Granted, a lot of these are mid- or senior-level positions requiring no small amount of experience. But hey, it’s entirely possible that some of you Dragons might actually have that kind of experience. It’s also possible that some of you are looking for (new) work or workplaces.

Turbine are the people behind Asheron’s Call, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Nothing specifically Ultima-related, in other words, but definitely in the realm of high fantasy.

Okay, somewhat more seriously, Portalarium is “an online ecosystem of shared relationships, connecting endless gaming experiences, via seamless portals,” a social-networking gaming platform and development company co-founded by several people whose names should be familiar to Ultima fans, including none other than Richard Garriott.

You can read their founding press release…here.

There’s really not a lot more that can be said about this initiative for the moment, apart from the fact that it certainly represents a very new gaming frontier for Garriott. Social networking games — think FarmVille — are inherently browser-based games, dependent as they are on social networking frameworks like Facebook or Twitter.

At the same time, there’s a fair bit of potential for some truly interesting games to emerge from this. One notes that the company’s first title is using a web-based version of the Torque 2D engine; their information page about the “Portalarium Player” also mentions Unity 3D and a couple of other frameworks. Those are pretty powerful development toolsets; one could craft a web-playable RPG of Garriott’s caliber using Unity, for example.

Is that the direction that the company is going to go? Who knows at this early stage. With that many former Origin guys at the helm, though, there might just be a glimmer of hope.

(hat tip)

Sergorn Dragon has posted the latest monthly update for his “sequel to Serpent Isle” project, and the biggest thing to take away from it is that unlike previous Ultima titles or fan projects, Return to the Serpent Isle is going to be broken up into chapters:

…we have decided to release the game in an Episodic format. Now this might come as a surprise for an Ultima game – but after careful consideration it appeared to be a good decision when taking into account both the scope and the amateurish nature of this Mod. Return is a big and ambitious project – and crafting the game as a whole will probably take years – so we felt (and the NWN2 Engine offers us this possibility) it would be a good idea to take a more Episodic approach in developing the project, by crafting and releasing one Chapter at a time.

Exciting! The project has also reached an initial milestone of developing NPCs for its first chapter.

In other news: I really need to get back into a rhythm of checking all the project sites on some kind of regular basis. Time to unearth that list of bookmarks!

Went to Microsoft web site and got to the down load area. they have several downloads. I can download everything except the one for 1.0 to 1.1 dungeon seige. For some reason it will not work. I know this is going to be probably useless to ask but has anybody know any other location you can down load it from there may be more people who would look at what you have done but cant get the 1.0 to 1.1 download.

Any help in solving this gentleman’s problem would be appreciated. I was able to find a few download locations for what was ostensibly the Dungeon Siege v1.0 to v1.11.blahblahblah updater, but they all seemed to require registration (e.g. FilePlanet), and I didn’t have time to waste on going through that process.

Drop ‘em in the comments if you have suggestions.

Now, the “Let’s Play Ultima” craze, which has slowly been making its way across YouTube and across the series, has reached my personal favourite amongst the Ultima titles. That’s right, Dragons…a young lady who goes by the handle enirya is playing — and broadcasting — her way through Ultima 6.

And what’s more, she’s playing the FM Towns version.

She’s only three episodes in at this point in time, but expect that number to grow.

You are really cool. Thank you so much.

Update: Reader Toltec Dragon, you are also really cool. Thank you kindly.

P.S. that’s a hard question you pose, Toltec…harder than any of the Virtue questions the gypsy has ever put forth. I mean, maybe if you lived in Canada, it wouldn’t be so hard…the beer here is often good, though some of the domestic brands give one pause.

But you live in Germany…

They’re also in need of a 2D artist…so, if drawing is your thing, drop them a line.

Using the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine, this project is not a remake, but rather a continuation — a brand new Ultima adventure set in a familiar world: the Serpent Isle.

The site just “went live” on the ‘tubes this morning, Dragons. Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I know that because I helped design the thing, and will be involved with the project in a production and world-building role.

Which reminds me: we’re looking for people! Be sure to check out the Recruitment page for details!

At the moment, there’s not much that I can really tell you Dragons about the game. I’ve signed up for the beta, but can’t seem to log in — the servers are always “full” (or they may not be on yet and that’s just the generic error message being thrown out). Nor can I access the game’s wiki or forums.

And I’m not sure what to think about this whole thing, either. This is apparently supposed to be a broswer-based strategy game, and those generally are far less than awesome (let’s be honest: the best ones are good for a few minutes of distraction, nothing more). At the same time, Phenomic is no second-tier developer…so I’m not sure at all what EA is getting at by enlisting them for this effort.

Would Ultima even render well as a strategy game?

Methinks it’s too early to tell with this one.

Also, Fenyx Dragon noted that Gamasutra had an article up about the game; give it a look.

And finally, from Sergorn Dragon, a possible Lord of Ultima screenshot:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the Beta 2 Release of Team Archon’s Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• Many bug fixes have been implemented since the Milestone 8 (Beta 1) release.
• Weapon and armor restrictions have now been applied, by class.
• The entire world is complete, and ready for players to explore.
• All NPC’s are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.
• Those players with proclivities to the dark side can now follow an “evil path”.
• Hydras are now in game, and should pose a nasty surprise to unwary travelers.
• Additional enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now nearly complete.
• Minor performance improvements have been implemented
• It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the Beta 2 Release, and start a new game.

While this is not the final release of the game, we feel that it is reasonably polished, enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). We still expect that there will be some bugs, and are soliciting your help in finding them.

If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the Beta 2 Release on the Project Britannia forums (http://www.projectbritannia.com/index.php).

To download the Beta 2 Release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site at: http://www.u6project.com/ where you can also check out profiles of the Project team members.

If you like what you see, and would like to contribute to this great game (and help us get it out faster), the team is looking for additional 2D artists to help with completing the portraits. And, of course, we’re always looking for play-testers to help us find and eliminate any remaining bugs. Contact any of the team members on the forums if you’d like to join the team.

You’re still here, good reader? Get thee to the Ultima 6 Project website and grab that download.

Or, you can grab it from the project entry here at Aiera.