Overlord II's "foursome" scene is the best of the year. Yes, it's a scene where you, the hero, have a foursome. And yes, it's juvie wish fulfillment. But it's also a smartly done and properly incentivised scene that in two minutes, gets everything right.

In the video above, you see how your three evil mistresses have chosen to call a bedroom truce, leaving everything and nothing to the imagination of course. I did like the gratuitous booting of the imp midway through. Like, come on bro, didn't you see the tie on the doorknob?

Two things: One, it's interesting they award this now, when we haven't seen all that Dragon Age: Origins has to offer. And that has demon tits. And implied bestiality. I get that Edge wanted to reward a creative depiction of sexuality, but seriously, you think Dragon Age isn't gonna pack some titillation?

Overlord II: The Best Sex Scene of the Year {Edge via Joystiq]

While I enjoyed the first title, the frame rate was simply abysmal and the animations left much to be desired, two issues the developers seem to have ironed out in the sequel. Of course, it's hard to tell when they're going all 1950's school film strip on us, but that was completely necessary in order to make the fact that you can recruit a harem of women more acceptable...or something.

Fans that put $5 down on Overlord II for the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, and PC, Overlord Minions for the Nintendo DS or Overlord: Dark Legend for the Nintendo Wii from GameStop will find themselves the proud owner of a tiny minion figurine. There are four different colors available, and only (only?) three titles to pre-order, so unless you double up on a title or known a GameStop manager, your chances of getting all four are relatively slim.

Not a bad-looking bunch of little evil bastards. I suppose there are worse things you can get for free. Look for them to show up at a GameStop near you when the games release on June 23rd.

As mentioned in Amanda's comprehensive look at what's new in Overlord II, the new Overlord is the son of the protagonist and/or antagonist from the previous game, who found himself confined to the underworld at the end of Raising Hell. Through the course of Overlord II we get to see him grow from an evil little child to a truly diabolical man, with the choices between good and evil in the last game replaced with the choice between evil and different evil.

While I loved the concept of the first game, the execution was definitely off. It looks like Triumph Studios may have learned from their past mistakes, delivering a smoother, more polished, and ultimately more evil title this time around.

The big drag, though, was the shortage of Nerf guns. Codemasters had ordered them special for the event and apparently, only 2/3 of their shipment showed up at the venue. I was lucky enough to get one, but I feel bad for those that had to go home with only the T-shirt and the day planner.

(Not pictured: Jumpgate medal – I suspect my cat has wandered off with it.)

Check out all the Codemaster's coverage here:

Assets
Overlord II, Dark Legends and Minion Screens and Trailers

DiRT 2 Displays High Level Of Polish

FUEL Looking Awfully Confined

Previews:
What's New in Overlord II

Overlord Wii Lacks Wee

Overlord Does the DS

Jumpgate: Eve on Fast Forward

Damnation: Forget Playing the Game, I Just Like Saying It

Overlord II aims to change that in two major ways. First, the technical flaws are being aggressively addressed by the developer. AI has been updated so minions don't do stupid things, minion path-finding has been fixed so they don't do stupid things and a physics engine has been added to allow all kinds of new ways to be evil – like catapults. Second, now you really have to be evil instead of only partially evil. The choices you make and the minions you control are more black and white about their actions. The result will be either a lawful evil or chaotic evil Overlord: you can enslave or kill; you chase baby seals away from their homes or you can club them.

Those are the major changes that will actually have an impact on the overall Overlord experience. All the rest – save one – are subtle changes that don't change the way you play the game; they just make it more pleasant. So even though the controls haven't changed, you might find it far less frustrating now that other things have been updated.

Save One: The major gameplay update I saw was the Possession stone. The way it works is that you can order your minions to dance around the stone if you find one and use a spell to possess one of your minions. As that one minion, you can lead all the rest through parts of the level to accomplish things the Overlord can't do alone, like infiltrating a stronghold in stolen uniforms.

You're No Longer A Robot: The original Overlord character design was a little jerky and robotic. The new model – who is technically the son of the Overlord from the previous game – is burlier and moves more fluidly. It may seem like a cosmetic improvement; but to me it looked like it was easier to move the Overlord around when fighting and casting spells.

Ignoble Steeds: Minions get mounts in this game. There are parts of levels you can't get to without mounts and parts of the game where you have to make do without them. Each type of minion gets a different kind of mount – I saw brown brawler-class minions riding wolves for most of the first level. The wolves made the minions more powerful and enabled them to jump across wide gaps.

There is both a mini- and a meta-map: Praise be.

Split-screen co-op: See above.

One Button Spells: This is the only real update to the control scheme that's definite – instead of having to hold down several buttons to pull of a spell, you only need X (I'm guessing Square on the PS3). There's talk of fixing the camera control to the left stick in a more traditional 3rd person adventure game – but that hasn't been finalized.

