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Garriott's New Project Cooking Along
omeros writes "Looks like Garriott's latest project will have plenty of human support, as much of the creative staff from Origin has joined him in the hills outside Austin. They've just moved to a larger space. Also Jake Song, creator of "Lineage," will be working with Destination Games on their first title, "Tabula Rasa." Ultima fans rejoice!"
(Is those first-post boobies to go away)
..is Ultima IX: Ascension done right. Like, no half-done maps in the commercial product, no hang-ups and crashes during the first five seconds of installation, nor the numerous graphical and story bugs and glitches that the game has. I bet there are many 3D engines today that could handle this kind of game with much more style than Garriot's (et. al.) own engine did.
Still, I'm a believer. I believe Garriot had not much chance but to push out the half-finished product as funding and time grew short. I sincerely hope he will have more time and reliable funding this time around.
Warren Spector is the one responsible for the good Ultima games. All the Ultima classics that everyone loves (Ultima 6,7 part 1 & 2, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2) where all the work of Warren Specter (of Deus Ex fame) not Richard Garriot. Play the Pre-Spector Ultimas, they suck. Richard Garriot is not really any good. He just lucked out and got his start when a no plot no graphics crap games could be passed off. The first Ultimas had almost no plot at all, stick figures for graphics and repetitive gamplay. But even today look at Ultima 9 what a load of shit. Not to mention it was unacceptably buggy at release and wasn't patched into completion until 4 months later. Sorry but Richard Garriot games are not that good.
when in a recent interview this guy says his only mistake with ultima online was not charging enough?
perhaps thats just because the pricing was the only thing garriott himself was involved in regarding the game.
i'm excited as a gamer when new, interesting, and fun games come out. not when great game designer falls from creating one of the greatest rpgs ever (ultima4) to not even publicly recognizing the bad decision making regarding the launch and execution of the 2 most recent influential games (u9, uo) to hold his name.
shame on the cult of personality.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
When Garriott started out, he was the heart, soul, designer, and programmer of his games. But for the last ten years, he's been tangential at best. That's not his fault; games with 25 or more people working on them tend to be so diluted that a personal vision cannot shine through. Remember, he _was_ Ultima, yet Ultima VII was such a horribly misguided mess that he apologized to the computer gaming world for releasing it. Ultima IX was all technology to the point that 95% of the development effort went into creating a 3D world...and it still fell short in that department. The actual gameplay and story were laughable.
So unless we're looking at something small, something created by a handful of people, something that goes off in a different direction, then we're being set-up for another big mess (Ultima IX, Daikatana, Messiah, etc., etc.). This is how it always is.
If I could ask of Garriot one big thing, it would be "Please don't loose site of yourselves in the storm of business, please listen to that child inside you that wants to create, and please go back to more emphasis in gameplay, story/plot and immersion and then artwork will augment it all... Not pretty bells and whistles first and the whole gaming experience as an afterthought." OK, so it is not one thing and is really long.
I have faith they will find their way and become the group of gaming and game making fanatics that they used to be. Good Luck! (yet another thing making me want to move back to Texas)
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.