Posted Aug 14th 2008 10:00AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Great news for the Minion slave driving fanboys among us! Codemasters just announced Overlord II and that it is currently in development for release on the 360, PS3 and Wii sometime in 2009. Huzzah!
Developer Triumph Studios promises that the sequel "massively increases the scope of the original concept," being a much more realistic, less fantasy driven Overlord where players will encounter political problems and environmental issues all while remaining true to Overlord's unique style of Minion commanding humor. Fart jokes included. And, heck, the sequel looks much prettier too. We can't wait!
You've been waiting for it and now it's finally here. It's Sunday deals time where we dig through the Sunday newspaper, pull out the retail ads for the week, toss the actual news part of the newspaper in the garbage, look for Xbox 360 deals and share with you our findings. It's always good times! So, let's get to the money savings fun ...
This week, Best Buy is offering Guitar Hero III for $75, a chance to buy an Indiana Jones DVD for $5 with the purchase of LEGO Indiana Jones, a free Bourne DVD with the purchase of The Bourne Conspiracy, $5 in concession money with Kung Fu Panda and they're still offering a free $50 gift card with purchase of an Xbox 360 console and GTAIV. Circuit City is giving out a free tshirt and a character unlock with LEGO Indiana Jones, a free Bourne DVD with the purchase of The Bourne Conspiracy, a free plush toy with Kung Fu Panda, Overlord for $15, a free Ryu wall graphix with Ninja Gaiden II and a $10 gift card with the purchase of either The Incredible Hulk or GRID. Finally, Target is giving away a $10 gift card with The Bourne Conspiracy. Phew!
As always, feel free to comment about any deals you find when you are on your own weekly Xbox 360 deal search. Happy shopping!
Triumph Studios' quirky title Overlord was fairly decently recieved when we got our hands on it. The humor worked, the formula was fun, plus you got minions. The Pikimin-like gameplay worked so well that the devs figured it would be a worth endevor if they put resources into DLC development. However this DLC has taken much longer than expected to get here, so it may not sell as well as it might have back in November. The two packs that were slated for last year are here, along with a third, which is new. The "Raising Hell" Pack will be 800 MSpoints and is a single player expansion, adding new locations and goals. The "Challenge" pack will be 400 MSpoints and adds 7 multiplayer maps, and a harder single-player difficulty. Finally, the "Split-Screen" Pack will enable local split-screen play, and includes a single new map.
The official, in-depth, DLC description after the break:
"The summer's hit action adventure from Triumph Studios" (hehe, that marketing talk made us chuckle) Overlord will be getting a trio of downloadable content packs this November. One will be free and two will cost you.
So, let's gets to the goods and break these three DLC packages down. The long time promisedOverlord split-screen option will be included in the free "Split-Screen Multiplayer Pack" allowing head-to-head action throughout the entire game. The free pack will also include an additional multiplayer map called "Rocky Race". The other two premium packs (see: get out your wallets) include "Raising Hell" and the "Challenge Pack". "Raising Hell" is a single player expansion that adds new levels, new enemies and new quests through all kinds of hellish abysses. The "Challenge Pack" offers up seven brand new multiplayer maps as well as a Legendary difficulty mode for the most experienced Overlords. Pricing for the two premium DLC offerings as well as a firm release date for all the content has yet to be confirmed, but we're sure Overlord fans will be patient since they've had to exercise such trait for the past few months anyway. Overlords, unite!
Making a few house cleaning announcements before heading off to the Leipzig Games Convention, Codemasters revealed that they'll be releasing a game update for Overlord allowing for some split-screen multiplayer. The title update will be releasing sometime soon and will be available for free, but other than that Codemasters hasn't given any specifics to what this split-screen multiplayer Overlord experience entails. Minions, fetch us our split-screen multiplayer!
If you haven't powered on your Xbox 360 today, you're missing out on a boatload of new trailers. In all, we've got Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (girlish squeal!), Overlord (which we can't download for some reason), and a trailer for Conan. Conan, perhaps, deserves the most attention. Unfortunately, that's not because it's the best of the three (far from it, in fact). Not to be confused with the Age of Conan MMO from Funcom, Conan, quite frankly, just looks awful. The gameplay looks decent enough, but the graphics lack anything even resembling polish. Seriously, it's like they decided to release a trailer of an alpha build (which may be exactly what it is). The character models themselves look alright, but they seem completely separate from the environment, like they're really in front of a green screen. Joystiq seemed to be impressed by the game back in March, so we remain hopeful that the final product will be a solid experience.
Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, squirrels and hamsters, it's a big week for our beloved Xbox 360. Not only do we finally get to sample the heart-eating goodness of The Darkness (a game we're giving away, by the way), but we also have a plethora of other games arriving as well. In fact, there are so many games coming out this week, we're going to whip out (that's right) a bulleted list. Behold:
That's a lot of games. We're particularly excited about Overlord, which has been sitting patiently in our rental queue for some time. Are you planning on picking up any of these titles?
