The International House of Mojo

Check out this interview Playboy did with "Schafes", I guess as a push from "Hef", about the Making of Brutal Legend. I can't tell you if it's spoilerish or not, because I didn't read the whole thing in fear of spoilers. Yes, I haven't played yet. The shame is killing me. (On the other hand, I did buy it! Twice!).

There's also a very spoilerish section on how Ophelia came to life.

Last, but not least: You can play against Tim Schafer himself in Brutal Legend. Add him as a friend on PSN or XBLA, but make sure you have the game first (he won't accept your friend request without you having a copy). He's TimOfLegend.

Update: Here's Tim's (for the extreme among you, sort of spoilerish) response for those bemoaning that Brutal Legend is an RTS: It isn't.

Another Double Fine game has been released, and that can only mean one thing (besides the fact that we've all aged considerably): good times. It's been a long wait, from the first rumors of the game being multiplayer, to the shockingly ironic announcement of the game being published by Sierra, to the even more shocking and ironic development that the game had fallen into the same six month, publisher-less limbo Psychonauts endured following the Activision merger. But after four and half years of waiting, Brütal Legend has arrived on the Xbox 360 and PS3 for all [who own those consoles] to enjoy.

The Europeans, who have only to hang in there three more days, are probably worth a mention too.

As observed on the newly revamped Double Fine web site, Brutal Legend has received its first review from IGN, which awards the game a 9/10.

Brutal Legend is a tour de force that wraps up humor, music, and clever gameplay into one highly polished package. You haven't played a game quite like this before and won't want to miss it. Tim Schafer is one of the funniest guys in games and Jack Black is one of the funniest guys in movies -- together they'll keep you ROFLing (although the laughs do taper off as you work your way through the game). Brutal Legend isn't quite perfect and there is room for improvement (it's a little short, side quests are repetitive...), but when the credits roll you'll find yourself hoping for a sophomore release.

As the game is out tomorrow and all, expect the reviews to come pouring in at an absurd rate. We'll do our best to keep track of all them for you. (In other words, we'll try and fail, and then you can just depend on Thrik.)

The Tingler Updates: There's another good one at Eurogamer, which is accompanied by a nice interview with Tim Schafer.

So we've all wondered what it's like inside of Double Fine Productions, and now, thanks to 1Up.com, we know. Click here to see the video of Tim Schafer taking a tour of the offices.

Aside from the obviously cool stuff these kind of companies tend to have (free sodas, nice work environment) there's also some nice glimpses of some of Tim's LucasArts memorabilia. Particularly sweet is his 'Grim Fandango coffin' stocked full of copies of the game (Brian Moriarty has a similar 'Loom coffin' in his house, but that's another story...) and the very rare real version of the Secret of Monkey Island poster. I should warn some of the collectors amongst you, though, that you will see a crushed Day of the Tentacle triangle box in this video - not for the squeamish.

So watch! And be jealous. Stay in school, kids.

Source: Brutal!

Here's the deal: if you're going to get Brutal Legend, it's sort of important you pre-order.

If a game gets a lot of pre-orders, everybody gets excited. “Omg, we have a hit on our hands,” they say. And so the sales forecasts go up. When the sales forecasts go up, the marketing budget goes up. That gives you more TV commercials, online and print ads, etc. That leads to more pre-orders, and the cycle continues up and up until you have a runaway monster hit on your hands.

Canadians: It's best to call Best Buy or Gamestop to check if they offer the pre-order deal over there; I'm trying to call them myself to ask. If you have any details, let us know.

Here's a quick run-down of recent news you might have missed, by the way: There are ten Brutal Legend tracks that will available for Rock Band (so much for that Guitar Hero sequel, right Bobby?); "Jack Black" and Tim Schafer recently held a press conference, including some gameplay videos; check out some footage from the recent Brutal Legend special from G4 (who also did the "Final Hours of Psychonauts" thing); an interview with Peter McConnell; and, finally, a list of the stores having a Brutal Legend midnight launch.

Update: Double Fine offices tour, get your tickets here; Jack Black totally hates Uncharted 2 (super minor spoilers towards the end of that video).

Source: DFAN

GameStop has announced a midnight launch party for the upcoming Brutal Legend, which is to be released in five days in the US - Rocktober 13th. More details here.

(The game hits on Rocktober 16th in Europe.)

I wanted to warn you guys: there's a lot of spoilers flying around, especially with TV ads and so on, so you'll be better off going on a media black-out from now on. If you do come across spoilers, make sure you put a nice, big spoiler tag before sharing; there are others who would rather not know.

Source: Gaming Bits

There's little to say - we've already reported it, and now the date is confirmed: TONIGHT.

What a weird graduation for us all. If one of you doesn't record this, we're closing the site btw.

Update: Site remains open.

Source: DoubleFine Action News

Wooo! Party to save the world! Hey, guys! Awesome party today, so cool it puts the "hip" in "hippie".

