Brutal Legend Catch All

Kosars wrote:

That's a whole lot of hate toward a guy who gave the game a B+, which is only a bad score in bizarro world.

My hate is purely founded in his inability to write cogently and review a game critically. I could give a frip about the score.

Switchbreak wrote:

You know, I'm all for the Haywald Hatewagon, but if you watched Cowboy Bebop and came away from it not a fan of Yoko Kanno then you need new ears because yours are broken.

I have the soundtrack (though it's tagged simply under "Cowboy Bebop" and not the artist name(s)).

It's OK.

It's not even in the same universe as the two names Haywald listed next to Kanno.

Kosars wrote:

That's a whole lot of hate toward a guy who gave the game a B+, which is only a bad score in bizarro world.

At least we're not quite as this point yet.

I'm about 3 hours in and hot damn. This game is like...a bathtub full of kiwi jello...with a naked girl in it. Listening to Iced Earth. And serving up hot dogs.

I think I just realized what heaven will be like.

Now Gus Mastrapa writes a good review:

So forgive Brütal Legend its flaws. The moments where objects pop or the processor chugs are like the audible crackle of a needle scraping the groove of a dusty piece of vinyl. It's technology getting in the way of the art. What matters is the music -- and how it drives us to dream, to imagine, to live and to love. Play Brütal Legend and you may not learn to love metal, but you'll certainly feel the love that Tim Schafer and Double Fine carry with them. Their art here screams with passion.

It's refreshing to see such energy in worshiping something, anything, other than The Lord of the Rings and Aliens.

No bullsh*t about jumping or minimaps or pop-in (okay, that was the only mention of pop-in). It makes it sound like... art.

Holy sh*t, this game kicks your ass using just its menu screen. Then it gets even more awesome.

The strategy parts feel like Sacrifice.

Sacrifice

Put in several hours, got done with the first RTS'ish battle (that bad dude has some serious hair), and have just been loving. Not that the game is flawless: I have to occasionally fight with the camera, and there have been a couple annoying bits involving plummeting to certain doom in the ol' Deuce - plus some general driving caniggles - but it's all quickly forgotten as you rock out and waste dudes.

The (pre?) intro alone puts most games to shame, and the game just keeps delivering.

Whoa. The strategy parts were cool. Then they became very strange. Now, I don't know what to think. Has anyone ever played Actraiser before?

Alright, you filthy enablers have convinced me to pick this up -- I just ducked out to the shops and grabbed a copy. To my surprise, I also got a free t-shirt, which was apparently a pre-order bonus but which the store was just handing to everyone that bought it today. Did anyone else get the t-shirt?

Elysium wrote:

Brutal Legend is the best man-made commercial entertainment product conceived by man to date or ever to come in the future.

I believe you're being a bit harsh. Brutal Legend is better than that, its just f*cking glorious. I picked it up this morning right after dropping off the kids at school and played for a few hours.

"Oh this game's perfect for you," my wife commented. She's never praised me like that. Its like my 1986 teenage self imagined the perfect marriage between metal and games, and now that its here I'm transported back to that time.

\m/

Sinatar wrote:

The strategy parts feel like Sacrifice.

Sacrifice

I have been thinking the same thing, just from what I have seen though.
I wanted to try it out for myself to be sure.

But yeah, Sacrifice with some of the things that Sacrifice had wrong with it, fixed.

Mystic Violet wrote:

Whoa. The strategy parts were cool. Then they became very strange. Now, I don't know what to think. Has anyone ever played Actraiser before?

I frigging love Actraiser.

Seriously, though, f*ck Justin Haywald. That guy just annoys me. His glowing review of Guitar Hero 5, while not terrible, was just his review of Guitar Hero 4 all over again (and Guitar Hero 4 sucks all of the balls ever), his review of The Beatles: Rock Band was filled with way, way, way too much talk of how much he likes fondling Guitar Hero 5's balls, and this sad excuse for a Brutal Legend review is just lazy.

It's not the score I have an issue with (although he accidentally put a B where an A should've been), it's the fact that he spends the vast majority of the review nitpicking all the little things the game doesn't have or doesn't do as well as one would like. Funny thing is, I actually don't disagree with many of the issues he brings up. It's just that most of them are not as big as he makes them out to be when he spends about 6 paragraphs of a 10-paragraph review whining about all these tiny things that he admits in the end aren't even deal-breakers.

