What isn’t awesome about this artwork? NOTHING THAT’S WHAT.

I, like Yahtzee, love Tim Schafer. We’ve taken turns talking about how great he is. I grew up on games like Day of the Tentacle and I adored Full Throttle. Psychonauts quickly grew on me (after my fingers healed up) and when Tim finally returned with Brütal Legend, I was very excited. Having played the game, I still think he’s a genius. The game, on the other hand, I’m a bit less passionate about, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have fun playing it.

Eddie Riggs is a roadie. He’s not a front man or a guitarist or anything of the sort. I mean, sure, the man can wail on an ax with the best of them and knows good music when he hears it – and cringes when he hears bad music – but he’s a roadie. He stays in the wings and helps a band look good. He can fix, build and do just about anything, but he never wanted to be in the spotlight. Until a spotlight fell on him, that is. Several spotlights, in fact, and a whole lot of set design. His near-death experience took him to another world instead of a hospital, a world of pure heavy metal imperiled the forces of darkness and the onslaught of screechy hair metal. It’s Eddie’s job to take command of the resistance and lead them to victory. The final goal of that victory, to liberate the world or blow it to smithereens, is kinda murky. Prophecies are like that.

Stuff I Didn’t Like

“C’mon. Just three little words. Say it. ‘Nickelback sucks.’”

• Unlabeled maps make the baby Jesus fume with rage. I’m not asking you to tell me exactly where everything is if exploration is one of your selling points, and I do love to explore. No – just tell me where things are after I find them. When I pass something, unlock a new area or catch sight of a landmark, jot that down on the map. It shouldn’t be that hard. Why am I only seeing Metal Forges and sidequests on the map when I bring it up? How does that help me?
• Likewise the in-game tutorials aren’t terribly informative. I had no idea how to unlock the various draconic gargoyle statue things littered around the landscape until I looked it up on a fan site. Nobody in the game told me what they were for or how to free them, just that I had to. And I still don’t know how to switch around the faces on Mount Rockmore.
• A lot has been said about the game’s RTS gameplay. As someone who’s played a variety of RTS games, from the original Command & Conquer to StarCraft, I had a few quibbles about it myself. The inability to see the battleground from above felt like a major hindrance, selecting individual units took longer than I felt comfortable with since most of the enemy was running up to pound my face into the nearest hard surface, and blending the third-person adventure controls with RTS controls felt hasty in its construction and shifting gears from beating ass to issuing commands broke the flow of combat somewhat. I don’t object to the existence of RTS in this game – just its execution.

Stuff I Liked

“Dig the wheels, baby? I got ‘em from this crazy mumbling dude in a dress.”

• That said, I love the idea of being with my troops during the battle. When I first heard General Lionwhyte wailing away as he floated there on his hair-wings, my first thought was to run over to him and shut his pasty whiny ass up. And that’s exactly what I did! No need to sortie other troops, I just zipped over and started unloading on him.
• The art direction of the world is pretty cool. It feels like the studio over at Double Fine is wallpapered with old Queensryche and Megadeth albums and that’s what the artists used to make this world feel awesome.
• The riffs you learn to summon your car, raise forges and do other things is reminiscent of color-matching in Rock Band and are satisfying to pull off, especially in the middle of a stage battle.
• I like Jack Black and I don’t care who knows it.
• Switching between the melee and ‘magic’ attacks you have is very smooth, and it makes combat more interesting.
• I like the characters. They’re not overly deep and complicated, but they’re cool and the voice acting is nicely done, which leads me to…

Stuff I Loved

“It’s a fucking robe, you fucking prat!!”

• Ozzy, Lemmy, Lita and Rob Halford. ‘Nuff said.
• Oh, you want more? The soundtrack will kick your ass. It is awesome. I loved zipping around the landscape in the Druid Plow rocking out to metal. Dropping the Plow into the middle of a fight and kicking on a different tune to pump you up more helps get through some of the tedious bits of the RTS engine. It did for me, at least.
• The bit at the beginning where you can choose the amount of swearing & gore makes me laugh every time. It would only be better if the censoring was in the style of Metalocalypse, laying guitar stings over the curses.

