Ultima Forever - Beta Signups

Remember Ultima Forever? The free-to-play project from BioWare Mythic is now accepting Beta signups. We don't have much to go on - the official title is Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar (no, I didn't get that wrong) and here's the accompanying description:

The first great Western RPG has been lovingly restored in Ultima Forever - return to the Ultima series in BioWare's new cross-platform action RPG. Accept the challenge from Lady British and save the land of Britannia. Play as the Fighter or the Mage and travel alone or with friends, restore virtue and become the Avatar!

It's about time a F2P MMO featured Lady British!
Thanks, CountChocula.
More information.

Where do you see any of that? The site seems unchanged to me.

Sounds like a watered down version of U4 though. Only Fighter or Mage? And is Ultima really an 'action RPG'?

I wonder if it's even possible to treat the franchise with more disdain.

Yeah, unlikely.

Guess BioWare isn't quite finished dragging their own name through the dirt with all these awful releases/decisions in the last year or whatever.

If I open the manual of ultima 4 quest of the avatar I clearly can see there more options of a class, I tried ultima online and I liked, but this I will not even try because being limited only to two seem to be not interesting at all.

Originally Posted by Stingray
Yeah, unlikely.

Guess BioWare isn't quite finished dragging their own name through the dirt with all these awful releases/decisions in the last year or whatever.

Oh, it's been several years now. I'd say it started with Jade Empire.

I agree that they started going downhill with Jade Empire, but the past year or so has really taken the awfulness to a new level. Dragon Age 2, SWTOR (aka WoW-in-space, now a certified flop), their studio name being dragged into some C&C rehash, the wrap-up of the Mass Effect trilogy, etc. Now this.

This isn't developed by "BioWare", but by a studio under the BioWare label. In other words, the folks working on it are actually the Mythic guys, and not the guys that developed Jade Empire/Baldur's Gate II/KotOR etc.

http://kotaku.com/5925250/ultima-iv-…for-the-avatar

There are so, so many things very wrong with this interview…

Originally Posted by WorstUsernameEver
This isn't developed by "BioWare", but by a studio under the BioWare label. In other words, the folks working on it are actually the Mythic guys, and not the guys that developed Jade Empire/Baldur's Gate II/KotOR etc.

That's exactly why I said "dragging their own name", etc.

Originally Posted by jwmeep
http://kotaku.com/5925250/ultima-iv-…for-the-avatar

There are so, so many things very wrong with this interview…

This sounds a lot like the Infinity Engine:

In this case, that means a top-down isometric view, with hand-painted backgrounds and 3D characters.

Rather than the WoW style some people have been complaining about.

I signed up for the beta. I'll at least check it out.

This is pretty funny.
It´ll likely be a better Ultima game than Ultima IX though.

The first great Western RPG has been lovingly restored in Ultima Forever - return to the Ultima series in BioWare's new cross-platform action RPG. Accept the challenge from Lady British and save the land of Britannia. Play as the Fighter or the Mage and travel alone or with friends, restore virtue and become the Avatar!

It kind of sounds more like a spoof to me.

Every 2nd-3rd word feels completely out of place, it's surreal.

Looks kinda cool to me, actually. I tried Ultima 4 a couple of times out of interest, but I could never bring myself to play such an aged game now. If they can bring the world and story back in a way that is playable to me, that's cool. You're all cynics and bitter and no, I will not get off your lawn!

Things that go without saying:

Thaurin championing the decline of himself as a gamer and the industry when it joins him.

if richard garriott is not involved, i'll bite.

Originally Posted by Stingray
That's exactly why I said "dragging their own name", etc.

BioWare is just a brand name under EA that represent anything RPG and MMOish published by the company.

Originally Posted by azarhal
BioWare is just a brand name under EA that represent anything RPG and MMOish published by the company.

Exactly, and that name is being destroyed. That was my point.

By the way, Command & Conquer isn't RPGish or MMOish.

I really hope they don't tarnish this name any further than it's already been.


-Carn

Hard to glean any opinion on the game from what little we have to go on, but f2p+cheesy WoW style graphics (at least judging from the generic fighter and mage character models) probably indicates to me that I should stay away.