Sure, Justin, maybe a jump button would've been rather nice, but there are plenty of other games out there without jump buttons that are perfectly playable and this is no exception. Besides, where the hell would you put the jump-button anyway? There's nothing left to use on the damn controller.

So, while I agree with most of what the review said, it's just a terribly written review. Compare this to the wonderful A Boy and His Blob review. After reading Jeremy Parish's masterfully written review, I feel I have a good idea of what awaits me. If I hadn't already been playing Brutal Legend essentially all day, I'd probably not have a very good idea of what awaits me in the game.

I think my biggest problem with him is this, taken from his blog:

I didn't mark it down because it's short. Portal's short, and it's still one of my favorite shooters. I marked it down because, while it's executed with exceptionally high quality, it's not that much different from the first Rock Band. Also, only 45 songs? Is this game a budget title?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You can't say that you didn't knock the score down because the game is short and then, in your explanation of why you knocked the score down, say that there are only 45 songs. The number of songs is the length of the game. And, budget title? It costs thousands of dollars to create each of the tracks in The Beatles. Plus, I love how you knocked the score down because the game is basically the same as Rock Band, yet you'll continue fellating Guitar Hero despite the only thing it brings to the table is a surprising lack of terrible skateboarding Jackass characters.

The Beatles Rock Band is good, but whatever happened to Rock Band being a "platform for music"?

It still is. It just happens that there was this little band that revolutionized the music industry called The Beatles. I'm supposing than rather slap a few tracks into the Rock Band 2 store, they wanted to honor the biggest band in history the way only they deserve to be honored.

So, to sum up, f*ck Justin Haywald. As soon as I see his name on the top of the review, I will be simply hitting the back button from now on.

As for Brutal Legend, I feel that the nitpicky issues aren't even issues for me, since I'm just having so much fun. Like Psychonauts, this is not the game to play for pitch-perfect gameplay, but for the overall experience. From what I have played so far, it really seems like a game greater than the sum of its parts.

And for everyone who has voted to go with Uncharted 2 rather than this game this week, you'll be very sorry, because your game of choice doesn't have mention of the

Spoiler:

Teated Tree of Drinking!

I'm pissed. Release-day delivery my ass: UPS decided they simply weren't going to deliver my copy today, even though I paid for "Next Day Air". No word until 9.40pm that it had not been delivered (after the game was on the truck for delivery since 6.08am). I should have just gone to Best Buy across the street from my work, but this is a birthday present from the wife and I'm generally too busy to stop by BB on the way home from work (that and there had been torrential downpours almost all day-- sh*tty weather for a bike commuter). So, after numerous calls to UPS and guarantees that it will be delivered tonight, the final call at 9.40 informs me that it was rescheduled for delivery tomorrow, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I would have accepted a weather excuse, the Bay Area was flooded in a lot of places today due to the crazy rainfall, but they said there was no excuse given. The UPS hub from which it was (supposed to be) sent is a mere 1 mile from my house-- literally just over the hill. What's one more day, I guess? Bullsh*t either way, and incredibly frustrating-- I know I'll be happy as all hell tomorrow when I finally get the game, but goddamnit, I have to work! And I paid specifically to get it today! All this excess waiting for the metal is killing me. It wouldn't be so bad if the metal was killing me...

Running Man wrote:

Its like my 1986 teenage self imagined the perfect marriage between metal and games, and now that its here I'm transported back to that time.

I just played for about 5 hours, and those are my thoughts exactly.

\m/ (>.<) \m/

So, after all my apprehension about whether people would buy Brütal Legend or not, it turns out I'm way too broke to pick up my pre-order.

...Hold me.

Yeah, "day one" shipping really depends on where you are in the UPS pecking order. My brother's place is right on the first stop so things arrive between 10am and 2pm every time. I, on the other hand, am currently located at the middle to late range so I get mine at ~8pm every time.

FedEx meanwhile gets me things at noon but makes my brother wait until after four in the afternoon. Go figure.

I'm holding my copy in my hand right now. It's beautiful.

