Heavy metal roadies + Double Fine = Cool.

[Senbei]

A friend happened to point out Brutal Rampage to me today. Here's some news page and the trailer.

It looks fucking awesome. I'm not a metal fan at all, though I am partial to Jack Black. In particular I'm drawn to the very Conan-like attitude. And, of course, it's being made by the guys who made Psychonauts. But, y'know, whatever.

[Delphine]

Double Fine is making another game? Excellent.

[Green Gibbon!]

I'm happy to see that Double Fine is still in business, but this new game looks really lousy.

[Cuckooguy]

Sierra's (I'm assuming) publishing it? That's actually kind of funny to me, considering Tim worked with Lucasarts before and is now working under his previous employer's competitor during the point 'n' click adventure games. I mean, I know it's not really that big of a deal, but it feels like to me as if Yuji Naka was working under Nintendo now or the ICO team moving to Microsoft.

Anyway, I also agree it looks really lousy. Hopefully it will have a great script that justifies the setting they'll be using for Brutal Legend.

[Yami CJMErl]

I saw the trailer for it, and the only thing running through my mind was "HOLY CRAP THIS IS PURE AWESOMENESS IN VIDEO FORM".

Then I read the GameInformer article, and saw the all-too familiar "PS3/360" notation that seems to purvey most of the mag's articles, so my enthusiasm's diminished juuuuuuuust a little bit.

[Esrever]

I'm a little burned out on Jack Black's whole over-the-top cheese-metal satire schtick, but I trust these guys to make it work. I mean, Full Throttle was cool...

[Arcade]

I have hope for this game...

[Zeta]

I hate heavy metal, Jack Black, and faux Conan shit.

[Senbei]

I'll admit I'm worried. This game seems to be coming on the tail of the Guitar Hero craze. The over-the-top brutality also resembles God of War, which I wasn't much a fan of -- I do prefer relating it to Conan. All the propaganda seems to be riding on a similar wave that School of Rock and Tenacious D did. The game's title is not at all attractive: it sounds like it's ensuring the quality of a game called "Barbarian," or "Viking Warlord." Finally, Game Informer is writing its debut article. They tend to write feature previews on games that might not get a lot of attention otherwise, but they don't seem to be able to habitually feature good games.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed that trailer in a campy sort of way, which is obviously what they're going for. We'll see, I guess.

[G.Silver]

Considering what Doublefine's games have been like in the past, I don't think this trailer necessarily represents anything about the game except who's in it and what it looks like. If they learned anything from Psychonauts it should be that they need to either make a better, awesome action game, or give up on action and focus entirely on making a hilarious and entertaining story.

I don't care for Jack Black. It annoys me when he's in something I like.

[j-man]

This is awesome on toast. Fuck you guys.

[Delphine]

<a href="http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/site ... egend/">OH MY EFFING GOD OUR NEW GAME IS CALLED BRÃœTAL LEGEND!!!</a>

Brütal Legend is our new game and we’ve been working on it forever and you are now free to love it with all your heart and pre-order about ten thousand copies each.

Let me just tell you about this:

When I was ten years old, I had no idea what kind of music to listen to. The only album I had was a 45 of Steve Martin singing “King Tut.â€￾ I had a little, monophonic radio by my bed that I used to tune in Dr. Demento once a week. Other times, I would twist the knob around and listen for something else. One time I stumbled upon, “A Fifth of Beethoven,â€￾ the disco version of Beethoven’s fifth symphony. (Remember, this is the 70s.) I thought, “Yeah, this is pretty cool. I’m probably pretty cool for listening to this.â€￾ And then my older brother walked in the room.

“What are you listening to?â€￾ He asked, horrified. He was fifteen.

“Um.. Nothing.â€￾ It was like being caught with a dirty magazine, but worse.

He stared at me for moment, listened to the disco Beethoven, furrowed his brow, and then said, “Come with me.â€￾

He led me down to his room, and he told me to sit on the floor while he flipped through his record collection. He pulled out a strange, dark record, and put it on the turntable.

It popped and crackled and then was silent. Then it all began, with the bass drum. “Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump,â€￾ like the footsteps of an angry giant, coming down the hallway to kill us.

But, instead of hearing a knocking on the door, I heard a sound that made me feel like my brain was being electrocuted. It was an electric guitar, but it was as if steel cables were uncoiling inside my gut, turning my body inside out. And the evil sound just got deeper and expanded until I was flayed open, a mass of gurgling blood. Then, a commanding voice announced itself. An enormous, malevolent, Satanic robot, with red eyes and chrome teeth.

“I… am… IRON… MAN,â€￾ it growled. And then one of the most famous riffs in all of rock grabbed me by the collar, dragged me up a steep stairway, twirled me over its head, and tossed me down the stairs. And I loved it.

That was the first time I heard Heavy Metal. It was big, loud, powerful, threatening, and weird. Everything I secretly hoped to be as a teenager. Growing up in a small town, looking at the same old things every day--the kids you know in school, the teachers, the streets, your room—you start to wonder, “Is this really all there is?â€￾ And Heavy Metal, just like fantasy, science fiction, and video games, says, “No. There are worlds out there that you can’t even imagine.â€￾ And one of those worlds is exactly what we’re building for this game.

