When we covered the announcement of the first planned DLC for Brutal Legend developer Double Fine's president Tim Schafer said that he needed more maps to feed his nightly gaming habit. With the release on tap this week a video came out today of the new map that let him put his skills on display. Okay, not exactly. But he does call the action between Kee Chi and Brad Muir from the team as they battle it out on Death's Fjord.

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In an interesting turn, the map comes out first this Wed (11/3) on Live where it will set 360 gamers back 400 MS Points. PS3 players will have to wait until Fri (11/5) for the download but get to grab it for two weeks for free. After Nov. 19 it returns to its regular price of $4.99 on the PlayStation Network.

Brutal Legend publisher EA has announced 'Tears of the Hextadon,' a downloadable content pack for the heavy metal action adventure containing two new multiplayer maps.

"I play Brutal Legend online every night," explained developer Double Fine's president Tim Schafer in a press statement. "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!"

As a bonus, the map pack includes a new axe, the Blade of Ormagoden.

Tears of the Hextadon drips onto Xbox Live on November 3 for 400 Microsoft Points ($5). While PlayStation 3 owners might need to wait a torturous extra two days until November 5, the DLC will be completely free there until November 19, costing $5 thereafter.

A face-rocking triple-pack from the Brutal Legend soundtrack is headlining next week's batch of Rock Band downloadable content to celebrate the release of Double Fine's heavy metal action adventure, with support acts including Kansas, L7 and Joe Satriani.

"These are three great songs that totally capture the feeling of Brutal Legend. I can't wait to play them in Rock Band," said Double Fine head honcho Tim Schafer in a statement. "I've air-drummed to all of them so many times, I'm sure I'll be able to beat them on hard mode, no problem. Or at least on medium. Like medium plus. That's a setting, right?"

Brutal Legend Pack
• Motorhead - "(We Are) The Road Crew '08"
• Tenacious D - "The Metal"
• Testament - "More Than Meets the Eye"
• Black Tide - "Show Me the Way"... Read more

In celebration of Rocktober's commencement, Electronic Arts has passed along a wealth of new pictures and videos related to Double Fine's upcoming Brutal Legend. Most of it features creator Tim Schafer and voice actor Jack Black. Sometimes they even interact. For example, Schafer and Black chatting while the latter is "in character" and discussing the effect that a "commitment to excellent" and steroids have on girth.

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If you'd rather a glimpse at the game itself, we have that too... Read more

Everyone's looking forward to the Tim Schafer-written singleplayer portion of Brutal Legend, but we were caught off guard by the surprisingly deep multiplayer component when we played it in August. The following trailer provides a quick overview of that multiplayer, a cross between third-person action and real-time strategy.

Brutal Legend hits the Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 13, less than two weeks away.

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Today's release of the PSP Go sparks a monster update to the PlayStation Store as scores of publishers release gobs of games for Sony's download-only handheld.

The PlayStation 3 does not go neglected, mind, receiving demos for Brutal Legend and Need for Speed Shift, as well as 'The Pitt' and 'Operation Anchorage' DLC for Fallout 3.

The full listing for the releases, downloadable content, demos and sales follows below.

Updates

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords PSP Temporary Price Drop (now $7.99)

Cube Temporary Sale (now $4.99)... Read more

Just another Double Fine day for Tim Schafer is shattered by the arrival of a terrifying AIM ultimatum from Ormagedon, cremator of the sky and destroyer of the ancient world--the Brutal Legend demo must hit 666 million downloads or it's swine flu for the lot of us.

North American Xbox Live Gold subscribers got the demo yesterday--Europeans, XBL Silver members and PS3 owners must wait until October 1, when Double Fine will host a live Dem-o-thon with interviews, giveaways and general salvation of humanity.

The heavy metal fantasy action adventure arrives for Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 13.

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Now free of the shackles that limited its availability to pre-orders, the downloadable demo of Double Fine's Brutal Legend is now available for Xbox Live Gold members.

The promised demo for Turn 10's Forza Motorsport 3 arrived as well, offering a one-track, five-car glimpse of the Xbox 360-exclusive racer due out October 27.

As usual, each demo is restricted to Xbox Live Gold members for one week, meaning Silver members will be able to give them a go on October 1. That's the same day that the Brutal Legend demo hits PlayStation 3, with the full game due at retail on October 13.

The heavy metal fantasy landscape of Double Fine Productions' action adventure Brutal Legend is explored and explained in a new trailer, with art director Lee Petty showing off some bold concept art, face-rocking factions and electrifying weather effects.

Brutal Legend hits Xbox 360 and PlayStation on October 13--Rocktober 13, if you fancy. A demo arrives for Xbox Live Gold subscribers on Thursday then for Silver members and PlayStation 3 on October 1, while pre-orderers already have their grubby mitts on it.

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With the actual life of Brutal Legend's roadie hero Eddie Riggs revealed in the intro cut scene, Jack Black returns in a new laser-powered episode of Brutal Thoughts to explain how a roadie's unique anatomy allows his character to perform these incredible feats.

Double Fine Productions' heavy metal fantasy action adventure Brutal Legend hits Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 13, published by EA.

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Double Fine has released Brutal Legend's intro movie, showing the hard life of Jack Black-voiced roadie hero Eddie Riggs and unveiling the mysterious Kabbage Boy featured on the Xbox 360 and PS3 heavy metal action adventure's splendid soundtrack.