"But what are we celebrating?" you say. Why, the release of the Brutal Legend demo! Get out your consoles* and then steal your neighbour's, because - oh man. Listen. We're partying it up for Brutal Legend and all, but also because, well - there's this fire beast that says it'll hit us with the swine flu if we don't download the demo 666 million times. Much like the hippies not saving the world at that Woodstock place mum and dad are always talking about, we're going to try to do this and probably fail too. I mean, Tim Schafer tried arguing with it, explaining that there aren't 666 million consoles in the world (and if we fail there won't be that many humans), but it did put quite a lot of capitals in there, which on the internet means the ARGUMENT IS OVER.

Lots of stuff to do at the party, though. Twitter interviews, live axe lessons, a message from Tim Schafer in his bunker bed. It all goes down in this many hours.

Oh, and hey: Brutal Legend set a new record. After last summer's "Most number of people air guitaring", some fans somehow more insane than I am did this, which they're going to need to escape the city after we're all hit with the swine flu and it all turns into a George Romero movie with a metal soundtrack.

*(Except you, Wii; do you like your non-HD support now? Huh? Huh? Do you even know what MP3 is?)

In commemoration of his 20th year in the games industry, Tim has put up a lengthy post about how he landed his job at Lucasfilm Games in 1989. Although his story - which includes inadvertently revealing that he played a pirated copy of Ballblazer during his telephone interview - is well known to the sort of creeps who read this site, even the most educated scholars of Tim will want to read this, for included are scans of the Lucasfilm Games assistant designer/programmer position posting, Tim's job offer letter signed by Steve Arnold, and even the infamous cartoon resume Tim sent in which he adapted his imagined experiences as a Lucasfilm employee in text-adventure comic form.

I love the 80s!

Videogamer.com recently had a chance to sit down with Tim Schafer and ask him about Brutal Legend. When asked about what the team was doing, he said:

Well, some of them are relaxing. Some of them are working on... secret stuff. Secret stuff. I'm not there right now. A lot of them are playing the game, you know? We're doing some tests in multiplayer, you know, testing and thinking about ideas for a new game.

There are three interesting things here: 1. Tim Schafer has mentioned, in the past, that Double Fine might end-up being a two-project company, which I can not prove because Google is being an ass; 2. Knowing Microsoft, this is probably DLC - or, knowing gamers, new stuff for multiplayer; and 3. You can totally switch some letters around in that quote and end up spelling "Kroms is awesome," with extra letters for extra praise. Well, that or the word "ostrich", but I'm not sure if many others think of ostriches as wish-fullfilment, Schafes. Can I call you Schafes now? Buddy?

Source: Videogamer

Here's a video with DoubleFine Art Director Lee Petty going over the visual design of the upcoming Brutal Legend.

It's really just a confirmation of lots of snatched soundbites that we've heard over the last few months, and it looks sweet. It comes across as being quite similar to Psychonauts, with each level (or 'faction') being stylistically unique and based on a cohesive internal logic. It's shaping up to be a real treat for metal fans.

So watch now!

Deja Vu: Update: Disregard this, I am blind. Go here.

Source: DoubleFine Action News

Here you go: a nice dose of Brutal Legend. I forgot to post about #5, so here's that. I like how original it is. A cat on the internet without a cheeseburger is like, woah, like, totally. Profound.

I don't think it'd be fair if I didn't mention that #6 has some minor spoilers, but life isn't fair, and so I won't.

Source: Brütal!

Gamespot has put up a video called The World of Brütal Legend where art director Lee Petty talks a bit about the art and inspiration, as well as how the world was constructed. Hint: the video provides an alternative theory on the Big Bang. Hint's hint: it involved a Fire Beast.

Oh, and the man also has a blog with pictures!

How is it? Do you like it a lot, or a lot lot? (Apply as many "lot"s as needed.) Frankly, the Mojo love for Brutal Legend is lacking, like a river of blood, lacking a decapitated head. Or your heart, lacking care for orphans. Because taking care of orphans is Metal. Or your head, lacking a -- you get the idea.

You should make up for that. You should either declare your love of Brutal Legend right here and right now or do what some guy called Tim wants you to. Get internet famous! Show your face!

Even if you haven't pre-ordered, you can get the demo sometime soon.

Source: DFAF

If you somehow managed to forget to pre-order Brutal Legend, or alternatively decided to order it from somewhere other than Gamestop (I'm no fan myself), then there's this pretty great deal from Best Buy, especially for music lovers like me: You get an LP slipcase, just like the ones back in the early days of metal (no, not the 70s - earlier: the early 70s). The downside, of course, is that you get to miss out on the in-game Tenacious D guitar.

But if you all ready have pre-ordered from Gamestop and don't want to cancel, then here's a schedule of the demo release dates, totally not stolen from Brutal!:

- September 17th: People who pre-ordered from participating vendors.
- September 24th: Xbox LIVE Gold members
- October 1st: Xbox LIVE Silver and PlayStation Network members (ie: everyone).

But if you haven't pre-ordered the game anyways ("Wow what a loser" - girl of your dreams), there's these giveaways from Holy Fragger, Ars Technica, Gaming Nexus and The Flickcast.

