Risen 2

Risen 2 will have true 3D support!

Yes, yes, it’s a 3D action-RPG, made with a 3D engine. That’s not what this news concerns.

No…this news concerns the fact that Risen 2 will fully support Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology! So if you happen to have that on your gaming rig, you’ll be able to enjoy some piratey RPG goodness in a somewhat more immersive way.

Risen, on Steam, no longer has Tages copy protection.

Piranha Bytes (or, at least, I assume it was them) quietly stripped the Tages copy protection out of the game. The activation limit for the game has also been removed.

Ain’t that nice of ‘em?

The release dates for Risen 2 have been announced.
And guess what…the console version has been delayed!

Risen 2: Dark Waters will be available on April 27, 2012 for Windows PC, on May 22, 2012 in the USA and Canada and on May 25, 2012 in European countries for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3.

Risen 2: Dark Waters will be available via digital distribution for PC, and for both PC and consoles as a retail version, as well as a Collector’s Edition in certain territories.

RPGWatch calls the delay, which is basically a month in duration, “small”. I’d argue that a whole month exceeds the definition of “small”, but that’s just me.

Building pirates for all platforms.

INCGamers sat down with Pete Brolly from Deep Silver to discuss Risen 2. A couple notable excerpts worth mention here include his comments on the nature of Risen 2′s open world:

IncGamers: How would you describe the way Risen 2 is set out? It’s not open-world in the same sense as Skyrim, but it’s certainly not linear either.

Pete Brolly: It’s definitely open-world. The difference is, though… in Risen 1 you start the game and you’re free to go anywhere, and we got a lot of complaints that there wasn’t enough explanation. We didn’t want people to get lost at the start of Risen 2 so it’s a bit linear early on as you play through missions that introduce you to the world.

Then, on the second island, it’s all opened up and a bit more is explained. And then on the next island you get your own ship and you’re free to travel anywhere you like. So, no matter what the mission, you can go anywhere at any time.

Risen 1 was a like a funnel, where it started out open world and got more linear. In Risen 2 that’s reversed.

And here’s a rather intriguing comment on how skills in the game work:

PB: If you choose the Voodoo option then you’ll lock yourself out of some Inquisition missions, as well as some skills that you could potentially learn. You will still be able to use your pistol and ‘dirty trick’ skills if you choose Voodoo, but you won’t increase your firearms abilities enough to use rifles, muskets or shotguns.

On the other hand, you will get the Voodoo skills and missions.

IG: What are some of those Voodoo skills?

PB: New dialogue options open up where you can actually manipulate NPCs, so you can pluck a hair from their head and make a Voodoo puppet based on that person. You can then use that to take on a quest.

For example, one mission might involve a ship that needs to be taken over but is guarded by enemies. You could fight them yourself or you could take over the commander and use him to dismiss the troops.

On one hand, they’re opting for the rather hard-core approach of locking you out of whole skill trees if you choose to side with one faction over the other. But not, or so it sounds, in a way that makes you feel like it’s a punishment.

I have to confess – I loved this game:

It’s been a while since there has been a new RPG on GOG.com shelves, but today we offer Soulbringer on GOG.com for only $5.99.

Let’s conduct a little thought excercise here: If you were an average person living in the mystical world of Rathenna and your father was killed and your uncle Adrus turned out to know a lot about magic, ancient warriors, and demons, would you rather:

a) ignore your crazy uncle, live on a farm, raise a family, and live a long and boring life or,
b) learn magic, learn sword-wielding, awaken your powers inherited from your past lives, and slay ancient demons, preserving the world for all?

Those of you who decided that option “a” sounds a little too dull have a chance to jump into the fantasy world of Soulbringer, an action RPG in the spirit of other classic hack and slash games of the era.

Soulbringer was in many respects a fairly average game in the Diablo vein, and was among the first of the 3D action RPG titles (preceding Dungeon Siege by about two years, and coming out at about the same time as Diablo 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2). Indeed, it took quite a lot of advantage of its 3D engine; height mattered quite a lot in combat and spellcasting.

The game had a decent combat system, but its real innovation was its rather interesting magic system, in which the various elemental circles didn’t oppose along traditional lines, but instead negated each other in a circular, “rock, paper, scissors” kind of way.

Anyhow, GOG has it priced at the $5.99 point, so if you’ve never played it before, think about picking it up.

The Forgotten World team, in addition to having a brand new highway database editor, are looking to add a 3D modeler to the team. (They announce this in the same news post as the editor, but I’m putting it out here on its own to draw attention to it.)

I’ve updated the team page, and several of you might notice an open position for 3D modeler. Let me clarify that. At present, we do not have a tool to import models into the game. Also, we do not have a clear idea on what the requirements will be or the kinds of limitations that will be placed on the models. We hope to have several of these issues dealt with in a matter of months. We will keep you guys posted.

If you are a 3D modeler and are very interested in joining up and staying for long haul (5 years max – we hope FW will be nearly finished by then), you can help with upgrading the graphics in the game. At present, there are a number of objects that could use upgraded or even redone textures. If you require the models themselves, I’m sure we can create an exporter tool from our Mesh Viewer’s code in a relatively short period of time.

To re-cap: at present, there’s no way to add new models into Ultima 9, although the Forgotten World team hope to have such a tool at some point in the future. Extant models — both characters and scenery — can evidently be replaced, however, which would at least allow for an immediate improvement in the appearance of some elements of the game.

So, Dragons and Dragonettes…if there is anyone among you who is talented in the ways of 3D modeling and who wants to help improve the graphical look and feel of Ultima 9 over the next few years, do be sure to make yourself known to the Forgotten World team.

Note: This is a fan project, not a market game; the 3D modeler position is not a paid job.

That said, volunteering your talents to this project will look good on a resume or in a portfolio…something to think about if you intend to one day apply for a game-dev job.

Feed the Gamer looks at this very question and comes away with the conclusion that Looking Glass — the studio that developed both Ultima Underworld games — was very, very awesome indeed.

Founded in 1990, Looking Glass was not only responsible for some of that decade’s most innovative and memorable games, but was also a place where people like Ken Levine (BioShock), Warren Spector (Deus Ex) and Seamus Blackley (Xbox) all worked under the one roof.

The product of a merger between two companies, Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research, Looking Glass Studios was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Developing mostly for the PC, Looking Glass’ first few games were published by PC gaming giant Origin (Wing Commander, Ultima), but by 1995 the studio was developing and publishing its own titles.

…

Looking Glass’ first game (well, while its development side was still known as Blue Sky) was 1992′s Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, a first-person role-playing game that not only broke from the traditions of conventional Ultima games, but in many ways blew right past them, its immersive setting and (for the time) amazing 3D graphics making it a critical success.

The games which came next read like a “greatest hits collection” of PC gaming in the 1990s…

Eidos — massively in debt at the time — shut Looking Glass down in the year 2000, a rather ignoble end for such a talented development house. One could almost argue that such was the curse that afflicted all developers who published Ultima titles, I suppose. But in their short span, the did produce some genre-defining — and genre-shattering — games, which frankly still hold up very well today.

