The International House of Mojo

(Post edited because, as Tingler pointed-out, the lawsuit's already been reported.)

I won't let you feel too down about the lawsuit, so here's a Flickr account Tim Schafer created for you ground-walkers, full of E3. Brütal Legend has also been nominated for a couple of Best of E3 awards, specifically from IGN and 1UP.

They've also posted photos of the real-life Tenacious D guitar, which has a little Jack Black doing a little Kyle Gass at the bottom there, the Tenacious D members pretending to be 2HB or the Tenacious D members flying naked through the sky. Depends on who you ask/what you want to see/your own personal sex fantasy (you can sing that sentence). The guitar is going to be given to a person chosen from the Brutal Legend mailing list, provided they live in America (as the official rules say).

PS: Good luck Double Fine!

It's where the booze is at.

There's footage from Tim Schafer's E3 presentation, the new Brütal Thoughts with Jack Black, and of course the spanking new trailer. Unfortunately we missed reminding you about the Twitter Tim Schafer interview, but you can read a transcript.

Want to see the Brütal Legend footage they showed at the Microsoft conference, without having to actually see the conference? Go crazy. May I suggest a second pair of pants though?

Then sacrifice a virgin to the marketing gods who did this.

Finally, in continuing the day-old tradition of old favourites appearing on clothing: Manny Calavera shoes.

Update: You can now watch the whole thing, you bunch of ungrateful scallywags (except you jp-30, you're cool), minus Tim Schafer introducing it the way he did in the previous link. It's amazing, by the way, so you better be paying attention.

Update: Oh man. Watch Tim Schafer talk about the game, but be wary of a lot of spoilers, first fifteen minutes of the game actually. It's ridiculously awesome, by the way, and pretty hilarious. The game is apparently playable on the show floor, too.

Want to see Gamespot interview Double Fine Lead Designer Erik Robson about Brutal Legend? You'll never guess what this link leads to.

Then there was this video premiere for the game that appeared on SpikeTV a few nights ago. It turns out this exclusive, which is now up on GameTrailers, is actually a portion from one of the game's early cutscenes. View at your own risk.

Live in London, or have access to it June 10-11th? Well then, you too can go and see Double Fine's Scott C in all his comic-drawing glory!

He's got a two-man show at the Miles Gallery with artist Jim Mahfood, which is on show from June 11th-July 3rd. That's great if you can't do 10-11th, but if you can make it in then Scott will around to sign copies of Double Fine Action Comics Vol 1 and things. On the 11th he'll be at the Opening Reception for the show, and on the 10th he'll be at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue.

If you can't go or can't make London, don't worry, you can preorder signed copies of DFACV1 from them.

Source: Forbidden Planet

The hype machine for Brütal Legend keeps on trucking with Jack Black hamming it up in commercials. Go watch.

Want to get Psychonauts for PC for free? Well, your ideal response should be "no thanks, I've already got it, but I appreciate the generous offer", but in case you have a friend whose life might benefit from some Double Fine in his/her life, GameTap are now offering it for free.

You have to sign up with them, but that doesn't cost anything. They also offer Sam & Max: Abe Lincoln Must Die! for free too, but that's been done. I also should point out that there are other great free games to choose from (STALKER, Deus Ex, Thief 3, Tomb Raider Legend, Earthworm Jim etc), but we don't care about those.

Source: GameTap

The Brutal Legend coverage just doesn't stop as Gamespot has some brand new impressions of the game up. An in-depth look at the how the battle system works is provided, and a handful of brand new screenshots are featured as well, so you should look into that.

In other Brutal Legend news, and the perfect example of the kind of thing you can easily miss if you don't go to BRUTAL! everyday for news (in addition to us, of course), is a plethora of awesome concept art that comes from the GDC "Brutal Art of Brutal Legend" panel from back in March. It's all superb, and it's all conveniently archived by the most Brutal of fansites just for you.

