Copies of Akalabeth??? What, did he have a bunch of them hidden in his attic all these years?
Yeah, he has a bunch of disks + manuals of the original version that he hand made, that were left over from when the game got picked up by a publisher.
So, he's going to get those out to people!
It was neat, in the first video, he talked about how he still has an Apple II setup with the game running to show people how his moon-trips got started.
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Look forward to playing the game, but download only? WTF???
It's not digital only, lol. There is a boxed copy
Title: Re: Lord British's NEW GAME
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on March 22, 2013, 05:42:19 AM
I'm half and half on this. I'm glad for the guy that he was able to make the pledge amount so he can get the game out there that he wants to make, but at the same time, with whats being shown so far, I am not impressed, with the visuals and what was shown so far anyway, as it wasn't really anything that has not been done already in other titles.
Also, given the game is not finished, but I got the feeling I was looking at Direct X 8 visuals from 2002, and at one point was a little surprised to see they ripped off a scene from the 3D Mark 2000 demo (rune scene with stones in a circle and the energy orb in the center). When pc gaming is concerned, I would at least expect visuals that can hold up to anything done by at least 2008 on up, and would rather hope for something that can match anything released within the last year. I think whats going to take place here is a Richard's battle to stay relevant in the current PC RPG market (going up against Dragon Age, Fallout, WOW, Fable, Dark Souls, etc). This will not be a easy battle.
Also, they listed titles his crew had worked on prior. In that list are a couple of real duds and downright broken games. I still shudder when I think about DarkVoid for Pc.... At any rate, story and the over all experience was always the strong point for Ultima, so hopefully if nothing else, then this new game will deliver on that aspect 100 percent. Hopefully they take their time with it and don't get pressured into doing a early release that has issues.
Title: Re: Lord British's NEW GAME
Post by: Arkhan on March 22, 2013, 06:34:27 AM
I think they haven't shown a lot of visuals yet because they haven't sunk that time into it quite yet.
Richard's game design pattern usually starts on paper and involves a lot of fiddling around before anything visual ever happens.
That being said, even though the graphics shown are pretty dated, I wouldn't mind too much as long as the role playing experience is solid. Given that we've now got Tracy Hickman on board, the narrative and story is probably going to be pretty over the top.
RG's stuff was great until other people started poking around steering him in various directions. When it was just him doing Ultima and EA wasn't around, the games were better.
I have pretty high hopes since he's going back to what looks like a spiritual Ultima V successor. The dual scale maps, for example. Totally awesome.
What really sucks though is all the people pissing and moaning about PVP and stupid online crap. I don't think they understand that there is an entire singleplayer concept going on. The multiplayer is still adventure centric, as opposed to UO which was "Go out and do what you want, including killing everyone and making the place a ghost town!"
Title: Re: Lord British's NEW GAME
Post by: Mishran on March 22, 2013, 12:03:59 PM
I think he should have went with an Ultima 7 type game. I haven't yet played an RPG that even compares to it. Still my most played game of all time. Sunk more hours into it than all other RPG games I played combined. That being said, I put 2000+ hours into just Oblivion and Skyrim together... So yeah.
Title: Re: Lord British's NEW GAME
Post by: Arkhan on March 22, 2013, 02:40:27 PM
It will be fairly similar in gameplay I'd bet.
but will have dualscale maps.
So, f*ck yeah best of all Ultimas.
Title: Re: Lord British's NEW GAME
Post by: esteban on March 23, 2013, 04:06:33 AM
I, for one, am willing to give the guy a chance to make a game. IT MIGHT SUCK. IT MIGHT BE MEDIOCRE. In fact, we could say the chances of a new Ultima being "very good" is in the 5-10% range (I'm being generous).
THAT SAID, I am willing to give the guy a chance. HELL KNOWS I DON'T TRUST ANYONE ELSE.
Whiners can whine.
Whingers can whinge.
I don't need ground-breaking innovation. I really don't.
I just want a solid, single-player game that is WORTHY of the Ultima legacy. I may get it.
I am willing to give the guy a chance.
NOTE: Many other projects to update/add an installment to a series (kickstarter, commercial, otherwise) don't inspire confidence in me (sometimes because of the development team--a point Professor P. raised--but also the desire to "modernize" old properties... something that is exceptionally hard to do without pissing off old-skool fans).