If you aren’t happy with the current map selection for Brütal Legend‘s Stage Battle multiplayer mode, I have some important news for you. Double Fine, the games developers, have announced Brütal Legend’s first episode of downloadable content entitled “Tears of the Hextadon“, which includes two new maps for the games Stage Battle mode.

In the first map, Circle of Tears, vile waters have carved a rough-hewn circular battlefield into a forsaken land that players must circumvent to destroy their opponent. In the second map, Death’s Fjord, players find themselves on an icy mountain pass with a dense cluster of fans that lie below, waiting to be harvested by those brave enough to capture them without cover from enemy attack. Also, all players who download the new map pack will receive a free axe, the Blade of Ormagöden.

“I play Brütal Legend online every night,” said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. “And I need more maps! 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. See you online!”

Tears of the Hextadon will be available on Xbox LIVE on November 3 for 400 MS Points and on PlayStation Network on November 5. And to up the anty, those that purchase the game via the PlayStation Network by November 19 will be able to download the content for free.

Talk about something not great for kids. Brutal Legend is all about the rock, the cars, hot chicks and demonic forces. Surprisingly, that sums up the 64 kilometer world that is Brutal Legend, a giant landscape filled with essentially rock album cover art, headbangers, giant guitar swords and, inevitably, the occasional cute animal that makes a funny sound when run over.

As Eddie Riggs, or Jack Black since that’s who we’re all really playing as, except with better hair and strangely large chest and broad shoulders, it’s the player’s job to bring order back to the world of rock. How you get there, what you’re doing, who the hot chicks are and where they roam…important, but not for your eyes now.

Brutal Legend is like Ratchet and Clank, except replace the sci-fi world for a down-and-dirty, and I might say awesome looking Earth-ish landscape, Ratchet’s little wrench for a giant axe and an electrifying guitar, and Clank for the occasional hot chick. Oh, and remove the platforming for an open-world feel, and get rid of the kiddy humor for something a little less tasteful, and a lot funnier.

It could be that Ozzie makes an appearance in the demo, helping players make the car Eddie puts together in ten seconds flat into something more respectable. Add on chainguns, art, an engine so big that it blocks the view from the steering wheel…you name it, it can probably be stacked on top of whatever’s on the car already.

So far, the first 15 minutes of the game were not as funny or exciting as I’d hoped. Then again, the insane standard I have, especially when I think a game will be great, doesn’t help in the slightest. Neither does the fact that it was only the first 15 minutes and I wasn’t impressed by the dialog or action incredibly. Then again, the developer commentaries I watched were more interesting, so perhaps it’s only a slow start to a much more exciting game, which I hope and expect. I mean, there’s a list of rock legends doing voice work, Jack Black to make me laugh, and eventually a completely open world to explore and, hopefully tarnish and destroy if it hasn’t been already.

Would I say I was disappointed by the demo? Eh, no. Demos can never be perfect, regardless of who makes them, and I appreciate that. It sucks I wasn’t on the floor, clutching my sides because the GAME WAS SO FUNNY HAHA, but hey, nobody’s perfect. It’s a good warmup, to the full game, so we’ll see if it leaves us hanging, or goes all the way, this Rocktober

In an interview with Tim Schafer, it revealed that Brütal Legend will have a unique feature not presented in many M-Rated games, a profanity filter. This profanity filter will allow the players of Brütal Legend to turn on and off a filter that censors in-game profanity, “bleeping out” swear words, and putting shields over improper visuals.

“But there’s a certain age where – there are certain players who are old enough, but just don’t really like playing with all that stuff. So we actually put two things up: there’s a profanity filter in the game, where you can actually turn it on and it’ll actually bleep all the language out, and it’ll actually cover certain profane things with the ‘parental advisory’ sign, which is in itself is a reference to the PMRC, right, which is part of the history of heavy metal,” said Schafer when speaking to Planet Xbox 360.

“It’s optional, so you can turn it on if you want. There’s also a gore filter, which you can turn off, and you won’t be dismembered and there won’t be blood. It’s for those people who like playing with their kids, or who just don’t like it.”

This filter will open the option for parents to play Brütal Legend with their kids, while protecting their innocents for the time being. Schafer also mentions that bleeping out swear words in the game adds the possibility of making the in-game jokes funnier, and make your imagination run wild with the options of what the person is actually saying.

Tim Schafer, once again, walks us through the realm that is Brütal Legend, but this time he’s joined by Lee Petty, Art Director on Brütal Legend, and Erik Robson, Lead Designer on Brütal Legend, to give us 22 minutes of Heavy Metal.

“Holy crap!” exclaimed Schafer when announcing the title, “I have been dreaming about this day for fifteen years. And now it is finally here. We’ve gathered small clues over the years about the Age of Metal, in songs, t-shirts, and album covers. But now we have uncovered the metal mother lode, the full legend of what actually happened in that loud and heavy era, and we are the lucky ones who get to tell the tale.”

If you’re anticipating release of Brütal Legend, this 17 minute introduction video, narrated by Tim Schafer himself, should have you wanting more.