Brutal Legend hits North America on October 13, then Europe on October 16. A demo arrives tomorrow for pre-orderers, while the hoi polloi can fill their long wait until September 24 with our multiplayer impressions and interview with Tim Schafer.

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Recently, Shacknews and a handful of other gaming sites participated in a roundtable discussion with Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Psychonauts), meant to see the respected figure discuss developer Double Fine's latest project, Brutal Legend. And talk about Brutal Legend he did, explaining what's in the demo, why the multiplayer aspect was designed first, thoughts on downloadable content, and so forth. But in addition to chatting up the October 13-due title, the conversation also saw Schafer touch on some of his past work and even offer advice on avoiding publisher problems.

Psychonauts was kinda developed like an adventure game was, where we built a lot of assets and we built a lot of worlds, we built a lot of environments, we built a lot of different characters and stuff, and then at the last minute tried to pull it all together and make it work and it didn't work and we were out of time and we had to start over on some stuff.

We really took a more character-centered approach with Brutal Legend, where we started with Eddie. We just built Eddie, and then we said, "What is the essential thing for Eddie to do? It's for him to walk around while playing heavy metal music and swinging his axe around." ....Read more

Following up on the revelation that a downloadable Brutal Legend demo is due September 17, it now seems that date only applies to those who pre-order the game.

The Brutal Legend Blog clarifies that pre-ordering brings demo access, with a link to retailer GameStop adding that pre-ordering folk get the demo "a week before anybody else." Demo access for pre-orders "begins" on September 17, meaning the demo won't be publicly available for everyone else to download until September 24.

The full version of Double Fine's metal action-adventure, now free of legal hassles, hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 13 in North America and October 16 in Europe.

Hot on the heels of the news that a Brutal Legend demo is coming on September 17, EA has released a new trailer for Double Fine's action heavy metal fantasy, including snippets of the multiplayer mode which we recently previewed.

Brutal Legend itself is slated for an October 13 release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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Update 2: It now appears that only pre-orders will get the demo on September 17.

Update: The Brutal Legend demo will arrive on September 17, creator Tim Schafer clarified during publisher Electronic Arts' GameCom 2009 press conference.

Original: A downloadable demo of Double Fine's Brutal Legend will be available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at some point in September, allowing gamers to sample the rocking action-adventure game before its North American release on October 13.

"We just couldn't wait," said Double Fine president Tim Schafer. "Villagers... Read more

It's not every day that a multiplayer mode surprises you--especially a multiplayer mode in a game that's largely garnering interest for its story-driven singleplayer campaign.

Maybe I shouldn't have been all that surprised. The game in question, Brutal Legend, was actually conceived as a mutliplayer title. For the longest time, the rumor going around was all about that: "Tim Schafer and Double Fine are doing some crazy RTS multiplayer game!"

Well, a few years and several Jack Black trailers later, they are releasing that crazy RTS multiplayer game as planned: Brutal Legend's multiplayer is essentially an action/RTS hybrid, brutal combat with strategic depth to match. It may, in fact, be too deep for some folks to deal with. But for anyone hoping for anything other than more CTF and deathmatch, it's something to get excited about.

The setup is relatively simple. Up to four players are placed on a large map, each with a large base in the form of a demonic stage. Resource geysers are... Read more

Want to hear which 108 songs are in Double Fine's upcoming Brutal Legend? Want to see Tim Schafer solve a Rubik's Cube--before Brutal Legend music director Emily Ridgway finishes reading off the track list?

Of course you do!

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The 108-track soundtrack listing for Double Fine's heavy metal fantasy Brutal Legend has emerged, accidentally revealed by EA Denmark and confirmed by GameDaily.

"It's designed to be loved by Metal fans," said creative director Tim Schafer, "and for those who are not, it will either convert them or make their heads explode ... or both."

With former publisher Activision's legal attempt to block the release of Brutal Legend settled out of court, the game will arrive Rocktober 13 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

• 3 Inches of Blood - "Deadly Sinners"
• 3 Inches of Blood - "Destroy The Orcs"
• Accept - "Fast As A Shark"
• Angel Witch - "Angel Witch"
• Anthrax - "Metal Thrashing Mad"... Read more

Double Fine's action game Brutal Legend will not be delayed from its October release after all, as the lawsuit between the developer and former publisher Activision has been settled out of court, according to the Associated Press.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. A hearing scheduled for today to determine whether the suit would progress to court has been cancelled.

Activision was suing to prevent the release of Brutal Legend, claiming that it never relinquished its rights to the title before Double Fine signed a new publishing deal with Electronic Arts. Double Fine maintained that Activision was unfairly attempting to block the release to avoid competition.

In any case, it's all over now, and the game will be released without impediment.

A hearing to determine whether Brutal Legend's release will be delayed in order to allow for a court battle between Activision and developer Double Fine has been pushed back a week, and now the presiding judge is calling the case a "close call."

The hearing was rescheduled to August 6, with the judge saying that his tentative ruling was to deny Activision's request of a delay. According to the Associated Press, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan said he may deny the request because he doesn't think Activision can win its argument.

"I can't say there's a likelihood of success here," said Karlan, who then later admitted: "This is going to be a close call."

Activision is attemping to block the release of Brutal Legend, claiming that it never relinquished the rights to the title before Double Fine signed a new publishing deal with Electronic Arts. Double Fine says that Activision is merely attempting to avoid competing with the game.