Bioware is working on a new Ultima game

[Menegrothx]

http://kotaku.com/5925350/bioware-is-ma ... ultima-rpg
http://ultimaforever.com/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... ma-forever

The first great Western RPG has been lovingly restored in Ultima Forever - return to the Ultima series in BioWare's new cross-platform action RPG. Accept the challenge from Lady British and save the land of Britannia. Play as the Fighter or the Mage and travel alone or with friends, restore virtue and become the Avatar!

Only 2 professions?

The visual look on the site reminds me of Torchlight and WoW And apparently Richard Garriot is not involved with the project. I seriously hope they dont screw it up, but I think they'll just give the game a bad name by turning it into a some kind of cheap Diablo knock off with cartoony graphics.

[MrNash]

I don't know. I like the old Ultima games, but they'll be bringing in totally different people for the game, so I'm looking at this as an Ultima game in name only. Heck, even if Garriott was brought in, could he recreate all the stuff that made the series great 20 years ago? Sometimes I wonder if some of these old franchises are better off left alone without being resurrected and potentially having their legacies tarnished.

[MrPopo]

I don't know. I like the old Ultima games, but they'll be bringing in totally different people for the game, so I'm looking at this as an Ultima game in name only. Heck, even if Garriott was brought in, could he recreate all the stuff that made the series great 20 years ago? Sometimes I wonder if some of these old franchises are better off left alone without being resurrected and potentially having their legacies tarnished.

He was there for Ultima IX. So clearly he isn't a magic bullet.

[Nemoide]

I love the Ultima series but Ultima is Richard Garriott. If he's not at least advising/approving things, I'm not interested in it as an Ultima game. I don't know that it's going to be bland, but I'm going to need convincing.
(And I'll defend Ultima IX as having some interesting stuff, even if the execution was less than stellar.)

However, I'm pretty sure Garriott is working on his own new RPG. So that should be interesting.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Cautiously optimistic...well, it will probably end up like Kingdoms of Amalur.

[jfrost]

Is it going to be F2P?

[Menegrothx]

He was there for Ultima IX. So clearly he isn't a magic bullet.

I recall seeing an interview of him a few months back. He said that the worst games he created are the ones where he listened to other people's suggestions and opinions instead of following his own ideas (Ultima IX and Tabula Rasa)

[sabrage]

No, fuck everything about this. Bioware has been on a downward trend since Jade Empire.

[Gunstar Green]

Going to remain in the shadows on this one until it flops or proves itself.

It just seems like a bit of a cash-in "Western RPGs are popular again lets revive an old heavy-hitter" sort of thing to me.

[Menegrothx]

It just seems like a bit of a cash-in "Western RPGs are popular again lets revive an old heavy-hitter" sort of thing to me.

The kind of depth that Ultima games had is rarely seen even in the good open ended WRPGs of today though. Games like Mass Effect are like JRPGs (with out the turn based combat and JRPG-type characters and plot) when compared to some Ultima games

Although Wasteland 2 is being currently developed so maybe you're onto something after all