Blueshadow's Bon Jovi Blog » Brutal Legend

Skill Atrophy

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:54:03 +0000

I haven’t really been playing any of the rhythm games, like Guitar Hero or Rock Band for quite some time. Been too busy playing stuff like the Ghostbusters game, Brutal Legend, and Bioshock lately.

But the other night, I just wanted a quick game to kill some time, and I didn’t feel like playing a battle against the AI in Brutal Legend. (That had been one of my go-to time wasters for awhile, but that lost appeal pretty fast.) So I put the first Rock Band in the Xbox for the first time in probably four or five months.

I, of course, assumed that I could pick up right where I left off and tried to play ‘Number of the Beast’ on Hard right away, and promptly failed out. Ultimately I came to the realization that I really do need to work my way back up to Hard, especially since hand-to-eye coordination isn’t really a natural skill of mine. And at the rate I’ve been going with getting distracted by other games, I probably won’t ever make it through all of the songs on Hard.

What’s really funny about the whole thing is that I can still do ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ perfectly on Expert without a problem, but then again, practice does count for something.

Still playing Brutal Legend

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:02:42 +0000

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.

So I finished Brutal Legend…

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:17:46 +0000

I finally finished Brutal Legend this past weekend. It’s taken me awhile to finish the game, even though I didn’t find the main story mode to be particularly difficult or long. (Having the Xbox decide to develop the Red Ring of Death does tend to put a crimp in my gaming schedule.) Honestly, I could have done with a longer story mode. I didn’t find anything to be all that great about the multiplayer mode, especially since none of my friends have Brutal Legend. If a few of my friends were interested in playing some stage battles, I might get more mileage out of it. But as it stands, the multiplayer mode holds no real interest. (Most of my friends would rather play Halo Wars.)

The rest of my follow-up is after the jump. Consider yourself warned: there are spoilers after this point, so if you’re haven’t beat the game yourself and don’t want the end spoiled STOP NOW.

….that should be sufficient spoiler space, even for a big monitor…

Like I said above, I found the story mode to be a tad short. I just feel that there were so many more things that they could have explored in the world created for the game. Maybe the problem is that the game as a whole was too easy; I was able to blow through it far too fast. (I should have cranked the difficulty up I guess.) I suspect that part of the problem was the hybrid nature of the game; it can’t make up its mind whether it’s a RTS game or an action game, and it winds up being both, and dumbing both down a lot. Neither mode has a lot of subtleties to it. The stage battles can get a little more interesting, but compared to other real-time strategy games that I’ve played, it’s pretty simple.

That being said, I did enjoy the stage battles, but that’s mostly because I am epic fail at playing true real-time strategy games. As I’ve said before, I just don’t seem to have the multitasking ability necessary to keep up with those games. I’m always too slow at playing them. The simpler systems in Brutal Legend operated at a level much more in keeping with my abilities.

Overall, I found this game to be incredibly gorgeous from a graphical perspective. I am easily impressed on this count, mostly because I hadn’t really gotten any up-to-date game consoles in a long time. (Really. The last two consoles that I had before the Xbox 360 were a Nintendo 64 and a Wii, neither of which is particularly impressive from a graphical perspective these days.) But even so, from a design perspective, this game impresses me. It certainly holds true to an artistic style that just screams HEAVY METAL. What’s astounding is the number of variations on that theme that they came up with–more that I had ever realized were possible. (The Drowning Doom ventured a little far from the heavy metal and are edging over into Tim Burton-esqe Goth territory, but that’s a relatively minor quibble. Drowned Ophelia looked totally awesome. That’s next year’s Halloween costume there.)

I was playing with the blood/dismemberment and swearing filters turned off. I have to play back through again with them turned on, just because I want to see how they manage the end of the game without any blood or dismemberment. I figure that they would have to keep the whole thing with the heart dissolving, even though that’s kind of gross (and dismemberment-y) because of the plot point that it made.

All told, I’m glad I bought this game. It’s been one of the most fun games that I’ve played in a long time. (The Ghostbusters game for the Xbox is probably a close second when it comes to pure fun.)

Back up and running

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:30:54 +0000

I got my Xbox back from Microsoft yesterday–fully repaired and ready to go. Now that I have my game system up and running again, I’ll post more about Brutal Legend.

I have to say that I’m fairly impressed with Microsoft’s service during the whole repair process. Requesting a repair was easy enough and they got the system turned around pretty quickly. I wasn’t expecting to get it back for another week or so yet.

Anyway, now I can get back to playing Brutal Legend again. I had just gotten up to a good part when the stupid console froze up and died. I really wanted to see what kind of character the Fire Baron would turn out to be. Rob Halford certainly sounded like he was having a good time doing the voice for General Lionwhyte, so I’m interested to see how he does with the character that’s actually based on him.

Brutal Legend is Awesome

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:04:51 +0000

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.

I just popped the game in for the first time about a week ago. (I was trying to finish up the Ghostbusters game before I really started Brutal Legend.) And it turns out that Brutal Legend is, indeed, awesome. I had a mental image of a heavy metal Ocarina of Time, and that was basically what the game delivered.

The solos actually work better than the songs from Ocarina of Time, and actually have more of a Guitar Hero influence–you call up the solo and it displays it on the screen and you just have to tap the buttons at the right time. It works better than having to remember a pile of random button sequences, at least for me.

I’m still having trouble steering the car, though at least now I’m trying to steer with the correct thumbstick. I don’t know what kind of mental block I had the day that I played the demo, but I don’t have the same level of trouble that I did before. I’m still having problems, but they’re the usual problems that I always have in racing-type games. I oversteer. I always oversteer.