“Of course,â€￾ you exclaim, slapping your forehead. “A Heavy Metal game. Why didn’t I think of that? In fact, why aren’t ALL games exactly like this?â€￾ And it’s a good question. Why aren’t all games Brütal Legend? They should be. But they’re not, and I think part of the reason is that publishers fear the Legend. You’d be surprised how many of them asked us to change the music to something more innocuous. One of them asked, “Does the main character have to be a roadie?â€￾

Ho ho! But not our pals at Sierra. They have embraced this game like a mama bear hugging a baby cub. And when the cub was hungry, the mamma bear reached into the creek and pulled out a salmon for us, named Jack Black. And he was delicious. After we ate that salmon (and by “ateâ€￾ I mean cast him in our starring role, the roadie Eddie Riggs) the baby cub said, “That salmon was perfect, but now we’d like something sweet. Maybe a thin chocolate wafer,â€￾ the momma bear reached into that cool, mountain stream and pulled out Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead. And when the baby bear said, “And maybe a single espresso,â€￾ the momma bear pulled out Rob Halford from Judas Priest. And when the baby bear said, “Oh, I’m so stuffed. But you know what would really hit the spot would be some Ronnie James Dio,â€￾ the momma went into the woods and found a hunter. She stalked that hunter for days, and then charged him, tackled him, and tore out his guts. Then she ate the guts, all except for the heart, and she brought the heart back to the baby bear, and said, “Here. This is Ronnie James Dio.â€￾

I think you know what I’m talking about.

After that, the momma bear did many more things. Awesome things. Unspeakable things. And the baby bear was happy. But the baby bear can’t tell you what they are, because they’re secret, and because bears can’t speak English.

The moral of the story is that Brütal Legend is going to be the best f***ing game you have ever played.

Please be patient, though. It’s going to take us a little while to gather up every single piece of awesome there is in the world and put it in this game.

Well, I'm sold.

[Zeta]

They sound full of themselves and it sounds like pure awful.

[Light Speed]

Seeing as how we have no idea how the game will play or anything about it, I'm fairly skeptical. I loved Psychonauts though, so we got that going.

What happened to Majesco, or were they not ever attached to Double Fine, and is Tim Schafer working on this? He was the Psychonauts guy, right?

[Isuka]

Majesco probably chocked on it's own vomit and subsequently died. At least Sierra has World in Conflict and F.E.A.R. going for it too.

Oh, and I mostly agree with j-man.

[Esrever]

Majesco nearly bankrupted themselves after Psychonauts and Advent Rising. They had to refocus on publishing smaller, more 'casual' titles for the DS and Wii.

However, they were only a publisher/distributor, as is Sierra. It was Schafer and Double Fine who actually made Psychonauts, and they're the ones behind this game too. Schafer also designed Full Throttle and Grim Fandango back at LucasArts, and had a big hand in Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island series. The dude has made some incredible games and basically has a completely untarnished record.

[Esrever]

Here's some concept art, if anyone is interested!

http://kotaku.com/photogallery/brulegart/

A lot of imagination on display, but I'm still not really sure about this one...

[Senbei]

Where's the driver's compartment in the dragon car? Unless the car itself is the driver.

[Opa-Opa]

You should all shut up and bow to the god of metal that is Ronnie James Dio. Any game with his soundtrack should instantly be called the best game of all time.

Jack Black is pretty cool too. He has a great voice, he's pretty funny and he understands metal. A very obvious choice, but a very good one. Lemmy and Rob Halford only make it cooler.

Plus it's Tim Schafer. I really can't remember when he was ever wrong. The guy did some of my favourite games, and most of them I replayed at least 10 times.

It might be following the Guitar Hero wagon, but only because this is a genre that's not that much explored around games. Full Throttle was the only other high quality heavy metal game I remember, and even it's sequel got booted by Lucasarts. There was Rock and Roll Racing too, and I believe everyone likes that one, but that was a long time ago. I'd say Guitar Hero opened some doors.

[Light Speed]

Is it just me or does the main character look just like the main guy in Metalocolypse? Or however you spell it.

[Opa-Opa]

I think it's just you. I do think that it kinda resembles Jack Black.

[Light Speed]

I dunno, from the back anyway its a guy with a large upper body, long black hair and a black shirt. His face is a bit different though, more goofy.

[DackAttac]

I found the trailer hilarious, much as I do all things metal. It's just so utterly ridiculous, that the people involved have to know it's ridiculous, and nevertheless commit. If the whole game is as over-the-top as the trailer, it could be a real side splitter.

The only thing that could knock the train off its rails is if it, at any point, tries to take itself seriously. I'm an indie pop whore, I listen to Ben Lee and Fountains of Wayne, and I would rather take a nail gun to my crotch than take metal seriously.

[Shadow Hog]

We're talking Tim Schafer here. Do his games EVER take themselves seriously?

[Opa-Opa]

Not even metal takes metal seriously, and the ones that do are boring.