Bottom Line: Brütal Legend is one for metal fans and fans of Tim Schafer. Hardcore RTS fans, people expecting a sandbox game mixed with God of War or folks who can’t stand Jack Black aren’t going to enjoy this. I did, though. Rent it if you like badass music and a unique gameplay & story experience, buy it if you like the game after playing it.

And for the record, I was digging on the character of Lita more than Ophelia.

I’m not entirely sure why. Just something about her.

With work kicked into high gear since the departure of two friends, this week’s IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! has unfortunately been delayed. I do, however, have some good news to share related to my nascent career as a writer.

I responded to an advert from Polymancer Studios which said they were looking for writers and would-be writers for a new publication related to tabletop gaming. I suggested a column about creative DMing, full of tips for the guy or gal behind the screen aimed at keeping things exciting for the players, from villains with deep motivations to the inclusion of politics in the lands through which the players travel. Polymancer liked the idea, and contacted me about coming aboard as a regular columnist.

Now that alone would be enough to excite me, but then Sandra from Polymaner said this:

I looked over your blog “The Blue Ink” and I liked what I read, would you consider writing for one of our fiction publications as well?

Would I? You bet your ass I would.

I looked through my little bits of fiction, teased out possible ongoing plot threads and character growth and finally settled on Captain Pendragon. Sandra showed it to the others at Polymancer, and…

We like your idea and would love to see this serialized as part of Polygraff’s content. How does that sound to you?

So, yeah. Watch this space. Good things are happening, slowly but surely.

In other news, if anybody wants to sketch the characters or settings in the aforementioned story, feel free. I can picture these folks and technology in my head but I can’t draw to save my life.

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With it’s bright colors, animal characters and a co-protagonist nowhere near puberty, it would be easy to dismiss Up as a kid’s movie. And while there are things in the film that kids will like and cause them to want to watch the movie repeatedly, there are themes, characterizations and nuances that will fly right over the heads of children and smack the adults right in the heart. Up demonstrates that the gifted film-makers at Pixar share something with Peter Jackson besides excellent production values and directorial savvy: They have never made a bad movie. The film features the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagal, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Elie Doctor and John Ratzenberger.

The opening act of the film tells us the story of Carl & Ellie Fredricksen and, like WALL-E, is almost devoid of dialog. It’s easy to forget that these characters were generated using computers. Their expressions and actions, underscored by Michael Giacchino’s brilliant music, yank us body and soul into the experience. The end result of this unforgettable piece of storytelling has us thoroughly understanding Carl’s bitterness in the wake of Ellie’s death, and shows the house in which he’s lived his entire adult life about to be consumed by corporate construction that surrounds him like Germans surrounding the Allies at Bastogne.

A young Wilderness Explorer named Russell comes knocking on Carl’s door. He needs his ‘assisting the elderly’ badge but Carl stubbornly refuses to be assisted, instead sending Russell on a snipe hunt. It seems that the men in suits building soulless skyscrapers are about to cart Carl away, but Carl sends his “NUTS!” missive and unleashes his plan, in the form of tens of thousands of balloons that carry him and his house away from the city and towards an adventure he and his wife always sought. Just when he thinks he’s free, however, he finds Russell on his porch, and the resulting story of their journey involves the best interaction between a crotchety old man and a boy coming of age since Gran Turino.

I haven’t even talked about the mad adventurer from Carl’s childhood, the intelligent and mischievous bird I call a snipe for lack of a better term – her name is Kevin – and the sheer awesomeness of Dug. But these things are best experienced rather than discussed. Like most Pixar films, high adventure and nail-biting action are delivered at the same time as powerful storytelling and in-depth character exploration, all wrapped up in that polished, animated package that has become the hallmark of their work. While other studios employ young, handsome and butch actors to headline their big action blockbusters, Pixar continues to buck the trend and go against the grain in a brilliant fashion. Carl Fredericksen joins WALL-E, Marlin the clown fish, Sully & Mike and Buzz & Woody in the veritable pantheon of Pixar’s unlikely but unforgettable heroes. Even Mister Incredible, himself a super-hero, is surprising in the way he transcends standard comic book fare to become truly heroic when he resolves to protect his family both from outside evil and the tension threatening to tear it apart. I’m wandering a bit away from Up, I know, but there is a pattern here. And it’s a pattern of greatness.

