as the information is under embargo until the 28th. But I can tell you that I liked what I saw and that The Bourne Conspiracy isn't your run of the mill action game. I saw four different areas covering the various game mechanics including a driving level.

Once my talk with the guys form High Moon was finished, I was escorted back to the front of the place where my driver was waiting for me. I was giving a digital voice recorder that contained my entire interview with the developers (had I known I wouldn't have taken all those notes!) and the case was given back to me although it was slightly heavier than before.

As we drove away, I opened the case to find a ton of swag including a mini-backpack (you can never have too many bags) a flashlight, a 2gig USB drive hidden in a black rubber bracelet, a Sony MP3 player containing some of the music from the game, a game fact sheet/booklet and of course the case itself which looks like it would comfortably fit an Xbox 360. Also included was what I thought to be the most clever addition, a dossier on me that included my name, known associates and habits. It was odd some of the things they knew about me, but then again, on the internet your life is an open book. Attached to the dossier was four large black and whit photos, two of me coming out of my house to meet the car and another two of me picking up the case at Fort Mason Center. It was really quite the clever and ingenious marketing ploy and I must admit that I, like many of you, was completely sucked in.

All in all it was not a terrible way to spend a Tuesday afternoon and I was told that even more would be revealed to me today at Sierra's Editor's Day here in SF. Again, everything I see will be embargoed until the 28th, but judging from the line-up, there will be plenty to talk about when that day finally rolls around.

I hope you've enjoyed unraveling this little mystery with along me. Agent De Marco over and out.

A driver has been assigned to escort you to dead drop point. Confirm pick up name for driver. Standby on April 8 at 1700 for pick up.

A driver? At 5pm on April 8? Hmmm. I'm not really one to just get into car sent by a stranger, but I am dedicated to finding out what this is all about. Seeing as I have documented this entire experience for all to see, if I end up dead in a gutter it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who did it. Please just have "He took one for the team" engraved on my tombstone.

"Accommodation address secured. Mission Accepted. Standby on March 24 for further instructions. Date of final mission: April 8."

Seeing as none of the other staff members got one, I'm hoping this isn't some sort of bomb sent by a rival blog to take me out, but I must say I'm rather intrigued. Chances are it's for a cell phone game, but I'm crossing my fingers that it's going to be something really cool. Anyone care to speculate?

The existence of so many things hidden in the game that don't have to be found lends the game a certain quality, one best described as verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is a useful word to use in describing video games .... Properly used, the word means that there seems like there is a world outside the borders of the screen, happening regardless of what the player does. It implies the existence of a fully-fleshed world, one that's more than a mere collection of polygons or tiles that might as well be sealed in Plexiglas. It allows a game to better enable the player to forget that it is, really, just a game.

An interesting trip down memory lane and has some interesting connections to current and future game design.

Game Design Essentials: 20 Mysterious Games [Gamasutra]

It seems that EA is putting out a new Simpsons game in what I can only assume will be a tie in with the upcoming movie. Going to this page on EA's website, we are presented with a classic Simpson's yellow screen featuring the title "XXII" done in a mock GTA IV style. Underneath is a counter using the now famous Matt Groening font that is counting down the time, which at the writing of this article was down to exactly four days. So, by Wednesday afternoon we should be treated to some kind of announcement having to do with this mysterious game.

This better not be some sort of Island of Rhodes fiasco where on Wednesday the clock just rolls over to add two more days on. Although, if that did happen it would be pretty damned funny and I'm sure I would laugh heartily after throwing my laptop across the room. Flynn De Marco

We found the Pribyl boy. He is in Illinois holed up with crazed gamers. We found him because of my going public and good police work. Tell your sycophantic, panting audience that.

In the end everything turned out all right. The MMORPG player had called his parents on Tuesday night to assure them he was okay. He was visiting a female gamer he had met online, and as many male gamers will agree, a chance at sweet lovin' always wins out over common sense.

