Publishers continue to fight over Brutal Legend

While it seems like the publishing drama never seems to end, the Associated Press reports that a final court date of August 6th has been set which should mean we’ll know what the deal is before long.

The judge presiding over the case says he’s probably not going to delay the release of Brutal Legend, and additionally indicated that he doesn’t believe Activision Blizzard’s odds of winning the case and getting their demands met are good.

However, the judge did follow that up with “This is going to be a close call”, believing that neither side in the lawsuit has a particularly outstanding case.

Also of note is that Double Fine countersued Activision Blizzard last week, claiming that “Activision filed its claim specifically to hurt the San Francisco-based developer”. And according to Double Fine’s representative, here’s why the game was actually cancelled:

“Activision canceled the studio’s game after an aborted attempt to convert it into a Guitar Hero sequel.”

Is it possible Activision Blizzard has actually gone mental, considering Brutal Legend and Guitar Hero reside in completely different genres? It’s almost like trying to convert Call of Duty 6 into Grand Theft Auto 5 just because they both have guns.

17 inches of Eddie Riggs for your collection

Those who love collectables should be excited to hear that in addition to the real-life Tenacious D guitar that’s been up for grabs in various circumstances, a large — but limited — stash of Eddie Riggs figures is in production. Measuring in at 17 inches, the figure depicts Eddie in the midst of battle and basically just looks awesome:

According to Electronic Arts only 1,000 of these are going to be made, and their distribution will be unconventional. One was given away today at Comic Con, and details concerning how to win further figures will appear on the official Brutal Legend site in the future.

Four videos thrown up to celebrate return

Well I’m back from my holiday, and it was splendid thank you! I even managed to avoid sun burn this year, which is a personal best.

Typically an absolute mountain of new Brutal Legend footage was sent through to me during my absence, which I’ve just processed and added to the ‘Videos’ section — although you’ve probably already seen it on another site by now.

Specifically, there’s a new episode of ‘Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black’ and a three-part developer walkthrough by Brutal Legend designer Tim Schafer (avoid if you’re adverse to spoilers).

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the comments of my holiday post, you’ll notice that the most excellent BRUTAL! regular Mykal has been linking to some quality videos. Firstly there’s a GameTrailers TV episode that features a peek at Brutal Legend‘s multiplayer, and secondly there’s a Joystiq interview with Tim Schafer.

BRUTAL! is going to be less brutal for a week

For one week as of today, you’ll find that BRUTAL! is considerably less brutal then usual. I’m going on holiday, so there’ll almost certainly be no updates while I’m gone. Hopefully nothing demonic will happen while I’m away!

In the meantime you should keep an eye on BRUTAL!‘s mother, The International House of Mojo. The Brutal Legend coverage there may not be quite as obsessive as it is here, but if anything important happens you can guarantee it’ll be mentioned.

See you soon!

More brutal thoughts up for your enjoyment

The fourth episode of ‘Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black’ has just been added to the ‘Videos’ section, featuring Jack with an almighty battle axe that he promptly uses to dispatch of the worst evils one can possibly imagine.

As has become the norm there’s a nice selection of gameplay footage towards the end, naturally showing off the axe combat. Check it out!