Ultima 6 Project hits Beta

[Jason]

Tags: Ultima 6 Project

It's time to dig into that pile of games you never play (the one to the left of your desk with Rune, Soulbringer, Kingpin, HoMM4 and all those magazine cover demo CDs) for Dungeon Siege as the <b><a href="http://u6project.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=1" target="blank">beta for the Ultima 6 Project</a></b> was just released.
<br>
<blockquote>It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon's next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 8 (M8) for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). This is the beta release for the project, which will be followed shortly by the 1.0 release. Some things to look forward to in this release:
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<br>
* The entire world is now complete, and ready for players to explore.
<br>
* All NPC’s are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.
<br>
* New weapons are available for the player to discover.
<br>
* Tangle Vines are now in game, and should pose a nasty surprise to unwary travelers.
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* Enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now available as part of the Journal.
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</blockquote>
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/">RPG Watch</A>

 

[made]

Nice to see the project is nearing completion, even if the DS engine is meanwhile seriously dated.

I like their take on the U6 cover art btw, even if it doesn't capture the glorious triumph of the arian over the devilish jew quite like the original:

 

[Silellak]

Hm, I may have to give it a shot, assuming I can find my Dungeon Siege discs.

<fanboy>
Even if it sucks, it'd be worth it so I can replay Lazarus at some point.
</fanboy>

I wasn't a huge fan of some of the things I heard about the design philosophy, but I'm not going to judge it without at least trying it. Has anyone here played any of the earlier milestones?

 

[Luzur]

finally.

fap fap fap fap

 

[franc kaos]

Wow, 6 was my first ever rpg, never finished it, now I finally get the chance to, in better graphics, on a laptop better than the original system I first played it on.

Just need to find my DS disks - fuck!

 

[Michael Ellis]

A fellow oldtimer should LP this.
Shameless plug for my UIVP2 LP: http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=32937

 

[Jaesun]

finally.

fap fap fap fap

Fuck. Yes. Played one of the earlier milestones. Damn good work they did on this.

SO looking forward to this.

 

[Elzair]

Finally! I have been looking forward to this for six years!

 

[Martin]

Are these the same guys that made Ultima something Lazarus?

 

[pipka]

LP this shit!!!

 

[Lesifoere]

I lost my DS discs a long time ago.

Sigh. This is why I never got around to trying Lazarus.

 

[Silellak]

Are these the same guys that made Ultima something Lazarus?

Sadly, no, but I believe they did work with Team Lazarus to create Project Britannia, the basic DS-based world map of Britannia, as well as the implementation of certain Ultima gameplay elements (ships, etc.). Honestly not sure of the details, so I don't know what exactly the two games will have in common.

I lost my DS discs a long time ago.

Sigh. This is why I never got around to trying Lazarus.

I can't find mine either, so I might have to "borrow" a copy from the internet masses.

 

[Saxon1974]

Oh man got a real big hard on for this one!

I think Lazarus was my favorite RPG release in the last 10 years, loved every minute of it.

Dont have much time for beta testing though so probably wait till its been bug fixed.....

 

[Silellak]

I think Lazarus was my favorite RPG release in the last 10 years, loved every minute of it.

Wow, I thought I was the only one. Lazarus fanboys unite!

 

[Elzair]

I like it as well, but I never beat it. I ended up putting it aside when Oblivion came out. What a bad decision that was!

 

[Saxon1974]

I think Lazarus was my favorite RPG release in the last 10 years, loved every minute of it.

Wow, I thought I was the only one. Lazarus fanboys unite!

Funny and I am in AZ too, we could form our own Lazarus fanboi club!

 

[Saxon1974]

Nice to see the project is nearing completion, even if the DS engine is meanwhile seriously dated.

I like their take on the U6 cover art btw, even if it doesn't capture the glorious triumph of the arian over the devilish jew quite like the original:

Pretty cool cover art. Did the artist only do cover art or did he work on in game items?

 

[Martin]

Lazarus seemed to me a pretty competent remake, but from what I remember it inherited alot of the realtime bullshit from dungeon siege. Also the magic axes made the combat aspect....well...broken, maybe it was supposed to be faithful to the original ultima V in that regard?

