I think Ultima Underworld from certain point of view could be seen as pinnacle of video game...

I think Ultima Underworld from certain point of view could be seen as pinnacle of video game, especially in terms of immersion. So it hurts me to watch how awful looking is the new game in the series. Just look at these textures and models. Arx Fatalis from 2001 looked ten times better.

Another worry is wether the dungeon are going to be as complex and big as in the original.

You're being a bit hyperbolic, don't you think? That screenshot looks OK to me, and certainly better than Arx Fatalis, graphically.
I'm much more concerned that the guys heading up the project, Paul Neurath and Warren Spector, don't have the spark they used to. (In Spector's case, we know that's true.)

It doesn't look good, textures are like in Doom 3.

Even if it looked like shit, I wouldn't particularly care. Underworld, of all games, is one where the most important thing is interactivity and good design. If they don't nail those, the game will be a failure. It might fail even if they do, since nobody played UU.

I don't think it's going to turn out good. It's very hard to believe a couple of people who USED to make good games and started begging on kickstarter are going to make something even half as good as Underworld, let alone surpassing it.

Interactivity maybe, good design certainly not.
Both UU1 and 2 have a bunch of poorly designed skills which are literally useless and a waste of time. There is also an objectively best weapon skill making every other weapon skill useless.

They're trying their best to do that, shit like traps, parkour, rope climbing with physics and such are all there along with enemies that hate bright lights which are generally found in the environmmemt.
They seem to have a good base, I'm honetly more afraid of the level design, polish and combat.

Also, Neurath admitted that a game like this won't find wide appeal and that they're experiment with game design.

I don't have overblown expectations, but I'm slightly hopeful, Warren is a hack, Neurath however knows a thing or two.

A shame Doug Church is stuck with Valve, I'm pretty sure hes just been wating his time there since CSGO launched
I think they hired him as a guide for System Shock 3 though.

I just hope both are at least a rough gem and not just mediocre husks.

This is my biggest concern. It's a serious shame how most good modern games fall short of being as good as older ones. When it comes to it I can't really think of a modern game that does something better than an earlier one did

Yeah, like Dishonored, it was very mediocre and far cry from Thief. I wonder if they improved with the sequel. Are the maps in Dishonored 2 bigger?

Yes, they're much bigger.

I'm in the same boat. If the game holds up and is actually fun then who cares if the graphics are muddy and outdated. As long as they aren't so egregious that you're being yanked out of the experience, at least


whats the ratio on kickstarted video games being any good? it's a big fat warning sign at this point considering how many kikestarted scams have been dead-on-arrival or outright scams

Fuck, that reminded me of Divinity Original Sin. I want to forget that game. They even failed to include day night cycle, and they call it successor to Ultima 7?!

Thats about it
You still have some good games out there, the issue here is the ratio and lack of experimentation.
Aside from the rare actual innovative indie/doujin game nobody has heard about because they're not part of the clique, most games just tick a checklist and add a new gimmick.

Everyone is just following trends and I think a part of it was how corporate and centralized everything became after the 2007 crisis which we're only now beggining to recover, and sincerely, while 8th Gen is fucking shit due to the consoles themselves, theres more variety and risks being taken now than before and things seem to be slowly improving as casuals move more and more to mobile and F2P and companies rely more on their core fanbase instead of the casuals.
With exceptions of course

Its the same fucking game, don't bother

Too late, I already beat it.
And yes, it is the same game, just with bigger maps (and some different powers if you play as Emily).

I'd say 2/10
People are really fucking dumb and will fund any shovelware out there with some disposable revenue.


Jesus, now they had the balls to say that?
The game is good, but not that good.

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It recently go cracked fam

The thread is still up

Oh yeah, I forgot Steampunks had made a keygen and everything.
I mixed Dishonored 2 with Prey
They're being cracked so fast I'm starting to mix them up

I never played ultima anything.
If you get to recommend the single best game in the franchise - which would it be?

Underworld 1 and 2

another nostalgiatard shitthread?

Same, I recently got into ultima 7 and I'm enjoying it. If you do decide to play it and you're having issues with the framerate stuttering use Exult.

I've only ever played Ultima Online. What are the CRPG's like?

I'm not a huge fan of first perspn rpgs, but I dig top down ones. I guess I'll go for 7 then.

Start with 4 till 7
Play 1-3 if you want more

What's a paladin?

They're the grandfather of all modern RPGs including Nip ones.
Pretty good games

Like pottery. Enjoy your 10 year old sub-par ports and keep fantasizing that adding stat padding and useless inventory systems, makes games more sophisticated and immershun.

Well there is a reason I asked for one game, because trying to play huge ass franchise from the beginning to the end usually results in me burning out before reaching supposedly the best game.
How much of a story will I miss by starting at 7? I might just as well read synopsis somewhere.

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I thought wizardy held that title for the most part.

The first Wizardry game and the first (proper) Ultima game both came out in 1981.
Both did pretty well in the West, but for some reason, Nips loved Wizardry and didn't care about Ultima.

