That’s all very tragic, but for you it means there’s an opportunity to own this unique item! You’ll probably never have this chance again, so if you’re interested and have very deep pockets for a starting bid of $666 it could be yours.

Brutal Legend

Of course, don’t forget to check out the existing two DLC packs if you haven’t already:

1. Tears of the Hextagon
2. Hammer of Infinite Fate

• Outstanding Achievement in Original Story
• Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack
• Outstanding Character Performance (Eddie Riggs)
• Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

Yeah! And if that wasn’t enough, it’s also up for the ‘Best Audio’ and ‘Best Writing’ Game Developers Choice Awards, and a BAFTA award for ‘Story’.

Wish Double Fine luck! I mean they shouldn’t need it, but you know how gamers are with their Modern Battlefield 2 and Uncrafted 2.

Update

[February 19th, 2010 at 10:13am GMT] A victory for good taste! Brutal Legend has picked up the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awards for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack’ and ‘Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year’. Nicely done, Double Fine!

Weighing 70 pounds and standing 32 inches tall, this thing ought to be put in a museum — especially when you consider that she spent an impressive 70-80 hours on its fine craftmanship. The only problem with making awesome cakes is the need to eat them!

Check out the gallery below, and go even further down if you want to read the creator’s detailing of the cake’s finer features.

A technical run-through by Barbarann

“The cake was very big, it weighed in at 70 lbs and was 32″ tall. I made EVERYTHING on that cake and everything is edible and/or made of edible materials & handpainted or airbrushed with edible food dyes.. (with the exception of some dowels for support on both the cake and some of the elements on the cake , and some wires were used to insert the letters for the words & a few other elements )

“Eddie Riggs was made of modeling chocolate mostly, (and gumpaste/fondant ).. and hand painted with edible dyes..

“Clementine is gumpaste and fondant (with wires for strings, and a thin wooden dowel for support)
the Axe ( the seperater ) is gumpaste, and has a small wooden dowel….

“Other elements such as Ormagoddon and the flowers ( home made stencil also ) that look like little hands making the “rock on” gesture,

“The lettering ( again, a home made stencil) that says “Happy 10th Birthday Jakob” ( my son), and the “exhaust pipe tree”, are all gumpaste and fondant.

“The spikes along the bottom two tiers are solid chocolate poured into some molds, then painted with edible luster dust,

“The chain, on the 3rd tier up, is made out of fondant and pressed from a home-made mold.

“The flames were cut from gumpaste using a home-made stencil , then airbrushed with edible dye.

“The coprse pile is rice cereal treat covered in chocolate , then tiny chocolates poured into the shapes of various bones and skulls were pressed on top..though, some chocolates were carved into the right shapes because I didnt have molds for some of the desired shapes.

“Next, fondant was layed over the top and shaped and formed around the chocolates under it, then airbrushed.

“The cross and sword are a combination of chocolate and fondant that have been airbrushed.

“The amps are made of rice cereal treat, covered in fondant and then handpainted ( although I put a Marshall logo , instead of Mitt E. Watt , which is what they have on them on the game… )

“This cake took between 70-80 hours total or me to complete ( right in my home kitchen.)

“And my son loved it!”

If you were there you’d have seen Eddie Riggs (Josh Rishardson), the Killmaster (Ash Aiwase), Drowned Ophelia (Ashley Farmer), and the Guardian of Metal (Gabe Roland) — in addition to Mangus (Skot York) who’s said to have been vital for moral/technical support.

As well as Brian Haberer’s superb photos, there’re two videos of the performance up on YouTube:

1. Blimp cam
2. Front-on extreme headbanging edition

Now this is a charity I can get behind.

Brutal Legend‘s second pack of downloadable content is called ‘Hammer of Infinite Fate’ and includes the following substantial additions:

• Three outfits for Eddie: Black Metal, Mountain Man, and Zaulia Threads
• Seven back patches
• New paint for the Deuce
• The ‘Oculus of the Lost’, which operates like a GPS and points out the locations of the world’s bound sepeants and legends
• Three new weapons: the Coiling Maw, Disgorger, and Eye of Sorrow
• New Achievements and Trophies
• Four multiplayer maps: Altar of Blood, Amplified Cliffs, Coiled Remains, and Crucible of the Titans

So quite a bit for those still enjoying the single-player campaign, and of course you can presumably take your goodies online — although unfortunately there’re no new story quests.

