21
Jul
Posts Tagged ‘Brutal Legend’
12
Feb
If you can tell, the little black box on the right side of this shot is my mailbox. The snow was practically up to that level.
For many of you around the country (and world!), this was a normal work-week, but if you were in the DC metro area like I was, you had a blizzard that had you stuck at home for practically this entire week. The blizzard got things off to a bad start for me by knocking electricity out early on last weekend, but it was restored by Sunday and I can’t imagine if I were stuck at home with no power for the rest of the week. Otherwise, it was pretty much a nice extended little 6-day weekend. I’m not going to complain about being home for so many days (I”m grumbling that I actually have to go into work today since it took me 4 nearly hours to get in), but I will mention one problem that this blizzard has caused: I still cannot get my hands on BioShock 2. Instead, I’ve settled for playing Brutal Legend. Read on for my “BioShock 2″ wait and initial thoughts of Brutal Legend.
10
Dec
In Part 4 of the Awards/Shopping Guide, Leveling Down will be tackling some of the more controversial categories: Best Story, Best Value, and Most Overrated. Admittedly, these categories are VERY subjective and are only our opinions, and on some counts even espion4ge and I don’t see *exactly* eye to eye. Nonetheless, controversy is a lot of fun, so might as well give it a shot!
09
Dec
One of the Xbox 360′s strongest features compared to other consoles is its multiplayer gameplay, which can probably be attributed to the Live infrastructure. It is thus not surprisingly to see strong multiplayer games on this system. For today’s awards, I will be discussing the best multiplayer games released this year, and the one better than the rest.
I will also be discussing the best new IP and best sequel of the year. It’s good to see that in 2009, there were nearly an equal number of good new IPs and sequels. The moment we begin seeing only sequels releasing and new IPs no longer developed is the moment the game industry stops advancing. It’s easy to support sequels since you know what you’re getting yourself into, but this year was perhaps the year with the largest number of development studios shutting down. Continue to take a chance by supporting new IPs – the developers need this type of support to stay in business and come up with new and exciting games to push our industry forward!
08
Dec
Rounding out our main categories, today we will be looking at Best Action/Adventure, Music, Real-Time Strategy and XBLA games. Looking at the list of titles from this year, there were a surprising number of good action/adventure games out this year, and even though neither of us owns a PS3, you can’t talk about action/adventure in 2009 without mentioning Uncharted 2. I’m glad I didn’t have to nominate that game though, since that would probably have made for some tough decisions. Music games, on the other hand, seemed to take a step backwards, or maybe we are just getting sick of them. Meanwhile, Live Arcade continues to put out good titles worth taking a look at.
17
Nov
Headbangers serve as your basic infantry unit. Yes, Brutal Legend is a RTS game.
Monkey Island. Full Throttle. Grim Fandango. Psychonauts. What do these games all have in common? One thing: Tim Schafer. The man has been cursed the past few years: he has created critically acclaimed games that have been flops at retail (see: Psychonauts). Brutal Legend is his latest offering, and it contains star power like Jack Black, Ozzy Osborne, and a whole slew of metalheads. Will this heavy metal epic find the retail success that has eluded Schafer recently? More importantly, is the game worth your precious dollars, and more importantly, your precious time in the wake of all the holiday releases?
06
Oct
Jack Black still has some acting chops left in him
I’ve expounded on my love of Monkey Island and Full Throttle in previous posts, so it’s with optimism I downloaded the demo for Brutal Legend, made by the same Tim Schafer that made those two games. Schafer has long been famous for making critically acclaimed games that sold terribly at retail - Psychonauts being the prime example. Activision did not have much faith in Brutal Legend either, so they shed it during the Vivendi merger and EA picked it up. Will Schafer finally score a hit with critics AND the mass audience? We’ll find out “Rocktober” 13th, but before then I was curious so I checked out the demo.
Brutal Legend is an action adventure game with a twist: it’s a heavy metal epic. The game stars Jack Black as Eddie Riggs, a roadie who gets drawn into some sort of heavy metal world. The demo is pretty short, so it’s tough to get a feel for the game, but I was just playing to see how the presentation was.
Simple stuff first, the gameplay is pretty standard fare for a 3D action adventure, except you can’t jump. The A button swings your axe (a literal one) while the X button plays your axe (the guitar one) which essentially casts magic spells. There is also a Guitar-heroish type mechanic where you “play a solo” by hitting buttons rhythmically which can unleash spells as well. The gameplay is passable – it has the potential to get as deep as Batman but also could just end up being super shallow. We’ll see about that.
What I really wanted to see was whether the game was funny and how Jack Black did as the lead. Firstly, when the demo started, I was struck by the graphics and the presentation. There are metal songs playing throughout, and behind them the graphics and art style really are quite impressive. There is a great opening cut scene, and Jack Black (who I’ve gotten sick of on film) lends the proper tone and attitude to Eddie Riggs’ character. I love the look and feel of the game and the “trailer” at the end of it makes me excited to see what else it has to offer. It also has that touch of Tim Schafer flair, style, and humor that I remember from Full Throttle (a biker gang epic), so I can see how this game can really work.
Will I be buying this game on launch day? Probably not. But pending reviews, Brutal Legend definitely is on my wish list. Here’s hoping Tim Schafer finally pulls it off.
