Gaming update
I bought the NAG July issue over the weekend, largely because the accompanying DVD included the demo for Overlord – the fantasy action-adventure/real time strategy hybrid that is coming out this month for Xbox and PC.
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, largely because I love the idea of its inverted, darkly humorous take on traditional fantasy. Case in point: In the demo you fireball a rogue group of Halflings hiding in a field of corn. One spark, and the entire field is ablaze with shrieking, flame-grilled hobbits. What is more nasty fun than that?
In case you’ve forgotten what Overlord is about, here’s the synopsis:
Controlling a mysterious figure that has inherited the legacy of the evil, long-dead Overlord, the player emerges, near death, from the ruins of the old Overlord's Dark Tower. Only the player's actions determine if they will rise to become the new all-powerful Overlord; it's all down to how much of a bad ass they want to be in order to succeed...evil or really evil!
Played out with plenty of black humour and dark irony, the game immerses players in twisted parodies of classic fantasy scenarios and characters. Overlord's key innovation is the introduction of an array of impish creatures – the Minions. They believe you are the old Overlord reborn and will use their unique skills to fetch, fight and die for you. Throughout the game players actively control a horde of these gremlin-like critters and they follow your every instruction no matter how despotic or, for the Minions, life threatening it is. [Codemasters].
Having played the demo now, my reservations remain about how well Overlord will run on my increasingly dated system (the motherboard and CPU are beginning to let me down) – it just doesn’t look as absolutely stunning with settings turned down.
Lookwise, the game builds on the colourful, stylised high fantasy design of Fable, complete with even goofier-looking (and acting) idiot peasants.
In terms of gameplay, you can swipe at objects and enemies with your axe, or use magic, but it is most gratifying to sweep your posse of mischievous minions across the screen (by holding your mouse button down and swiftly moving it), and watch them bash through pumpkin fields, gleefully bring down a farm house and ride around on the backs of terrified sheep. The attention to detail and characterisation is fantastic. Your gremlin servants will pick up and equip any items they can use – at
one point 2 of my minions were running around with improvised pumpkin head helmets. Meanwhile, their devotion to you is so complete they’ll continually come to you with offerings of money, mana and life crystals.
I can see the potential for sameness setting in, and clear restrictions on your potential for evil, but I think the concept, and wicked streak of humour is enough to sustain interest. And apparently once you start acquiring different coloured minions, with different abilities, it becomes quite a challenge to control them all in battle.
So far Overlord is scoring a very decent 74% for the Xbox version and 79% for PC over at Metacritic.com. I’m definitely going to consider picking it up once it’s available.
The NAG disc also included the demo for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. “Bah, crappy movie tie-ins” I hear you mutter. But you know what, the demo wasn’t half bad. Granted it was exceptionally easy, but for capturing a sense of the Pirates world and characters, it was spot-on. In particular, the vocal work was convincingly good and the soundtrack is lifted straight from the film. I would never pay R260 and up for it, but as a R100 best buy, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the boots of Jack Sparrow, savvy? Particularly as in this third game you play out events from Dead Man’s Chest and World’s End (the demo takes place in the island prison which Jack eventually escapes in a coffin).
Anyway, as for my normal gaming, despite more recent purchases, I’m back to playing Titan Quest again, after Paul and I finally finished the Immortal Throne expansion on normal difficulty this last weekend. I really can’t help myself. My compulsion for levelling 2 of my 3 main characters is back with a vengeance – my Level 52 Battlemage (Gothicus) at Paul’s house, and my Level 17 pure Dream Master (Kruger) at home. I ended up going to bed last night much later than intended because of my obsession with Kruger reaching the next way point.
I’ll actually have to be amuse myself with Titan Quest for this weekend at least. I’m now joining Paul properly in World of WarCraft, but instead of just letting my upgrade my trial account, I now have to own a retail copy of the game. Which is fine, especially since that will include a month’s free play. However, there is currently not a single copy of original WOW available in Durban. You can find the Burning Crusade expansion easily enough but WOW is completely AWOL when it comes to store shelves. So I’m now currently sitting waiting for 7-10 working days for my copy, ordered online, to arrive.
