"It ... is ... later ... than ... you ... think ... "

Chances are, you're already blitzed with plans for the evening. Lord knows there's enough groovy ghoulishness to go around tonight. But if you're stuck at home handing out candy to the kiddies (or if you're just too overwhelmed by the options, or too shiftless to even THINK about getting a costume together), here's a little treat for you.

In honor of Halloween, the Laser Orgy team has compiled a list of ten terrifying moments in video-games. Here’s the catch: all of these moments are from games that were not supposed to be scary. We’ll be baring it all and admitting which games made us shriek and fling the controller across the room when we were kids (okay, maybe as adults, too), so try not to make fun of us too much.

You can festoon your apartment with all the dollar-store cobwebbing you want, but it's atmosphere that'll make or break a good Halloween party. Over-the-top decor and a spot-on music playlists are, obviously, crucial. But we'd argue a few carefully chosen background visuals go a long way. After all, nothing makes a better conversation piece than an out-of-context, deeply WTF-inducing video clip caught out of the corner of your eye.

Halloween could be classed as the nation's most geek-friendly holiday, since it's the one day a year when you can cosplay without being judged. So, first things first: let's talk costumes.

SEGA has provided a detailed guide on how to cosplay Bayonetta; it's a bit early since the game hasn't come out yet, but prospective Bayonettas will appreciate the high-res pics they've provided of the costume's details.

Today, Microsoft opened the first in a chain of retail stores designed to mimic the success of the Apple Stores.

Mac and PC users alike arched their eyebrows when this was announced. PC users just don't have the same fanboyish love of Microsoft that Mac users have for Apple. Microsoft is status quo, not something to shout about.

Having never been to Boston's Comic Con before, I can't speak to what you should expect -- though their website should do the job for me. Compared to New York Comic Con's holy-shit-hugeness, Boston has a long way to go, but surely there are enough comic book fans in Beantown to beef up attendance and help the home team. Given the remarkably low price of $10 per day, even geeks strapped for cash have no excuse to not make an appearance at the Back Bay Events Center this weekend.

As an angry eldritch god pelts Worcester with foul globs of sleet, we thread our way through the DCU Center -- and what we find ain't pretty. The arcane items littering the tables in the dealers' row are slicked in blood and ichor (mostly the injection-molded plastic kind) or are emblazoned with phrases like "Tongue-Fucking A Torch-Melted Snatch" and "Killer Klown Lazer Katastrophe."

^{Photo via eyeonspringfield.tumblr.com}

Travis of 100 Scope Notes investigates librarian quirks in this charming list of "Things Librarians Fancy" -- and yes, he admits the idea is kinda-sorta inspired by this. If you know a librarian, or heck, if you've ever been to a library, you'll find yourself repeating "so true!" over and over.

And for the ladies who love literature, Tor.

When you’re done reading Mitch Krpata’s review of Uncharted 2 for this week, you should head over to his blog and check out his two follow-up posts about the game.

In other video-game-related news, apparently Dead Space: Extraction sold an embarrassingly low 9,000 copies in its first week of release.

According to Gus Mastrapa at Wired's Game | Life blog, passes for Penny Arcade Expo (or PAX), the gaming con for the rest of us, are available as of right now on PAX's site. PAX East will take place from March 26th - 28th, and $45 will get you a three-day pass. This will PAX's east-coast debut. No location is confirmed, but Hynes Convention Center seems like a reasonable guess.

The Venture Brothers season 4 premiere aired last night, and dorky followers rejoiced. Expectations were too maniacally high to be surpassed, but they were definitely met. If you weren’t waiting all summer to watch this as soon as it aired, get your fix here. Warning: Venture Brothers may cause disorientation if you aren’t caught up on your episodes -- so, get caught up.