Since there have always been a lot of confusion regarding the content and quantity of CG Cutscenes created for Ultima IX, and how they related to each plot, I thought it would be useful to describe and analyze a bit all the FMVs we know of.

FMVs created for the Bob White Plot

These are the videos created for the original plot. Some of them were (completely or partially) reused in the final plot, sometime for the same purpose, sometime for a different one.

Introduction

This is the original introduction of the game, with the first part showing the Avatar’s arrival on Britannia and his encounter with the dragon, and the second half showing a conversation between Blackthorn and the Guardian before showing the stained glass title.

This introduction was kept as it is in the final plot since it fit as well – the only difference being that it was shown after a tutorial on earth instead of actually opening the game.

Sending 1 (Pyros)

This was to be the first sending of the game, with the Guardian showing to Lord British a vision of the Avatar summoning Pyros and unleashing it upon him. It showed British standing on a balcony overlooking a dark forest where the Avatar was doing his evil ritual. The untouched video was used in multiple trailers for Ultima IX over the years.

This video was reused in the final game with the Avatar having to summon Pyros in order to enter the Abyss (note however that the concept of summoning a daemon to enter the Abyss was present in the del Castillo plot, but done by Lord British and without Pyros). The video was modified to remove all traces of Lord British and his castle, and only showcases the Avatar summoning the Titan before being enveloped in weird tendrils that drag him underground (an element which was in all likelihood added to fit the final plot).

Sending 2 (Raven/Branding)

This second sending showcased Lord British seeing the Avatar being branded as a member of the Guild by Raven.

The final game reuses the video for this purpose but it appears very late in the game (while it was rather early in the original plot) and the branding aspect feels secondary to the fact that this video focuses on the romance aspect of the Avatar/Raven relationship, ending with them kissing and suggesting they spend an intimate night together. The kiss was most likely added for this revision of the plot, because while there was some Avatar/Raven romance in the original plot, it would most likely have been too early at this point of the game. I likewise wonder if the dress that Raven wears (which also conveniently shows a lot of cleavage) was
not added later on as well.

(Note that there is no mention of the branding in the del Castillo summary, perhaps it was cut or perhaps the video would have been used in a similar manner as in the final game since the romance supposedly had a stronger focus. No way to be sure at this point.)

Sending 3 (Prison)

This third sending was to show the Avatar being imprisoned in Dungeon Wrong (or in the case of Bob White’s final revision one of two unrelated dungeons) to Lord British.

What seems to be the original version of this video was featured in the Ultima Collection trailer for Ultima IX. It showed the Avatar being thrown into the cell by a Wyrmguard, with a skull rolling revealing Lord British sitting there and looking at him. While at the time it gave the impression of Lord British being imprisoned with the Avatar… no plot revisions ever mentions anything like this so this was most likely a “virtual” Lord British witnessing the event. There is some sort of discrepancy in a way since one have to wonder why seeing the Avatar being thrown in a cell by a Wyrmguard would instill doubt into Lord British. (I theorize that an earlier variation might have had a Britannian guard instead… but nothing points at this).

This video was reused in the final game as well, except that Lord British had been removed from the equation, since this was no longer a sending. Having a Wyrmguard imprison the Avatar is actually consistent with the events of the plot… except when you get back in game you cell has a metal grate instead of a wooden door. An obvious level design mistake here.
Sending 4 (Armies at the Shrine of Justice)

This video was the final sending “proving” to Lord British that the Avatar had betrayed him for good and planned to overthrown him with an army. It featured the armies of Amoranth and Verona at the Shrine of Justice, with the armies’ leaders (the son and daughter of Corigan) swearing fealty to the Avatar.

While this video was not reused in the final game and indeed cut altogether, it was later salvaged partially to serve as the introduction of Ultima Online Renaissance.

Note about the sendings: in addition to events presented from the Guardian’s twisted sending these video also featured Lord British and the Guardian to some degree. There are three aspects that were showcased in multiple trailers:

• A close up of the Guardian’s eyes.
• A scene of the Guardian’s eyes in shadows over twin flames (possibly related to the shot mentioned above) which fades into the Mirror of Darkness, zooming into it until it reveals Lord British’s bedroom and the king awakening, troubled. (I believe this part was shown in one of the Ultima Collection interview videos).
• A scene of a semi comatose Lord British sitting on his throne with tendrils (similar to those that take the Avatar in the final game’s Pyros video) surrounding him. Note that this scene was reused in Ultima Online Renaissance intro as well and showed Lord British being enveloped by the tendrils and dragged through the Throne Room’s ground (Not sure if this was how it was to proceed in the original video, or if it merely reused the idea of the final Pyros video).

It is however uncertain as to which sending these specific shots and scenes were to be related. I would assume the Bedroom’s scene to relate to the first one… but we really can’t say for sure unless we find someday the full videos or detailed storyboards.

Ending 1: Exodus

This was to be the first part of the ending, showcasing Skara Brae launching from Britannia and travelling through space in search of the New Britannia.

Obviously: it was never showcased in any trailers and not reused either in the final game so we can only imagine what it must look like.

Ending 2: Armageddon

This is the second part of the ending, showcasing the casting of the spell, the destruction of Britannia, the remaining people on the surface being killed and the Avatar and Lord British looking over the ruined land while talking.

The full video was leaked over at Aiera a few months ago.

This video was first showcased in the E3 98 trailer – which seemed crazy for a while, but not so much considering the Ed del Castillo plot had changed the ending and only planned to use this as some sort of vision when destroying the mirror of Darkness (an aspect that was kept in the final game).

The final game used this video in three occasions: when the Avatar destroys the mirror’s in Lord British’s room, as a “bad end game” if the Avatar gives the lenses to Blackthorn in Shame, and as a vision shown to Lazlo the Gypsy King of what would happen if he refused to help the Avatar. The Armageddon video was mostly kept intact, except it cut the part of Lord British casting the spell on Stonegate and obviously the final conversation between Lord British and the Avatar.

Note about the endings: Comparisons between the Bob White summary from 1999 and his final revision tend to suggest the ending had some variations over time, with the Armageddon part shown before or after the Skara Brae bit. The full leaked ending also show Lord British and the Avatar alive and well after the Armageddon while the summary said they would both be dying in the process, leading to the Avatar ascending. Likewise the Avatar is said to cast the spell in the summary (because Lord British is too weak), while the FMV obviously shows Lord British casting it. Hard to say if there was more to this, or alternate version of the FMVs.

Other possible videos

The disc found by Joe Garritty of the Origin museum appeared to contain all the FMVs of Ultima IX, alas most are corrupted except for this original full ending and not exploitable. However it showed three other video files called “meteorite”, “ring of fire” and “teleport” –- hard to say if they were FMVs or not, although I would tend to think these might have been gameplay videos showcasing some spell effects, since these are all spells available in the final game.

Over the years there were also shots leaked/distributed of what appears to be other FMVs: notably a shot of Britannia from space, a shot of a Stonehenge-like location, a shot of a small Pyros walking on a Pentagram. It’s possible these were just concept arts however and never were meant to be part of the game’s plot or FMVs.