IGN UK got their hands on the retail build of Overlord, and have given the game its rounds and came back with a nice review, scoring an 8.1 . Those who liked the demo will be happy to hear that the cool experiences had in that initial level continue on through the game, with capabilities of having 50 minions on screen with no slow down. Their only gripes, gameplay wise, was that it appears to require backtracking in order to summon particular minions for their specialties later on in a given level. They also felt the multiplayer felt "tacked-on" to the over all experience. So, if you want an advance look at what's coming your way later this month, click the "Read" link.
After being having one of the twogood demos release on Marketplace last week, Xbox 360 Achievements got their hands on Overlord's Achievements. The first thing that caught our eye was that there are two Achievements for how much or little Corruption your character has, one for maxing it out, and the other for having none, so being a good-bad guy is going to be required for the completionists out there. Also worth noting are the ranked multiplayer Achievements, and "Mistress Master", where you essentially let her wear the pants of the relationship and do her bidding. Are you looking forward to torching some halflings later this month?
Somewhere, deep down, we had a feeling we were going to like Triumph Studios' Overlord. The screens we'd seen looked polished and the trailers exuded a certain charm that piqued our interest from the beginning. As such, we were eager to try out the demo that was released on Xbox Live Marketplace earlier today. After a few run-throughs of the fairly short demo, we think we've reached a fair assessment of what the game has to offer. So, is Overlord the game of your (evil) dreams? Read on to find out.
After a bunch of demos hit Marketplace over the last three days (some more importantthanothers), new ones still keep showing up. Today's offering so far is Overlord, which recently had a few videos pop up on the intertubes, and follows through on our plea. You may want to watch those before committing the 891.78 MB of space for the content, although some of you may already be convinced. So, are you enjoying this influx of interactive content, or do you not have the time to play these demos anyway?
Judging by the increasing amount of promotional material floating around the net, Codemasters really wants Overlord to be a success. New videos are starting to come out at a daily pace, revealing the game's plot and unique gameplay elements. The first video (above) gives a brief outline of the game's story. As the new Overlord, it is your job to rebuild your dark tower as well as punish the "heroes" who destroyed it in the first place. The second video (embedded after the break) shows off a trait displayed by your minions. Labeled, "Commandment One" of "The Six Minion Commandments" the video shows players that minions will always bring you any loot that they find. We must admit, we're really starting to like the idea of dimwitted minions who will perform all of our nefarious bidding. Overlord comes out later this month.
Overlord is set to launch this month from Codemasters, and a NeoGAF post has rounded up a few multiplayer details for would-be Overlords everywhere. As you would expect, the multiplayer modes all involve the use of your minions to achieve certain goals. The first mode is Deathmatch, which plays out the same way it sounds. Of course, the difference here is that dozens (possibly hundreds) of minions will be facing each other at the bidding of their masters. Co-op mode has you and a friend unleashing your minions upon hordes of enemies. Again, the amount of characters on screen is supposed to be very hefty indeed. Finally, there is another mode called Plunder Challenge, in which players compete to gather (read: steal) the most treasure.
Also, Triumph Studios is planning on releasing new multiplayer maps as well as an additional single-player chapter as downloadable content in the future. There are also plans to expand the game's roster of 25 monsters and add new weaponry. Sounds great, doesn't it? Now how about a demo, Codemasters? Please?
We have been intrigued by Overlord ever since we first learned of its evil, minion-controlling premise. This new trailer shows off some impressive minion armies, huge enemies, as well as a brief clip of the Overlord's bawdy mistress. We also get a look at the Overlord's dark tower. We can't wait to get our hands on the game, and luckily we won't have to wait too long. The game comes out next month you see. Anyone else out there raring to send their minions to reign terror upon the countryside?
We've been intrigued by Triumph Studios' Overlord ever since we first learned of it. Loosing your army of minions on unsuspecting peasants sounds like jolly good fun to us. After learning about the intriguing imp controlling mechanic, we're dying to learn more about Overlord. As such, we decided to wrangle a Q&A out of Codemasters, Overlord's publisher. That, dear X3F readers, is where you come in. We need your Overlord questions. What do you want to know about the game? Who's making it? What's the deal with the enormously fat lady in the image above? Any questions you have, we want you to post them right here in the comments. We'll pick some of the best questions (along with some of our own), pack them up, and send them off to Codemasters.
If you need inspiration, why not check out our Overlord coverage thus far?
"The summer's hit action adventure from Triumph Studios" (hehe, that marketing talk made us chuckle) Overlord will be getting a trio of downloadable content packs this November. One will be free and two will cost you.