Less Bloom: Producer Carl Johnson explained that more and more developers are using deferred rendering in their environments. The result is a richer, more realistic appearance where animators can pull off stuff like blurring on fast-moving minions. Also, it means less bloom.

Three, count ‘em, three girlfriends: There are three female characters in the game in different parts of the world. You can bring each back to your Dark Tower (located in the Netherworld, now, so you've got more space to decorate), or you can bring them all back. There's a special – and somewhat mysterious – Achievement if you can get all three.

Bowling for Romans: The theme of the setting in Overlord II is ancient Rome. That means columns of red-plumed-helmet-wearing guards marching across plains. You'd be surprised how much those things look like bowling pins when you've taken control of a catapult and are hurling huge boulders down at them from on high. Watching them scatter in all directions when the boulder hits is even more hilarious, especially if the boulder rolled into them after landing in front of them.

Overlord II is due out on PS3 and 360 in June 2009 – same day as Overlord: Dark Legend hits the Wii and Overlord: Minion comes out on the DS.

Overlord II is due out on PS3 and 360 in June 2009, on the same day that Overlord: Dark Legend hits the Wii and Overlord: Minion comes out on the DS.

We've be walking you through all three games later today when the embargo lifts, but for now here's a run down of the trailers and clips from the Overlord trifecta.

“Writing for games is part alchemy, part narrative woodwork and part swimming in shark infested waters wearing ham pants, so it’s a real honour to be nominated for Overlord. The Overlord titles are fantastic creative projects and Triumph and Codemasters make a talented and supportive team who keep some of those sharks at bay,” said Rhianna Pratchett. “It’s a real pleasure to be back in the evil writing seat and taking the Overlord and the Minions to new lands and new adventures for the 2009 titles.”

Rhianna, who also penned the story for EA's Mirror's Edge, is of course the daughter of beloved fantasy author Terry Pratchett, and is therefor awesome by birthright.

MINIONS REJOICE! AWARD NOMINATED AUTHOR RHIANNA PRATCHETT TO RETURN FOR NEW OVERLORDTM TITLES

Codemasters® Announces Signing Award-Nominee Rhianna Pratchett to Pen Scripts for Overlord II, Overlord Dark Legend and Overlord Minions

Thursday 16th October/... Writers’ Guild Award-nominee Rhianna Pratchett has been signed as scriptwriter for Overlord™II, the sequel to the hit twisted fantasy adventure from Triumph Studios, and both series extensions – Overlord™Dark Legend and Overlord™Minions – coming 2009, publisher Codemasters® announced today.

The announcement sees Pratchett continuing her role as writer and narrative designer for the delightfully despotic series and follows her nomination for Best Videogame Script for her work on the original Overlord game in the Writers’ Guild Awards 2008. In addition to videogames, the prestigious Writers’ Guild Awards recognises the best in British writing talent across TV and radio drama, soap, comedy, theatre and movie screenplay categories. The awards will be held at BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts) on Sunday 23rd November 2008 in London.

“For a relatively new entertainment medium, it’s a sign of great progress that the industry is being recognised by the Writers’ Guild in this way. Writing for games is part alchemy, part narrative woodwork and part swimming in shark infested waters wearing ham pants, so it’s a real honour to be nominated for Overlord. The Overlord titles are fantastic creative projects and Triumph and Codemasters make a talented and supportive team who keep some of those sharks at bay,” said Rhianna Pratchett. “It’s a real pleasure to be back in the evil writing seat and taking the Overlord and the Minions to new lands and new adventures for the 2009 titles.”

“Congratulations to Rhianna on her well-deserved nomination for Best Videogame Script,” said Lennart Sas, director and Overlord lead at Triumph Studios. “A huge part of Overlord’s popularity stems from its tongue-in-cheek, often dark humour and Rhianna’s dialogue provides the perfect fit to the gameplay. Rhianna understands that writing for games is different than writing for movies, which puts her above some of the Hollywood writing talent that have lent their names to games previously. We’re delighted to have her on board again to work across on the next instalment of the Overlord’s adventures.”

Coming 2009, all new titles in the Overlord series include Overlord II for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and Games For Windows®, Overlord Dark Legend for Wii™ and Overlord Minions for Nintendo DS™. Prepare to face the Glorious Empire in Overlord II and the rather grim fairy tales of Overlord Dark Legend and Overlord Minions when the manic horde and awesome authoritarian returns in 2009.

The original game challenged you to be either evil or really evil. This, apparently, was just not flippin' evil enough to satisfy developers Triumph.

Game director Lennart Sas told Eurogamer, "Now the choices are between lawful evil and chaotic evil, which usually translates to either enslaving the population or all-out scorched earth."

Major changes to the game include minions with proper names and personalities as opposed to just random flunkys. This will establish "relationships between master and underling" which frankly sounds a bit pervy. And evil. Definitely evil.

Codemasters unveils Overlord II [Eurogamer]