Note however that from both the Bob White summary and the final revision presented recently, the FMVs listed above appears to be the only ones that were to exist in the original plot. On the other hand, Bob White did mention recently in a comment explaining the status of the game when the team shifted to UO that there was around 13 FMVs or so… If that is the case, hard to say were these others cutscenes might have fit in light of the plot documents.

Since a female Avatar was planned, we should also wonder if versions of these videos with a female Avatar were ever conceived (indeed this would explain the 13 FMVs comment by Bob White). I will also say that the ending videos also broke my belief that voicing the Avatar only came with the final game – which brings to question what quantity of speech was planned for the game.

FMVs created for the Final Plot

There are the videos which were in all likelyhood created for the final Mendelsohn/Garriott revision of the plot. One point to note is that they were outsourced at a different studio that those created for the 1997 variation and you can actually notice a discrepancy concerning the look of the Avatar which can very much help to see which FMVs were created for which plot: the Avatar of these later videos looks a tad more chubby than the original, and the ankh on his chest is of a lighter yellow.

Column

The opening flick of Ultima IX which shows a Column raising from the ground and squashing a poor peasant -– and is reveled to be a dream the Avatar has on Earth.

This was most likely added as the new introduction when it was decided to begin the game with a tutorial on Earth to ease new players into the game rather that beginning straight where Ultima VIII left of. As far as I can remember, this decision was made for the final revamp, and there is indeed no mention of this in the del Castillo document.

One point of note: the Ultima IX demo had the stained glass title appears at the end of the video instead of the Intro movie.

Ambush

The video where the Avatar is captured as he exits Despise and Raven saves the day –- gauging out one Blackthorn’s eye in the process.

While this FMV echoes a similar event between Slaine and Raven in the original plot, nothing hints at this being a video back then.

Maelstrom

The video showcasing the Avatar descending in a whirlpool to Ambrosia through the Shrine of Humility.

While the aspect of using a whirlpool to Ambrosia appeared at various point in both the development of the Bob White and del Castillo revisions, again nothing hints at a FMVs back then (nevermind the fact that this was done with Shamino in del Castillo’s version). The chubby Avatar is also telling.

Samhayne

The scene were the Avatar is captured by Blackthorn at Samhayne’s.

The whole Blackthorn/Codex subplot being an addition of the final plot – there is no doubt about this scene being crafted for it.

Skara Brae

The destruction of Skara Brae shown through the Mirror of Darkness.

The zoom in on the Mirror actually appears to be salvaged from the Lord British’s bedroom sequences, except that instead of seeing the bedroom we see the destruction of Skara Brae. While the wave feels consistent with the Armageddon flick, there is obviously no such scene in it – and of course Skara Brae was not rebuilt in the original plot and the Sentinel did not
exist either.

Moongate

Lord British realigning the Moons to allows the Avatar to get to the Shrine of Spirituality.

Again there is no doubt this was done by the final plot. This plot element didn’t exist before, Lord British appears bulky, the Avatar chubby… and of course it has the same purple moongates than the game features.

Good End Game

The ending where the Avatar and the Guardian merge together, causing the Ascension of the Avatar, the destruction of the Columns and the appearance of the Ankh Constellation in the sky.

While the ending is somewhat similar to the del Castillo one, the beginning doesn’t fit as this version didn’t had the whole Sigil aspect to it. The rather poor rendering quality also suggest this was a rush job done late into development.

So this is it about the FMVs of Ultima IX and this will hopefully help clearing the misconception that the final game’s plot was crafted solely to salvage awkwardly the FMVs from the original plot. Let us hope that the rest of them will surface some day, and hopefully in HQ.

Observations on the del Castillo plot in comparison to the Bob White Plot

1. As I mentioned in a comment, this is the same premise and basic plotline in many ways. However, del Castillo’s plot document is much shorter than Bob White’s so it feels like it has been streamlined or simplified. Unlike the Bob White revisions, this document doesn’t discuss all of the background elements of the story; it tends to go straight from one plot point to another and sometimes feels more as if someone were just throwing out some ideas on paper rather than writing a complete plot document,

2. One of the aspects that does feel heavily simplified is the part focused on tracking Corrigan’s murderer from the arrow that killed him, which seems to go more directly to the point in the del Castillo plot. In all fairness though, it really is hard to tell without a more detailed breakdown of the del Castillo plot as a lot of plot details in the Bob White document could still apply in the del Castillo version.

3. The story about the missing shipments exists in the Bob White Plot, but seems to serve just background information rather than an actual plot point. It does feel as though this was expanded in del Castillo’s version, perhaps to give the player a chance to play as Shamino, but it arguably works and gives the player something to do in Ambrosia, which was cut in the later revisions. As a matter of fact, the development of this section feels very much like the part mentioned in the dungeon design documents, where the Avatar was to go to Ambrosia to meet Vasagralem and Desbet before escaping via Hythoth — except the player goes there as Shamino instead and looks for the missing shipment instead of the Gargoyles.

4. The whole plot point about summoning Corrigan’s ghost in front of his son and daughter had been replaced in the del Castillo plot by a rather more straightforward approach where the Avatar simply need finding to fin dan unsigned peace treaty revealing Blackthor’s role on his body. The ghost still appears at the beginning and the end of the quest but not in front of the armies. This wouldn’t have changed much gameplay-wise, but it doesn’t feel quite as interesting.

5. The Well of Soul where you find Corigan’s body has become a special room inside Deceit instead of being in Skara Brae. The whole ritual aspect of Deceit has been cut, suggesting you probably obtained magic and spellbook in a different way, so this might have a way to give a plot relevance to this dungeon even if it breaks continuity a bit.

6. This revision brings the Codex back into the plot, which I like, as well as the lenses needed to consult it. It’s hard to tell, however, if the Codex was supposed to be back in Britannia, or if you just used the lenses to consult it in the Void. In the Bob White plot the Codex seemed to come and go depending on the revisions, and there was no mentions of the lenses in the final one altough his original summary from 1999 suggest that at some point, they were needed to open the entrance to thee Abyss.

7.There is no mention of Hawkwind after the initial tutorial section. Whether it is because he had no other role beside this point, or simply because the plot outline doesn’t go into the details, is unknown.

8. While the part about playing as other companions in the del Castillo plot was obviously thought as a way to compensate for the lack of an actual party, it does seem to follow some sort of pattern of trying to have the companions have more of a role into the story without having them in the party.

The gruesome execution of Julia in the depth of Despise seems to fit with this intent of giving more of a role to the companions. The part about playing Raven in Wrong seems actually a rather sound idea, considering the original plot already had Raven trying off screen (and failing) to save the Avatar. Having Lord British travelling to the Abyss to face Blackthorn himself in a final showdown is also a great idea because, in truth, the whole quick and gratuitous execution of Blackthorn in the Bob White iteration feels rather anticlimactic.

As there are no other mentions of Companions however, it is hard to tell if this pattern might have fit with others characters or not.

9. It does seem that the del Castillo revision did introduce the aspect about the Avatar not being able to hurt the Guardian without hurting himself.