I did make it far enough into the game to get to the very first stage battle, which is the first time that the RTS elements come into the game. All told, it’s not that bad. I won the mission pretty handily, which is more than I usually do when I’m playing real-time strategy games. At least for me, the simplified orders system that Brutal Legend uses works pretty well. It lets you get down and dirty in the action, and just yell to your troops to go beat on whatever needs pounding. Nothing complicated. And it’s introduced in a really good way.

All told, I’m glad that I finally got this game. It is every bit as awesome as I had hoped, and that’s a rare thing to find.

Brutal Legend comes out today

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:28:04 +0000

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 Demo Reactions

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:22:59 +0000

I finally got my hands on the Brutal Legend demo yesterday. (I only have a Xbox Live Silver account right now, so I had to wait.)

The opening sequence was awesome. I had already seen it in one of the gameplay demo videos that had been posted over the last several months. However, being able to watch it on my TV instead of on a grainy web video on my monitor was awesome. I also turned on the blood and gore and turned off the swear filter, just to see what was filtered out of the demo video. As far as I can tell, the swear filter is going to end up being more of a matter of a personal mood–the game is actually funnier with it on. The blood and gore is going to end up being dependent on my mood too–seeing the heads pop off of the members of Kabbage Boy was funny, but slightly gratuitous.

The basic single-player battle system seemed to work well for a hack and slash player like myself. I always have trouble avoiding hitting my allies in other games–big battles in Oblivion, for instance, were always a problem for me. However, the AI on the allies in this game seem to be good at staying out of my way. The controls were simple and relatively intuitive, especially for the guitar-based magical attacks.

I did have some trouble controlling the car, but I believe I may have been attempting to steer with the wrong thumbstick for some reason. I’ll have to play the demo through again to see if that is the case. It may take me awhile to get the hang of driving, but the problem that I had seemed to be all from mishandling of the controller and not the game itself. As long as I had the thumbsticks under control, the car itself, along with its steering and acceleration system, was also simple enough to handle.

Unfortunately, the demo didn’t answer the biggest question that I had–the prominence of the real-time strategy elements of the game. I never really enjoyed RTS games, mostly because I never really got to be good at them. This still leaves some questions for me as to whether I really want to purchase this game. If there is a stronger RTS element to the game itself, I most likely won’t enjoy it as much.

Brutal Legend Demo Coming Soon

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:16:52 +0000

Gamespy reports that there is a Brutal Legend demo coming in September.

I can’t wait for this. One, this is going to be the first time that I’ll actually be able to get my hands on a playable version of the game in any way, shape or form. Two, having a demo is going to let me decide whether to ask for a preorder on this for my birthday or whether I should buy it for myself.

(Plus, if I ask for it for my birthday, the telemarketing calls from Gamestop will go to my folks’ number and not mine, and after years of my brother’s gaming habits, they already get them. I don’t need a computer calling me up to tell me about the midnight party for the release of the next expansion pack for World of Warcraft.)

Also, check out the screenshots posted over at Gamespy. They’ve got some new ones that I missed while I was distracted by work and the new Bon Jovi release. There’s one really cool one that shows Eddie with demon arms playing the guitar. There’s also a good shot of Doviculus–the guy looks like he’s about ten feet tall. That’s something that seems to be missed in a lot of games; the scale often seems out of whack, or isn’t used properly. Big villains should be just that–big. Ocarina of Time got it right at the end when Ganon rises up out of the rubble and you realize that taking down Ganondorf was just the warm up act and this round was going to hurt. Doviculus looks like he’s got a little bit of that going on. He looks like he’s just big enough to be ominous. Every other video that I’ve seen of the game looks like it was properly designed, so I have no doubts that scale will be used properly here too.

Now I just need to figure out why my Xbox stopped communicating with Xbox Live so I can actually download the demo and play it. Looks like I should get started–I only have a few days left before the beginning of September to get it working.

Brutal Legend sponsoring Dethklok and Mastodon Tour

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:20:34 +0000

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.

More Brutal Legend Gameplay

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:06:04 +0000

Destructoid has another Brutal Legend gameplay demo video.

You might be well-advised to skip this (and the video) if you’re at all spoiler-conscious. This video does give away a lot, even more than the last one. I’m actually kind of sorry I watched it, and usually I’m not big on avoiding spoilers.

The post continues, with spoilers and all, after the jump.

Most of the beginning of the video deals with one of the early missions in the game and walks the player through commanding their troops. Looks like a relatively handy system based on using the D-pad to issue basic commands, and then the headbangers figure out what to attack on their own once they’re pointed in the right direction. As long as the AI is solid, it should work pretty well. Fortunately it looks like the headbangers are pretty tough and not inclined to fight with each other (a rather terminal problem I have had with followers in other games), so it should work out OK.

This is the first video that we’ve seen that contains more than a glimpse of Ozzy’s character. I’m not sure how they got Ozzy to speak so clearly for so long. That’s actually the only remarkable thing about his character. Otherwise, he’s pretty much a standard merchant character, same as you’ll find in any other RPG or action game.

I’m looking forward to playing this; most of the games that I’ve been playing have been more in the RPG vein and I think I want to lay off the constant experience-hoarding and stat management and just run around beating things up. It looks like Brutal Legend delivers on that. You can throw porcupines at people in this game. This is cool.

Plus, the element of humor is a nice touch. The last several action-type games that I’ve played have either been intentionally dark, like Bioshock, or unintentionally funny, like Circle of Doom. I’m looking forward to playing through one that doesn’t keep making me jump. It’ll make a nice change.