Eurogamer have a new interview up with Tim Schafer. Excellent stuff, not least because of (finally) a high-quality clip from the Spike TV awards. Bonus: they promise that you can submit your own questions in the coming weeks.

And for those of you who pre-order Brutal Legend from Gamestop (PS3, Xbox360): you get a Gamestop exclusive (in-game) guitar, which "will feature an entirely new and different suite of effects – not only a unique, sexy body inspired by the members of Tenacious D, but new sound effects, new voice over work from Jack Black and Kyle Gass and a new visual effects suite – trust us, it’s going to rule very, very hard."

I hope that means Kyle Gass is in the game. If there was ever an underappreciated guitarist/musician, it's him.

Source: Eurogamer

Now this is utterly fantastic. Poster quality. Also note the particularly grumpy-looking Dart in the bottom-right corner.

Apparently it's in the latest issue of PLAY magazine, alongside a massive Brutal Legend preview that been mentioned over at Double Fine Action News. Go buy!

Just watch. I think we all feel the same.

Source: Lava Level

As the venerable Brutal! lets us know, a two-part video interview with Tim is now available at GameTrailers.

There's also an interview from a few days ago that we missed by Gamespot AU in an episode of Crosshairs. (The Brutal Legend stuff starts at 14:37.)

Oh and look what I'm literally just seeing on Gamespot - some sort of "Rock Special" by Gamespot UK in which Brutal Legend and Rock Band get checked out. So, that's three Tim interviews.

GameTrailers will be premiering a brand new trailer for The Rockin' Game Brütal Legend on Thursday night, so make sure you stay up late to watch it. We'll update this post as soon as it's up for everyone to see.

Thanks to MarioColbert for the tip!

UPDATE: Not quite here yet (tonight!) but here's an in-depth new preview at Eurogamer, because you can never have too much Brütal Legend in one day.

UPDATE UPDATE: A new batch of screenshots has also been released, which you can check out over at Brutal!

UPDATE: Oh my lord it's here. You might need an extra pair of pants around:

Source: GameTrailers

EA have just announced that Brütal Legend will be out this Rocktober, otherwise known as October 13th US/16th Europe for Xbox 360 and PS3.

That's my birthday! Aww, Double Fine, you shouldn't have! But I think my list said 'PC version'. Still, it's a great present, thanks!

Don't worry, other people can play it too. I'm generous like that.

Source: Gamezine

Through some clever molding and a lot of time, sculpture artist Iain Reekie has created what we all desire: Grim Fandango action figures. The Manny figure comes complete with skeleton bird and sausages Robert Frost, while Glottis looks straight out of a Tim Burton animation.

Not available in stores unfortunately, as that would prove God existed and so therefore he wouldn't. QED.

Source: Iain Reekie's website

With a blog and screenshots and a newsletter and everything!

You can also pre-order. Don't put too much stock into this yet, by the way, but apparently the game ships October 13th.

If you were paying attention last week, to the horde of Brutal Legend previews that came knocking at your door, you would know by now that this game is truly shaping-up to be Schafer's best yet. You must be excited that we're getting even more information later this month (the News Threat Level went up to "Haunted Sandalwood" yesterday), too, but maybe want something to keep you floating in between.

Well, that little sniff of LSD info to keep you floating is here. Brooks McBeth has revelead his involvement in the game. Taking a look at the (somewhat on-thin-ice) info on Brutal Legend's IMDB page reveals that he plays multiple characters. Another look reveals characters you didn't know existed, like that Mangus fellow there.

Brutal Legend comes-out this fall.

Update: Don't forget to watch the GDC Awards Tim hosted on TV tonight. The program (highlights only, actually) will air on G4 at 6:30 and 8:00 PM PT/ET. Repeats air on Monday, April 13 at 1:00 PM PT/ET, and on Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 8.00pm PT/ET.

Source: Tigard Times

In one of his rare semi-serious DFAN posts, Tim talks about his position on game sales and the people who obsess over them, partially in response to an article he was quoted on.