10. The del Castillo plot also seems to introduce the restoration of the Shrines as a plot point. This rather makes sense with an ending where you actually DO save Britannia. It also seems you have to power the Columns with the Runes late in game in order to set the trap for the Guardian but it is rather unclear and the “Shrine of Corruption” aspect might refer to columns in the actual Guardian throne room where to place the runes to bring the shield emprisoning him and the Avatar there.

11. The ending is obviously the major difference between these two iterations. The aspect about facing the Guardian armies to get to Terfin and preparing your allies for that purpose is still there except that it happens at the climax of the story when you are to face the Guardian (the details of the battle are not spelt out here… but I suspect they would on the missing “Chapter 26″ page). The destruction of the Guardian and the Avatar comes when the Avatar tosses’ the Guardian’s amulet into the “Fire of Eternity” (a nod to the Eternal Flames from Ultima IV~VI, perhaps ?), altough it feels somewhat confusing since we don’t really get a sense of what it is.

Observations about the final Mendelsohn/Garriott plot in comparison to previous iterations

1. The final version of the plot obviously cuts the full explanation of the Guardian’s origin by excising the link to the Gem of Immortality and the Shadowlords. We can only theorize about the actual reason for this (altough it gives some credence to the rumors about EA not wanting too mamy ties with previous games), but what is rather interesting about the explanation given in the released game is that the cause of the Guardian’s existence and relationship with the Avatar works almost exactly like it did for the Ultima race and their Avatar of Corruption in the original plot.

2. Following this, the plot of the cancelled Ultima X: Odyssey seemed to follow the Ultimas storyline as well, by basically telling through this final Guardian/Avatar conflict a tale of the same sort of war as the Ultima suffered through. This leaves open the question of whether Ultima X’s designers were aware of this (a few of them DID work on Ultima IX). If so, did they take some inspiration from the Bob White Plot?

3. Considering Hawkind’s story about how merging with his dark half lead him to some of personnal Ascension that allowed him to become the Time Lord, the ending of the the released game — with the Guardian and the Avatar merging to attain Ascension — also feels consistent with the background of the Ultimas.

4. There has been a lot of commentary over the years about how the Avatar summoning Pyros to get into the Abyss was just a cheap way to reuse the FMV with the Titan. I can’t help but notice, however, that the Ed del Castillo variation had basically the exact same thing in the segment where you play Lord British — except he just summons a regular daemon instead of Pyros. So the accusation seems somewhat unfair in retrospect and there is some sense in salvaging the Pyros FMV for this purpose since they had decided to drop the Sending part of the plot.

5. Having Lord British serves as a companion in the Abyss to bring him to Blackthorn (where he would have faced him like it was planned in the del Castillo iteration of the plot) would have been AWESOME! A shame a lack of time made them drop the temporary companions aspect.

Editor’s note: It’s about as awesome having Lord British along for the journey into the Abyss and the battle with the Slasher of Veils in the Bob White Plot!

6. I can’t help to notice that this appears to be the only iteration of Ultima IX where the underwater city of Ambrosia is still alive and kicking instead of being ruined from the start.

7. While the Wyrmguard/fallen companion angle was a tad overdone in the final game, I feel this was a very interesting way to give a role to companions in the story once the party system was removed. I think it could have worked,in the original Bob White Plot to have some companions who did fall victim to the Guardian’s influence like the Rangers did.

8. I find it very interesting that they basically transferred the Slaine story arc to Blackthorn. Like Slaine, he ambushes the Avatar and loses an eye when Raven saves him. Like Slaine, he shows up in Minoc and kill Gypsies so that they can’t help the Avatar. Again, I think this is a rather sound way of reusing ideas when some parts of the plot or characters were dropped. The moment they dropped the Civil War aspect, it was a good move to make Blackthorn a more active villain and reusing this aspect of Slaine’s arc.

I really can’t stress this enough, but I really must insist that if you analyse closely all the iteration of the Ultima IX, the final Mendelsohn/Garriott feels not so much so much like a revisions of the previous versions and more like a different plotline altogether. The tone chosen for the story is drastically different, but most importantely it puts the Eight Virtues as the forefront and makes them the most important plot point in the game while they appeared to have little of a role to play before. This version also brings a very a new focus on the philosophical thematic of the Avatar getting Britannia ready to lives on without him, and this through a true understanding of the Virtues of their meaning. These are really the most important aspects of this plotline – and they did not appeared in the original story. As a matter of fact, one could also argue that considering how the origins of Guardian had him being the Shadowlords reborn – his plan of corrupting the Virtues and twisting the mind of the Britannian feels even more consistent with his nature, because in truth : what are the Columns in this final iteration if not replicating on a global scale the effects the Shadowlords themselves had on the people? In other words – it feels like the Guardian is continuing what he was already doing back in Ultima V.

So claiming this final iteration of the plot is merely a culmination of butchering and simplifying of the original plot seems rather unfair. While it does have a similar context of a torn Britannia with the Columns and do take elements from the previouses versions – these were really taken to create a new plot altogether. Indeed, I can’t help to point out that while the argument had often been brought that they had merely crafted this plot in order to salvage the original FMVs – the majority of the cutscenes present in the final game were created specifically for this final iteration. Which this by itself should serve as proof that this really was a new storyline to begin with.

And arguably, the fact that Richard Garriott decided to bring this new storyline instead of continuing with the old one is probably one the main reasons of the lack of polish this plot suffered – since it obviously they never had the time to add the necassary polish required.

Kevin Fishburne has been leaving a number of updates in the comments forms, which I will attempt to aggregate here, covering everything since last we heard news of his Ultima-inspired online game, Sanctimonia.

To begin with, he put in some work on the in-game mini-map feature:

Tonight’s improvements include a scaled version of the previous mini map, but cropped and centered on the camera location and with larger object representations. It also smoothly scrolls keeping the camera position as its center point instead of jerking over when the player traverses cells. It looks WAY more professional than the old way, and it’s a lot easier to get your bearings by looking at it. It also makes it difficult to tell when your player has traversed cells, so the whole experience seems smoother and more seamless.

And he also made some progress on how the game server handles time:

I should be able to have the clients receive date/time information from the server and keep it synchronized and scaled. Game time will be calculated using a base time, the server’s clock time and a scaling factor of four. So one Earth day will equal four Sanctimonia days, basically.

You can see the mini-map in action, on a world map inspired by the Falkland Islands, in this video:

He also posted a link to this video, which demonstrates object persistence — and, in particular, flora growth over time — in some detail:

Kevin is particularly proud of this feature; if any of you know of another game that can do this, do let him know in the comments, would you? Personally, I can’t think of another game that allows its plants and trees to grow for as long as the server is active.

Shortly after posting that video, Kevin also posted news that he had gotten the date and time features of the server to work.

I finally got sending a date and time from the server to the client working, subtracting an offset from the server’s date, multiplying it by an arbitrary number and sending it to the client as the base world date at any given moment.

I used that as the foundation for graphical day/night cycles in the client, which though still has a bug generally works as it should. You’ll notice from the video when the day/night cycle’s timing starts getting out of sync with the debug info’s time.