Source: Original research (not really)

I really haven't been able to process this yet, but apparently Tim Schafer will appear on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon sometime in early October. I really...look, I just wanted to say that the best thing Activision ever did was drop Brutal Legend. It almost cancels-out that lawsuit. Almost. I'm still boycotting you bastards.

Fallon also interviewed Jack Black, in character as Eddie Riggs, at the VMAs. It's about a third of the way into this video, courtesy of Rolling Stone. Hey, Rolling Stone! Why don't you put Riggs on your cover? Would sure help with forgetting that time you put the Jonas Brothers on! (And a million other things.)

Well, Riggs or Kabbage Boy.

Source: Kotaku

A number of things:

1. The Brutal Legend demo hits XBLA and PSN tomorrow for those of us in the pre-order crowd (throw up the horns; stand up and shout). Everyone else gets their hands on the demo next week.

2. The very first cutscene is available for viewing. (Well, I'm assuming it's the first one, anyways.) Watch it, dude, check it, but needless to say: spoilers.

Needless to say, though, that there are so many things they got absolutely right in that cutscene - it really is astounding.

3. Small article on EA and Double Fine.

"Kabbage Boy," though. Talk about hitting the nail on the head. The fans' reaction. Rocktober can't come soon enough for me.

It's been a bad year for egos. I used to consider myself a confident man, but everytime I gaze at a magazine cover I feel like an impressionable 12 year old girl. "Oh, Megan Fox," I'd say. "How could I be more like you and have such curvy hips?" I'd then start sobbing gently, with the magazine clutched in my hand and my shoulders shaking, until the sales clerk asked me to leave.

Things got worse when they refused to perform some "augmentation mammoplasty" on me, telling me I was "ineligible". Like I was some animal. But how could I become an attractive Hollywood starlet without a terrifying amount of plastic in my body?

Well, guess what? Brutal Legend actor and world-renowned comedian Jack "Kielbasa Sausage" Black saved the day when he showed-up in these, first at a beach and then at the VMAs. Look at that axe he's carrying. It's a godsend for impressionable 20 year olds with the minds of pre-pubescent girls. Especially the males!

I'm going to go and apply for this Muscular Plastic Arm surgery right now. Why be yourself when you could be like everyone else? When you could be...plastic?

Update: n0n4m3 (pronounced "none-for-me", I believe), has just sent me this video footage of Black swingin' it at the VMAs. See how they scream when he flexes? That's what I'm talking about. My 12 year old girl self would squeal at the squealing, and then we'd all squeal, like pigs reading about chickens after the bird flu.

Source: DFAN

There's going to be a demo of Brutal Legend come September. You pre-order it, you get it a week early. Kyle Gass, Steve Agee and Brian Posehn are joining the (mind-boggingly amazing) cast. And there's something related to women stripping for guys who like pizza with their decapitated heads.

Now...

The ESRB has rated Brutal Legend with an M rating, which means, oh snap, that it has the word "shit". (Can we say that? No? Eff you, The Man.) Well, let me tell you something: if it was truly blasphemous, and you were all so clean and innocent, you'd be seeing rainbow-coloured flowers instead of that word, Mr. I-Don't-Think-Beheadings-Are-Fun. As the epic (but spoilerish!) description goes...<:MORENEWS:>

Content descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes

Rating summary: This is an action adventure/role-playing game that tells the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie who is transported to a mythical world of heavy metal rock. Eddie is armed with a guitar and a double-headed axe, which players can use to slash and dismember enemies. Players can also perform "face-melting solos" (literally melting enemies' faces), meet humanoid creatures dressed like dominatrixes and brandishing whips, and liberate an army of rockers from a life of oppression. Although the storyline is often irreverent and whimsical, the depictions of violence are somewhat intense: Undead humanoids are dismembered with an axe (sometimes in slow-motion); a "Steel-Quilled Blade" causes human enemies to explode into gibs that rain down; machine guns, missile launchers, and sub woofers can be used to kill druids and other fantastical creatures. Eddie can also run over dozens of enemies with his hot rod, resulting in blood effects and more heads and limbs getting chopped off. During the course of the game, characters sometimes engage in suggestive dialogue intended for comedic effect (e.g., "Maybe with all your feedback, you guys could just blow me over the gorge" and "Playtime's over. Now let's get back to the orgy"). Players will also encounter "Skull Rakers" clad in bondage gear and amazon-like warriors dressed in leather outfits that partially reveal buttocks and breasts. Strong profanity (e.g., "f*ck," "sh*t," and "d*ck") can be heard in the dialogue.

Whoop loud and long, boy, and throw up those horns with pride. Metal's finally gotten something worthy of it.

Here are the fans that go that, uh, extra mile: And they're building the Tour of Destruction tour bus from Brutal Legend. I want to blabber about how cool this is, but...no words, man. No words.

(PS: For those wondering what the hell is going on with that IGN.com thing.)

Source: Twitter