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Game News Underworld Ascendant to be published by 505 Games, coming late 2018

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: 505 Games; Joe Fielder; OtherSide Entertainment; Paul Neurath; Underworld Ascendant; Warren Spector

OtherSide Entertainment unexpectedly published a teaser trailer for Underworld Ascendant today, which was followed shortly thereafter by a press release and a special development update. All three reveal that the game now has a publisher - the Italian indie publisher 505 Games. It also now has a release window in the second half of 2018, and a Steam page too. Here's the teaser (which is just a snippet of gameplay from the recently released pre-alpha) and the press release:



CALABASAS, Calif. – Aug. 17, 2017 – 505 Games, a subsidiary of Digital Bros. S.p.A., announced today a partnership with development studio OtherSide Entertainment to publish fantasy RPG Underworld Ascendant, the next-generation sequel to the landmark Underworld franchise. The deeply experienced team at OtherSide studio – helmed by industry legends Paul Neurath (Ultima Underworld, Thief) and Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey) – has worked on many leading game franchises, which collectively garnered more than 200 awards and earned over $3 billion in revenues. Their current project, Underworld Ascendant, was first revealed on Kickstarter, where fans clamoring for the return of the storied masterpiece raised more than $850,000 for its creation.

“It’s another big moment for 505 Games, having the opportunity to partner with this talented team on such an iconic brand,” said Neil Ralley, president of 505 Games. “Ultima Underworld is among the greatest PC RPGs ever made, and we look forward to what Paul, Warren and their team will accomplish with the next generation of the franchise.”

In 1992, Ultima Underworld changed the rules of what a fantasy RPG could be, and introduced the concept of 3D immersion, a player-authored experience and an open world to explore. Now, OtherSide is making the next-generation PC follow-up to the series, innovating in bold new ways. Players will return to The Stygian Abyss, a breathtaking fantasy realm, rife with danger and full of intrigue. They are provided a wide array of tools to experiment with and create their own ingenious solutions to challenges. The story and world will react dynamically to player choices, challenging and rewarding their creativity and allowing them to author their experience.

“We’ve found a great partner in 505 Games; one who really supports and understands indie developers,” said Paul Neurath, CEO, OtherSide Entertainment. “We also have our fans to thank for helping make this dream a reality. Everyone who backed Underworld Ascendant on KickStarter is an important part of this project and we plan to keep them involved throughout development, sharing early builds and sourcing their feedback to help make this game amazing.”

“The original Underworld games broke new ground in the world of video game RPGs, and the Ascendant team is committed to innovation at that level,” said Warren Spector, studio director, OtherSide Entertainment. “Early builds already prove that, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

Underworld Ascendant will be published on Steam for PC in the second half of 2018. Players can Wishlist the game now at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/692840.

To learn more about Underworld Ascendant, please visit: www.underworldascendant.com.

I guess things are really warming up, although given the pace of development until now a year till release seems almost optimistic. The new development update has some screenshots from areas of the game that we haven't seen yet, as well as the news that OtherSide will be livestreaming it and answering questions on their Twitch channel on August 22.
 

Quantomas

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Jun 9, 2017
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Nice teaser. Though, now that some publishers report 80% of sales being digital, I would like to hear Otherside's reasoning and what benefits the deal has.
 

Roguey

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So those are final quality graphics? I'm sure one could make a cartoony fps work, but those are some pretty disappointing color choices.
 

Raapys

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Jun 7, 2007
Messages
4,960
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the graphics. They have managed to make decent atmosphere with it based on what I've seen, but it looks way too plastic-y. Used to be a trademark of Unreal Engine games. Would much have preferred something like Arx's.

That said, their design philosophy seems great and surely those graphics can't take much from the development budget.
 

Crescent Hawk

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I agree, I am all for classic Fantasy looks, but even then if you look at Greyhawk it had a pretty classic but lets say...believable, look to its fantasy. People are not asking for GOT, Witcher levels of 2GRITTY. People are expecting that the tech we have today can emulate the cover of the Stygyan Abyss, and because its LGS guys have some of the bizarre noir dreamlike quality of Thief.

People just want this--»
234801-ultima-underworld-the-stygian-abyss-dos-front-cover.jpg


In videogame format. Simple as that, but no we always get some retarded apologists that always come with passive agressive remarks "that the industry is already full of that", fuck you, we dont want this to have the color palete of fucking Warcraft.
 

Roguey

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Didn't even pay attention to the system requirements

  • Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 950 / AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870
  • Storage: 45 GB available space

With those graphics? Really?
 

luj1

You're all shills
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Too vibrant and infantile art direction for supposed spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld.
 

Roguey

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Everything is possible when you do things really inneficiently. Remember Ubisoft Tetris had performance issues on PS4.

Ohhh that's right this uses Unity. Somehow I had this mixed up with Bard's Tale 4, which uses UE4.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
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Awesome object physics, worse graphics than Arx Fatalis yet requires significantly more storage space and a video card from 2014. What a deal.
 

Roguey

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Was kickstarter ever good for something?
Even with the flops and disappointments, it's still a net positive. It made Divinity: Original Sin a better game, D:OS2 too I'm sure.
 

Roguey

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Shadowrun: Dragonfall

That's a kinda/sorta thing since Dragonfall wasn't actually crowdfunded at all. They used the money they made from Shadowrun Returns to fund it, though sure, it is true that there never would have been a Dragonfall had SR not been crowdfunded.

Go figure that the only one not crowdfunded was the best of the bunch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

DeepOcean

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Hope they didn't ran out of money and turned the game on a glorified claymation EXTREME physics based obstacle course and there is something that actually comes close to the original pitching in there... Nah... its kickstarter, probably we will get a gutted version of the original pitch, hastily stitched together to release something as this had been the modus operandi of alot of developers on the last few years. I could be wrong and I would love to be so but the streams I watched didn't impress me at all.

I mean, pre alpha and all that but is there something that doesn't look like some clunky barely functional stuff after years of production? The last map they released was a physics based obstacle course, this is yet another one, okay, this is just some small area for a taste of the game but sniping a barely functional enemy Ai that can't defend itself with arrows that travel straighter than bullets doesn't leave a good taste. Sure, to the optimist, this maybe only mean they didn't polish the game yet but another rather annoying habit of kickstarter developers of taking their beta versions and slapping a 1.0 stick on it makes me skeptical.
 

Metro

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Was kickstarter ever good for something?

Tesla Effect.
I found that sub-par. Granted I preferred the first couple of Tex Murphy games, especially the original Mean Streets; but I thought Tesla Effect was a glorified object hunt. It was more a nostalgia fix than a quality game.
 

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