Naturally, he also released another video:

A few days later, he finished implementing the “horizon bar” in the game, hearkening back to the early Ultimas with this feature. Naturally, he released a pair of videos:

Most recently, hammer out the rudiments of a particle system whilst recuperating from having his wisdom teeth removed.

Of course he posted a video.

So, all in all, there has been some tremendous progress made on Sanctimonia in the last few weeks. Full details can, of course, be found in the weekly reports that Kevin posts, so do be sure to read those if you want more detail about all that he has been working on since early June.

Since the plot document is pretty huge and will take at least a couple of hours to read through, we thought it would be better to summarize some of the important and interesting aspect of it, notably things that were not mentioned in Bob Whiteís summary from 1999.
 
Note that this is his latest plot revision from July 1997 and as such differs somewhat from the leaked dungeon design documents, which appear to be from an earlier revision.

Details of the Bob White Plotís final revision

1. The Guardian and the Avatar are one. This was NOT an addition from Ed Del Castillo. That was NOT an addition from the final plot. This was the origin planned for the Guardian since the very first Britannian iteration of the game. The explanation given is in fact the very same one offered in the Ultima IX Clue Book by Richard Garriott, with the Shadowlords being formed from the Avatarís darkness within the Gem of Immortality and coalescing into the Guardian after their ìdestructionî. This very much give credence to Seth Mendelsohnís claim that Garriott came up with this idea back when doing U7.

2. In spite of the their relationship, it doesnít appears that hitting the Guardian hurts the Avatar as it does in Ed Del Castillo and Seth Mendelsohnís revisions. As a matter of fact, the Avatar needs to battle and ìkillî the Guardian with his Etheric Powers at Stonegate before casting the Armageddon spell.

3. While there is no detailed explanation as to how Blackthorn ended up with the Guardian, the fact that the latter is the Shadowlords reborn seems to be the reason Blackthorn is serving him, in addition to being pissed about being banned. (In all likelyhood the Serpent Isle bit of Blackthornís history had been retconned out of the series at this point).

4. The Columns are dragging the moons out of orbit, notably causing the moongates not to work anymore. This, then, was also a plot point existing from the very beginning. No explanation for the Moongatesí return in the first place are given (but again, this might have been brought up in dialogue).

5. There are obvious hints of romance with Raven, who was actually supposed to be a male if the Avatar was female. So, again, this was not a Del Castillo addition. It is possible the romance might have been optional, but the character was clearly conceived as a love interest for the Avatar.

6. Hawkind IS the Time Lord. While this appeared to be an afterthought in Ultima IX, this was actually the remnant of a much larger point plot. His identity is first spelled out in the very first minutes of the game, but is also hugely relevant during the endgame.

7. Not only is Hawkwind the Time Lord but he is the last survivor of an ancient race called the Ultima (I kid you not!). 

The Ultima sought to eradicate the evil within themselves and succeeded by casting it out of them, but every time an Avatar of Virtue arose…and Avatar of Corruption was created. This lead to a long war between the Ultima and their evil siblings which spread across the universe.

8. Hawkwind was the sole survivor of this war, still fighting against his own evil Avatar. At a moment of clarity, he realized he had to embrace his evil side and give himself to it. In doing so, he became one with it again, leading to some sort of Ascension, which in turn gave birth to a greater being — the Time Lord.

9. Hawkwind learned a newfound wisdom from this ascension — that there is no absolute good or evil, and thus a certain balance had to be followed in life. Thus, he created the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom as a way to guide people on the path of Virtue his people found, but also as a safeguard because Virtue must be a means, and not an end. (This is not spelled out, but likely this way was NOT supposed to lead to the creation of a Guardian the way it happened with the Ultima, and it happened because of the Gem of Immortility).

Editor’s Note: That being said, we do learn in the plot document that when the Stranger achieved Avatarhood in Ultima 4, a great force was also created in that moment, which later bound to the essence contained in the Gem of Mondain and became first the Shadowlords, and then the Guardian.

10. The Avatar is given a weapon by Hawkwind at the beginning of the game which evolves as he gains Karma.

11. There are mentions of Etheric powers, but with few details (based on the dungeon documents, it seems that the Avatar regained them gradually each time a glyph was recovered).

12. While the plot document gives no explanation for the Companions’ return from Serpent Isle, it mentions the Avatar discussing past adventures (including Serpent Isle) with Iolo, so this might have come up during dialogue.

13. The Wyrmguards are discovered to be the Rangers, corrupted by the Guardian due to the fact that they were the people the most attuned to Spirituality. Shamino put himself into stasis in order not to fall prey to this corruption. This seems to be very much the only aspect of the game similar to the final plotís mind twisting of the Columns.

14. The Gargoyles willingly serve the Guardian, who has played on their discontent and had actually planted seeds prepping them for servitude since the time of Ultima VI. 

After the death of the Shadowlords, their shadow seems to have possessed a wingless gargoyle in the Gargoyle Land, who came to be considered to the Savior of the Gargoyle people. This Savior led the Gargoyles to go to the surface and attack Britannia and the Shrines, but disappeared (with a promise to return) right before the Avatar entered the gargoyle world. When Blackthorn came to Terfin, he promised to lead them to their Savior (which is quite obviously the Guardian), and they agreed to serve him by building the Fortress of Exultation, and also (most likely) the Black Gate used by the Guardian to enter Britannia. 

The Gargoyle Land is curiously called Ambrosia in this iteration. Since it appears from revision history that the name Ambrosia tended to come and go, itís possible this is just an honest mistake and these events were originally supposed to happen in the Gargoyle city of Ambrosia, rather than back in the time before Ultima VI.

15. The only remaining Gargoyles that are not in league with the Guardian are Desbet and Vasagralem who are hiding in the ruins of Empath abbey and later help the Avatar to craft weapons against the Gargoyle Hordes. (Revisions history shows that at one point, they were supposed to hide in Ambrosia. It is unclear if this is the island from Ultima VII or the Underwater City from later revisions but leaked dungeons docs seemed to suggest an underwater Ambrosia).

16. New Magincia was razed during the initial Gargoyles attack. The Knights of the Silver Serpent tried to retake it, but found only ruins when the arrived. In the meantime the Garogyles had attacked and destroyed Serpentís Hold. The survivors went on to build the Citadel of Valoria and form its knighthood.

17. There is no Yew in this plot. It is not specified is the city is gone on account of the cataclysm, an attack, or if it has simply been swallowed by the forest as had begun to happen in Ultima VII. The druid council is now in Cove. (Revision history mentions Yew being present in earlier draft, but most of its relevant content was moved to Trinsic.)

18. Minoc is gone as well, and has been replaced by a gypsy camp called Mystvale. (Revision history shows that Mystvale had a tendency to come and go in each revision.)

19. Skara Brae is still a ruined city and has not been restored since U7. The demonic spirit that controlled Horance now possesses a Dracolich in the Well of Souls, and as such has kept its dominion over the undead.

20. Some of the dungeons are not mentioned and appear to just serve as crawlers in the quest to get the Glyphs. It seems their roles in the actual plot were scaled back over several revisions. (Shame, notably, was supposed to be the place where the Avatar was to find Enilno the Quicksword, but it was cut.)

