As has become the norm there’s a nice selection of gameplay footage towards the end, naturally showing off the axe combat. Check it out!

It’s worth noting that Schafer’s voice drowns out most of the in-game sound and thus significantly takes away from the comedic moments, so this video may not be your cup if tea if you want to experience all those early surprises properly and unspoilt.

One of the highlights for me was seeing clearly how the guitar solos are performanced in a totally Guitar Hero-like fashion. If you’re on the fence about Brutal Legend, you’d be mad to not want it after this!

As of tomorrow at 4pm GMT+1 you’ll be able to send your questions to one of Eurogamer’s moderators. Said moderator will then filter out the best questions and let Schafer answer them, hopefully resulting in a load of new and exciting info!

Be sure to check Eurogamer’s page for a link to the action tomorrow. I’ll also update this post with the link when it appears.

Update

[July 2nd, 2009 at 2:42pm GMT+1] With just 15 minutes to go until question time begins, the submission page is now available. You should register immediately to ensure you’re ready for the event, and then keep an eye on that page as that’s also where the answers will appear.

Update #2

[July 3rd, 2009 at 12:23pm GMT+1] It’s all over now, so be sure to read all the answers. Quite a few interesting things are discussed, although the thing that most people seem to be interested in is the confirmation that a PC version of Brutal Legend is not being developed at the moment.

Destructoid has supposedly gotten in touch with sources close to Electronic Arts, who said that a Wii version was being developed internally by EA but ended up being cancelled due to worries about the port’s quality — a sentiment shared by myself and a number of BRUTAL! readers.

While this is obviously unconfirmed — not that the original ‘Wii version’ rumour was confirmed anyway — it’s reasonable to assume that Destructoid’s source is solid due to the site’s reputability.

Like the second episode, the video features a load of gameplay footage that primarily focuses on the vehicles parts of the game — gotta love that tour bus. Go and watch it!

You also may be interested in checking out an image I added to the ‘Concept Art’ gallery last week, which is very likely to be the art behind whatever’s on the back of the box. This came from the official Brutal Legend Twitter page, named ‘BackCover_Final.jpg’.

All looks fantastic to me!

However, game developer favourite GamesIndustry.biz has conducted a superb interview with Schafer that goes into touches upon quite a lot of subjects. For example, Schafer talks about Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister:

“He was really quiet at first. We hung out for a while, then he just totally opened up and turned out to be a big enthusiast. He collects swords and knives, and we talked about medieval battles. I got to hang out with him a little bit, and he plays videogames. He really likes StarFox.”

Later in the interview, he talks about his past creations such as Monkey Island and Grim Fandango:

“When I talk to someone about Grim Fandango, I ask did you finish it? And they say no, and then I go, you got stuck in the forest, right? Because everyone gets stuck in the forest, with the signpost.”

Go right ahead and read the three-page interview.

The most major piece of news is that Black Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio will no longer be voicing a character in Brutal Legend, which many are saying is due to fellow Black Sabbath alumni Ozzy Osbourne who is currently involved in a legal issue over the band’s name, and also appearing in Brutal Legend.

Instead the character Dio played will be performed by high-quality actor Tim Curry, who you’ve almost certainly seen or heard in something else. Brutal Legend designer Tim Schafer says that the Black Sabbath lawsuit isn’t related to the recasting, instead putting it down to the sheer talent of Tim Curry:

“Ronnie James Dio is an amazing singer and truly one of the great figures of metal. But as the character of Doviculus evolved, we realized that Tim Curry was a better fit for the part. Anyone who has seen his amazing performance as the Lord of Darkness in the movie Legend knows why we cast him in the role of Doviculus, Emperor of the Tainted Coil.”

If you’ve seen the ‘Characters’ page you’ll know that Doviculus is as far as we know the ultimate bad guy in Brutal Legend, so I’d say that Tim Curry is quite well suited to this role — probably more so than Dio.