I honestly wasn’t expecting WALL-E to be topped so quickly and in such an incredible fashion. Don’t get me wrong: I still love WALL-E, from its science-fiction motif to its social commentary to its touching love story – between robots. But Up captures a pioneering sense of adventure along with demonstrating again the sheer power of the human spirit. Carl Fredricksen, a 79-year-old man, becomes slowly less tethered to the trappings of age as the story progresses. He demonstrates cleverness, a weathered but unbeatable sense of humor and that deep-seated desire never to give up on his dreams. As myopic he might seem at some points, the difference between him and his childhood idol becomes quite clear in short order. Russell could simply exist as a caricature of annoying adolescence, but he shows a surprising depth all his own, and his spirit is a lot like Carl’s in its unwillingness to be stifled or ignored. A lot of the tension between the two comes from having positive but differing goals to which each is equally committed.

Up juxtaposes real comedy with endearing character study the way District 9 juxtaposes blazing sci-fi action with gripping social commentary. Better writing and direction is very difficult to find. I could go on gushing about Up, but suffice it to say it should be on your Netflix queue already, if you don’t own a copy of the film yourself. It is absolutely fantastic. Up is not just a lot of fun and emotionally touching – it’s superlative storytelling and one of the best films of the year.

Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

Back in the day when I was wearing braces and LucasArts was involved with games other than the Star Wars franchise, I got my hands on a six-pack of games from that publisher. It included Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, which was a better story than the latest film and executed in a far more appealing way, and Sam & Max Hit the Road which is about as madcap an experience as I had at that age. The other memorable entry from that box was Day of the Tentacle, which like the previous two was an adventure game in the SCUMM engine, and distinguished itself with very clever writing that made you laugh and think in equal portions throughout the experience.

The mind behind the game belongs to Tim Schafer. He continued to show his chops as one of the very finest in both game design and smart writing at LucasArts with his follow-ups, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. Nowhere else have I ever seen stuffed clockwork bunnies used to clear a minefield, nor are you likely to find another game where soft, noir music accompanies characters looking like the stuff of Aztec nightmares. However, it wasn’t long after the release of the latter game that LucasArts kicked out anybody unwilling to enslave themselves to the Star Wars franchise, and a lot of people like Tim were left looking for work.

Rather than hire himself out, Tim Schafer opened his own design studio called Double Fine. The first production of Double Fine was Psychonauts, an action-adventure about a young psychic named Razputin who runs away from the circus to join a summer camp where he can learn to use his mental abilities. Raz is already something of a prodigy and gets himself in without having to pay tuition. Karma’s rather unforgiving, however, and soon he’s put to work by the camp’s staff to help uncover a dangerous threat by exploring the minds of people around him. It’s fun, colorful, original, smart, and very funny in places.

I only picked up Psychonauts recently after recovering from the nearly crippling injury I’d inflicted on myself for not doing so sooner and found myself as delighted as I was during the rocking strains of Full Throttle’s soundtrack or seeing Manny don a fine suit in Grim Fandango. It’s been a while since Double Fine’s been heard from, but they’re coming back with a rocking vengeance in October (or should that be Rocktober?) with Brütal Legend.

Jack Black lends his voice to Eddie Riggs, a roadie who is the absolute best in the business and carries on kicking ass behind the scenes despite his belief that real heavy metal is dead. He soon finds himself in a parallel world where demons have enslaved humanity and everything looks like a cross between an Iron Maiden video and Nordic mythology. Riggs, armed with his Flying V guitar (or “axe” if you will), an enchanted axe (an actual battle-axe in this case), and some sort of hot rod, has an entire world of metal to explore and it’s unclear if he’s been chose to become the world’s savior or its destroyer. Either way, it’s incredibly metal and I’d love to play the full version when it releases next month. I believe a demo will appear on X-Box Live Arcade soon, and the best thing about demos for games like this and Batman: Arkham Asylum is that they’re free.

Tim Schafer is an inspiration to anybody who writes speculative fiction or has ideas that might be seen as somewhat off the wall. Check out the opening of Brütal Legend, and whatever you might be thinking of writing, be sure to make it just a little more metal.

The first in what I hope will be enjoyable post-apocalyptic steampunk adventures. Levels of swashbuckling will vary.

Rated PG13 for violence