The City of Heroes Mission Architect allows players to quickly create their own missions for the superhero MMO, so why not actual writers? First up is Bill Willingham, New York Times bestselling author and creator of the comic book Fables, who wants players to aid civilian Irena Faust in her quest for super powers. PVP creator Scott Kurtz has players facing off against the rogues gallery of internet meme-obsessed hero LOLBAT. Last but not least, Red VS. Blue creators Rooster Teeth has players teaming up with Captain Dynamic against the vile Great Face.

The four more-or-less professionally written missions will go live in the game on Tuesday, October 13th, with plans for more stories by more writers as time goes by. Check out the official descriptions below for more details.

Guest Author: Bill Willingham, New York Times bestselling writer, and the creator of the multiple award winning comic book series Fables

Title: "Quest for Magic"

Description: Irena Faust is tired of being a civilian in a super world, so she's embarked upon a quest for super powers. She thinks magic is the way to go and she has an idea of where to start. Can you help her?

Guest Author: Rooster Teeth, best known for the popular comedy series, Red vs. Blue

Title: "Mission: Awesome"

Description: Help Captain Dynamic defeat the Great Face's evil plans...

and

Title: "The Great Face-Off"

Description: The Great Face wants to wreak havoc on Paragon City. He needs your help to free him from Paragon Prison and then carry out his master plan...

Guest Author: Scott Kurtz, a full-time comic-strip artist for "PvP"

Title: "OMG, it's the LOLBAT!"

Description: OMG! Your new contact on the street is none other than the Internet meme-obsessed hero, the LOLBAT, and he brings grave if not confusing news. The Algonquin Hate Table, a rogues gallery of the LOLBAT's greatest foes, are looking to expand their heinous if not artfully influenced crime syndicate into Paragon City. If you know what's good for you and the citizens you protect, you won't let that happen. Luckily, the LOLBAT knows how these guys work and he's ready to help you defeat these pompous profligates.

Their reaction was pretty much the same reaction I have to a new Halo game. I think, "Hooray! I shall be at the same skill level as many other people for a short period of time!" Unfortunately that short period of time is around 15 minute, give or take, so the elation generally doesn't last long. After a half hour, the advanced players have already found out how to teleport directly into the game's code to attack the AI programming, while I am still trying to not sticky grenade myself.

The series revolves around the new Mission Architect being released in City of Heroes, with Captain Dynamic, whose superpowers include "super stuff", hiring a writing team to spice up his adventures. His demands are relatively simple. He just wants missions that level him up incredibly quick, with as little effort as possible. I don't see why saving a kitten from a tree isn't worthy of a crystal fortress.

Not Rooster Teeth's best work, but there are a few laughs to be had. Things pick up a little in episode 2, when we discover Captain Dynamic's amazing ability to make letters with his arms.

Starting on Monday the hunters will be releasing video walkthroughs of how to grab the achievements in Dead Space. "Dead Week" will also include contests, live broadcasts and other Dead Space material posted on the site.

If you want to catch a glimpse of what an achievement walkthrough video looks like, check out the Achievement Hunters take on finding the Holocrons in The Force Unleashed over on their site.

Achievement Hunters

Now, clearly, these are production values in the upper 1 percentile, and we'd expect no less of Rooster Teeth, and I'm not gonna hate on it. But can I ask a question? How come any elected-office character in a military-genre movie has to have a condescending Southern accent?

It's like a British friend of mine once said about the stereotype of his accent: "If I am in a Star Wars movie, then I command the Death Star."

That said, I can't wait to see (and hear) where this is headed.

RVB: Reconstruction {Rooster Teeth, embedded video courtesy of Slackerchan at Gametrailers]

The only thing worse than tech support is Shadowrun tech support. I hope Rooster Teeth pump out as many vids for 1800-MAGIC as they have for Red V. Blue. Brian Crecente

1-800-Magic [Rooster Teeth]

Before everone gets their panties in a bunch - THE VIDEO ABOVE IS NOT THE PSA THAT IS AVAILABLE ON XBOX LIVE. Instead, it's an example another video Rooster Teeth have done before with their Red Vs. Blue series for the New York Video Festival's Wild Wild Web Program. Equally as funny, but the walkthrough available on XBL is way funnier.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy. Kim Phu

Red Vs. Blue Halo 3 Beta PSA HD [Major Nelson]

You know, P.A.N.I.C.S. — the parodic F.E.A.R. machinima by the Rooster Teeth boys — is about a year old at this point. Heck, Brian even wrote about the first couple of episodes a year back or so. But I'm replaying F.E.A.R. now — still jumping at every site of Alma, the spider-crawling ghost girl — and it tickles me more than ever. So I've congregated all five parts of the P.A.N.I.C.S. series into one post. Hit the jump for the next four parts. Don't thank me, it beats writing for my paycheck. Florian Eckhardt

Zany Rooster Teeth's second installment of their F.E.A.R.-inspired new P.A.N.I.C.S. machinima is available for download. It's a bit like Ghostbusters if while Winston was getting eaten, Ray, Peter and Egon sat around doing nothing.

Calling the Ghostbusters really isn't an option now. Let's face it, Harold Ramis let himself go and Dan Ankroyd just doesn't have "it" anymore. Seeing this void in ghost extermination, Rooster Teeth (the guys behind Red Vs. Blue) launched a new machinima series using in-game footage from F.E.A.R.

The mini-series is part of the MTV's coverage of Sierra's upcoming FPS F.E.A.R. Rooster Teeth will be putting up a new clip each week leading up to F.E.A.R.'s Oct. 18 release.

Clive Thompson has a an interesting, though oddly dated, story in the New York Time Magazine this past weekend about machinima, the artistic blending of in-game footage and voice acting to create cinema.

The seven-page piece does a nice job of hitting some of the high-points of the art form, like Red Vs. Blue and Strangerhood, but still manages to feel like it's written in a vacuum. There's no sense of why it was written when it was written or where machinima is headed and there are some real mach gems that Thompson passes over. It is nice to see Rooster Teeth getting the Times treatement, I was just hoping for some sort epiphany.

The Xbox Auteurs [NYT Magazine]