21. The Isle of the Avatar is mentioned to have sunk at the end of Ultima Underworld, with only the Shrines of the Codex and Humility still resting above water. (There is obviously a discrepancy here since the Isle was still there in Ultima VII.)

22. Cove is surrounded by mountains, with no ground access. A secret underground waterway is revealed as the way to get to it, and the mountains are actually an illusion set up by Nicodemus who is the protector of Cove. (Leaked dungeon docs suggest that at one time Cove was to be reached by a flying balloon which might possibly have been removed when/if the idea of using a dual scale map was dropped.)

23. There is also an odd mention of an ìairshipî. This is possibly a reference to the aforementioned balloon.

24. The Codex doesnít appear in the game. Revision history mentions it was there for a time, but was later removed. The Shrine of Spirituality seems to fill its role of giving the Avatar a lot of background information, notably regarding the Ultima.

25. There is a party, though no indication is given as to how many people there would have been in it. It appears however to have been more than the two party members which was originally tried in the 3D version of the game.

26. Jaana leads the High Council in Cove, and as such cannot join the Avatar.

27. Geoffrey remains at the castle with Lord British throughout the whole game and becomes very hostile toward the Avatar when the latter is framed as a traitor by the Guardian. He is revealed to have a daughter named  Mistral who serves as a monk in the Monastery and later helps the Avatar to spy on Amoranth.

28. Iolo is a very old and almost bed ridden man. He lives in Cove as well where Gwenno tend to him. Neither of them join the party, although Iolo offers important information when the Avatar is trying to find Corriganís murderer.

Near the end of the game, the Time Lord sends Iolo back in time through a White (!) Time Gate so that he can reverse time on the Glyphs and turn them back to Runes. At the end of the process, Iolo returns as a young man!

29. Katrina is found in Trinsic with Sentri. While Sentri can join the Avatar, Katrina does not on account of being pregnant. (This suggests that Sentri is the father, but it not stated in the document.)

30. Julia works as blacksmith in Trinsic and later helps the Avatar by forging Blackrock weapons to fight the Gargoyles with. She doesnít seem to be able to join the party.

31. Mariah is in Moonglow and can join the party. She helps the Avatar to join the Circle of Mages through a ritual in Deceit.

32. There is a young paladin named Evan who joins the party when the Avatar goes to look for the lost Paladins. He was the Squire of Dupreís own Squire. (This is one of the only mentions Dupre gets ñ he does not appear in any other form in the plot.)

33. After Blackthornís execution, Lord British joins the Avatar as a party member and kick the Slasher of Veils’ ass in the Abyss (ìCome get some!î yells our liege!). He seems to remain in the party up until the end of the game.

34. You actually get to fly a Dragon if you convince the Dragon Queen in Destard to help you.

35. When Britannia teeters on the brink of civil war, there are events showing the tension across the land such as mages being executed in Britain or a tavern being burned down in Trinsic.

36. There are some pretty gross moments (such as Slaine the Wyrmguard carrying a necklace made of Gypse eyes…eww).

37. To attack Terfin, you need to set several things in motion to deal with Blackthornís flying Wyrmguard, his naval forces and sea serpents, and gargoyle ground troops. Depending on how you handle things, the huge battle of Terfin might get easier or harder with more or less ennemies to face.

38. It sounds like dialogues might have been keyword based.

39. The game doesnít appear to be as linear as the summary makes it sound. There are multiple mentions of things that could have been done at other moments in the game. Most notably, the part about getting the Glyphs from the dungeons seems relatively non linear, and seems to be doable at any point during the game. It does feel like Britanniaís mainland was rather open.

40. At the end of the game, Skara Brae is taken into the void in an orb of light and travels to a world called New Britannia that Hawkwind has selected. This scene is actually seen through Richard Garriottís own telescope!

41. In this revision of the plot, the Skara Brae/New Britannia bit appears before the Armageddon movie, and the game seems to end with the Avatar and Lord British contemplating the devastated world (as seen in the video leaked a couple of months ago). There is no specific mention of Armageddon triggering the Avatarís Ascension or Lord Britishís death like the summary from 1999. Itís quite possible specifics of the ending kept being shifted around with each rewrite; this is version 4.1 of the Bob White Plot, after all.

Differences as compared to the dungeon design documents

The Dungeon Documents are from May 1995, over two years before the final revision, which should explain the differences. On the whole, it would seem that the design had been scaled back a bit in between those dates.

1. Cove can indeed only be reached by a balloon in the dungeon documents.

2. Despise, in the dungeon documents, contains half of the plans of this balloon, making it a mandatory passage early in the game. In the final revision, Despise appears to serve no purpose other than having one of the Columns to deactivate.

3. The subplot in Destard of the Dragon Queen hiding herself in human form appears to be nonexistent, and the dungeon documents only say that the Avatar has to convince the beast to help him.

4. In the 1995 version of the plot, the Avatar needs to travel to the ruined Ambrosia to find Desbet and Vasagralem. Ambrosia is underwater and can only be reached by a whirlpool near New Magincia. Desbet joins as a companion and the Avatar has to escape through Hythloth, which links the underwater Ambrosia to the Sewers of Britain.

There is no mention of whether this is the Ambrosia from Ultima VII or the underwater city from the later revisions, though I would assume the later. If it is the latter, this might suggest the whole background bit about the Guardian and the Gargoyles was meant to happen in the underwater city of Ambrosia.

5. Hythloth is not mentioned in the final plot revision, suggesting it had no other purpose than having a Glyph to find.

6. Shame serves as trial for entering the Guild in the dungeon documents; the Avatar must steal the Quicksword from a bandit leader name Kaeden. There is no mention as to whether this is actually Enilno from Ultima II. In the final revision Shame had likely no other purpose but offering a Glyph to find.

7. Wrong is were the Avatar is tossed (with Raven) after spying on Verona/Amoranth in the 1995 version of the plot. In the final revision, this has been changed to a different unrelated dungeons depending on who the Avatar was caught spying on. This suggests that, like other dungeons, Wrong had the sole purpose of offering a Glyph to find.

8. The entrance to the Abyss is underwater and is reached by a diving bell in the dungeon documents, while the final revision mentions a ìpit-likeî entrance reached by a gateway created by the Shrine of Humility and the Shrine of the Codex.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Joe Garrity of the Origin Muesum, and courtesy of none other than Bob White himself, Ultima Aiera is pleased to present this document — which has been broken out into fifty three (53) images — which contains the final revision of the legendary Bob White Plot.

Look upon the cover and rejoice!

For those not entirely familiar with the development history of Ultima 9, Bob White worked with Brian Martin, Chuck Zoch, and the late John Watson, under the guidance of Richard Garriott, to put together what was probably the second version of the plot of Ultima 9, after Richard Garriott decided to move the setting of the game back to Britannia in response to fan outcry after Ultima 8. He teased out many details of this plot in a lengthy synopsis released over a decade ago, although many questions were left unanswered even so.

The date on this particular revision of the document — July of 1997 — correlates with the time frame in which Origin was moving the game over to the 3D engine that ultimately powered it. Indeed, this revision to the plot was done after the Ultima Online development team were being pulled back onto Ultima 9 development.

