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Ultima X - Odyssey Officially Unveiled

Thanks to HomeLanFed for their initial report on the official unveiling of EA/Origin's new PC MMORPG, Ultima X: Odyssey. They say that the previously rumored title is "...a massively multiplayer game that was described as a 'sister' game to Ultima Online. The dev team promised that players will not have to worry about using macros in the game or beating up on tiny rats just to level up at the beginning." It's also confirmed that the game is "powered by Epic's Unreal engine", and "very action oriented", and much new information is expected as the EA-X Event continues on Friday. Update: 08/22 15:26 GMT by S : There's now an official press release, screenshots courtesy GameSpyDaily, and a 21mb trailer downloadable from Gamershell, Worthplaying, and via BitTorrent courtesy GameTab.

21 comments

  1. Imagery! by The+Moving+Shadow · · Score: 1

    The quotes spikes my interest:

    "The gameplay footage clearly showed that Ultima X will be powered by Epic's Unreal engine (indeed, Epic's Tim Sweeny and Mark Rein also were there at the launch event last night) with some awesome looking outdoor environments across a wide range of setting (forest, snow, and more). The character models in the game are also highly details but what was most impressive in the gameplay footage is the fact that this game will be very action oriented with player character going up against large and varied enemies, from two headed ogres to sexy looking female demo types and more."

    HomeLan missed a chance here to post some screenshots or photographs of the game. Now we have to make up our own images with only this textual description of the game. Does anybody have any links to pictures from the gameplay footage to share?

    Again that proves we are not interested in verbal content, just give us some screenshots to drool over. ;)

    1. Re:Imagery! by Iscariot_ · · Score: 1
      "Does anybody have any links to pictures from the gameplay footage to share?

      Here is some media I found, although some may or may not be real.
    2. Re:Imagery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.uxo.ea.com

  2. Yeah...don't worry about Marcos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The dev team promised that players will not have to worry about using macros in the game or beating up on tiny rats just to level up at the beginning." It's also confirmed that the game is "powered by Epic's Unreal engine",

    Yep, no more worrying about macros, now you only have to worry about aimbots. :)

  3. the only thing I wish by falcon5768 · · Score: 1

    Is that they PLEASE port it to OS X!!!!

    --

    "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    1. Re:the only thing I wish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that they PLEASE port it to Linux and/or *BSD. They use the Unreal Engine afterall... http://icculus.org/

    2. Re:the only thing I wish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, and please port it to Atari 2600. There are 10 of us out there who still use it as our main console, and I bet 4 of us like it! 40% market share of the atari 2600 crowd. WHOOT!

  4. There's something missing... by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, there's the developers at the announcment. Check. Publisher. Check. Engine developers from Epic. Check. There's something still missing, what could it be? Oh, that's right... Lord British. I know I need to move on and just get over the fact that Richard isn't there anymore, but it's like a ship without a rudder. It's still a ship and it sails, but it lacks direction.

    1. Re:There's something missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      8 and 9 were done under Lord British's direction. Maybe it's time for a new direction.

  5. Shall I buy this...? by bmnc · · Score: 1

    U7p1, U7p2, U8, U9...analysing at this trend, Origin will have to pay ME monthly to get me to play this.

    On a side note, I cranked up U9 last month on my AMD2400, 512DDR, GF4Ti etc and it ran WORSE than on my celery1000 (or else I was more forgiving back then)

  6. Big Deal by Milkhorse · · Score: 2, Funny

    So we will all be able to banksit at higher polygon counts. Woo.

  7. Download Trailer here: by zaqattack911 · · Score: 1
  8. Re:Hi! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hello.

  9. A Ultima Game without Richard Garriot... by mojowantshappy · · Score: 1

    ... is like George Bush as our President. It just won't work. Though I pray to God that it does. I would love to see a sequel to both Ultima 9 and UO, but I seriously doubt they can do it considering how they turned UO into a piece of crap game.

    --

    This page was generated by a Barrel of Circus Midgets, and that is the way I like it!!!

  10. Back to the beginning? by Tempermental · · Score: 1
    My first MMORPG was Ultima Online. Loved it. A chat room with pictures! Well, it was neat.

    Then I played Diablo on Battlenet. Those Blizzard guys are too good. I love Blizzard.

