Have you pleased the Metal Gods?

So having just wrapped up Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend, I have to say that overall the experience was good, although it did have it's rage inspiring moments. For those of you living under a rock for the past year, Brutal Legend is a hack-n-slash/sandbox/RTS hybrid based on the mythology and culture of the heavy metal community. It featured voice acting from metal gods such as Lemmy, Ozzy and Rob Halford, and the lead character Eddie Riggs was voiced by Jack Black. Now on to my review:

Likes:
-The soundtrack: Could a metal head ask for anything else? The 100+ song list is simply mind blowing.
-The visuals: Aesthetically, the game is breath taking. Each region has its own visual theme to correlate with the music found, and the factions found at each point. The world is expansive and can provide hours of exploration.
-The dialogue: Okay, so Jack Black has had his moments of brilliance in the past, but that has typically results in him then taking things just a tad too far and making whatever it is unfunny. Not in this game. This is probably his best work yet, mostly due to the fact that Tim Schafer wrote his lines. The one liners, and background commentary is brilliant.
-The story: The protagonist of the game, Eddie Riggs is a roadie for a pretty shitty emo/rapcore band called Kabbage Boy, who has a slight mishap on stage leading to him accidentally summoning the metal god Ormagöden when blood spills onto his belt buckle. Being transported back in time, he finds humanity enslaved by a faction of demons known as "The Tainted Coil". The rest of the story revolves around Eddie's attempt to lead the humans to freedom.
-The easter eggs: There are so many hidden references and easter eggs in this game, it's pretty impressive. Almost EVERYTHING has some obscure heavy metal lyric, album cover, or band reference. For example, the main protagonist's name Eddie Riggs can be broken down to Eddie (Edward the Great), the mascot of the band Iron Maiden and Derek Riggs, the artist who created him. It would probably take you longer to find every reference than it would to complete the entire game.


Dislikes:
-Gameplay: Okay, so it's a good game with solid gameplay mechanics. But...about an hour into the game (which was touted and advertised as a hack-n-slash game) devolves into real-time strategy "Stage Battles". It's almost disorienting. I don't hate RTS's but I felt as if it were a switch and bait. Also, a mini-map would've been a lovely addition.
-Multiplayer: This portion is a real-time strategy game. And don't get me wrong, growing up playing Command & Conquer, Warcraft,  Starcraft, etc.. has made me familiar with the genre. A lot of the features are overly complicated and often lead to a frustrating defeat at the hands of your AI or human opponent.
-Balancing: Outside of the vehicle, Eddie is fairly weak. There are later units that can kill you with two hits, which can lead to some smashed controller inducing moments. Also, the game can be unforgiving at times on the hardest difficulty or mind numbingly easy on the lesser difficulties.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun. Playing through on the "Brutal" difficulty and getting 100% completion yielded me 20 hours of gameplay, which is easily worth the $60 at retail. The game has it's faults, but the things that were done right by far out number the problems. So if you listen to metal or are looking for a solid game to play through, I would definitely recommend Brutal Legend.

Why do I bother?

Anyone who games online can probably relate to my frustration. Why is it that only people you encounter online seem to be those annoying 'prepubescent assholes' ? Whether it's a griefer, a mute or someone who constantly screams obscenities, it's always SOMETHING. Today, I experienced my first Rage Quit. Can't say I'm proud of it, but it happened. Why does it seem like a screening system is needed to find acceptable, competent online players? Granted, gaming with friends is always a better experience, but why should I dread doing public matches? We always talk about how the 'gaming community', but since when was the community filled with so many assholes? Having to listen to a 12 year old scream at me for an hour in horde mode telling me how awesome they are and how much I suck, definitely isn't my idea of fun. Almost every game has it's problems, people glitching, singing on the mic, racial slurs, sexual slurs, etc...
I try to not let these negative experiences deter me from online gaming, because there are thousands if not millions of great gamers who respect each other and know how irritating experiences like these can be. I know this isn't the last time it will happen, but hopefully it happens less frequently.

Greetings from the Farplane...

It's been almost two years since I've last posted on this blog. Mostly due to strict time restraints, but also due to plain forgetfulness. Although a great amount of time has passed, and I'm about to start graduate school in two weeks, but my love for games has not withered. If anything, it has only grown stronger. In the next few weeks, I will attempt to post more consistently and hopefully have a few guest writers chime in with other gaming related posts. Thanks for reading this blog and check back later in the week for some new articles!