While Mojo pointing out the existence of each and every DFAN news post is so 2002, I felt like this one was worth mentioning, especially since he throws an LEC story in there:

Story time!

Around 1992, I felt like SCUMM games were getting the short end of the stick at LucasArts in many ways. Management didn't seem to like them, and in fact seemed to want to sweep them out the door. So I went into the General Manager's office in my flannel shirt and Eddie Vedder hair and I asked him, "Are you trying to shut down SCUMM games?"

He was surprised enough to put down the tiny kitten he was strangling and look me in the eyes. "Listen," he said, "As long as there are people at this company who want to make SCUMM games, we'll make them."

I was totally surprised, and a little suspicious. Could it really be up to the developers to pick what games get made? Do they really have that much power? I think the Sam and Max 2 team might take issue with what he was saying. But then again, getting cancelled didn't stop that team. They left to start their own company and made their game in the end. So I think a more true version of that statement would be, "As long as there are people who want to make that kind of game, that kind of game will be made."

Bam.

Amidst the insane number of Brutal Legend previews (which are still being compiled below - check out the latest at Gamespot) are more rumors surrounding a potential Wii port. We've previously linked to a rumor at GoNintendo (which was since removed) claiming that a Wii version of Brutal Legend was in the works. The rumor just got a bit more credible as Variety's game blog is singing the same tune.

The report, which comes from "several good sources," says that a Wii version is being planned, though it will not be developed by Double Fine and will likely be released far later than the original versions for 360 and PS3. We'll see how this all pans out! For now, it's recommended that you catch up with all of those excellent previews.

The Brutal Legend-press embargo seems to be lifting. I'm guessing we're about to be hit with previews, so I'll update as we go along (newest on top). And in case you're wondering, the game rocks your heart out: "We went in with a rough idea of what to expect: an action game set in a world inspired by heavy metal, with, we hoped, loads of trademark Schafer humor. We came out having seen a game that honestly exceeded our expectations." - Joystiq.

- Crispy Gamer have a really good preview up as well. "What have you done?" she says. "I created by beauty - by simply rocking," he answers.

- Reader meist3r provided a link to a two-part interview GameTrailers did with Tim about the game. (Thank you!) Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with GameTrailers, so in the meantime you can watch the excellent interview on AOL instead (part one, part two).

- Gamespot have a preview and a video interview.

- Wired too. "I wasn't sure what to expect from Brutal Legend, but what I did not expect was that it would be a cross between Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Pikmin...[a]God of War parody...[B]rutal Legend isn't just a straightforward, point-A-to-point-B action game. It features a massive, nonlinear world to explore, many different quests and a complex combat system that lets you recruit an army of headbangers to do your bidding in battle."<:MORENEWS:>

- Joystiq provide even more information in their first-level-spoilers-filled preview. They also took some photos of the event. Excellent. Thanks, Joystiq.

- Video interview with Tim (in English) for a Polish website. Good interview, and he's all upbeat in it too.

- 1UP's Brutal Legend blowout ends with an info-filled grand finale. This is thick and creamy with details on what is shaping up to be one of my favourite games. With new screenshots, including one of the Ultimate Badass Badguy in the game (who looks a lot like this guy here). "I haven't even gotten to how there are something like 23 primary missions and around 30 side missions to play through."

- IGN lands a detail-filled preview with several new screenshots to boot. There's a good chunk on the game's beginning (minor spoilers on page one), a glimpse of Ophelia (Eddie's love-interest - not really a spoiler, as this was mentioned when the game was announced), and Lars and Lita Halford; a whiff of the multiplayer, and - actually, go read it, it's pretty much filled to the brim with info.

- USA Today interview Tim. No real new info revealed, but little stuff. Example: "The hard part is confirming exact bands, but I can say my favorite bands growing up have always been some of the great classic acts like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. Some of those, and bands like that I've had the chance to meet through this game."