If you fancy that lot, it’ll be on Xbox LIVE for 480 Microsoft Points and PlayStation Network for about $4.99 in just over a week. Thanks to Super-Munkyboy for pointing me towards Destructoid’s post about this!

Regarding the DLC:

“We definitely want to do more DLC for both single-player and multiplayer, as well as some tuning patches.”

Let’s hope that’s PR babble for “We’re working on these right now and they’ll be out soon”!

• Eddie Riggs’ Succoria t-shirt
• Ophelia’s Drowning Doom t-shirt

Yes, those are literally the same t-shirts that the characters wear in the game! And if that isn’t enough, you get a free badge unique to each one too. This should certainly make life a bit easier for the cosplay enthusiasts amongst you!

Thanks to the most brutal of readers, Mykal, for spotting these.

It can be bought from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon DE, eMusic, and also iTunes. And if you liked the Brutal Legend soundtrack, don’t forget the same composer also did the soundtracks for Tim Schafer’s previous games Grim Fandango and Psychonauts!

Thanks to Mojo for spotting this.

An easy solution is now provided courtesy of Mishka NYC: two awesome Brutal Legend t-shirt designs! One depicts Ironheade attacking Lionwhyte’s crew, the other features a metal beast being ridden by its mistress.

They’re not available yet, but they’re coming soon and Electronic Arts will be giving a number of them away.

Update

[November 18th, 2009 at 9:40pm GMT] Three sites are now giving away both an Eddie Riggs figure and these t-shirts: Metal Injection, Metal Insider, and Metal Sucks. Go check them out if you want a chance at winning!

So it’s fortunate there’s a book coming out shortly full of Brutal Legend production art! Spanning 252 pages, The Art of Brutal Legend will feature concept art, behind-the-scenes features, and additional lore that ensures you know everything there is to know about the epic world of Brutal Legend and how it was put together.

You can currently pre-order it from both Amazon UK and Amazon US.

In other Brutal Legend merchandise-related news, you can now get a very limited number of Eddie Riggs figures for $150 each from the official Double Fine shop. This may be one of the last chances you get to own one of these!

Check out the gallery thus far, for which entries can be submitted until November 6th. The guy to the right is my favourite — great likeness!

Update

[November 16th, 2009 at 1:28pm GMT] Winners announced. Nicely done!

The article features loads of fantastic photos — including some from the race — videos, and Tim Schafer himself sitting in the bus! There’s also a tantalising teaser of an upcoming project at the end.

Titled ‘Tears of the Hextadon’, the DLC includes two multiplayer maps and the ‘Blade of Ormagoden’ axe. In Tim Schafer’s words:

“Circle of Tears is named after the crying of my vanquished foes on the battlefield, and Death’s Fjord is obviously a tribute to my Nordic ancestors, and their love of fan geysers and… Well, actually I just thought the name was cool.”

Interestingly, Sony seems to have netted itself some kind of deal because PlayStation Network buyers can get the DLC for free until November 19th, after which it becomes $5/£3.99. Xbox LIVE Arcade buyers will pay 400 Microsoft Points regardless.

I personally hope we see some single-player DLC shortly!

The festivities begin at 5pm PST and end at 9pm on October 28th. The developers have kindly provided their Xbox LIVE gamertags for immediate harassment:

• Patrick Hackett: DFpatrick
• Joe Virskus: DFjoe
• Geoff Soulis: DFgeoff
• Kee Chi: DFkee
• Tara Teich: DFtara
• Steve Peck: DFsteve
• Dan McGarry: DFdan
• Chad Dawson: DFchad
• Erik Robson: DFerik
• Anna Kipnis: DFanna
• Brad Muir: DFbrad

Once you’ve digested that lot, you’ll find two really sweet new pieces of fan art in the ‘Fan Art’ gallery. I’ve been sent quite a lot of fantastic art during the past week or so, and will be following up with the rest of it tomorrow. More is very much welcome!