    Then came EverQuest. Beyond loved it. Unhealthy, even. I think EQ was the one that hooked me - it was the best combination - with the role playing aspect - the social interaction - and the first person graphics. Wow. I am still awed by the leap EQ made for the gaming community. But eventually it got too crowded. They raised the prices. Lag on their end was increasing. They were focusing more on EQ II and less on EQ. Time to move on.

    Tried Meridian 59. Ewww. That lasted a day.

    Short stint on Dark Age of Camelot. Still too beta - that game wasn't even finished months after it was on the shelves.

    Spent some time in Diablo II. Too video-gamish. no no no - I don't THINK it's real - I KNOW it's a video game - I mean the third person view combined with the "run through the level and kill the big guy at the end, repeat ad nauseum" mentality. I couldn't do it. I had been tainted by EQ. *sigh*

    Tried Asheron's Call 2. Oddly enough it wasn't "bad" - it just wasn't "good" either. And it looked too much like DAoC. Much too much in fact.

    Currently in Anarchy Online. Well, it's neat - I like that it isn't fantasy but more sci-fi.

    I almost went to Shadowbane but then the story about them being hacked came out. And then another. And another. Oops.

    I heard too much about Star Wars Galaxies being boring - so I am avoiding that.

    I am awaiting Worlds of Warcraft because (to paraphrase WC Fields) "I never met a Blizzard game I didn't like".

    But could it be Ultima X instead? Will I return back to the beginning of my MMORPG days? Back to the lands of Ultima?

    Yeah, I'll try it, as I try all of them... it looks neat (important). It's from EA who has been making games since the 80s. And it's... well... it *may* be powerful enough to help me resist EQ II. My wife hopes so, at least...

  11. How about a non-online Ultima game? by Man+In+Black · · Score: 1

    I loved most of the single player Ultima games... are their days completely over? Online games are completely overrated, and I certainly can't afford to keep paying for my game every month.

    Oh well, without Lord British, it'll probably suck anyways...

    --
    -"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
  12. The ogre looks like a gray Shrek by Baikala · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A couple of comments about the video:

    If you are going to use prerendered fmv's to portrait the coolness of your game be sure they look at least as good as the real-time renders of Half-Life 2.

    If you intent to build up tension and a sense of danger, it would help that menacing two-headed ogre approaching doesn't look like Shrek.

    Don't steal the your "sexy demones" model from a screenshot of the upcoming Ninja Gaiden, or at least use some textures on it.

    If you're trying to show the engine prowess, select some scenes that doesn't involve z-fighting.

    I know Runes wasn't a MMORPG but it looked prettier and had a cooler melee-action rhythm than this, and it was four years ago!.

    --
    16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
  13. Shame about the name by Doctor+Cat · · Score: 1
    I still remember buying Ultima I when it first came out - later I worked on the remake of it, and on Ultima 5 and 6 and various other Ultima related projects at Origin. While there were a lot of other talented people at Origin that contributed to the games - and I'm sure they have good people working there now, who might make a good game... The series was always about Lord British and his personal ideas, style, and game design sensibilities. Putting out a new Ultima game without his involvement and input is like all those comic strips in the newspapers that get taken over by another artist after the original creator dies. Sometimes they turn out funny, but they're not the same thing.

    Kind of makes me think of Infogrames, first buying the Atari name (and rights to do remakes of the old classics) then ditching their own name entirely to put out their games under the more prestigious and well-recognized name. Well, I know that the word "Ultima" and the word "Atari" are powerful enough to make games sell more copies, so they have to do that. I wish people wouldn't buy into that kind of thing though. Atari was a certain place with certain leaders, creators, corporate culture, etc. that led to a bunch of games in the 70s and 80s. When you see "The Matrix" and it says "Atari" on it, there's no real connection there at all to the company that put out Asteroids, Centipede, and the Atari 2600, except for the name. Which they picked up at firesale prices, most likely.

    Anyway I hope they did their best to put together a good game, with some of the spirit of the Ultima series. The few people who're still at Origin that I know personally do have some real talent, so maybe it's got a shot. We'll see. I'll still be a lot more curious to see how Tabula Rasa comes out when Richard's through with it. He's got Scott Jones working with him on again, who I think is one of the best artists in the game industry, and a lot of very good people who used to be at Origin. Should really be something to see.

    --

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