What intrigues me the most about this story is the odd team up of SOE, GamePolitics, and J-Money, who I am sure was in no way influenced by the lure of free publicity. Sure, the Florida lawyer seems to hate us crazed gamers, but maybe deep down under that gruff and manly exterior he cares for us, and just wants to make sure we are safe and sound.

Could this incident lead to a more industry / rabid lawyer collaborations? In a perfect world, JT and the games industry use this experience as a launching pad for a super team of mystery solving adventurers. I imagine it would be something like this...

SOE, GamePolitics, Jack Thompson in Search for Missing Gamer [GamePolitics]

GameStop is holding a Guitar Hero 2 contest on February 3, 2007 at select GameStop stores. This appeared as a feature in one of their newsletters, but oddly, very little information is available at the moment. There's no mention of what the prizes are, but they certainly have no problem with advertising how much the game is. I would venture to guess that a copy of the game will be one of the prizes, although, if you're good enough to compete in a contest, one would assume you already own a copy. Gibson is listed as one of the sponsors, so let's hope that a REAL guitar will be included as well.

To officially register you must do so at an actual store, but seeing as they don't tell you which stores are actually hosting the events, you'll have to call your local GS store and check. A call to my GS was met with a curt, "I have no idea what you're talking about" and then a dial tone. Nice. There's a page on their site where you can sign up to receive "more information", but my sneaking suspicion is that it will just sign you up for their newsletter. This line sort of gave that away...

Click the Submit button below to sign up for more information and receive news and exclusive offers from GameStop. By clicking below you acknowledge that any information you submit may be used for marketing purposes.

I will be investigating this further as soon as I can get a hold of an employee who actually has any information. Until then it will be a contest shrouded in rock and roll mystery.... Flynn De Marco

If you have a Wii, you probably have noticed there isn't such a thing in the box. That's because Nintendo managed to pre-load that software on the console before they started shipping. Well almost every. At least one reader emailed us to let us know his won't work because it wants a start-up disc. Which means he's going to have to return it.

Here's Nintendo's wording on the whole startup disc dealio.

The boxes in question (the ones that referenced a startup disc) are early-production boxes that were being used for display purposes only. The final Wii product boxes will not have any disc other than the free copy of Wii Sports, and the final packaging will not contain a reference to the startup disc.

So there you go, one mystery solved. Brian Crecente

In this vaguely unsettling clip from G4, Attack of the Show host Kevin Pereira exorcises his desperate frustrations at being constantly mocked by the entirety of the gaming establishment by beating the everloving snot out of a defenseless DS Lite.

The segment is framed as a sarcastic attack on the large number of people who are having hinge-cracking issues. Thanks for the plug, G4, but I'm completely at a loss as to what Pereira's point is.

That the Lite is flimsy? I don't think so...he really used some force on that thing. That Lite owners are whiny? I'm not seeing it. The hinges are definitely cracking; this isn't just some made-up FUD. That he's so rich and macho he can destroy neat toys like that and laugh his cruel laugh? Could be...maybe his female co-host got so flustered by his silverback display that she showed him what the Touch Generation was all about. Maybe he just thought it would be funny. But I don't get it.

Did anyone see the rest of this episode? Can you shed any light on what the hell was going on here? It's okay...we won't tell anyone you watch G4. Thanks, Joe and Eric. Eliza Gauger

After some embarassing guesses like Beat Takeshi and Takeshi Miike, it appears the mysterious Leopard Print Man has been identified and he is, apparently, Itou Ashura Benimaru, another Nintendo musician with a flairish penchant for pulling off improbable fashion statements. According to Mobygames, he appears to have done the soundtracks for Super Smash Bros. and Earthbound. And we even have a 2 hour video clip of him hosting Mario & Zelda Live for you guys to enjoy. Embarassingly, we've posted this video before, but didn't recognize him despite all that. Thanks to Chris S. for his sleuthing!

Previously: Seen At E306: Mysterious Leopard Print Man Plays Wii