Brutal Legend demo coming in September

GamesCom 2009 is currently underway, and unsurprisingly Electronic Arts is there to spread word of its upcoming games and announce things. Of immediate interest is a new Brutal Legend trailer that I’ve just added to the ‘Videos’ section, featuring a load of new stuff.

Of more distant but ultra-compelling interest is the promise of a demo! To be released in a month on September 17th, there’s no word yet on how much of the game it’ll include but you can bet your horns part of Tim Schafer’s commentary videos will be there to enjoy.

Update

[August 19th, 2009 at 2:47pm GMT+1] According to a new page on the official Brutal Legend site, you’ll need to pre-order the game from certain vendors to actually get access to the demo on September 17th:

• United States: GameStop
• UK: GAME
• Australia and New Zealand: EB Games
• Italy: Blockbuster and GameRush
• Finland: Netanttila, VPD, and Discshop

Update #2

[August 19th, 2009 at 3:34pm GMT+1] It looks like the official page was a bit unclear about this. Reports from other sources and people who pre-ordered indicate that the demo will be available to everybody on September 17th, and that those who pre-order will get it a week earlier on September 11th. Rock on!

Multiplayer details revealed

We’re heard bits and bobs about Brutal Legend’s multiplayer component for a long time, however how exactly it’ll play out has been a bit ambiguous — especially considering how multi-dimensional Brutal Legend’s gameplay seems to be in general!

IGN has cleared things up with an extensive hands-on preview of Brutal Legend’s multiplayer, complete with five in-game videos. Although I don’t typically go for console multiplayer, this definitely looks like it’s been put together well. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that a lot of the single-player gameplay was probably balanced to perfection in the multiplayer environment before being integrated into the story.

Also of note is that the three teams — Ironheade, The Drowning Doom, and The Tainted Coil — all have their units described in detail. Most of them are already on the ‘Enemies & Minions’ page, but lacking the specifics IGN’s article contains. Some new screenshots, too!

Update

[August 14th, 2009 at 9:20am GMT+1] Several more previews of Brutal Legend’s multiplayer have hit the Community Tracker if you’re interested in seeing what other sites think of it. Pretty much all positive!

The most metal game soundtrack ever unveiled

For the first time we can now get an in-depth glimpse at the music that’ll be available in Brutal Legend, thanks to a playlist that’s been posted on Electronic Arts’ official Danish site. You might want to check out the English translation to read the actual news post.

It’s a pretty sweet list, featuring an extremely wide variety of sub-genres. From what I can tell the tracks have been chosen quite smartly in that most will definitely appeal to those of us into metal, yet the many people playing Brutal Legend who aren’t should still be able to enjoy the lighter, more melodic tracks. Presumably you’ll be able to filter them by style through the Deuce’s radio.

One thing to note is that EA’s site introduces these tracks with the word “including”, which is an implication that there may be more tracks than this in the final cut once any licensing negotiations are done.

And of course let’s not forget that the venerable Peter McConnell will be composing music for Brutal Legend, which we’ve briefly heard during the cutscenes in the commentary videos. Equally looking forward to hearing more of that, personally!

The full track list is below, and thanks to space observatory-eyed Potatoe Sam for letting us know about this so quickly. Always a good idea to check BRUTAL!’s many comments for cutting-edge tidbits! Continue Reading »

Brutal Legend lawsuit comes to a close

It’s been a really long time since the whole publishing fiasco began, but we can finally release our breath as Activision Blizzard and Double Fine have settled their lawsuits. This means that they won’t go to court, and the game will be released on schedule.

While the terms of the settlement haven’t been disclosed, it’s reasonable to assume that it involved Double Fine paying Activision Blizzard a sizable sum, giving them royalties from the game’s sales, or something like that. Whatever it was, hopefully Brutal Legend will sell like a beast and make any losses up!

If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane regarding this whole lawsuit business, BRUTAL!’s extensive coverage of the situation’s unfolding documents it nicely.

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.