Blueshadow’s Bon Jovi Blog

I already posted when I finished the main story arc in Brutal Legend. Usually with adventure games like this one, that’s where I stop. Yes, there are usually still side missions left in many of the games that I’ve stopped playing, but for the most part it’s the main quest that I’m playing for.

Plus, I’ve been meaning to start Bioshock. I know, I’m way behind the times, but it was the release of Bioshock 2 that reminded me that I had wanted to play the original. And I still do want to play through that game, because everyone I know who has played it has nothing but positive things to say about it.

So why am I still playing Brutal Legend? Well, there are still a lot of side missions left; I’ve been mopping those up and collecting the rest of the solos, legends and landmarks. Like most Xbox 360 owners, I have to admit to having an addiction to that little ‘plink’ noise that the achievements make when they come up, and there are still plenty of achievements in Brutal Legend that I haven’t collected, and a fair number of them aren’t that hard to get. Just a lot of trundling around the map and finding stuff.

Ultimately, the answer boils down to one thing: escapism. Brutal Legend doesn’t pretend to be anything profound. It’s just fun. And a lot of the remaining items that I’m hunting for are stuff like the Legends and the Landmarks. If you’ve been reading the blog, you know I have a fascination with album cover art, especially from heavy metal albums. This game just lets me wander around through a heavy metal world. It’s fun.

I suspect that’s why I’ve been putting off playing through Bioshock. Because while that game promises a bit more substance than Brutal Legend, it’s also going to be a lot heavier. And that’s something that I’m a whole lot less likely to want to face when I come home from work in the evening.

I picked up a copy of Brutal Legend on Black Friday, when Best Buy had it for $39.99. I had been hesitant to pay the full $59.99 price tag after all of the talk that I had heard about the real-time strategy portions of the game. For years I’ve had problems with RTS games. I’ve just never done well with them. (It’s odd, because my day-to-day life is an exercise in multitasking, but I can’t handle the level of multitasking that RTS games require. Silly, but true.)

But at that sale price, I figured it was at least worth a shot. Especially since I had been looking forward to it so much since I had first heard about the game. Black Friday was nuts, but I did manage to get all of the stuff that I went out for. Brutal Legend turned out to be the closest call on that count though. I got one of the last Xbox 360 copies that my local Best Buy had, at least from what I could see in the bin. I had to dig pretty far down into the bin to find it.
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Just a reminder: Brutal Legend comes out today, for those of us who weren’t at Gamestop at midnight.

(No, yours truly was not among them. One, I needed sleep last night. Two, I don’t have $60 to drop on a game at the moment. Household repairs have a way of derailing the ‘entertainment’ section of the budget. I will start posting more about my experiences with the game when I can afford to get it.)

Brutal Legend will be sponsoring Dethklok and Mastodon’s upcoming tour, according to WorthPlaying.

They even plan on having game stations at the concerts so that the fans can try out the game right at the show. In some ways, this may not help expand the reach of the game very much. Most of the metal fans (at least the ones I know) usually tend to be gamers already. They’re all stoked for the release of Brutal Legend already.

However, the deal does come with advertising spots on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, thanks to the Dethklok/Metalocalypse connection. Adult Swim reaches a large audience of gamers, some of whom might not have been introduced to Brutal Legend otherwise. If they at least check it out, they might find out (like those of us who have been watching the trailers and demos) that there is more to this game than metal, and that will help the game do well.

I haven’t heard anything to indicate this, but maybe this partnership will mean that some Dethklok content will make it into Brutal Legend. It would be awesome if they gave out codes for an in-game Dethklok goodie at the concerts, kind of like the Tenacious D guitar that you get for pre-ordering.