Ultima IX - Released on GOG

Been playing the game for a bit. A few thoughts:

1. Wow has this game not aged well. I thought it was a bit past the SysShock 2 polygon era, but apparently not quite. The controls haven't aged well either. I've only seen right-button-to-move one other time (Pirates of the Caribbean) since and I'm glad it's gone.

2. Beautiful Britannia is awesome. Just make sure you switch to D3D mode as the readme instructs.

3. GoG did a good job with compatibility. I'm consistently spoiled by their work. Well done GoG!

4. It really needs Hacki and Grandor's old dialogue patch. I just can't stomach the default spoken dialogue. I'm sympathetic to arguments that U9 isn't nearly the travesty Spoony throws out, but sheesh is the dialogue cheesy.

5. The dialogue patch does a pretty darn good job finessing a lot of the inconsistencies and nitpicks. I thought I remembered it being a little clunky, but it's not so bad with the distance of some years.

6. The game as a whole is actually not that bad. It feels and plays like an incomplete Ultima and an Ultima disappointment, not an Ultima travesty. My opinion now is pretty much the same: if they'd stuck with it and a) made Britannia about 1/3 bigger, b) added 1/3 more NPCs with similar or deeper dialogue trees, and c) added some more scripting and scheduling I think I would've been alright with it. Nowhere near 7, but ok.
 
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I remember enjoying Ultima IX quite a bit after building a PC powerful enough to play it.
Was it the worst Ultima ever? Yes, but it was still the 2nd best RPG released in 1999.
You just have to forgive its retconned story, omissions and plot holes, sluggish and buggy 3D engine, and the brain-dead Npcs oblivious to the world around them… and accept it for what it is, or was… Ultima Lite.
 
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it was still the 2nd best RPG released in 1999.

That's debatable to say the least. Planescape: Torment, Jagged Alliance 2, Might & Magic VII, King of Dragon Pass and System Shock 2 were released in 1999. Some of those games may have been said to be hybrids back then, but they mop the floor with almost anything that is considered an rpg these days.
 
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That's debatable to say the least. Planescape: Torment, Jagged Alliance 2, Might & Magic VII, King of Dragon Pass and System Shock 2 were released in 1999.

Well, obviously Planescape Torment was the best of that year, and most other years for that matter. Both SS2 and JA2 were great, but they could no more be called an rpg than Diablo. :) M&M7 was good, but forgettable since it was just a rehash of M&M6. And I've never heard of Dragon Pass, so I can't comment on that. So, I'd still say U9 was the 2nd best of '99, even though it was a year or two before my PC was powerful enough to really enjoy it.
 
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This release was just in time for the conclusion of Spoony's Ultima retrospective… bad timing actually…

Spoony nails it when he discusses what Ultima meant to him and how Ultima IX basically shits all over that. I had very similar feelings. My older brother helped get me into Ultima III and then Ultima IV. We didn't always play together, but its still something I think fondly of.
 
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Been playing the game for a bit. A few thoughts:

1. Wow has this game not aged well. I thought it was a bit past the SysShock 2 polygon era, but apparently not quite. The controls haven't aged well either. I've only seen right-button-to-move one other time (Pirates of the Caribbean) since and I'm glad it's gone.

2. Beautiful Britannia is awesome. Just make sure you switch to D3D mode as the readme instructs.

I'd heard good things about Beauitful Britannia. If I ever decide to try it again, will add that.

4. It really needs Hacki and Grandor's old dialogue patch. I just can't stomach the default spoken dialogue. I'm sympathetic to arguments that U9 isn't nearly the travesty Spoony throws out, but sheesh is the dialogue cheesy.

5. The dialogue patch does a pretty darn good job finessing a lot of the inconsistencies and nitpicks. I thought I remembered it being a little clunky, but it's not so bad with the distance of some years.

The dialogue patch is an essential if you've ever played any of the other Ultimas IMO.

6. The game as a whole is actually not that bad. It feels and plays like an incomplete Ultima and an Ultima disappointment, not an Ultima travesty. My opinion now is pretty much the same: if they'd stuck with it and a) made Britannia about 1/3 bigger, b) added 1/3 more NPCs with similar or deeper dialogue trees, and c) added some more scripting and scheduling I think I would've been alright with it. Nowhere near 7, but ok.

Agree 100%. The thing that always got me about U9 was that this big beautiful world they created just seemed empty. When you looked at U4-U7, the world seemed really full. I remember going into Britain the first time in U7 and being almost overwhelmed at how large and intricate it was, and just how many NPC's there were.
 
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Well, to make something like U7 in 3d was simply not possible technology-wise at that time... I guess it is still not really possible.
 
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Well, to make something like U7 in 3d was simply not possible technology-wise at that time… I guess it is still not really possible.

I think it would definitely be possible now. However, I don't think it would be deemed profitable enough for any mainstream publisher to want to fund it.
 
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^its possible

skyrim has shown everyone that rpgs have a huge following

i never thought an rpg could beat FF7's numbers
and look at the aftermath of FF7
jrpgs were the most popular genre for 5 years

ironically morrowind started the trend back to wrpgs- its only fitting that skyrim sets the standard

how the mighty japanese have fallen
 
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Well, to make something like U7 in 3d was simply not possible technology-wise at that time… I guess it is still not really possible.

In what way? I could see the party based being a bit much for the technology at the time (though you don't control your companions in U7 anyway), but I see no reason why the U9 world couldn't have been more filled out. More NPC's, schedules, more buildings, etc.
 
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but I see no reason why the U9 world couldn't have been more filled out. More NPC's, schedules, more buildings, etc.

Especially NPC schedules is very CPU intensive and from what i remember it wasnt performing that well, adding more stuff will obviously lower the performance even more, even if it's just a few more buildings.
 
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