Back to Titan Quest then!
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, largely because I love the idea of its inverted, darkly humorous take on traditional fantasy. Case in point: In the demo you fireball a rogue group of Halflings hiding in a field of corn. One spark, and the entire field is ablaze with shrieking, flame-grilled hobbits. What is more nasty fun than that?
In case you’ve forgotten what Overlord is about, here’s the synopsis:
Controlling a mysterious figure that has inherited the legacy of the evil, long-dead Overlord, the player emerges, near death, from the ruins of the old Overlord's Dark Tower. Only the player's actions determine if they will rise to become the new all-powerful Overlord; it's all down to how much of a bad ass they want to be in order to succeed...evil or really evil!
Played out with plenty of black humour and dark irony, the game immerses players in twisted parodies of classic fantasy scenarios and characters. Overlord's key innovation is the introduction of an array of impish creatures – the Minions. They believe you are the old Overlord reborn and will use their unique skills to fetch, fight and die for you. Throughout the game players actively control a horde of these gremlin-like critters and they follow your every instruction no matter how despotic or, for the Minions, life threatening it is. [Codemasters].
Having played the demo now, my reservations remain about how well Overlord will run on my increasingly dated system (the motherboard and CPU are beginning to let me down) – it just doesn’t look as absolutely stunning with settings turned down.
Lookwise, the game builds on the colourful, stylised high fantasy design of Fable, complete with even goofier-looking (and acting) idiot peasants.
In terms of gameplay, you can swipe at objects and enemies with your axe, or use magic, but it is most gratifying to sweep your posse of mischievous minions across the screen (by holding your mouse button down and swiftly moving it), and watch them bash through pumpkin fields, gleefully bring down a farm house and ride around on the backs of terrified sheep. The attention to detail and characterisation is fantastic. Your gremlin servants will pick up and equip any items they can use – at
one point 2 of my minions were running around with improvised pumpkin head helmets. Meanwhile, their devotion to you is so complete they’ll continually come to you with offerings of money, mana and life crystals.
I can see the potential for sameness setting in, and clear restrictions on your potential for evil, but I think the concept, and wicked streak of humour is enough to sustain interest. And apparently once you start acquiring different coloured minions, with different abilities, it becomes quite a challenge to control them all in battle.
So far Overlord is scoring a very decent 74% for the Xbox version and 79% for PC over at Metacritic.com. I’m definitely going to consider picking it up once it’s available.
The NAG disc also included the demo for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. “Bah, crappy movie tie-ins” I hear you mutter. But you know what, the demo wasn’t half bad. Granted it was exceptionally easy, but for capturing a sense of the Pirates world and characters, it was spot-on. In particular, the vocal work was convincingly good and the soundtrack is lifted straight from the film. I would never pay R260 and up for it, but as a R100 best buy, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the boots of Jack Sparrow, savvy? Particularly as in this third game you play out events from Dead Man’s Chest and World’s End (the demo takes place in the island prison which Jack eventually escapes in a coffin).
Anyway, as for my normal gaming, despite more recent purchases, I’m back to playing Titan Quest again, after Paul and I finally finished the Immortal Throne expansion on normal difficulty this last weekend. I really can’t help myself. My compulsion for levelling 2 of my 3 main characters is back with a vengeance – my Level 52 Battlemage (Gothicus) at Paul’s house, and my Level 17 pure Dream Master (Kruger) at home. I ended up going to bed last night much later than intended because of my obsession with Kruger reaching the next way point.
I’ll actually have to be amuse myself with Titan Quest for this weekend at least. I’m now joining Paul properly in World of WarCraft, but instead of just letting my upgrade my trial account, I now have to own a retail copy of the game. Which is fine, especially since that will include a month’s free play. However, there is currently not a single copy of original WOW available in Durban. You can find the Burning Crusade expansion easily enough but WOW is completely AWOL when it comes to store shelves. So I’m now currently sitting waiting for 7-10 working days for my copy, ordered online, to arrive.
Back to Titan Quest then!
Comments
Overlord is great, played the xbox demo yesterday. :)