I dont know how the original Ultima V combat was like though, the oldest origin rpg's I played were Ultima VI and Savage Empire, the simple turn based system based on movement found in savage empire and ultima 6 was good, in any case a whole of alot better than the pathetic combat in Ultima 7.

I just hope they make some effort to keep the good aspects of the original Ultima VI combat.

I also hope the flying carpet will be in.

 

[Silellak]

I think Lazarus was my favorite RPG release in the last 10 years, loved every minute of it.

Wow, I thought I was the only one. Lazarus fanboys unite!

Funny and I am in AZ too, we could form our own Lazarus fanboi club!

The weather must fuck with our brain.

Lazarus seemed to me a pretty competent remake, but from what I remember it inherited alot of the realtime bullshit from dungeon siege. Also the magic axes made the combat aspect....well...broken, maybe it was supposed to be faithful to the original ultima V in that regard?

I dont know how the original Ultima V combat was like though, the oldest origin rpg's I played were Ultima VI and Savage Empire, the simple turn based system based on movement found in savage empire and ultima 6 was good, in any case a whole of alot better than the pathetic combat in Ultima 7.

I just hope they make some effort to keep the good aspects of the original Ultima VI combat.

I also hope the flying carpet will be in.

I'm pretty sure the flying carpet was only in Ultimas 5 and 7, not 6. It wasn't in Lazarus because the engine would never have been able to support it, sadly.

I personally think all the crappiness of the Dungeon Siege engine (limitations on PC-teleportation ability, real-time combat, etc.) is more than made up for by the "seamless world" element that I feel is so important to an Ultima game. An Ultima game with more than one loading screen - the one right after the title screen - just feels fundamentally wrong, and the Dungeon Siege engine really helped Lazarus nail that aspect.

Not to mention the other ways the team got Ultima right - the music, the atmosphere, the characters, the writing...I could gush on and on, obviously. They really brought a whole new life to the already-great story of Ultima 5.

In the end, I even enjoyed the combat in Lazarus...sure, it wasn't turn based, but it was still loads better than Ultima 7 (not that that's terribly hard, but still) and the difficulty curve seemed pretty comparable to Ultimas 4-7, right down to certain equipment (ie, Magic Axes) being overpowering. I never felt combat in Ultima was the point, which I suppose is obvious considering Ultima 7 continues to be my favorite RPG yet has perhaps the worst combat engine I've ever seen.

 

[Saxon1974]

I think Lazarus was my favorite RPG release in the last 10 years, loved every minute of it.

Wow, I thought I was the only one. Lazarus fanboys unite!

Funny and I am in AZ too, we could form our own Lazarus fanboi club!

The weather must fuck with our brain.

Lazarus seemed to me a pretty competent remake, but from what I remember it inherited alot of the realtime bullshit from dungeon siege. Also the magic axes made the combat aspect....well...broken, maybe it was supposed to be faithful to the original ultima V in that regard?

I dont know how the original Ultima V combat was like though, the oldest origin rpg's I played were Ultima VI and Savage Empire, the simple turn based system based on movement found in savage empire and ultima 6 was good, in any case a whole of alot better than the pathetic combat in Ultima 7.

I just hope they make some effort to keep the good aspects of the original Ultima VI combat.

I also hope the flying carpet will be in.

I'm pretty sure the flying carpet was only in Ultimas 5 and 7, not 6. It wasn't in Lazarus because the engine would never have been able to support it, sadly.

I personally think all the crappiness of the Dungeon Siege engine (limitations on PC-teleportation ability, real-time combat, etc.) is more than made up for by the "seamless world" element that I feel is so important to an Ultima game. An Ultima game with more than one loading screen - the one right after the title screen - just feels fundamentally wrong, and the Dungeon Siege engine really helped Lazarus nail that aspect.

Not to mention the other ways the team got Ultima right - the music, the atmosphere, the characters, the writing...I could gush on and on, obviously. They really brought a whole new life to the already-great story of Ultima 5.

In the end, I even enjoyed the combat in Lazarus...sure, it wasn't turn based, but it was still loads better than Ultima 7 (not that that's terribly hard, but still) and the difficulty curve seemed pretty comparable to Ultimas 4-7, right down to certain equipment (ie, Magic Axes) being overpowering. I never felt combat in Ultima was the point, which I suppose is obvious considering Ultima 7 continues to be my favorite RPG yet has perhaps the worst combat engine I've ever seen.

