Ultima IX: Ascension has been generating quite a lot of news recently, and last night was no exception. The official site saw several new additions. First, 11 screenshots were added showing off new areas never before seen and some new spell effects. And next this Letter from Lord British reprinted here for your perusal:

Interesting stuff from the King himself. What I find of particular interest is the statement that the Demo is only about 3 - 5% of the total game. Good news since I've been hearing from people who saying that the demo is taking a goodly amount of time to complete. Oh, and Mr. Garriott, don't worry about the game being too big or too hard... cuz that's the way (uh huh, uh huh) we like it.

In other U9 news, Origin PR superstar, Lady Moi, made an announcement about the Official Ultima IX FAQ, or lack thereof. She had always intended to get it up to date and then keep it that way, but it just did not work out. So, she has turned the task over to Telerium Dragon to maintain it on his page. If you have any questions about what's currently known, the FAQ is the best place to start. I saw this over on Ultima IX Horizons.

One more quick interview with Diablo II Lead Designer, Bill Roper has been posted from his question-answering stint on Battle.net a few days ago. This one comes by way of GA-RPG and includes questions about PvP balancing, experience sharing, and the proposed arena mode of play. Here a small taste:

Read the full interview here.

In case you didn't get enough D&D goodness in yesterday's news, there's one more article you should check out. GameProWorld as put together a lengthy and fact-packed roundup titled Heirs to Baldur's Gate. The feature covers the offspring and cousins of the venerable D&D title, including Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Also included is a look at the technologically-unrelated title Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor (link currently down) which will continue the classic tale started over 11 years ago with the first computer game ever to be made with the official D&D license. And for good measure there's also previews of two other RPG's Wizardry 8 and Vampire: The Masquerade which have noting to do with BG as the article title suggests, but still are admittedly inspired by its success. It's a good read which you can check out here.

I'm not sure how new these are, but I apparently missed them so I'll post them now. 3DGN has posted two 'quickie' previews of Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights for those of us who just can't get enough of classic AD&D games.

• Icewind Dale Quickie - Black Isle Studio's new campaign built with Bioware's Infinity Engine. The same engine they used to create the now-legendary Baldur's Gate and set in the same Forgotten Realms universe. The preview gives some overview and also informs that the game will focus mostly on dungeon romping.
• Neverwinter Nights Quickie - Not prone to rest on their laurels, Bioware is working on their own new RPG -- but this time using the 3D Omen Engine which is concurrently being used to create MDK 2. Focusing on online play, the game hopes to breathe new life into the genre by reintroducing the importance of a Dungeon Master to role-playing. A player who starts an Internet game will have the option of pulling strings behind the scenes, creating quests, guiding players, posing as NPC's, and spawning hordes of angry monsters. Their approach really intrigues me and I can't wait to see how the final product turns out.

Addendum: I must apologize. Ultima IX has not officially gone gold. A release candidate has been sent for for final testing, but it may or may not be the final version itself. It should only be a few more days at this point, though. I blame only myself for jumping the gun without official confirmation. I trusted a site which has always had reliable info... but this time there was a misunderstanding and communications got botched as they sometimes do. I've kept the erroneous report up anyway since I do not believe in editing content once it's already been out there for the world to see:

It is now my pleasure to bring you what is perhaps the biggest news story we've ever posted here:

ULTIMA IX: ASCENSION HAS GONE GOLD!!!

That's right! Programing for Ultima IX: Ascension has been completed, and the master copies have been sent off for duplication! It shan't be long before the game is on the shelves of stores worldwide. Word trickles down from Lord British, himself. You heard it here first! (Unless you're like me and saw it over on Ultima IX Horizons or somewhere else).

This marks a turning point... not only in the saga of Ultima, but perhaps in all of computer gaming as well. I don't think it is exaggerating to say that this is one of the most highly anticipated games of all time. Ultima has been around since the earliest days of PC gaming and has always pushed the limits of what people thought was possible in a game -- both in technology and in imagination. I recall spending many hours with my childhood friends unlocking the secrets of the earliest games. Later, I remember buying my first EGA video card specifically so I could get 16 colors in Ultima V. And then theres the time I upgraded to a 486 because Ultima VII just wouldn't run well on my 286. Again and again, each entry in the series increased my appreciation for computer games as an art form. Each one drew me further into a fiction I adored and allowed me to run free in a world I loved and genuinely cared about.

I know I am not alone in these feelings either. Perhaps no other online community has been so vocal in expressing their concerns over any one game. And there has been good cause for concern. Many felt extreme disappointment in the direction the series took with the ill-fated Ultima VIII. While in many ways, it wasn't a bad game, it just did not live up to its name. The focus of the game was not on what had made the series great: relatively limited interaction with the world, few characters you truly cared about, no sense of saving the world (you really end up wreaking havoc actually), little emphasis on the Eight Virtues, and jumping puzzles. =P But the design team has had five years to think about where to go with this ninth and final installment of the saga. And though they struggled through many of the early years, in the end they returned to the gameplay elements that made the best Ultimas great. And they've returned to the tradition of pushing the technical limits of the medium for the purposes of creating the most emmersive world possible.

