I recently had the honor of traveling to that big chunk of country north of the U.S.A. called Canada to check out EA Black Box’s new Need for Speed title coming out later this year.

Need for Speed: Undercover will be hitting next-gen systems with some improvements that gamers have been clamoring for, but I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about smokin’ hottie Maggie Q. (Click on picture to embiggen.)

Maggie has been tapped (tee-hee) to star in full-motion video sequences of Need for Speed Undercover. In the game, your character acts as an undercover officer trying to infiltrate the world of illegal street racing and take down an international crime syndicate. (How come all international crime syndicates also illegally race cars? Isn’t that sort of a red flag?)

Maggie acts as your only liaison to the outside world. The only person who knows your true secret. She, like, totally gets you, man. You’ll be running from the cops and nefarious gangsters as the story progresses. I guess there are a lot of less attractive people who could be helping you, glad to see they picked Ms. Q.

It is evident in the full-motion footage that I caught that Black Box is going for broke in this game. The FMV sequences are being directed by Joseph Hodges and being shot in Los Angeles. Real Hollywood actors for a real Hollywood “feel.” (Is real Hollywood an oxymoron?)

The majority of racers out there come with 0% plot, of course, sometimes plot really doesn’t matter (Burnout Paradise, for example) but I think the story behind NFS Undercover could be the key to the game’s success. (And Maggie Q breaks are good for the soul.)

It’s really good to see game companies going to the people who excel at story and production value to produce the plot behind their games. It’s steps like this that will drive the truly next-gen games forward. I mean, look how far we’ve come since Night Trap.

I’ve got some more info on NFS Undercover, but I’m under embargo until the 20th, so check back then for more information on the game. Also, keep your eyes peeled for some information on the achievements in the game, I’ve spoken with some of their top guys to get some cool stuff locked down for you guys. Check back soon for more.

Yes, that is two Sega CD references in a week.

Time for our third weekly update! Third time is the charm.

So today we have two neat things for you guys. Would you like to know what they are? That’s handy, because I was just about to tell you.

1. The Blog

We’ve updated our home page yet again (when haven’t we, that’s the real question) to add a new feature: The Blog. This is a brand new section of the website that aggregates journals from all of the staff members into one awesome read.

The idea for this stemmed from the original Red vs. Blue website homepage, that did act as more as a blog. However in the new days, when journals came about, the home page kind of lost the wacky fun that we would write about. No more!

You can even add the blog to your watchlist if you like, so you can get alerted any time a staff member posts a journal in the site header, so you’ll be alerted much faster than the regular watch method.


2. Moderator Nominations

This one’s more of a big deal. Our forums are in desperate need of some new staffing. Watching a TV show this week made me realise just how understaffed we are (not really, but that would have been a great epiphany).

We’re holding nominations for users who you think would be great moderators in specific forums only. For example, I could nominate Geoff as a moderator for the Television forum, and that would be his territory. However, I would never nominate Geoff, because he’s useless.

Go ahead and start voting. The deadline is Thursday at 11am Central. Wow, I feel like Ryan Seacrest already.

Happy Friday Everyone,
I’ve been looking around the internet lately (as I’m prone to do), and there seems to be a lot of confusion over the “Scorpion’s Sting” Achievement in Soul Calibur IV. Well not any more. I went ahead and threw this little walkthrough together to show you just how easy it actually is to get.

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Alright…I do believe with this walkthrough I can completely wash my hands of the Eragon game. I’ve 1000/1000 on achievements in it…there is nothing left for me. Thank god.

If you are looking to get an easy 1000/1000, feel free to take a stab at it…the game is super easy, just a bit too long for my tastes. Two playthroughs will net you all the achievements. Finally I can drop this and move on to Deadliest Catch….uggg…

Geoff’s crabs are bitey.

It’s sorta like Quidditch with gigantic gravity-warping hammers. Also, no broomsticks!

So today or tomorrow is the second anniversary of RT Comics (I can’t keep it straight). I guess that means it’s time to get working on another book. In leu of gifts, just send hookers and booze.