“Holy crap!” exclaimed Schafer when announcing the title, “I have been dreaming about this day for fifteen years. And now it is finally here. We’ve gathered small clues over the years about the Age of Metal, in songs, t-shirts, and album covers. But now we have uncovered the metal mother lode, the full legend of what actually happened in that loud and heavy era, and we are the lucky ones who get to tell the tale.”

We normally pass on the triable “box art” post but, when it’s done this well, we give it the utmost attention. As many already know, we have a far to wait until its Rocktober 13th release, however, in order you give us something to drop our jaws at, Double Fine Productions and Electronic Arts have released the box-art for there upcoming title. Brütal Legend.

Brütal Legend tells the tale of Eddie Riggs, played by Jack Black. The ultimate roadie, Eddie is the first person anyone calls when they need guitars tuned or stages rigged, and has a love for hot rods and a photographic memory for every Heavy Metal album cover, and the lyrics those albums contained.

One night, a stage accident knocks Eddie unconscious, and he awakens in a world that looks very strange yet oddly familiar, a world where every Heavy Metal album cover and lyric Eddie knows has come to life, and where the evil emperor Doviculus and his demon army, The Tainted Coil, have enslaved the last remaining humans.

The once publisher of Brütal Legend, Activision has filed suit against Double Fine Productions, who is the developer of Brütal Legend, to prevent the games release in Rockcember.

According to a report made by the Associated Press, the lawsuit, filed in Santa Monica on Wednesday, claims that Double Fine failed to deliver the game on time to Activision. The suit also claims that Double Fine then offered the completed game to EA to release.

In addition, the lawsuit claims Activision paid Double Fine about $15 million to develop Brutal Legend, but the studio failed to meet the deadline last year. And that Double Fine then said it would need another nine months and $7 million to complete the game.

Activision and Double Fine negotiated to try to keep the game on track, but no agreement was ever reached, according to the court filing. Activision contends it never relinquished its rights to the game and that Double Fine improperly transferred Brutal Legend to EA.

“Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it,” Double Fine President Tim Schafer said. “Oh great, now Beyonce is going to sue me too.”

The lawsuit states that Activision has suffered “irreparable harm” and will lose not only the game, but also the ability to sell downloadable content based on Brutal Legend if the release isn’t stopped.

[Activision sues to stop Jack Black game via Associated Press]

A couple of months ago, it was rumored on GoNintendo that Brütal Legend – Double Fine’s 360/PS3 heavy metal action game – was also headed to Wii. But, at the time, there was no confirmation of the rumor and now it seems that it has returned.

When being interviewed, Tim Schafer, who is the lead behind the game, asked a PR person how to respond to a question about Brütal Legend coming to the Wii and he came up with this answer,  “We are making an Xbox 360 and a PS3 version of Brütal Legend.”

Which lead 1Up, who conducted the interview, to think that they were hinding something about there being a Wii version of the game.

A Wii version would make sense in the context of recent EA comments about the importance of Wii development, and we’ve seen a precedent set for EA PS3/360-to-Wii projects in Dead Space Extraction, but for now we’ll have to wait to find out what if any specific plans EA has for Brütal Legend on Nintendo’s system.

[Is Brütal Legend Coming to Wii? via 1UP]

The video game to end all video games has finally been shown and man does it look amazing, but is it really good enough to beat the “hot ugly beast”?

The latest creation from gaming icon Tim Schafer and the award-winning team at Double Fine, Brütal Legend is a 3rd person Action/Adventure game starring Jack Black in the role of roadie Eddie Riggs, who sets on an epic quest to build an army of rockers with only a broad axe, a big block V8 and his faithful guitar in hand.

Despite a lot of articles dismissing Electronic Arts as a potential publisher of Brutal Legend after an earlier report about comments made from the company’s CEO, it looks like the mega-giant will be taking the game after all.

“This is awesome news!” stated Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. “The quality and creativity of the games EA Partners has been involved with make it a perfect home for our baby, Brütal Legend. Some people were starting to wonder if the saga of Eddie Riggs would ever see the light of day, but now I think it’s clear that this game, like Metal itself, cannot be killed!”

“Brütal Legend is shaping up to be a creative tour de force,” said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EA Partners. ”At EAP, we are deeply committed to giving the industry’s elite independent developers a platform to launch their creations to a worldwide audience. Tim Schafer is known for some of the richest stories and characters in our industry, and with Jack Black offering his vocal styling’s for Eddie Riggs, we are extremely excited to help Tim and his talented team at Double Fine see their vision come to fruition.”

Brütal Legend will be available for the Xbox 360 video game system and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system in autumn 2009.

Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard was very proud to announced that Call of Duty 6 will be developed by Infinity Ward and will be on track for a 2009 release. If you don’t remember, Infinity Ward was the development studio which was behind the Call of Duty franchise and are the mastermind behind Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.

While this is great news there are still many question that are left to be answered. What time will Call of Duty 6 be placed in? While there is no idea many are rumored to believe that  in 2009 we may be heading the way of the science fiction universe. So will Call of Duty 6 be held in space with squads and or marines fighting the War On Terror. Stay with us we will keep you informed