In addition to the above news, rumours thundered through various blogs after Schafer left the following ambiguous post on his Twitter page the other day:

“K, I’m getting on this plane and flying to the UK for one day to meet with someone who’s threatening to cancel. Humanity, don’t let me down!”

Naturally presumptions were made en masse, with every British voice actor in Brutal Legend considered. However, it turns out the worry was completely unwarranted as Schafer followed with another tweet last night:

“Oh, you crazy blogs. I appreciate the concern, but I just meant cancel a recording session. Not cancel themselves from the game.”

What would a Tim Schafer game be without a boatload of drama before its release, eh?

Kerrang FM’s Christian Stevenson had the following to say:

“That was one of the raddest jams I’ve ever been involved with. The crowd played their air guitars better than Eddie Van Halen! Then they destroyed ’em good and proper. Who cares, right? They can go to the air guitar shop and get another one. Sick to the infinity of sickness! I want a crowd like that at every gig I’m at. Awesometacular — air guitar world records rule!”

With the previous world record of 318 people in tatters, those still feeling up to the exhausting art of the air guitar were able to go on-stage and play against one of the festival’s bands The Blackout, with one of the real-life Tenacious D guitars up for grabs.

I think it’s fair to say that EA knows how to market this game.

You’ll also notice that the site now lets you listen to music, using tracks that’ll be in Brutal Legend itself. Unfortunately this means you can’t actually access the site at the moment if you choose certain territories, presumably because of music licensing issues. Choose ‘United States’ for best results.

Just needs a nice link to BRUTAL! and it’ll be perfect!

According to The Escapist’s research, the whole publishing fiasco had a little more to it than we first thought. Apparently Double Fine missed their 2008 target that was advertised in the original trailer, and requested an extra year plus $7 million to finish the game — something Activision clearly wasn’t happy with after already investing $15 million.

As Double Fine supposedly retained the rights to its game all along, it was free to find a new publisher for its game. Activision wasn’t interesting in continuing to fund development, so the options were pretty much either Double Fine finds a new publisher or the project dies.

Double Fine did find a new publisher, and a fantastically supportive one at that which allowed the developer to truly realise its vision for the game. Now Activision has seen what it missed out on, and clearly wants some of the glory.

I guess we’ll have to let the courts decide who is in the right here. I’d say its very likely Activision won’t be able to claw the game back from Electronic Arts, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it does manage to get some kind of settlement out of this. Activision kind of funded the majority of Brutal Legend’s development, and is going to get absolutely nothing out of it — it’s not hard to see how the court might have some sympathy.

Update

[June 5th, 2009 at 9:15am GMT+1] Brutal Legend designer Tim Schafer has responded with a brief statement:

“Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it. Oh great, now Beyoncé is going to sue me too.”

Unfortunately things like this can’t be settled by wits alone, so Double Fine will need a legal team that’s just as sharp!

During the E3 excitement, Tim Schafer naturally had to show off this gift from the metal gods:

If you watch to watch the whole presentation, head over to the updated official E3 Brutal Legend site.

If you want to wade through the Twitter logs yourself, head over to the official Brutal Legend Twitter page. You’ll probably prefer to read the formatted version below though, which makes this the longest BRUTAL! post ever!

What type of game is it? I watched the Vids & I know what ever the hell you guys do will be awesome but what kind of game is it?
It’s an action game full of action with a side quest that’s all about action.

Will the soundtrack be generic metal or will there be licensed music in there?
Nothing generic! We have a great soundtrack made up of the best metal songs I know and original pieces by Peter McConnell

For Psychonauts you created friendster pages for the kids in the camp. How did you approach character design for Brutal Legend?
I was reading Norse mythology when writing the backstory for Brutal. I wrote it in the form of a creation myth for the world. Norse mythology is awesome and you should all read it, by the way.

Will Brutal Legend be more heavily marketed than Psychonauts or about the same?
Have you seen the E3 banner? It’s bigger than Rhode Island.

If you were the milkman, would YOUR milk be delicious? And will Dio or Meatloaf make an appearance?
You just made me hungy. Hang on while I step out to grab some food.