Sergorn Dragon was very helpful in analazying the plot, and he has put together a number of observations about it that will be posted in a separate article shortly. In the meantime, I would encourage you all to read the Bob White Plot thoroughly, appreciating its every detail. There will, I think, be much discussion of it in the days and weeks to come.

Most importantly, though: enjoy! Pull up the images, download the PDF, and pore over them. Search out every little detail, and enjoy a fascinating glimpse into the nuts and bolts of how the plot of the final single-player Ultima title evolved. Ultima Aiera is indebted to Bob White for providing these documents, to Joe Garrity for his tireless efforts in seeking out such treasures, and to Brian Martin, Chuck Zoch, John Watson, Bob White (again), Richard Garriott and everyone who worked at Origin Systems for their amazing vision and creativity.

I stumbled across this project some months ago, but forgot to report on it back then, and held off doing so after it appeared that the developer had stopped working on it — or, at least, had stopped posting about working on it.

In the dark, in the dark, in the dark...

However, he has started posting updates again, at irregular intervals, so perhaps its time to give his game — Magelore: Avatars of Alturia — a mention.

In his own words, developer James Podesta describes the game thusly:

[Magelore is] a game I started writing when I was 13 on the Amiga after being inspired from playing Ultima 3 on the Amiga. I soon gave up and then technology and 3d took over and the idea become obsolete until the advent of phone games and touch screens and suddenly the idea seems very viable again.

He seems to have made decent progress getting things implemented, although a common recent theme in his posts has been “getting bogged down” in details, especially in things like magic spells and plot points. He hasn’t asked for help anywhere that I can see, but those of you with some experience in iOS programming may want to consider making contact and seeing if he needs a hand.

You know, because you’re nice people like that, and also happen to think that we need to see more Ultima-inspired games being released on all possible platforms.

In the comments to a recent article about Richard Garriott and social gaming, the general tone of the replies was…not paricularly favourable to the idea of browser-based social/casual gaming. Some compared it to a bubble; some admitted to using FarmVille as the standard by which they defined social gaming.

And to be fair, FarmVille has dominated the social/browser-based scene for quite some time. Even EA Phenomic’s take on social gaming, Lord of Ultima, didn’t stray too far from the Zynga formula.

But this isn’t FarmVille:

A Mystical Land, screenshot courtesy of Sergorn Dragon

Inside Social Games describes A Mystical Land thusly:

The game is a full-fledged MMO that features combat, crafting professions and quests, feats, achievements, badges and collections. The gameplay is targeted toward a casual player, as if often the case with browser-based MMOs due to the limitations of the platform. A Mystical Land, however, is one of very few full 3D games on Facebook and it has more in common with classic MMOs than it does with the modern casual browser-based MMOs.

…

The feel of the game is reminiscent of an earlier time in MMOs, mainly due to the simple but pretty graphics, non-player character dialogue and combat. Like those older MMOs, players spend most of the game in a single area where monsters respawn so that players can kill them over and over again for XP. If a particular creature is required for a bounty or completion of a quest, players wait their turn to kill it, which is a contrast to modern MMOs that create instances for each player so there isnít competition for the monster.

They also note an important difference between A Mystical Land and other similar games that have gone before:

Other classic-style MMOs on Facebook have struggled in the past to connect with players on a massive scale. Most of these have been isometric top-down games similar to Garriottís 1997 MMO, Ultima Online, where 2D avatars move about in a 3D landscape for what we think of as a ì2.5Dî experience. Sacred Seasons 2 and City of Eternals are examples of this kind of Facebook MMO. MilMo, on the other hand, is a cross between traditional social game and traditional MMO with full 3D artwork; however, it also suffers from limited appeal as its targeted at children.

As I said previously, regular readers of Aiera will no doubt have noticed that Iíve been quite open in voicing my belief that social games are a field in which there will be explosive growth (both in terms of the number of games available and the quality/engagingness of these games) in coming years. Here’s your first great example.

As Iíve said before, itís like playing games on a mobile phone. My first mobile was a primitive little Samsung flip phone, with some version of Solitaire and a primitive little driving game installed on it. And these were, admittedly, terrible games, and very poorly implemented. Now, though? Iíve got Infinity Blade (an Unreal Engine 3-powered game) on my iPhone.

Thatís exactly the sort of revolution thatís about to take place in the social gaming space. You can see it right here, in a game like this.

Also: It’s worth noting that A Mystical Land uses the Portalarium player as its online play technology (the game itself was built with the Unity engine). 

Think about that for a moment. This, right here, is a keen demonstration of just what the Portalarium player is capable of bringing to gamers. That certainly makes the idea of Richard Garriott’s New Britannia seem more promising, doesn’t it? Especially since Portalarium just secured $3.6 million in total funding to bring its first “premium” game to the social gaming space within the next few months.

Sergorn Dragon has been playing through the game (he sent me the above screenshot, in fact), and speaks very highly of it, describing it as nothing short of “revolutionary”. His only complaint is the lack of a true full-screen option; he’s spoken highly of the gameplay and features.

But just as importantly…he’s tried it. It’s free to play, and I would encourage everyone to stick their noses into the game — even for just fifteen minutes — before offering an opinion on it. If you come away still convinced that social games are a passing fad, hey…that’s cool. But at least you’ll be doing so from an informed standpoint.

Kevin Fishburne, as per his promise to make Aiera his main venue for announcing news updates, left a comment announcing that he had begun to implement objects in his Ultima-inspired online game, Sanctimonia:

Am well along but am still having some difficulties, as well as some breakthroughs that really please me. Object implementation has went two distinct way: 1) bottom-centered objects and 2) bitmap-centered objects. Bottom-centered objects are trees and such which are tall and have central stalks, while bitmap-centered objects are flatter and have no roots. These two designations actually control the way the bitmap is drawn in the client rendering window, and allow objects to rotate and place properly.

To illustrate, he (of course) posted a video:

Also, in an earlier comment, he posted a link to a video showing the setup of the camera rig he will be using to take photos of object models. These photos — taken at different angles — will be used to create a faux-3D effect when the player rotates the view.

We all knew it was coming…

By which I of course mean: 3D porn. The “world’s first” film of this kind — made by a Chinese company but starring a Japanese cast — apparently opened to sell-out crowds in Hong Kong, and is expected to do similarly well across Japan, Korea, and much of the rest of the Asian seaboard.

As a little balding kid once said: “Good grief.”

They’re making another Planet of the Apes movie?

This one doesn’t seem to be in the same continuity as 2001′s rather lackluster Planet of the Apes, and appears to be a retelling of the story in the fourth movie from the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

There’s a trailer. I won’t re-post it. I’m too…it’s just…they shouldn’t…cripes. I can’t see this ending well.

Oh, Good Old Games…why must you tease us so?

So after feeding us clues for the past couple of weeks and teasing the living hell out of all of us, Good Old Games’ big reveal about a new publisher is that…they’re going to add a new (and as-yet unannounced) publisher this summer, plus two more in the fall. Oh, and the hints themselves could have applied to the various Atari games that GOG is going to be adding to its catalogue over the coming weeks.

