Need For Speed: UnderCover Ep.11

Well, this time the post will be mixed. First of all let's see the recent updates regarding Need for Speed. As you might know (or not), EA has a tradition of failing to stick to its' own promises. They said they'll update their microsites every Thursday with 6 new cars and new articles regarding Tri-City (for the Gazette). Thursday went and the microsites weren't updated till late Friday, the Gazette was indeed updated with 2 new articles, but the big disappointement came from the Car Lot. Only 3 cars revealed. Two of which were already known, the third was hinted by many. These are:

'08 Audi S5

'07 Lexus IS-F

'07 Nissan GT-R

Apart from these, the minimum system requirments were revealed:

• Windows XP and VISTA with latest service pack installed
• Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) CPU running at 2.8GHz or higher (3.0GHz if running Windows Vista)
• 1GB RAM
• Geforce 6500, Radeon 9500 or better DirectX compliant video card with Pixel shader 2.0 or above (AGP and PCIe only) using a supported chipset
• DirectX compatible sound card
• 8X or faster DVD Drive
• 2.0 GB of HD space required to install game (this is a bit weird as 2 Gb are not enough. It might be an error but nothing else so far has been released to possibly correct it)
• DirectX Nov 2007 edition (included)
• To play online a network card is required for broadband connectivity

If you have time, go to this link (click here) and read the Q&A with one of UnderCover's Producer.

Next to the second thing. If you are a Formula 1 / Motorsport afficianado then you must have watched Sintec Formula 1 GrandPrix of Singapore. Why? Only because it's the first ever night race of Formula 1 since it's beginnings. Everything seemed boring. The circuit is not made for take-over manouvers, being compared with Valencia and Monte Carlo. Ferrari was the most advantaged with Massa starting from P1 and Raikkonen from P3. Hamilton sliced the Italian salami, being in P2. Kovalainen started in P5 behind Kubica. All seemed clear right from the start. Well it was till Piquet planted his car in a sidewall forcing the Safety Car to deploy. This saw every little strategy being tossed away. In a very familiar way, Massa took off from the pits with the refueling pump (so far Raikkonen did it 2 times as I recall, man it sucks being the refueling man at that team) earning himself almost 20+ seconds as he waited for the pump to be removed from his car and another 25 seconds as a penalty for unsafe pit stop and hampering with another car (the one in front of which Massa got out). This meant he was at the bottom end of the standings earning no points. Raikkonen did it in his own way going straight into the wall while forcing Glock to make a mistake. He did this 4 laps before the end. That must really suck. So Ferrari go away empty-handed. Hamilton finishes third with Kovalainen 10th. McLaren Mercedes takes the lead of the Constructor's Championship. But who won the race? The guy who started from 15th pace on the grid. Alonso. He drove in a way many can't, the team had the strategy worked out to the detail and the Safety Car deployments didn't affect it. He earned the victory. Second came Nico Rosberg after an interesting strategy and after getting a penalty for refueling while the pit lane was not officially opened. So Hamilton increases his lead to 7 points. But will it be enough? We'll wait and see.

The next race is set to take place in Japan at the Fuji Circuit on October 10th. Be sure to watch it.