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NEWS

Brutal Legend

Well, we should consider ourselves lucky that I even get the chance to review this game. A year or so ago, Activision decided to let some games just fall off the radar. Ghostbusters was one of them, and the other main was none other than Brutal Legend. Tim Schafer, the mastermind behind one of the most under rated games of all time “Psychonauts”. Was left without a Publisher for their game. Along came the main competitor to Activision, EA. EA scooped it up and not only did they create a great game, they created one of the best new gaming properties, and funniest ones ever created.

The first thing you’ll notice is the great voice talent that they got for the game. Jack Black is the main character “Eddie Riggs” who is a roadie for a so called metal band of the 21st century. As any good roadie, he does his job and he is damn good at it. Well, when a problem goes wrong with the stage set-up, there is a horrible accident that ends up crushing Eddie, the blood from Eddie then runs down into his belt buckle. Where is then transported into a new world. A world where the evil Lord Lionwhyte, voice by Rob Halford from Judas Priest is taking over the world with his Glam metal ways. So it’s up to Eddie Riggs, Lars, The leader of the Metal heads who live among the land, Lita and Opheilia. With them you form an army of headbangers and rock girls that you save from Lionwhytes clutches.

One thing that really stood out to me was the RTS gameplay, this is seriously an Action/adventure RTS game. It’s a very deep game. You have battles that you have to select squad mates and send them to protect this and that and attack this or that. You can also upgrade your guitar, axe and your car. The guy who sells you these item is The Prince of Darkness himself Ozzy Ozbourne. You are in a very open world, with lots of stuff to do. However the side quests are really boring and repetitive. The controls are ok, I still thought it was weird that there is no jump button and the attack button is the “A” button on the 360 and “X” button on the PS3.

The character animation is great in the game as well. Alot of the humour in the game come from the facial animations from the characters. Followed up by one of the greatest soundtracks in videogame history. If you are a metal fan, then you’ll play this game just for the soundtrack. However, and this is the down side of Reviews, I have to tell you about the problems that the game has. I already mentioned that the side quests are repetitive and compared to the main quests, extremely boring. The game also chugs from time to time through out the battles. The camera can get in your way, it’s more of an annoyance than anything. There’s also some pop up in the environments and the map can be confusing with the way the world is laid out, a small line or something leading you to where you need to go would’ve been nice.

Other than those minor problems, the game is awesome and should be played. One of the best Action/Adventure games of the year and they took a big risk by adding RTS elements into the game. The game a treat and a breath of fresh air to play, with it’s amazing voice work, soundtrack and humour. You’ll be playing this game for a long time after you beat the main quest, which is around 7 hours long. Enjoy it, and lets hope that Tim Schafer and the people at Double Fine see the potential with this universe and makes a sequel to it.

Game Access Score – 4/5

NEWS

The Who: Rock Band spoiled by the band

It appears more and more artists will receive standalone Rock Band games.

In an interview with The Republic, The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey was posed with the idea of doing a Rock Band-focused video game. His response was very straightforward.

"The game, yeah, yeah, they're going to be doing a Who one next year," he said. "There is one planned. (The idea) is fabulous. Anything that gets non-musical people interested in music is wonderful."

"In my opinion, music is our last true great freedom. They can burn our books, they can burn our paintings, but they can't stop us singing and making music," he added.

Fans may remember The Who played a special concert during E3 2008 in support of Harmonix's upcoming Rock Band 2 release, so there are certainly company connections there.

This also isn't the first time -- or the last -- we've heard about musicians spoiling the news of their upcoming rock games. Just recently, Queen guitarist Brian May told the BBC "Yes we're into it, I think it may happen," when asked about a possible Rock Band game.

We've reached out to Harmonix for comment, but not expecting a confirmation back. We'll keep you posted.

The game is scheduled to launch on January 26 in North America and January 29 in Europe.

God of War Collection Release Date

The PlayStation Blog updated today with a release date of November 17 for the God of War Collection, along with a full list of Trophies. As expected, the game pulls double-duty, with twice as many trophies as most games and two Platinum-level trophies instead of one. There are awards for standard story progression, along with harder skill-based challenges like beating the first game in under five hours, or climbing Hades' spiked column without taking any damage.

Epic Mickey, Why it's on the Wii

In an interview with Game Informer (via VG247), Junction Point Studios' Warren Spector has finally explained in some detail what his mysterious Epic Mickey project is all about -- and how it reflects his thoughts on game design in recent years.

"The central game play mechanic of Disney Epic Mickey is paint and thinner," Spector says. "It's basically drawing and erasing; it's making the world whole, or making it go away." He went on to explain that the design concept was based on his belief that environments in video games don't have enough going on behind the surface.

"[If] you peek behind the walls you see that they're flats held up with 2x4s," Spector said. "And so I wanted to create -- of all the games I was pitching since I left Ion Storm, were about creating a world that was more than a movie set, where you could scratch beneath the surface and there was more going on there. And so this whole paint and thinner mechanic really plays into that because you can dynamically change the world to suit your needs. So dynamically changing the environment to solve problems is kind of what it's about."