I can kinda see why though. I always liked the first person dungeon crawlers. I never got too into ultima except for underworld. Was ultima ever ported to those pcs that the japs had?

Underworld is the only one I've played. It's pure sex and it really shows the amazing level design that was present back then.

Like the MSX? Not that I know of. I know there were NES ports, though.

Wizardry was released in Japan while ultima missed that boat by a few years.

I know there is a wizardry 6 snes port that is better than the dos version.

There were Ultima ports on NES & SNES.

DON'T USE EXULT IT RUINS THE GAME, NPCS RUITINES AND INTERACTIONS DON'T WORK HERE.

What the fuck are you talking about, UItima lead directly to Dragon Quest.

Enjoy having no games and hyping up shitty games like a magpie I guess.


You'll miss some of the lore and the impact of some of the characters in your party will be lessened.
Still, most of the later games are pretty contained so yeah, I guess a synopsis will do if you want to be more invested in the world.
Just please don't touch either 8/9


Both came out at the same time
Might and Magic which is also a great franchise came out in 86.
Also everyone here should play Eye of the Beholder by Westwood.
Just don't touch the GBA version for god sakes.

Dragon Quest is pretty much old school Ultima.

Ultima didn't get ported to consoles until around 1990
Wizardry got released in Japan 5 years before that.

Arx Fatalis will always be the better game.

Except the ending, man that was such a shit ending.

Dragon Quest was released in 1986. The first Ultima game that was released in Japan was Ultima 2 for certain home computers and that isn't even close to Dragon Quest. Not to mention everything, from the battle screen to the stat system in Dragon Quest is lifted directly from wizardry.

Because they had taste. Wizardry is far superior to the Ultima series.

True, but the top POV is ripped straight from Ultima.

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Top down games have existed long before Ultima came around.

Are you saying Rogue had an overworld?

I didn't say it was old school Ultima, I said it lead directly to Dragon Quest. Ultima 3 specifically, just because it wasn't ported over doesn't mean it was not played. The Japs were crazy about that shit, and Jap devs were really into doing those ports as quickly as possible even stuff that wasn't Wizardry.

It's pretty typical of Jap devs having more acess and care for Western products they like then the consumer.

The past tense of "to lead" is "led."

I don't think you understand what time period you're talking about.
This is mid 1980s, when internet wasn't a thing and the Japs spoke even less English than they do now. It would be physically impossible for them to play something like Ultima which pretty much requires you to read the manual which is only written in English unless it was translated.

Ah yes, thank you.

Putting aside the fact that by your logic Godzilla would not exist, i double checked and both ultima II and Ultima II was ported to Japan in 1985, PC ports not NES ports so the point is moot.

*III

Did Nips play D&D in the '70s and early '80s, or were CRPGs their first experience with role-playing games? If the latter, it would explain why most JRPGs are shit.

Surprisingly they imported D&D very early, in 80's.

So they got D&D at basically the same time as they got CRPGs?

Computer RPGs were a bit earlier.

Some of the earliest Japanese [tabletop] RPGs were science fiction titles, including Donkey Commando in 1982 and Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek in 1983. Classic Traveller was the first translated RPG in 1984, with Dungeons & Dragons following in 1985. One of the earliest Japanese-designed traditional fantasy RPGs was titled Roads to Lord, published in 1984.

Japan's earliest [computer] RPGs were released in 1982. The earliest was Koei's Underground Exploration, released in March 1982.

Nevermind, the dates tell it was the same year. But I think some Japs played D&D in English before it was released in Japan.

Everyone knows that, we were talking specifically about the Japanese market.
In Japan, tabletop RPGs and CRPGs seem to have been introduced at around the same time, in the early '80s.

Yeah, I noticed that once I read a bit deeper, so I deleted my comment. My bad.

>>>/reddit/

You must be retarded.

Your actions speak louder than your words

Just kiss already.

The game will probably be shit, but why the fuck do you even give a shit about the graphics? That's one of the last things you should care for.

Because they decide the athmosphere of the game.

Which texture quality and polycount has very little to do with, yet that's what you're going off on.

7

So when is this supposed to come out, anyways? I remember first hearing about it like a year or two ago.

Graphicsfags should kill themselves. You're actually the problem with gaming. We should be simulating physics and complex interactions, not adding more polygons or sharper textures which serve no fucking purpose at all other than to bloat development costs, time, and teams to the point of being making most games focus-grouped shit because when you bloat the budget to give it nice graphics you can't risk your game failing with the millions you've invested.

They got Wizardry, the very early CRPG that was basically a strategic grindan sim, before they got D&D, and, yup, Wizardry set the standard that the Nips have never tried to innovate on at any point in the thirty years since.

I'm not entirely hating the look but the lighting could use with a bit of muting to match classic fantasy art better. It's reminding me a bit too much of the cartoonish look of half the stuff out now.

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