Ovelord demo is up.

Pikmin was a shitload better is all i can say.

 

What was wrong with it then and why was Pikmin better? Might be worth getting Pikmin if folks like this.

 

Yes, yes I can tell all that from the demo. First of all, the demo tells us that there's a single button for attacking with your hero. Unless they have some wild Street Fighter like combos, the Overlord's combat model is simplistic at best.

Second, the demo tells us that what you can do with your minions is (a) send them forward and (b) control their movement directly. Both (a) and (b) result in (c) watch your minions hit stuff.

If you have read anything about the game, you'll find that your minions vary in elemental resistances and ranged vs melee vs stealth. So basically, you command your melee guys to go in, you let your ranged guys act based on AI, and then you swing your stealth guys around back.

And, finally, the demo made it quite clear that being evil actually means being imperialistic. Being "corrupt" means doing stuff like killing innocents. Furthermore, the empires that you are taking over are evil in of themselves! So basically the only difference between you and a knight in shining armor is that your armor is black and your eyes glow. Riiiiight.

 

Bloody political correctness. Where's a game that let's me be really evil?

 

The game with the most meaningful choices is probably Halo.

 

Fair enough. It is an arcade game though, I didn't have such high expectations of it as you did. Button mashing and cartoon humor were what I expected and it delivered it well enough. Complicated and in depth Street Fighter type combos and fighting systems was not something I'd expect in this kind of game. I do hope they have more evil options for the full game than what was presented in the tutorial demo though. I still think it looks like a simple and fun game. It's not meant to be an in-depth RPG or something so I'll still give it a chance. Could be good for when I want something nice, simple and easy to relax to when I have a few minutes.

I remember one game that surprised me was Tropico. It let me be more evil than most games I had played about that time, which was unexpected for such a cute looking game. It'd be worth starting a thread about games that let you be evil. Could be entertaining.

 

More control over your pikmin than your minions, taking out huge monsters requires tactics as opposed to just charging em in , no pathetic faux evil.

 

Yeah? I don't really play consoles nowadays so I miss out on a lot of this stuff. Pikmin sounds like it could be good if I liked this.

 

I only watched a couple trailers, but the minions kind of reminded me of the goblins in Arx Fatalis. Arx featured the funniest goblins that have ever been represented in a video game, and if Overlord is even slightly similar to that type of humor, I'm buying it for sure.

Someone on another board made a good observation:

Strangely enough, I found this bold claim to hold true in my case. I bring this up because most reviews are ranking Overlord in the 7-8 range.

 

By the way, EuroGamer has an Overlord review up.

 

Is this going to be available as a digital download or am I going to have to pony up for a boxed version (digital downloads from US sites can be up to 50% cheaper here in Oz)?

 

http://www.xboxyde.com/stream_3993_en.html
hm.. it's no fun if they willingly sacrifice themselves..

 

Played the demo and goddammit...
It doesn't even come close to Dungeon Keeper 2
Of course Codemaster had to implement this fucked up action part.

 

I've been back playing Dungeon Keeper 2 (and Startopia). FUn games but they suck up time on the order of a civ game. Dungeon Keeper 2 is more coherent but it's got some weird problems (ordering your minions around is really difficult and you're expected to invade other kingdoms and stuff).

Startopia is a little bit incoherent because I think they had to release it before they had put everything they wanted to into it (it doesn't show, though). The problem with Startopia is that it is...not transparent. It's hard to tell what all the shit in the game does. There's also not a really clear progression, etc. Anyways.

Jasede would jizz and cum over the voice actors for the advisors in both games.

 

Don't buy Evil Genius. It sucks.

 

Since it was only $40 bucks for the PC, I took a risk a got this over the weekend. The verdict so far:

Mostly good.

You just have to be absolutely clear about a few things. This isn't an RPG. Nor, is it a seriously an evil simulator. Its basically a minion management game. And from that perspective, it really does work. Much of the game revolves around trying to figure out which combination of minions (there are 4 different types) to get by specific "puzzles". For example, there is a region in the game infested by zombies, but you can only arrive there with blue minions (who can swim) which stink at fighting. There is a "spawn" where you can summon brown minions (who are tough fighters) nearby, but its surrounded by water and any brown minions summoned from it immediately drown. The way around this is to place a bunch of blue minions nearby, since they also have the power to resurrect fallen minions when not preoccupied, and summon your browns slowly enough that there are enough blues keep on rescueing your browns. Tons of stuff like that.

What makes the game doubly effective on this level is how well animated the minions are. To see them jump on the backs of large enemies and get swung around while holding on with one claw is impressive. The minions have a great "look" as well. Triumph Studios must have some excellent concept artists.

Beyond that, the only thing to add is the game world sort of justifies your pseudo-evilness by already being in a very bad state of affairs. The heroes who killed your predecessor now rule the nearby world with great apathy and sinfulness. The Paladin hosts lavish parties while the city around him suffers from plague. The halfling hero enslaves the nearby human population to produce food to feet his glutonous appettite.

Like I said earlier, this isn't an RPG or even a deep game. Just a clever and somewhat shallow one. Speaking of which, I wish I had waited until the price went down.

 

The bloated kingcomrade-esque halfling is fucking hilarious.

 

This game sucks.