This week – Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a teamwork-focused first-person shooter that came out in 2007 as part of The Orange Box, and is technically a sequel to Team Fortress, a pre-2000 mod of Quake. Team Fortress 2 was heavily reviewed (along with the rest of the contents of the Box) when it came out, but here, 4.5 years later, the game is still fun, but somewhat different. I want to talk about what TF2 has done with multiplayer shooters, consistently-updated games, and Steam in general. Also, as of last year, TF2 is free for download, so go ahead and try it to see what you think, I highly recommend it.

I may have tipped my hand just now, but I’ll go ahead and say it: I love Team Fortress 2. Every once in a while I need to get online and shoot people, but TF2 is so much more than that, it has style AND substance, and that’s why I’m talking about it.

Recent History – Overlord 2

Overlord 2 was released in 2009, a mere 2 years after the first Overlord, and it is the most recent (and likely last, due to poor sales) game in the series. This one takes place in much more varied environments than the last, and the player gets to explore snowy glaciers, steamy jungles, open plains, and even a thick swamp. You are once again playing the part of the Overlord, but not the same Overlord as the last game. Instead, you’re his son, and your lands are sort of at war with a huge Romanesque Empire.

I have mixed feelings about Overlord 2, but as always I will try to give a fair recollection of things that are interesting and new, and things that are the same, and what’s good or bad. The main problem, though, is that the writing for the game is not nearly as strong as the first one, and in fact feels kind of forced. Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is actually probably better in some parts, and it has a twist that I definitely didn’t see coming, but there’s something missing. I’m not sure what happened, but while the game is still silly and mostly enjoyable, there’s not as much absurd high-fantasy humor as the original, and it all ends of feeling a bit too serious for a game with literal hippy rainbow elves.

A Look Back – Pikmin

 

Pikmin is a cute, short, adventure/strategy game that was a launch title for the Gamecube back in 2001. Whenever I try to describe this week’s topic (Overlord) to someone, I invariably call it “evil Lord of the Rings Pikmin”, which is true for many gameplay mechanics and general ideas, but not fair to either game. On Monday, I said a lot of really nice things about the writing and dialogue in Overlord, but Pikmin really doesn’t have any spoken words. The story is told in an entirely different way, and Olimar is the only character in Pikmin that is relatable and and goal-oriented. This is not to say that Pikmin NEEDS more writing, though, because I thought the game had remarkable story-telling.

Pikmin is about Captain Olimar, who accidentally crashes his ship on a strange planet that very similar to Earth, only Olimar is very small in comparison to say, all the plants, bugs, boxes, puddles of water, cans, and whatever else you might find on any given small patch of land on Earth. The planet’s wildlife is all bigger than Olimar, and almost all of it is overwhelmingly hostile. He would be doomed and unable to find the (strangely intact) pieces of his ship that were scattered by the crash if not for his discovery of the small, friendly, plant-like inhabitants of the planet, the titular Pikmin. The Pikmin unanimously follow Olimar’s every command unquestioningly, and through strength in numbers they help him traverse and explore this strange place, and gather the pieces of his ship back together.

This week – Overlord

Overlord is a neat little 3rd-person action/adventure/roleplaying/minion management/whatever else game that came out in 2007. The basic premise is that you are the Overlord, a Sauron-wannabe who can summon 4 different flavors of goblin minions, all of which are good for different jobs for battles and puzzle-solving. You set out from your dark fortress to go ravage a version of Middle-Earth that I would describe as broken. It’s a lot like Lord of the Rings would be if the humans were all stupid, the hobbits were all greedy jerks, the dwarves were militaristic and money-grubbing (so nothing’s changed) and the elves are so high-minded and pacifistic that they’ve all been killed off. Basically, everyone except the major antagonists and you are useless, which is usually played for comedy, and I think it works pretty well, as long as you don’t mind that it’s pretty cynical and dark.

You are the main villain of the story, but that doesn’t mean that the “heroes” you fight are actually good, in fact, every main enemy leader represents one of the 7 Deadly sins (a gluttonous hobbit, a slothful elf, an extremely wrathful and warlike human and his perpetually envious and thieving girlfriend, a lustful and hedonistic ex-paladin, an exceptionally greedy dwarf with a tank made of gold, and a wizard who is too proud to entertain the notion that he might have become a villain without noticing it). You can choose to kill or help anyone you meet, and make choices to do things that are either evil or less evil, so you might be the most heroic character, depending on how you play it, even if you do walk around causing destruction and sporting a helmet covered in spikes of obsidian, sending your minions into certain death with every command.

This week’s topic – Mario Kart 7!

First of all, I hear you saying “Hey Matthew, if this blog is about fun and originality, then why did you pick a game containing the most universally recognized and over-used video game character of all time?”. The reason is this: I’ll look for new and unique elements in any enjoyable game, and while they may be easier to find in offbeat indie games, it doesn’t mean that mainstream games lack creativity. This week we’re looking at MK7, and the franchise as a whole, and I’ll show you what gaming has gained (and lost) from this series.

MK7 came out at the end of last year, and I received it for Christmas from my brother. It is the first and only 3DS game I own, but my opinions on the 3DS’s pool of titles are not the point here. What I want to talk about is the inclusion of the 3DS’s effect on this Mario Kart game in particular. Now, I’m going to assume that everyone reading this has at some point played a Mario Kart game, or at least knows enough about them to understand that they are racing games that are focused on messing with the other racers and having fun on quirky tracks with familiar characters. Every game in this series follows the basic formula of drive around, shoot items at each other, and then hopefully eke out a victory through skill or luck.