What was it like to meet so many legendary rock stars?
Pretty much the greatest moment of my life. I actually had them sign my original vinyl albums which was pretty trippy.

As someone who dreams of working in the Schaferverse, (doing art/animation/etc.) what is the number one quality you look for?
We really value talent and originality and people who are fun to work with and also, you need to be really good at scrabble.

How long will the game be, and can we expect any DLC in the future?
It’s an open world game so it could be 12 hours or 25! DLC would be cool, but can’t say right now. We have ideas though.

How will you feel if Brutal Legend is panned for its gameplay even if all the other creative elements are outstanding?
I would feel like that person hadn’t played the game, because the gameplay is awesome!

I hope you guys make the deadline! With all those gameplay elements, aren’t you afraid that some will feel gimmicky or worse: tedious?
No way! Heavy Metal is our inspiration, not a gimmick. It gives us endless ideas for images, story and gameplay.

Is there inspiration from “heavy-metal adventure” Full Throttle in Brutal Legend? Is it sort of a “spiritual successor?”
There are some similarities. Cool cars and action + tough guy hero but Jack Black brings a new level of comedy to it.

How much ass kicking will I be doing once I get my hands on this game?
Pretty much all the ass kicking in the world. You’ll put the game in, and an ass will present itself, and then 5,000,000 asses later, you get a five minute break, but then it starts again.

What other artists/bands will be making cameos in Brutal Legend? Is it too late to hope for Geddy Lee as a arcane wizard?
It’s never to late for Geddy Lee!!! Wait, no, actually, it is too late for Geddy. Sorry Geddy! Maybe next game!

During the video Tim talks about the game and what it’s all about to his audience, then goes onto premiere a brand new trailer and the second episode of ‘Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black’, which itself contains some new footage.

There’s quite a lot of stuff we’ve never seen before in this video, including brief clips of characters we know about but haven’t seen, the tour bus, headbangers in action, etc. Just watch it because there’s too much to summarise.

I’m going to be putting up standalone HD versions of the videos tonight, so keep an eye on the Community Tracker and/or BRUTAL! YouTube channel for those. Same goes for screenshots.

The programme begins at 11pm tonight. It’s not clear which time zone that actually is, so if you’re in the US simply consult your TV schedule. If you’re in Europe, you’ll probably be in bed when it airs!

Due to Spike TV’s relationship with GameTrailers the video will almost certainly appear on there afterwards, so I’ll update this post with the video once it’s available.

Update

[May 29th, 2009 at 9:25am GMT+1] As expected the video is now available on GameTrailers. It’s actually a minute from one of the game’s early cutscenes rather than a trailer, so depending on your sensitivity to spoilers you may or may not want to give it a miss.

It’s going to be an especially exciting week for Brutal Legend fans. To get things started, Brutal Legend designer Tim Schafer is going to open himself up to questions from Twitter-using followers of the game on June 2nd.

All you have to is message @BrutalLegend with the hashtag #E3BL after 6pm PST on June 2nd. If you don’t have a Twitter account, head over to the official Brutal Legend E3 site for an alternative way to submit questions. You’ll also find a countdown to the chat event.

And while you’re on the official Brutal Legend E3 site, you’ll notice that not only is there a new ‘Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black’ video coming on June 2nd called ‘Human Video Game’, but you can also win a real-life version of the Tenacious D guitar! Simply sign up for the official newsletter to stand a chance of caressing that sweet, sweet guitar.

Besides all this, expect a slew of new Brutal Legend previews, media, etc next week!

Although there’s no word on how many of these we can expect, chances are there’ll be a good few more before the game’s Rocktober release date. Alas there’s no footage of Brutal Legend itself buried in there, but at least you get to see Schafer!

You’ll also notice that the BRUTAL! video facilities have been changed somewhat. All videos are now hosted on the new BRUTAL! YouTube channel, where you can choose to watch the videos in various levels of quality ranging from ‘worst ever’ to wonderful HD. Be sure to subscribe if you have a YouTube account!

