Road to a Legend

Sorry for the lack of updates folks… it’s been a pretty busy time for me. Anyway, no excuses… let’s talk games.

With the fall season of games fast approaching, talk amongst friends about the upcoming hotness of games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3: ODST, Assassin’s Creed 2 and other huge AAA releases. My most anticipated of the fall? Brütal Legend.

Ever since playing through Tim Schafer’s acid-laden summer camp trip Psychonauts, I’ve been convinced that games can actually be appreciated not only for their gameplay, graphics & sound etc., but for the quality of their writing and acting. Side note: if you have an Xbox or Xbox 360, play that friggin’ game. It’s on the XBL marketplace now… so there’s no excuse!

I’m a big proponent of taking risks in game development… which I know isn’t a very common or more importantly, lucrative position. But when developers put their neck out there on some crazy idea… magical things could happen. Don’t get me wrong… complete and utter sales tanking, studio closing things could also happen. But on occasion, you get a Mirror’s Edge, or a Way of the Samurai, or a Dead Rising where the developers look into the face of convention and say Fuck that.

Well Tim Schafer and the team at Double Fine are practically taking convention and smashing it over the head with Gibson Flying V. Let me try to piece together what I’ve gathered from the media that’s been out there for Brütal Legend. The game follows the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie for a shitty metal come emo band that through a freak stage accident is transported to an ancient land of heavy metal. Tim Schafer’s best explanation of the world of Brütal Legend is if you’ve seen it on a heavy metal album, it’s probably in the game. Huge mountains of bones, hot rod exhaust pipes that sprout from the ground as natural as trees, legions of cloaked druids and demon nuns… well, you get the idea. So that’s the first step into crazy, the world itself. To add to the craziness, you’ve got a heavy metal star studded cast with the likes of Ozzy, Lemmy of Motorhead, Lita Ford and others. Oh, and the main character is voiced by Jack Black, which is a good thing, or a bad thing, depends on who you are. (for me? it’s a good thing)

The game itself appears to be your standard open world adventure game. Explore, do quests, gain new toys and abilities. In a cool nod to the classic Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you can even summon your hot rod with your guitar. So far… pretty standard fare. But the wizards at Double Fine don’t stop there… they decided to add squad-based RTS elements as you progress through the game. Real-time strategy elements. In an adventure game. In the world of heavy metal. Also, multiplayer. In fact Tim Schafer has said in interviews that the multiplayer aspect of the game was the original concept, and they couldn’t fight the temptation to turn it into a full blown singleplayer experience. If that’s not sticking your neck out there… I don’t know what is.

Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough ’bout this. Check some of these vids if my crappy explanation didn’t sufficiently paint the picture. Unfortunately, I will be away on Rocktober 13th when it comes out, doing something extremely un-metal by going to Disneyland. No doubt that when I return… there will have been an explosion of media every which way about the game. Will it live up to the hype? God Satan, I hope so.

Game intro

17 minute walkthrough by Tim Schafer himself

Another 20 minutes. This time with friends!

Sorry ’bout links rather than embeded. WordPress.com suXors. Anybody have a free web server I can squat in? ;p

**Playlist updated

~ by e on September 20, 2009.