As I’ve said before, I’ve been a big fan of just about all the games that Origin produced (Ultima series, Ultima Underworld series, System Shock, Wing Commander series, etc.), and Ultima in particular has been a favorite. Ultima I was the first game that I really loved* on my old Apple ][+, and I think the first game I actually ever paid for was Ultima VI: The False Prophet for my PC. I even followed the series all the way through to the very bitter end of Ultima VIII: Pagan and Ultima IX: Ascension. So it’s really cool to see the Ultima V: Lazarus project finally come to fruition. Now that the holidays are winding down, I’m hoping to get to spend some quality time back in Britania!
I haven’t had a chance to play with it much yet, but I’m already very hopeful to see what the marriage of the Dungeon Siege engine and the Ultima V story might produce. I found Dungeon Siege the game to be very impressive technically in producing a seamless world feel (much better than something like Neverwinter Nights), but the game was underwhelming in the extreme — hack and slash, hack and slash. Now that we’ve got a real story line to put in the engine, I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s really capable of.
And, of course, the most amazing part is that it was entirely fan-produced. Entirely free. Just amazing.
(* Well, actually, the first game that I really loved might have been Deathmaze 2000, but I’m not sure…)