Multiplayer in Brütal Legend: More Than Just an Afterthought?

Double Fine Productions has recently shown off the kind of multiplayer we're going to be seeing in their upcoming metal masterpiece, Brütal Legend. The crazy part is, it seems more than just some tacked-on deathmatch and CTF, in fact, it looks like nothing I've seen before!

The online game is played from the same third person perspective as the single player. You can play as a few different factions and depending on which one you choose, that will also determine your character, and which type of creatures you can summon.

Of course you can attack directly, as well... going up and swinging your weapon at the enemy is just one of the strategies you can use against your foe. However, the summoning is probobly the biggest part of the whole thing. You can summon a bunch of different units, and each type has a different play style to them. Of course, you can't simply summon them at any time you like. First you need to gain more fans, which acts as the game's resource. Some units are slow-paced but do a lot of damage, some de-buff your enemy's units, and some are powerhouses. There's all sorts of variety here, and it makes for a very tactical experience... surprisingly tactical, in fact.

The Unit names in Brütal Legend are also one on it's strong points, let me list a few of them for you here. Thunderhog, battle nun, warfather, screamwagon, ratgut, frightwig, and saving the best for last the HATE CAGE. Yes, that's right, the hate cage. Not only are the names great, but all of the units have an excellent design to them as well, complementing the visuals and keeping with the style of METAL!

The online mode looks surprisingly like an RTS, but it seems like it won't require the micromanagement you find in most RTS games. Is this the way a console RTS should be done? Nobody can really tell at this point, but it looks like the good folks at Double Fine have put a lot of hard work into this mode, and at least for me, it's pretty surprising. Tim Schafer has recently said, however, that the game was originally planned to be multiplayer-only, so I suppose since they were working on this the longest, it's not any surprise that it'd come out looking so good.

Brütal Legend is penned to be released Rocktober(yaknow, October) 13th, later this year, so look forward to fighting the epic war of heavy metal against your foes and slaying their demons over your puny internet connection! Ahahhahahaaaa!

Brutal Legend might be Delayed?!

Not for the same reason as other games

Okay, if you don't get why they are suing the developer even though they gave up on the game, I will make it very simple. Think Fox and the Watchmen case, Activision is exploiting loopholes for its gold digging pleasure. Now recently we got news that the judge threw out their case

Take that Activision

Of course they will appeal this, but unlike the Watchmen/Fox case there was no victory in the preliminary case and lets hope there isn't. There are way too many games being delayed, and I know people are excited for the game. I recently became interested in the game, very interested, and now Activision is trying to cash in. No offense to Activision but....

*insert cursing rant here*

What is odd about the game being delayed is that its mostly because they want to make money on it but I guess delaying it will make EA want to settle and give Activision a piece of the profits. Well, I hope Activision wastes their money on the lawyers that lose this case.

Movie Review: Year One

I got the lucky chance to sit through quite possibly the worst comedy in years. I don't kid I had a bad feeling about this movie going into it but I didn't realize how bad it was going to get. This movie has Jack Black, Michael Cera, David Cross, Paul Rudd, Hank Azaria, Vinnie Jones, and is directed by Harold Rammis. So WHAT THE HELL went wrong here? The only theory I can come up with is that all these comedians have their own very distinct styles and were doing their own thing. Harold Rammis as the director should have reined them in so they could work as a cohesive whole. Instead everyone is allowed to just do whatever they want and none of it ends up being funny.

The basic plot of the story is that Jack Black and Michael Cera get kicked out of their tribe after eating the forbidden fruit and then stumble upon different people from biblical times. Most of the encounters they have are used as an excuse to give some comedian a cameo. Like I mentioned though they aren't given any direction and characters like Kane played by David Cross come across as annoying and not funny. A comedy can get by if the main characters are lame but the supporting cast is great unfortunately here they both suck.

It doesn't help that the film is poorly written either. The way they make jokes is to do some crazy act and then make it funnier by describing the act that is being done. That isn't funny it's just making a statement and it's done consistently throughout the film. I can't possibly recommend Year One to anyone. I'm pretty sure even if you like low brow slapstick poop jokes you still won't find much in this film worth paying for.

1 out of 5