Rhianna Pratchett penning Overlord 2 script

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 16th 2008 at 12:30PM }

Mirror's Edge and Heavenly Sword scribe Rhianna Pratchett is taking up duties once again for a less female-empowering franchise. Codemasters announced today that she will write the script for Overlord 2, along with all the other Overlord spin-offs currently in development. Pratchett's name had previously been mentioned as part of the projects, but it appears her dark covenant with the Codemasters overlords has now officially been consummated.

Pratchett received a British Writers' Guild Awards nomination this year for the original Overlord script. What, no recognition for bringing "twing-twang" into our lives in Heavenly Sword? Overlord 2 is expected sometime in 2009.

[Via Big Download]

Tags: overlord-2, overlord-ii, rhianna-pratchett, rhiannapratchett

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 16th 2008 12:46PM

Something about it makes me think that the first Overlord was what Dungeon Keeper 3 should have been.

In all seriousness, was the first one good? Should I care about this game?

Zertoss @ Oct 16th 2008 12:52PM

Short answer: Yes and yes.

Have you played Pikmin?

dark_inchworm @ Oct 16th 2008 12:53PM

Got a PC? You can fetch Overlord for around $10 now. 360? Not much more than that. (As for PS3, well, that version just recently came out and its price seems to be a bit higher...)

It is damn fun, I say.

Jakka @ Oct 16th 2008 1:02PM

I thought it was good, but after the second and third minions were introduced I felt like the entire control system became a huge-ass clusterfuck.I highly recommend if you're into some black twisted humour.

Vidikron @ Oct 16th 2008 1:17PM

I really liked the first game. I played the demo on Live and went out and got the game the same day. It's not perfect by any means, but I found the gameplay to be addictive and I enjoyed the humorous nature of the game. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Shagittarius @ Oct 16th 2008 1:35PM

Jakka once you learn that all you do is plant your blue, green, and red minions, and have the browns attack the controls get pretty simplified, only in boss battles do you need to deviate much from that strategy.

Its been awhile since I played so I might no remember it 100 percent correctly though.

Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 16th 2008 1:40PM

still about $40 for the PS3. Maybe I'll wait a bit longer to check it out.

Never played Pickmen btw

Vidikron @ Oct 16th 2008 1:42PM

Anyone else feel guilty about getting your minions killed?

anonim1979 @ Oct 16th 2008 9:28PM

Think carefully about buying PS3 version if you have a choice!

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=163939

[quote]
So with all that established, there's little more to add other than to judge the overall quality of the PS3 conversion work. Overlord on Xbox 360 was a beautiful game but its 30fps refresh rate was hardly solid. As is becoming increasingly predictably the case, the PS3 version is stripped of its anti-aliasing and the frame-rate issues of the original 360 code are amplified still further here.
[/quote]

aristokrat @ Oct 16th 2008 1:31PM

I will never forget the confusion I felt when I played the Heavenly Sword demo and they talked about twing-twang with absolutely no lead-up at all. Who knew that 2 words could induce so much doubt so quickly?

Ironically, those guiding-arrows-with-the-sixaxis were my favorite part of the game. Nothing is quite as satisfying as sending an arrow up someone's nose.

farfisa @ Oct 16th 2008 2:02PM

The first time I saw Faith from Mirror's Edge, I thought she looked like a modern-day Kai from Heavenly Sword. And there's actually a real connection! I wonder if Rhianna Pratchett looks like that too. ;)
But yeah, that was funny in the demo, because "twing-twang" only ever comes up again in the full game. The cable-car scene in HS where you get to target all those soldiers was awesome. Hell, that game rocked.

um..wow @ Oct 16th 2008 2:17PM

"I wonder if Rhianna Pratchett looks like that too."

considering her dad I would bet not :)

James Lockwood @ Oct 17th 2008 8:49AM

Check out PC Zone magazine (UK) to see the hawt that is Ms. Pratchett. Or Google.

Von Dozier @ Oct 16th 2008 2:20PM

Overlord is a really underrated, overlooked (lol puns) game. It's basically a violent Pikmin, and it's very hard to put down. Just pure fun.

OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ Oct 16th 2008 3:13PM

Seriously, why is this in the slightest bit newsworthy?

You've got this half-assed writer who goes around talking like she's basically the Shakespeare of video game writing (She's already put a book out on how you, too, can write as well as she does.) and you guys lap it up and build her name up by releasing these bullshit PR things.

Think long and hard about this, Joystiq:

I don't recall a whole lot of news when other writers write video games. Maybe an occasional David Hayter post, or when someone notable from outside the realms of videogames pops in for a contribution, but David Hayter is an established guy.

Pratchett is Terry Pratchett's daughter, and penned the remarkably awful Heavenly Sword. Do you guys really feel the need to build up her name cachet?

You're just going to turn her into either another Jade Raymond or another John Romero. Stop writing about people on hype alone.

Vidikron @ Oct 16th 2008 3:56PM

What the hell are you going on about? Seems like an odd thing to throw a fit about.

OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ Oct 16th 2008 5:40PM

I would just rather Joystiq find time to report stuff when a GOOD video game writer is working on something, rather than run articles to perform the PR work of a MEDIOCRE one.

This should be merit-based, not hype-based. Otherwise you end up building up people that can't deliver on their hype, like Jade Raymond and John Romero.

I wouldn't mind them running a story on her writing the sequel to Overlord (because that would be establishing a connection to a prior game) if they hadn't already run a bunch of them on her writing Mirror's Edge.

How many other writers have you heard about in between Joystiq running the Pratchett articles?

I'm guess zero.

Give other people their due before putting the spotlight on the hit-or-miss newcomer. That's what I'm asking for. I don't think it's a horrible thing.