Unfortunately, my 360 was just sent to be repaired and won't be returned for at least two weeks. I could cry.

WipEout wrote:

I'm pissed. Release-day delivery my ass: UPS decided they simply weren't going to deliver my copy today, even though I paid for "Next Day Air". No word until 9.40pm that it had not been delivered (after the game was on the truck for delivery since 6.08am). I should have just gone to Best Buy across the street from my work, but this is a birthday present from the wife and I'm generally too busy to stop by BB on the way home from work (that and there had been torrential downpours almost all day-- sh*tty weather for a bike commuter). So, after numerous calls to UPS and guarantees that it will be delivered tonight, the final call at 9.40 informs me that it was rescheduled for delivery tomorrow, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I would have accepted a weather excuse, the Bay Area was flooded in a lot of places today due to the crazy rainfall, but they said there was no excuse given. The UPS hub from which it was (supposed to be) sent is a mere 1 mile from my house-- literally just over the hill. What's one more day, I guess? Bullsh*t either way, and incredibly frustrating-- I know I'll be happy as all hell tomorrow when I finally get the game, but goddamnit, I have to work! And I paid specifically to get it today! All this excess waiting for the metal is killing me. It wouldn't be so bad if the metal was killing me...

Weird, my Amazon Release-Day order didn't move until last night and it still got to my house at the usual UPS delivery time ( Around 3:45 PM). The storm knocked down trees, flooded streets and caused power outages but they still got it to me on time. Is there any way you can get your shipping refunded or something?

I only had a chance to play maybe 15 minutes beyond the demo cut-off, but what I saw was awesome and provided my power stays on I plan to dig in tomorrow.

Gameraotaku wrote:
WipEout wrote:

I'm pissed. Release-day delivery my ass: UPS decided they simply weren't going to deliver my copy today, even though I paid for "Next Day Air". No word until 9.40pm that it had not been delivered (after the game was on the truck for delivery since 6.08am). I should have just gone to Best Buy across the street from my work, but this is a birthday present from the wife and I'm generally too busy to stop by BB on the way home from work (that and there had been torrential downpours almost all day-- sh*tty weather for a bike commuter). So, after numerous calls to UPS and guarantees that it will be delivered tonight, the final call at 9.40 informs me that it was rescheduled for delivery tomorrow, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I would have accepted a weather excuse, the Bay Area was flooded in a lot of places today due to the crazy rainfall, but they said there was no excuse given. The UPS hub from which it was (supposed to be) sent is a mere 1 mile from my house-- literally just over the hill. What's one more day, I guess? Bullsh*t either way, and incredibly frustrating-- I know I'll be happy as all hell tomorrow when I finally get the game, but goddamnit, I have to work! And I paid specifically to get it today! All this excess waiting for the metal is killing me. It wouldn't be so bad if the metal was killing me...

Weird, my Amazon order didn't move until last night and it still got to my house at the usual UPS delivery time ( Around 3:45 PM). The storm knocked down trees, flooded streets and caused power outages but they still got it to me on time. Is there any way you can get your shipping refunded or something?

I told them I want a refund on the shipping, I'm going to call Amazon tomorrow and ask them what they can do. Usually UPS gets stuff to me around 10am-1pm, but like I said: no excuse, it was simply rescheduled at 9.40 as I was on the phone trying to figure out what was going on. I'm going to go to the hub tomorrow morning first thing and see if they can just hand it ove rto me if I show a copy of my receipt and driver's license. Here's hoping...

I have to admit I am blown away about the game, it's incredibly good, I still don't know what to think about some of it but I hope this game sells amazingly well.

Man I'm starting to fight the other armies now and they seem completely different. The Drowning Doom (A bunch of goth kids who listen to death metal) seem a lot like the Necrons from DoW in that they have a disturbing habit of getting back up after you take them out. Crazy crazy crazy awesome this game is.

This is one of those rare games where I love roaming around the world. I'd wander in games like Okami because the environments are so well designed. Brutal Legend's world is incredible. I spent maybe two hours just driving around the open world searching for statues and ramps only to be amazed at every damn rock I encountered. The trees... The trees are freakin metal. \m/

Definitely gonna pick this up this week or next.

An important question (or two) though:

Swearing or no?

