We as consumers like to think that we get what we ask for -- like it's the "demand" part of supply and demand -- but sometimes maybe we shouldn't. Apparently, we asked for The Walking Dead versions of both Risk and Monopoly, because that's what USAopoly and Skybound are sending our way.

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Risk, the game of world domination, is pretty popular among geeks. If you're unfamiliar with the game, the board is a map of the world divided into territories, and the goal is to eliminate other players and occupy the entire world with your pieces. Vincenzo Cosenza's latest World Map of Social Networks, showing which social networks dominate which countries, looks an awful lot like a Risk board, and if it's any indication, Mark Zuckerberg is probably very good at the game.

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Game of Thrones, as a franchise, has become quite popular as of late. It even has its own dedicated board game from Fantasy Flight Games that is both ridiculously complicated and utterly fascinating. Apparently, Fantasy Flight's offering isn't good enough for everyone, though. One intrepid gamer, known only as Matt B., went so far as to commission a special handmade wooden version of the Westeros map for Risk from Fay Helfer. That thing should make for some interesting game sessions.

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RISK has changed. Instead of little plastic army men and cannons fighting over South America, players can now be little plastic private military corporation soliders led by Solid Snake, Liquid Ocelot, everyone's favorite replacement Raiden, and other notable figures from the Metal Gear Solid universe. The game includes over 290 custom game pieces, 5 PMC armies, 8 Bosses, an Outer Haven battleship, Drebin' Shop cards, territory cards, PMC headquarters, a custom Outer Haven game board, and 7 dice.

Only 2,014 copies of the limited edition Metal Gear Solid RISK will be made, so fans should probably pre-order a copy, with pre-orders opening on October 3 and last until November 15, or until supplies run out.

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Whether you love it or hate it, RISK has been a board game staple ever since its release. Over the weekend at Game Hack Day NYC, a team of seven people modded Foursquare and turned New York City into a giant game of RISK. Using Foursquare and Google Maps API, World of Fourcraft allows players to swear allegiance to one of New York City's five boroughs, then when a player checks into a borough, the game acts as though the player just put a new army on a territory, and an algorithm decides which team controls which neighborhood based on the number of people checking in. Ricky Robinett, a member of the World of Fourcraft team, felt Foursquare and RISK weren't addictive enough, and aims to add a leveling-up style feature that would make frequent users' checkins more effective at claiming and securing territories. As if Foursquare needed to get more addictive. Check out the game over at its website.

(World of Fourcraft via Mashable)

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Another day, another researcher trying to determine whether your cellphone is slowly killing you. This time it's the National Institute of Health's neuroscientist Dr. Nora Volkow who tracked glucose consumption in the brain during prolonged periods of cellphone use. Volkow points out that her approach attempted to be more comprehensive than previous cellphone studies by using a larger test group, 47 people, and longer rates  of cellphone exposure. In her study, Volkow introduced radioactively marked glucose into the test subjects, and then observed how that glucose was used in the brain via PET scan. Her report indicates that the brain did indeed absorb more glucose on the side of the head where the phone was active, a 7% increase in one area. Now, before you encase your phone in lead, or reject society and flee to the woods, let's let another neuroscientist give us some perspective.

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LitteBigPlanet 2 Gets Release Date, Cool Extras (El33t Online) 5 Sci-Fi Actors Who Were War Heroes in Real Life (NeatoGeek) The Anatomy of a Sarlacc (forgetfoo) DS Dating Game, Now Has Arcade Version (Kotaku) Bizzare Taiwanese News CGI Thing About Sarah Palin (NMANews) Risk on the iPhone (Joystiq) Blizzard Puts the Kibosh on SC2 Reviews Before Launch Day (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) (image via Comic Book Resources.)

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We thought you'd never ask!

For some reason, the rectangular shapes and smooth detailing of hobby board games -- especially those slightly abstract yet adorably representative Eurogames -- makes gamers long for the sweet, sweet taste of cake. Delicious cake.

And sometimes, those gamers happen to actually be good at baking! And to produce edible versions of the board games that, while not so arcane and complex as to be unplayable, are still obscure enough that playing them doesn't evoke memories of family Monopoly sessions.

So! Behold! Ten board games, presented in cake form!

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