I’ve also done a big update to the way the community tracker works. Brutal Legend-related stuff on other sites is no longer mixed up with updates to BRUTAL! itself — instead there’s now a pretty bar on the home page for that. This should make it a lot easier to see when new fan art has been added, etc.

Just a reminder that if you have any fan work to send in (art, music, fiction, cake), please go ahead! I’ve already had some great stuff that’ll be going up shortly.

Update

[October 24th, 2009 at 2:54pm GMT+1] Added an extra photo, both of which are courtesy of Jon ‘atomicpopmonkey’ Krop!

At least for the time being you can catch the promo on YouTube, also featuring a bonus Bouncer who promptly gets his ass kicked by Eddie.

Featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, and Rob Halford, the three of them share some thoughts on Brutal Legend and roadies in general — with a few words from a freshly shaven Tim Schafer shown in for good measure!

In other news, I’m going to start featuring new fan work in a special area on the home page shortly. I’ve been adding some truly awesome stuff during the past few weeks, but it is kind of tucked away. If you’ve created or seen any fan art, music, fiction, or whatever, please send it in or comment on this post — let’s build the most brutal collection ever!

Zachary George

Congratulations! As you didn’t leave any contact details I’m going to need you to comment on this news post with something I can use to get in touch with you.

Thanks for participating, everyone! Hopefully the fact that Brutal Legend is out today will ease the souls of those of you who didn’t win.

Update

[October 16th, 2009 at 9:38am GMT+1] And so, today Zachary George learns an important lesson about not leaving people hanging. Due to the prize having not been claimed after several days and no contact details having been left, I’ve done a second draw and chosen a new winner:

Tony Young

Lucky you! I’ve sent you an email seeing as you were savvy enough to include it. To be honest it kind of pleases me that a true fan got it — that Zachary guy clearly has no interest!

Firstly Jack appeared in character on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Check out all four video parts:

1. Living the Character of Eddie Riggs
2. Taking Steroids
3. Clap Pushups
4. Birthday Party

And if that craziness wasn’t enough for you, a whopping four ‘Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black’ episodes have been unleashed. Check those out here:

1. Episode 7: First Roadie
2. Episode 8: Mirror
3. Episode 9: Freedom Wizard
4. Episode 10: Breathe

Hope you’re all enjoying the game as much as me!

Apparently EB Games decided to jump the gun, and keen to to not be outdone JB Hi-Fi followed suit shortly afterwards. Naturally this could result in a chain reaction (Ho ho!), so it’s probably worth checking other shops too.

If anyone knows of any other places that’ve broken the street date in Australia and beyond, do comment!

Behold the complex entry requirements:

1. Check that you live in the United States (Sorry if you don’t!)
   
2. Leave a comment on this post that includes “Me please!” or something like that
   

On Rocktober 13th — the day Brutal Legend hits US stores — I’ll run the names of those who comment through a randomiser and announce the lucky metalhead.

It’d be wise to leave me some way of getting in touch with you (email address, Twitter, Facebook, etc) so I can notify you if you win. If you’d rather keep that private, just be around in a few days and you can send me an email to claim your booty!

Good luck!

Update

[October 11th, 2009 at 10:51am GMT+1] A few people have expressed concern about the possibility of people entering multiple times under different names. Just to clarify, IPs are logged and thus brutal measures will rain down upon those who employ such tactics (ie: disqualification).

Update #2

[October 13th, 2009 at 10:39am GMT+1] Winner announced!

1UP has also posted a brilliant eight-minute tour through Double Fine HQ, giving us a rare insight into the place where the most creative, imaginative, brutal games ever are made. It’s great to see how much Schafer treasures his advenure game days, with references and merchandise all over the place. You can almost see the tear in his eye when he realises someone’s stood on his Day of the Tentacle triangle box.