Finished Brutal Legend (360) on Normal over the weekend. This may be my least favorite game from Tim Shafer. I've loved every game he's done even with their flaws, but something about Brutal Legend didn't hit that note for me (pun not intended). I'll have to side with people who complained about the gameplay. The whole game felt clunky and wasn't much fun to play. On the other hand, the story and characters were great. I also loved the world it's based in. And even though I'm not a huge fan of metal music, I was enjoying the music in this game quite a lot. Anyways, I'm just gonna list my impressions.

Liked:
-Characters - Very likeable cast with lots of personality.
-Humor - Lots of funny moments.
-Designs - Love the character designs.
-World - Interesting motif and very unique.
-Music - Pretty solid soundtrack.

Disliked:
-Sidequests - Repetitive and boring.
-RTS section - I love RTS games but this was clunky and frustrating. Should've been more streamlined or not included at all. Not fun at all.
-Audio loops - The characters repeat the same lines over an over again in the open world. Also, certain long conversations actually repeat themselves in less than 5 seconds. What the?
-Graphical issues - Some framerate issues here and there and minor popup.

Overall, I found the game alright. It was enjoyable simply because the characters and writing was so good. I kept playing for the story and not the gameplay. I would've liked it if they fleshed out the story more because it goes by pretty fast and made the overall game pretty short. There were some moments that felt like they didn't flow that well. For example, I found the characters talking about something that wasn't mentioned before in the main story later in the game.

This made me think I was missing some important backstory info because I skipped most of the secondary stuff. Which reminds me that they also relegated some very cool backstory for the world to these Legendary statues that you need to find to unlock them. BIG mistake because they added a lot to the story. I wish they made these things easier to find or made them story-related in some way during my first playthrough. I didn't bother finding them until I was near the end of the game cuz I had no clue what they did. Btw, I only found two so far and I'm looking forward to finding the rest soon.

Anyways, recommended for Shafer and Metal fans, but I think everyone else should give it a rental at least.

Also started playing Demon's Souls (PS3) after I finished Brutal Legend. Good news is I managed to beat the infamous 1-1 level on my first try with no problems. I killed Phalanx without too much trouble. I didn't face the issues most people had complained about in various podcasts. BUT, after I passed that, I'm pretty much stuck in level grinding mode right now. The rest of the game ramps up in difficulty quite a bit. For some reason, I'm pretty addicted to trying to get my character up to a point where I can take on more guys without too much trouble.

Great graphics, stellar voice acting and tough enemies definitely make this a dungeon crawl winner. It's very moody and works on many levels. Anyways, I might update again when I make some more progress. But for now, it's been an interesting (and punishing) experience.