Blood or no?

Warlock wrote:

Definitely gonna pick this up this week or next.

An important question (or two) though:

Swearing or no?

Blood or no?

Yes to both but it gives you the option to turn both off as well, there are two specific moments right at the beginning of the game that you can select to keep them on or turn them off.

This game is good. Really good. I SHOULD be playing it right now. Stupid work.
I love the Hunter. I love the Guardian of metal (that noise he makes as he gloops onto the platform tickles some part of my lizard brain). I love... this game.
To Do: Find the tracklist and put it on my Zune.

EDIT: If ever there was a game that needed to ship with a soundtrack...

interstate78 wrote:

To anyone who`s wallet is hurting (especially Canadians I guess, since they sell us that game for 69.99$)

BuyNextGen.com has it for 44.95 and shipping is free

WARNING: shipping to Canada is a bit on the slow side, but it's free, and you'll save close to 30$ so you can't complain.

I've ordered from them before and they're reliable

(though slow)

Good work interstate! That's exactly the kind of price I can get behind! Cheap-ass-Canadian Kudos go to you! (And those are the best kind of Kudos, my friend).

Oh, and Lothar, I picked up Dragon Age for 40$ when Impulse had a 20% off coupon-code anything in the store, "Survey-2009" or something like that.

Warlock wrote:

Definitely gonna pick this up this week or next.

An important question (or two) though:

Swearing or no?

Blood or no?

I kept the gore but bleeped the profanity. Not that I have sensitive ears or children or anything, it just really is funnier like that. Kinda like rap when I was young and watched MTV. The songs just sounded lamer without the slurred-out profanity.

Wow!

I came in here to see goodjer reviews of the game and was smacked with all that reviewer haterade. I don't remember ever seeing that around here. But maybe this guy was especially bad at writing or something. I'll have to check the review out when I get home. Still, ouch guys, give 1-up a break. At this point they probably have the janitor doing reviews since so many people have left. Well, the response to that review in this thread shows me that there is some serious love for this game round these parts. I'm thinking about trying this but I have a few questions.

1) Probably early to answer this but: Rental or Purchase? Or will I get burned at the stake for not giving Tim Schafer my money? I bought all his other games! This is just going to be a really awesome few months and I want to stretch my gaming dollar.

2) I kind of sort of don't like heavy metal music. At all. Never really did. Unless, of course, you count Led Zepplin, Cream, etc. The heavy metal of the 80s did nothing for me though. Will I still enjoy this game? Will I get the jokes?

3) Is a pc port expected? Pardon me if this has already been stated in the thread.

TheArtOfScience wrote:

Wow!

I came in here to see goodjer reviews of the game and was smacked with all that reviewer haterade. I don't remember ever seeing that around here. But maybe this guy was especially bad at writing or something. I'll have to check the review out when I get home. Still, ouch guys, give 1-up a break. At this point they probably have the janitor doing reviews since so many people have left. Well, the response to that review in this thread shows me that there is some serious love for this game round these parts. I'm thinking about trying this but I have a few questions.

1) Probably early to answer this but: Rental or Purchase? Or will I get burned at the stake for not giving Tim Schafer my money? I bought all his other games! This is just going to be a really awesome few months and I want to stretch my gaming dollar.

2) I kind of sort of don't like heavy metal music. At all. Never really did. Unless, of course, you count Led Zepplin, Cream, etc. The heavy metal of the 80s did nothing for me though. Will I still enjoy this game? Will I get the jokes?

3) Is a pc port expected? Pardon me if this has already been stated in the thread.

1. I don't like to rush through games, a game like this playing regularly would probably take me 2-3 weeks to beat. If you're the type that likes to power through a game, I guess I'd suggest a rental. Some games I just like enough to want to own, and this is one of them. Though I don't expect this to hold up, it is my GOTY so far, barely squeaking past RE5 (and no, I have not played Batman).

2. Much of the music is from the 70s, but if you're not at all into metal you might not have the reverential sort of love for it that I do. I'm the wrong person to ask really, I'm sure there are some non-metal fans in the thread to answer this.

3. Who knows, but personally I totally expect an eventual PC port. I think this is a game best enjoyed on a console, but again I am somewhat biased.