No AZ fanclub? SIgh

Yea I thought combat was tolerable but definitely not the best part of it. Where you nailed it was the wide open seamless world and especially the music and the writing. They took all the great songs from UV and instead of messing them up they made them better.

And dont get me started on the writing, If I remember correctly it was the original script but they greatly added to it. It was the only super intensive dialog heavy game that I read every little bit of.

So, do I think U6 project's writing will be as good? Hard to duplicate that feat, but the game still look quite good so I hope it turns out well.

 

[Silellak]

No AZ fanclub? SIgh

Yea I thought combat was tolerable but definitely not the best part of it. Where you nailed it was the wide open seamless world and especially the music and the writing. They took all the great songs from UV and instead of messing them up they made them better.

And dont get me started on the writing, If I remember correctly it was the original script but they greatly added to it. It was the only super intensive dialog heavy game that I read every little bit of.

So, do I think U6 project's writing will be as good? Hard to duplicate that feat, but the game still look quite good so I hope it turns out well.

Didn't say no fanclub, did I? I hereby announce myself as president and dictator-for-life of the Arizona Lazarus Fanboyclub.

Yeah, they really did a kick-ass job with the writing. So many nice touches, with your companions even having conversation-specific interaction. Amazing that they changed so much while still leaving the spirit of Ultima 5 very-much intact, especially considering how easy it would've been to botch the whole thing up by changing the wrong plot element or having too much amateur writing. Hard to believe that not a single person got a penny for that, though I know at least a few of them found jobs because of it.

If U6 Project can get it right too, it really WILL be lightning striking twice, which is why I am also somewhat skeptical.

Fuck. Now I really want to play Lazarus again.

 

[mindx2]

Didn't say no fanclub, did I? I hereby announce myself as president and dictator-for-life of the Arizona Lazarus Fanboyclub.

Yeah, they really did a kick-ass job with the writing. So many nice touches, with your companions even having conversation-specific interaction. Amazing that they changed so much while still leaving the spirit of Ultima 5 very-much intact, especially considering how easy it would've been to botch the whole thing up by changing the wrong plot element or having too much amateur writing. Hard to believe that not a single person got a penny for that, though I know at least a few of them found jobs because of it.

If U6 Project can get it right too, it really WILL be lightning striking twice, which is why I am also somewhat skeptical.

Fuck. Now I really want to play Lazarus again.

Then I'm Dictator For Life of the Maine Chapter of the Lazarus FanboyClub !!! I agree that they did such an AMAZING job for a freak'in community mod!! It just oozed professionalism and quality. I never, in a milliion years, thought I would enjoy a game made from Dungeon Siege!!!! I actually thought very little about combat throughout the whole game. It was all about exploring their amazing recreation of Brittania, the musical score, and the writing that made Oblivion writers look like ADHD teen fiction writers !

I could go on and on about the job Team Lazarus did and hope to GOD that this U6 remake is anywhere near the quality. I'm very tempted to try the Beta but I waited for the final version on Lazarus to get the best experience, so will probably wait on this one as well.

 

[Saxon1974]

Fuck. Now I really want to play Lazarus again.

Well thats the great thing about deep wide open world games, if you wait a couple of years you forget enough stuff to play it again and have it be semi-fresh.

I have enough games like that in my library to last me for years even if another true RPG never gets made. (Ok, lets not start a dork war here)

 

[Silellak]

Fuck. Now I really want to play Lazarus again.

Well thats the great thing about deep wide open world games, if you wait a couple of years you forget enough stuff to play it again and have it be semi-fresh.

I have enough games like that in my library to last me for years even if another true RPG never gets made. (Ok, lets not start a dork war here)

Alternating between Ultima VI, Ultima VII, Ultima VII Part 2, and Lazarus might actually be enough. Har.

Or, if you're feeling really frisky, throw in the Ultima Underworld games, though they're not nearly as "open world".

 

[made]

Pretty cool cover art. Did the artist only do cover art or did he work on in game items?

Portraits and UI, from what I gather.