Some new characters and mental creatures are revealed, and all the shots seem to be taken around the extremely foreboding fortress first seen a week ago.

Also be sure to read the actual article because there’s some interesting gameplay info in there. Looks like there’s going to be quite some depth to the tactical side of battles, almost leaning upon real-time strategy game-like mechanics. But much more direct and brutal, naturally.

Thanks to Anders for giving me a buzz about this!

Fret no more, because you’ll find that a total of 26 images have been added to the BRUTAL! galleries: eight in the ‘Concept Art’ gallery, and 18 in the ‘Miscellaneous’ gallery.

There is some pretty awesome stuff here, showing aspects of the development and game that haven’t been seen before. For example, check out an abandoned Eddie concept with a distinctly Lemmy-esque vibe; you can also see a number of different vehicles, loads of unseen environments, and even the first beast himself Ormagöden.

Clearly there’s going to be a breathtaking amount of environmental variety and eye candy in Brutal Legend, with superb art direction holding it all together. Thanks very much to Noyb for providing these images.

Update

[May 8th, 2009 at 9:36am GMT+1] Some people have pointed out that these images have a slightly blurry quality to them. I just want to clarify that these are unavoidably a little blurrier than the game proper will look as they’re derived from a compressed presentation shown at Game Developers Conference, and were re-scaled to fit the presentation hardware.

The exclusive Tenacious D guitar features:

1. New sound effects
2. New voice-over work from Jack Black and Kyle Gass
3. New visual effects suite

Clearly you have no option but to go and pre-order Brutal Legend right now. You may also want to check out a screenshot of the guitar.

An interesting tidbit revealed by this news is that there’ll presumably be an in-game way to switch between Clementine and the Tenacious D guitar. Possible implication that there’ll be many more to find and use throughout the game?

1. Tim Schafer Interview Part 1
2. Tim Schafer Interview Part 2

Discussed are the epic day/night and weather cycles, how the licensed metal and Peter McConnell’s soundtrack fit together, the combat system, and all sorts of other things.

Update

[May 3rd, 2009 at 1:06am GMT+1] Clearly hoarding far too much tantalising information to keep to himself, Schafer has revealed some more fancy Brutal Legend details in a new video interview on GameSpot (skip to 3:20).

Comprised entirely of in-engine footage, Brutal Legend clearly has all the clever humour and excellent comedic timing that’ve always been hallmarks of Tim Schafer games. While most of us kind of assumed this’d be the case, I think the abundance of media pretty much just depicting action might not make it entirely clear to those unfamiliar with Schafer what this game’s going to be all about.

Be sure to watch the trailer, and then catch up with the onslaught of previews and interviews that’ve appeared during the past couple of days.

You’ll find the new screenshots in the ‘Miscellaneous’ gallery. Revealed are some new environments in the epic open world of Brutal Legend, as well as the aforementioned Kill Master and what looks to be Eddie’s vehicle workshop.

Presumably the various previews that’ve popped up today and the new screenshots are leading up to EA’s new Brutal Legend trailer tonight, which I should remind you airs at about midnight if you’re in the US.

If my time zone mathematics are correct the episode airs Thursday at 5:30am UTC, which is about 6:30am for those in the UK and tonight at half-past-midnight for those in the US.

Update

[April 30th, 2009 at 9:43pm GMT+1] It appears that I got a bit confused when translating the time zones. The show is actually airing tonight, again at about midnight for those in the US and the early hours of Friday for those in Europe. I’ll keep you posted!

Referring to the title of EA’s press release, Brutal Legend designer Tim Schafer had the following to say about the news:

“Wooo! Having an official release date is awesome. And how cool is it that EA threw down the dough to have the name of an entire month changed to Rocktober?”

This is obviously excellent news, and it’s good to see a confirmed release date after what seems like an eternity of delays and publishing problems — don’t forget that Brutal Legend would have come out late last year if the original plan had stuck. But you know what? It probably wouldn’t have been nearly as awesome.