I called this a turning point for several reasons. This game ends a trilogy of trilogies. Although absent from the playing field for some time, the Ultima series has always impacted the world of gaming -- both by shaping the expectations of gamers, and by inspiring others to create great works of their own. Many eyes are watching for what happens next. If the game succeeds critically and/or commercially, it could inspire a generation of games which strive to stretch the limits of existing technology to bring us more and more engrossing worlds of fantasy, science fiction, and those based on reality. If it fails, it may signal that we've grown tired of this type of game as a community, and that bigger changes are necessary to sustain the medium. And, what I find most chilling: Perhaps the game will just be no more than the last chapter in an aging franchise, possibly signaling that people are too complacent to really care anymore about a genre which has been played out to its fullest with little room left for innovation. Only time will tell.

Although Britannia will no doubt live on in other games, this will mark the end of the Avatar's journey. How this game is received will most likely determine if he goes out a heroic champion , or as has-been whose time has past.

With the Ultima IX: Ascension Demo on gamers' hard drives around the world, I suppose it's only appropriate that there be a couple more reviews and previews. I can't wait to try the demo, but unfortunately I must since my local newsstand still does not have the December issue of Computer Gaming World in yet. So if you are like me, you can pass the time by reading these reviews and previews:

• Gamespot's Preview of Ultima IX: Ascension - Not to be outdone by their European counterparts, the US Gamespot team has put together their own preview. While not quite as in depth as the one from yesterday, there is still a wealth of info covering the story, the engine, gameplay mechanics, the combat and magic systems, and more.
• Wewp! Entertainment's Ultima: Ascension Demo Preview - The reviewer gives the nitty gritty of what you can expect to find in the demo, the many technical problems he encountered, as well as his thoughts on how it reflects the potential of the full game.
  Addendum: I should point out that Origin has stated many times that the demo is made from an early build of the game which had many known bugs. Most if not all should be corrected in the full game.

If that's just not enough, there is a brand new Quicktime Ultima IX movie for you to drool over. It shows off some slick gameplay and features the cool vocal stylings of that guy with the British accent who seems to do all of Origin's voice-overs. View the movie here on Origin's FTP site.

Now, if you really, really just can't wait to start playing the demo, then there's some good news. CGW has announced that they don't mind if their readers distribute the demo over the Internet. So it took all of about 3 minutes to start appearing on websites such as this 3Dfiles Download page. However, they make a point to remind everyone:

If you feel undaunted by all this, then feel free to grab it. But I think their warning should be heeded. Word on the street is that the demo is far from bug-free, and may not even be playable on some systems at all. Fear of this keeps me from attempting the download on my piddly 56K modem. However, if I still do not have the magazine version by next week when my RADSL line gets installed I will definitely grab it then. =) Just 5 days, 16 hours, 52 minutes left until they come install it! But I digress...

Bullfrog Productions has released a new demo of their near-classic dungeon simulation, Dungeon Keeper 2. (I would link directly to the game's homepage, but the site does not seem to allow it. So you can access it through Bullfrog's main page). If you have not yet tried your hand and being an evil overlord of your own dungeon, then you should definitely check it out. It just may stop you complaining about how easy dungeons are in other games once you try your hand at it, yourself. The demo is available here in both a 46MB file, and also 16, easily digestible, 3MB chunks.

And if your favorite type of swordplay is more of the real-time strategy bent than the RPG type, then this is for you. Microsoft and Ensemble Studios has released a demo of their wildly popular Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings. The demo weighs in at 47MB and can be downloaded directly from this Gamespot page. Enjoy!

Now, what's that other big game generating all the news? Ah yes, of course: Diablo II. Lead Designer, Bill Roper spent last night on Battle.net chatting with various webmasters of gaming news sites. (Hmmm, I don't remember receiving an invitation... oh that's right... I only sent out official announcements of our site last night! *smacks forehead*). Although there is some overlap, there is a broad range of questions posed to him, generating some interesting responses.

• Power Gamerz Interview - Asks some rather basic questions about the game's release date, when the Beta will start, and raises some PvP concerns. The interview is on their main page, so scroll down and you'll find it.
• The HavenGames Network Interview - Includes more in depth questions regarding gameplay issues such as uniqueness of character names, guild houses, and the proposed ranking system.
• The Dr. TwisTer's Network Interview - Covering some of the touchier issues such as player killers, prevention of cheats and hacks, and the possibility of selling accounts on eBay. The last topic elicited this classic response from Mr. Roper:

Special thanks to DiabloII.net for the linkage.

First up tonight, we have a couple of Ultima IX: Ascension previews. The first is a massive one from Gamespot covering pretty much everything Ultima related. There's the obligatory U9 info with a slew of new screenshots, there's a piece on the history of Ultima, the future of UO, and a piece on Lord British himself, Richard Garriot. The info is good, and the pics are awesome. I highly recommend clicking here to read it all for yourself.

The second preview comes by way of the Adrenaline Vault. While its not nearly as informative as the first one, they did manage to score five more exclusive screenshots which should not be missed. (Unless of course you are one of those lucky devils who has the U9 Demo already... you don't need to see nuthin'. =P) The rest of us can click here.

I saw over on Blue's that Eidos Interactive has released a brand new demo of their new RPG, Revenant. However there is no word on what's changed from their older demo and/or the one released on other game CD's. You may download it directly from their FTP site here. I will be checking it out tonight and will probably give my opinion if it moves me enough to say something interesting. Additionally, Rao purchased the full version today and just began playing it, so hopefully we'll get his thoughts too. Stay tuned.

If 3D Action/RPG's are your thing, then this is for you. Crusaders of Might and Magic is a game under production from 3DO. Set in the Might and Magic universe, the game will allow players to take a more proactive and visceral role than in previous offerings. Voodoo Extreme has managed to score three new screenshots which you can see here.

Click to read older news in our Archive...