April 2009 Archives

Friend of the Show Tim Schafer's journey toward making Brütal Legend into a real boy may finally be nearing completion.  Brütal Legend's official site is now reporting a release date of October 13.

Brütal Legend's development is itself an epic tale of intrigue and betrayal.  A merger between powerhouse publishers Activision and Blizzard last year resulted in a "streamlining" of the Activision-owned Vivendi games catalog down to an anemic five titles, as the then newly-merged Activision Blizzard reportedly wanted to concentrate primarily on three-gen-old cash cows, easily-marketable franchise titles, and World of Warcraft expansion packs.

After a short stay in Publisher Limbo, Electronic Arts picked up publishing rights as part of what I can only assume is an insidious plot on EA's part to confuse gamers accustomed to EA's history of Madden clones and developer abuse.  Brütal Legend's development has since continued apace.

Wonkette has a nice little pictorial of MMO"RPG" Second Life's precious little internet version of those adorable little tea parties which sprung up wherever three morons managed to simultaneously stop beating their clubs against the dirt long enough to hold up misspelled signs and embarrass themselves instead of doing their civic duties and directing Stacey Campfield to the courthouse the second he set foot in Knox County to come to their silly little party (UPDATE:  WAAAAAAH).

Anyway, I don't see what the qualitative difference is.  One group is a bunch of deviants and fringe wackos getting dressed up in outlandish costumes and making fools of themselves.  The other is Second Life.

...a month too late. Possibly as a response to item 1 here, Microsoft has extended warranties for E-74 related Xbox 360 failures to the RRoD-standard three years.

Good news for anyone who didn't already buy a replacement console.  Lukewarm news for investors - Microsoft shares trended downward today, losing a little more than 1% of yesterday's value. 

But what the hell, they're Microsoft investors.  They've dealt with worse.

Gaming journalists nationwide have been receiving personalized DSi-themed cakes in anticipation of the aforementioned money-printing handheld upgrade's release this weekend.

Of course, I haven't seen so much as a mushroom-shaped cupcake.  God forbid Nintendo look out for the little guy, right?