I don't think the GB guys have given this major part of the game a propper chance. On the recent Bombcast they make it sound like the game is essentailly broken, but the stage battles were not THAT complicated. I would agree that the controls are a little hard to get into, but once you learn how to plant a rally flag, double team with units and place a waypoint you can beat every battle pretty easily! Also the combination of strategy and direct action gameplay makes more sense with the story. There isn't a disconnect betwheen the gameplay and the way people percieve the main character like some games. Eddie Riggs is a badass figher and leader.
 
Anyway i just felt like ranting since it kinda annoys me to hear people dismiss a game i love so much :-), maybe im wrong, who knows!

1. Most of them gave the game enough of a chance by beating it.
2. Opinion is not fact, and therefore cannot be wrong, unless it is based on incorrect facts, like saying "DoubleFine got a very good Jack Black impersonator to play Eddie Riggs, but he still sounds off at times."

I died more than a few times in the story mode, but overall I'd say the RTS sections were alright, even if the whole rock, paper, scissors thing isn't told all that well.
 It was really the only time that Brutal difficulty showed that the game wasn't messing around.

It's kind of like reviewing Halo without bothering with the multiplayer, IMO.

I wish people would stop bagging out both Brutal Legend and the review of Brutal Legend
 
I love Brutal Legend. The world is amazing, the hack and slash solid. I like the side missions, the RTS is fun as.
 
I also thought that Ryan's review was a star less than it should have been, however he justified his mark within the review. Looking at and remembering the way they described how they would establish a rating system when they made the site, a 3 star review for this game fits and I am content with Ryans choice. Plus I like the game anyway so other peoples opinions dont really matter at all.
 
 
P.S Though I think it would have been given a 4 if it was a hip-hop/rap themed game. Ryan and Jeff would have blown their shit

People expected a typical Tim Schaffer single player adventure game and that was largely what it was promoted as. What I personally understood we would be getting was a single player game that was derived from what orignally was intended to be a multiplayer RTS game. I understood that they changed their mind and went for the single player adventure game, but then still included a multiplayer RTS element. So, I thought we'd be getting both. What I had no expectation of was that it would be an intermixed mish-mash of both in the single player game.
 
They clearly meant this game to be just a multiplayer RTS and the "single player" is just an extended tutorial. So why not advertise and promote it as a multiplayer RTS game? Probably because the world doesn't need another multiplayer RTS and most people who enjoy them (like myself) don't care for them on the console. If that's all this was, I wouldn't have had any interest in it, despite the concept. I truly love RTS, but this wouldn't have interested me at all, really. In fact, I found the single player RTS elements to be frustrating, discombobulating, out of place, and unwanted. It's too bad they account for more than half of the game, because I never looked forward to them and found myself playing through the last half of the game just so I could finish it rather than because I was having a great time.
 
What's odd is that the RTS element is actually fairly good with real people. But inside the context of the single player game, I thought it was complete crap and difficult to control and keep pace with the system (which seemed to only have a "cheap shot you" mode and a "roll over and die when the player sneezes on us" mode that it alternated between).
 
What's even more unfortunate is that I know a number of people who enjoy games and are huge music fans. I had advised them of this game the past few months and tried to really sell them on it based on what we understood the concept to be. Once I saw the RTS stuff as part of the single player game (and so much of the game, at that!) I had to quickly warn them all against it. Why? Because they aren't into RTS. A lot of people that would have been all over a title like this based on the concept and world and story will be put off by the RTS and not even give it a chance in the first place.
 
And for what result? Do people at Double Fine really think they're starting a new multiplayer RTS franchise, here? Do they really even think that people will still be playing online multiplayer RTS elements of it a year from now? I won't be surprised if there's such a small community of regular players in even six months that by that time, it will be hard to get online and get in a few good games (not to mention achievements, if people are into those).
 
I sure don't expect to be playing this game a few months from now. Maybe not even a few weeks from now. I'll get a few achievements in multiplayer. I'll play a couple dozen games or so against real people. And before long, I'll feel that I've gotten all I'm going to get out of the game. I'll put it on the shelf. And in about ten years, we'll all have a fond nostalgic discussion about that curious Schaffer Metal game back in the day.
 
So, no, the RTS is not horrible. It's unexpected and unnecessary and leaves me, personally, just asking a big "WHY?!". But that's about it.
 
It does make me a bit sad to think about how much more story they could have had if they spent the effort on that instead of developing a multiplayer RTS, though.
 
I feel three stars is fine. I felt the RTS was so unwanted in the single player experience that it'd be hard to give it four stars. Maybe I'd feel different if that was what it had always been promoted to be. If I knew I was getting myself into an RTS game. Then it would be fine and I'd be scoring it on that rather than "what I really wanted it to be". Maybe 3.5 stars would be a perfect point.
 
I'm definitely going to be interested in taking a peak around February of 2010 to see what has come of the online....

Good for you, OP. See who gives a fuck.