Now, granted, those three studios to be announced and added to the GOG catalogue are from a pool of five, which includes Square Enix, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, T2, and Microsoft Game Studios. So there remains some hope that EA (and thus, perhaps, many classic Origin titles) could find their way onto GOG. But we’ll have to wait a bit more.

Anti-climax, thy name is Good Old Games! (Details here.)

Tonight’s post brought to you by Canadian combat coffee¹:

[1] Note the filename of the video; this was uploaded in the DV video format. That’s a totally irrelevant fact, but it amuses me nonetheless since it basically means that this video came straight off the camera with little or no post-processing done on it.

He wasn’t sure he was going to do it, and wasn’t sure he could secure a copy of the game, but Spoony evidently managed to overcome both doubts. Here is his (just shy of) ten minute review of Looking Glass Studios’ classic, Ultima Underworld:

Of course, it’s the first of a two-part series, meaning that at some point Spoony will get around to reviewing Ultima Underworld 2. I suspect that’ll be another lengthy review, akin to his summary of Ultima 7.

Just in brief, I don’t completely agree with his criticisms of the game (although the voice acting is rather awful…and something I don’t remember being present in the diskette version of the game), and I wish he’d spent more time on just what a technical marvel the game was in its day (as compared to its closest competitor in the first person realm, the first Wolfenstein game).

That said, the bit where he’s protesting in full medieval garb is rather funny.

Update: And just like that, a day later, he’s posted his review of Ultima Underworld 2:

A bunch of you have commented below — correctly, I think — that he really doesn’t get the game, and could should have had a nice warm mug of RTFM before he undertook his attempt to play it. In fairness, I can somewhat sympathize with how he struggled with the sewers, because I find them quite difficult as well. Still, it’s not like the fact that you’re supposed to circumvent the headlesses is any kind of arcane knowledge. Ditto the reaper guarding the armoury key. Both of these things are there for the truly hardcore gamers to try and beat — and good on them if they can. For the rest of us, there’s a side route.

Infinitron commented that after the glowing review Spoony gave Ultima 5, there might have been a reasonable expectation that his review of later games would have been similarly positive. I would argue that it became apparent with Spoony’s review of Ultima 6 that no such even-handedness was to be expected. Ultima 5 got a pass because it occupies a special place in Spoony’s heart and history as a gamer, but almost every other review he’s turned in has been of a decidedly modernist bent. He doesn’t review these games in their historical context; he reviews them (essentially) as though they were new releases in this day and age, and lambastes them accordingly. Game mechanics have changed, evolved, and improved since the halcyon days of Looking Glass Studios’ epic series and John Carmack’s raycast pseudo-3D imitations thereof.

ICANN approves the .XXX TLD for porn sites

The Internet finally catches up to Amsterdam and adds a dedicated red light district. Though by all accounts, extant porn sites won’t be forced to move to the new TLD, nor does it seem that new porn sites will be forced to make use of it.

Die, hyphens! Die!

The Associated Press has kicked the hyphen right in the teeth. The new AP stylebook removes the hyphen from ‘e-mail’ (which means it’s now just ‘email’), and has furthermore removed the space from phrases like ‘cell phone’ and ‘smart phone’.

Because, um, they’re the AP, and that’s how they roll.

Ancient architecture, rendered in glorious 3D

Pergamon is cool:

The Hobbit FINALLY begins production

Peter Jackson’s next treatment of a Tolkien classic is underway!

Was a movie filmed in your home town?

Thanks to Edmund Helmer’s custom Google Map, you can (maybe) find out!

EDI the AI will return in Mass Effect 3

Spoilerrific!

Tonight’s post brought to you by Snoop and Vader:

Give yourself to the Dogg side.

Thanks to Dino, I was made aware that the Titans of Ether had posted their latest update, for the month of February.

The big news in all of it seems to be that Direhaggis got himself good and hitched to a young lass, so congratulations are in order. Good show, good sir! Naturally, he’s been pre-occupied with things nuptial, and so has done little in the way of work on Redemption apart from some dialogue editing. NTTAWWT.

The rest of the team has continued its work, however. A few more 3D models, mostly pertaining to the fishing system, were developed, work on the smithing tutorial was touched up, and weapon and item icons were implemented. Progress was made on interior areas (presumably for Britain) and Vesper.

In short: no major “oh, hey, wow!”-type developments, but it’s obvious that Redemption is maintaining a steady pace of development. And that’s just fine.

Al Riddoch, one of the developers behind WorldForge, has a blog post up about some of the recent changes to the WorldForge codebase, which have vastly improved the crafting capabilities of the Mason role all players (there are no character classes) within the game framework (codenamed Mason).

It’s actually pretty cool: Masons players within WorldForge games can now modify the terrain a little bit, creating raised plateaus on which buildings can then be placed, adding additional fortification possibilities to structures.

I gather, from the rest of the post, that building construction hasn’t been implemented yet; Al mentions that he had to cheat the house he eventually placed on his sample terrain into place using administrator powers. That said, the ability to mold and shape terrain toward structural ends is…not something one typically finds in multiplayer RPGs, or multiplayer games of most kinds.

I also thought this was cool:

Man, do I wish I could build terrain that quickly in Ultima Return!

Actually, I think I saw a note about this at Dino’s, but never followed up on it. My bad.

Anyhow, the Titans seem to have had a relatively quiet December. Zini was tied up with other projects, Direhaggis worked on trimming out problematic plot elements, and most of the rest of the team worked on scripting, bugfixes, or learning to use new tools.

The one really interesting development that was reported on, however, was Hyena’s work on Britain’s interiors. He’s switched methods, apparently, and although his new way of doing things apparently takes a bit longer, the results are (according to Direhaggis) “really quite splendid”, and will evidently mean that all 91 buildings in the city will have distinct, unique interiors.

Which will be nice to explore, methinks.

Eight myths about video games…debunked here.

And are consoles limiting the potential and future sales performance of high-end PC graphics cards?

Discuss…or discuss something else.

Want this? You can get it!

I just stumbled across this, and figured it’d be worth a repost, since it basically speaks most of my own thoughts about Ultima Underworld in relation to the first iD Software titles:

Some people still believe that DOOM was the epitome of early 90s PC gaming in 3D. They are of course wrong, for Origin’s Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss was the true king of the era. It also was the first truly (and fully) 3D game to hit the PC, an architecturally beautiful virtual world and a truly excellent action-CRPG. You too can now love it in the privacy of your home with a little help from this Ultima Underworld auction. It’s the complete and lavishly boxed edition of the game and the seller ships to N. and S. America, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.

Currently going for a bit over $15 USD, it’s actually quite a reasonably-priced auction item. It is used, but the seller asserts that it is in excellent condition, and the picture supplied with the sale certainly includes all that I remember pulling out of the box when my grandfather handed me his copy of Ultima Underworld back in the day.

So if, good Dragons and Dragonettes, you’ve never played Underworld before, or if your Ultima collection is missing this key piece, why not stop on by the eBay auction and place a bid? You’ve got about four days left to do so.