Heh. Ultima 8 was a graphical tour de force (when it was released).
Of course Ultima 9 looks very different, one was released in 1994, the other in 1999. They both represent the splendour of the 2d age vs the splendour of the 3d video card boom age.
Lands of Lore 2 is awesome, really well produced game, differnt from LoL 1 but still very good. It had a troubled development by the timeframe it was done, in the transition from doom like games to 3d engine games, also was the time where FMV were on vogue. They had some problems and the game was delayed a few times, and when it was released it looked a bit weird, as people had already played Quake and Half Life, and the FMV were disappearing.
Talorc
6464
I’ve never played either Ultima 8 or 9, despite being a huge ultima fan (4 on the SMS and 7 on PC mostly).
I cant remember exactly why but I think my PC at the time was not up to it, or it was the few years when I moved out of home and didn’t have my own PC for a time.
I’m highly tempted to spend $6 on a bit of retro archaeology to see if it really justified the rage/disappointment of the time.
Looking at the screen-shots it’s obviously an improved iteration of the U7 engine, not a giant leap forward in tech.
Talorc
6465
OK, so I will be hanging up the hat and bull whip for a while then:
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/01/31/ultima-8-pagan/
Never heard of this guy before, but this is really funny. Thanks!
BDGE
6467
Yea, I only played the original floppy disk version, and returned the game to the store the moment I reached the impossible jumping puzzles. Interesting to hear the CD-rom patched in an auto-jump feature. Still, did not at all seem like I missed much.
So was U8 any good?
I still haven’t really played an Ultima game aside from U7 a couple of years ago which I only played for a few minutes. Just could not deal with the weirdly angled perspective and that awful text font but it looks like U8 was an improvement.
I enjoyed U8, but it was my first Ultima game, so I guess I didn’t know better.
It had a lot of open-world stuff that was novel at the time. You could pick up basically anything. I remember being very impressed that you could pick up the darts in the bar, and throw them at the dart board (the same way you’d throw a weapon).
However, I seem to recall it being really buggy on release, although later patches probably fixed that. Aside from the impossible jumping issues, I recall that there were magic spells you cast with certain ingredients, and that sometimes they wouldn’t get consumed, basically letting you do free magic way more than you were supposed to. On the other hand, I also seem to remember a fair amount of grinding in the early game to get the necromancy ingredients, so it seemed pretty un-even overall.
Nikolaj
6470
Ultima 8 was a huge step backwards, in my opinion. The story was much worse, the world was less interesting, none of the old companions were in the game (or any other companions), and it introduced horrible jumping puzzles.
edit: Come to think of it, it wasn’t so much a step backwards as a forward step in the wrong direction. In my opinion, of course.
Chuck
6471
I blame EA (and so does Garriott) for the mess that was U8.
From a Gamespot interview:
[I]If you look at Ultima 8 – and that’s my least favorite of the series – the causes are multiple, but understandable. Look at Origin’s history with Electronic Arts … we became part of that company halfway through the development of Ultima 7. That game was the most inventive game in the series, and my favorite, and Ultima 8 wound up being the most generic and derivative.
Ultima 7 was kind of the game’s ultimate realization … every object was useful and touchable, and the story made sense; it was the Ultima of Ultimas for me. One of the first mistakes I made starting with Ultima 8 was to let Electronic Arts convince me that it was better to ship every year on a predictable schedule then to ship a game at an unknown future date when it was actually done and ready to go out the door. It was a belief engendered by the success the company had with its sports franchises. Although these games introduced only slight technological upgrades from year to year, because everyone knew when they were coming out, it was easy for EA to market them and make big money.
EA believed this was true for all games. The counsel – and sometimes it was more than just counsel – I would get from EA was that the schedule was the dominant issue. Once we started down the path on Ultima 8, I decided I would be a good corporate citizen and walk the walk and talk the talk. And as Ultima 8 got into scheduling trouble, as every Ultima always did, rather than make a decision as we had in the past to hold the game until it was polished, we began to cut things out to stay on schedule. And we cut and we cut and we cut and the game that was finally released was not only shipped early even for the cut version (and therefore buggy), but also had its guts ripped out as far as being an Ultima.
It’s really sad because there are parts of it I think were done very well, in the sense that the tile graphics and the foundation were outstanding. It had by far the most detailed character animation of any game to date. It was way ahead of its time in many years, but just wasn’t a complete game.[/I]
Nikolaj
6472
GOG has a 50% off weekend deal. Notables, that I have played, include Gothic 2 Gold, and Gothic 3 (but not Gothic, for some reason), as well as The Guild Gold (much better than any of the Guild 2 games, in my opinion).
I’m kind of interested in the Dark Fall games, but I don’t know much about them. Are they any good?
Giaddon
6473
They’re pretty good if you’re into low-budget spooky myst-a-likes. GoG’s version aren’t the improved “Director’s Cuts” available elsewhere, however.
Nikolaj
6474
Thanks for the feedback. I’m kind of annoyed that they don’t have the improved versions. I guess I’ll think it over.
Pogo
6475
When someone like me thinks that someone like that curses a little too much… you may in fact be cursing a little too much.
I’m also amazed that he actually sat through and finished the game.
That’s pretty messed up. Maybe gamers should start hating EA!
Today’s release is…Splinter Cell? Yay? For $10 with really no extras? Wow. :/
The saddest part is, last I checked, the wonderful detailed shadows that were such a big part of what made Splinter Cell such a good looking game stopped working on nVIDIA cards eight years ago, and I don’t believe they ever worked properly on ATI hardware.
You would figure a fix would have surfaced by now, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case. I may reinstall it again anyway since it’s been ages since I’ve played it.
RCT3 for $20!?! Has GOG taken this “we sell new games too” thing as an excuse to stop selling old games at $6/$10 price points?
Whoa, didn’t even notice that one. Seems odd indeed. :/
