Ultima Forever - Beta Signups

Everything about this looks horrid.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Things that go without saying:

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

As long as I won't have to engage in too many tedious things like deciding between confusing skills, choosing between complicated stat and equipment upgrades and overly strategic combat, I'm so in!!

Here's hoping for an awesome cinematic experience!

Ultima FORever: Quest of for the Avatar? Has he been missing? He's supposed to be dead.

Its not the first time a non-Ultima Ultima has been made: Ultima 2; Escape from Mt. Drash; Martian Dreams; Savage Empire; Underworld 1 and 2; Ultima 8; Lord of Ultima; and UO split the franchise into multiple universes called "shards" where anything could happen like no virtues.

I might be worth checking out. I'm weirded out by the re-use of characters on the title pic but that's not a big deal.

Also, the lack of classes is not a big deal to me either as Avatarhood is really a class unto itself - one where you achieve perfection through hard work, regardless of intent. U9 had the dual option too.

Making a profitable game these days is not easy - you see so many companies scaling back thanks to tablets and phones. Apple's design demands could make this into a browser game though.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
As long as I won't have to engage in too many tedious things like deciding between confusing skills, choosing between complicated stat and equipment upgrades and overly strategic combat, I'm so in!!

Here's hoping for an awesome cinematic experience!

Yeah, the 2nd Ed IE games were about the limits for me on the skills, stats and equipment. I enjoyed NWN2, but I finally gave up trying to figure out how to really level my character and just stayed with the basics.

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

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

It sounds like Barnett has a severe case of ADHD, he's probably a good representation of todays gamers and what they want.

"sdfgsdfgsdfgsdfgsdfgsd I WANT A BOAT NOOOOAAAAAAWWW!!!!!!!!!!11111"

I didn't even follow the.link, as a F2P MMO with 2 classes doesn't interest me at.all. MMOs, in general, don't interest me at all anymore.

But I will say this: Back when I did play MMOs, Mythic made my favorite, Dark Age of Camelot. It had the best PvP, specifically team based PvP I had played. It also had great variety in character development that was , for the most part, well balanced — no small feat for PvP with such variety. Then, EA bought out Mythic, and the game went straight down the toilet…fast. They immediately started listening to all the whiners who wanted the exact same sniper rifle, so to speak, and killed variety in the game, making all the classes and abilities practically the same. And they immediately stopped innovating, which Mythic had always been good about. The game immediately stagnated. The only changes they made post EA were to homogenize and ruin the game.

To hell with you, EA.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Things that go without saying:

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

Says the guy who wants to have kids with D3´s always online aspect .

Originally Posted by Stingray
By the way, Command & Conquer isn't RPGish or MMOish.

Yet…

Although, they might have added Strategy to the brand now.

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!

Lady British? Action RPG? Another Ultima MMO? NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOO.

And we all know by now that in MMOs no single person ever saves anyone from anything - canon-wise.

Against my better judgement, I'll still keep an open mind. New Ultima games don't crop up everyday. Just wish someone out there could get it through their skull that what everyone is craving is another single-player Ultima game in the spirit of U4 through U7.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Also, the lack of classes is not a big deal to me either as Avatarhood is really a class unto itself - one where you achieve perfection through hard work, regardless of intent.

It would appear you can choose any class you like so long as it's a fighter or a mage.

Don't worry about classes, I'm pretty sure the game will feature the eight traditionnal Ultima classes. They just haven't revealed them yet.

As for the Lady British thing, I just don't see what's the big deal is seriously…

-Sergorn

I'm not sure whether to laugh or …laugh. This sounds like it's going to be terrible.

Originally Posted by Stingray
I agree that they started going downhill with Jade Empire

Bioware was going downhill before that imo.

Originally Posted by Sergorn
As for the Lady British thing, I just don't see what's the big deal is seriously…-Sergorn

When I was a kid, and when the last movie of the first film trilogy of Star Wars, Return of the Jedi came out, it would have been hugely disappointing if instead of Darth Vader being a main villian, instead, it was his sister, Darth Vaderesse. Or instead of Han Solo being one of the main good guys, instead Han is gone and replaced with Hanna Solo.

As a fan of a piece of fiction, I don't really want the major characters changed out. Going from Lord British to Lady British is doing just that.

It's a reboot - not a continuation of the original series - so they can stray away a bit from convention.

And of course, the fact is there are real life reasons as to why they can't use Lord British anymore, since Richard Garriott owns the character and probably wouldn't want to license him to Ultima since he's going to put it into his "New Britannia/URPG" game.

From that point of views there was not much they could do : make a different king without the British name, or make a femal monarch with the British name (and thus justifying the Britannia name within the fiction). I'm cool with that.

Hell if geeks survived a female Starbuck, we can sure as hell survive a Lady British.

-Sergorn

Classes were a concept that the original D&D inherited from its wargame progenitor Chainmail. Why so many modern games, especially cRPGs, still seem stuck on them I do not know.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Bioware was going downhill before that imo.

NWN1 was definitely a huge decline from BG1/BG2, but I figured KoTOR1 redeemed them a little bit before Jade Empire came out.

Originally Posted by Stingray
NWN1 was definitely a huge decline from BG1/BG2, but I figured KoTOR1 redeemed them a little bit before Jade Empire came out.

NWN was definitely a decline from their previous titles in terms of single-player, but to be fair, that game was designed primarily with multi-player in mind.

For me, the real decline started with KoTOR. That's when all the Bioware cliches began.

Originally Posted by DeepO
Says the guy who wants to have kids with D3´s always online aspect .

Being able to understand the reason behind it and partially agree with it, doesn't make me want to have passionate sex with it.

But I also understand that it's the future - regardless of what fanatical offliners would like

Originally Posted by JDR13
NWN was definitely a decline from their previous titles in terms of single-player, but to be fair, that game was designed primarily with multi-player in mind.

For me, the real decline started with KoTOR. That's when all the Bioware cliches began.

True, but what's a cliché before it becomes a cliché?

NWN was fantastic. As a combined package, I think it's Bioware's most impressive title - and one of the best multiplayer experiences of all time.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
True, but what's a cliché before it becomes a cliché? .

A simplified party system and linear, consolish level design?

Although I have to admit I'm really enjoying Mass Effect despite a similar recipe.