Ultima Online is making its return, the UO team is coming back to life to take the MMO world by storm, or they hope.
Currently titled Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn, the game will be a "complete make-over" of the original UO franchise. Complete with a new graphics engine, user interface, content along with the nine years of existing (but enhanced) content.
EA has also talked about a new playable race to make the game more dynamic. This was one of the major drawbacks to the original game, which may have been an issue given the '2d' perspective that the game held with actual "sprites" for art -not 3d renderings (need a LOT of art for multiple races).
Speaking of renderings, the game engine will be set in the classic UO perspective (presumably full 3d graphics with great eye candy). So classic UO gamers will be able to fall right into the environment and recall all the fun they had with the original MMORPG.
It has been nine years, that's a long time. People may not have forgotten Ultima Online being that it was one of the first true graphical MMO experiences. However, UO was plagued with a lot of flaws, PvP issues and general game design "questionable decisions."
Will the bad parts of UO be recalled by MMORPG gamers? Or will we all realize Ultima Online was the first of its kind. The first to do anything revolutionary usually isn't the one that does it the best - they lay the foundation for newcomes to do it better. A lot has been learned in the last nine years about MMO design and EA, along with a great team of UO developers, could indeed design, fund and release a World of Warcraft Killer.
CodeMonkey (former UO public beta participant)
Thanks to TANK for the UO update
Currently titled Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn, the game will be a "complete make-over" of the original UO franchise. Complete with a new graphics engine, user interface, content along with the nine years of existing (but enhanced) content.
EA has also talked about a new playable race to make the game more dynamic. This was one of the major drawbacks to the original game, which may have been an issue given the '2d' perspective that the game held with actual "sprites" for art -not 3d renderings (need a LOT of art for multiple races).
Speaking of renderings, the game engine will be set in the classic UO perspective (presumably full 3d graphics with great eye candy). So classic UO gamers will be able to fall right into the environment and recall all the fun they had with the original MMORPG.
It has been nine years, that's a long time. People may not have forgotten Ultima Online being that it was one of the first true graphical MMO experiences. However, UO was plagued with a lot of flaws, PvP issues and general game design "questionable decisions."
Will the bad parts of UO be recalled by MMORPG gamers? Or will we all realize Ultima Online was the first of its kind. The first to do anything revolutionary usually isn't the one that does it the best - they lay the foundation for newcomes to do it better. A lot has been learned in the last nine years about MMO design and EA, along with a great team of UO developers, could indeed design, fund and release a World of Warcraft Killer.
CodeMonkey (former UO public beta participant)
Thanks to TANK for the UO update
