Recently in Brütal Legend Category

Here's the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon interview of Brütal Legend developer and friend of the show Tim Schafer that we were talking about last Friday.



If you've followed Brütal Legend at all, a lot of the details will be old hat to you, but some of the behind-the-scenes elements were new to me (and interesting whether or not they're new to you).

Game developers are stereotypically anti-social as far as humans go, but Schafer gives good interview here. Fallon's fanboyish approach to gaming may softballed the interview a little bit, but still, Schafer comes across as a guy who may not have chosen his profession for the minor chance that he may have to do Late Night-level press but is nonetheless not too uncomfortable with it. Without getting too editorial about the games industry as a whole, developers who can actually hold their own in this kind of high-level mainstream element are going to be necessary if gaming is ever to really be considered an entertainment platform on par with music, movies, etc.

Hell, I've seen a few of the bigger names on the Brütal Legend soundtrack do worse in the interview chair.

Betty Bean's son-in-law will be on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in, like, an hour, promoting some new project about which we may have spoken already.

If you're up early enough tomorrow, CoK's Solar America City people are doing a Solar Tour & Fair at Krutch Park.  Check out the agenda here (pdf) while I attempt to tastefully refrain from making jokes about solar-powered panhandlers.

...whoops.

In a humorously appropriate turn of events, EA Denmark has leaked (WARNING:  Google Translated from the original Sverjen) the upcoming Brütal Legend's complete track list.

The list, as confirmed here by friend of the show Tim Schafer, is impressive at a level beyond even the most fanboyish of Brütal Böösters' expectations.  I count 108 songs by nearly as many bands, more by at least half than whichever version of Guitar Hero Activision's shoving out the door this week.  That's something to be proud of, especially considering developer Double Fine Productions' allegations that Activision dumped publishing rights to Brütal Legend after efforts to mutate it into just another Guitar Hero failed.

After reportedly finding the courtroom environment hostile to its intentions to delay Brütal Legend's release with legal red tape , Activision settled with Double Fine last week, effectively clearing the path for its October release.

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.

Can't wait for friend of the show Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend to finally release this fall?

Well, hold on to your hats, because Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is...okay, nothing like it!

Spoiler Alert: Snape kills Dumbled Halford kills Schafer

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