Ultima V Remake

[IntvGene]

I am not sure who knows about this or even if it has been posted before, but a group is trying to remake Ultima 5, (what some call the best of the series, if not best CRPG ever) using the DungeonSiege engine on the PC.

I don't think it's an improvement on it (the original was close to perfection), but it is interesting nonetheless. Take a look at it here:
http://www.u5lazarus.com/

It will eventually be released as freeware, that is, if they can avoid the legal wranglings of Origin and EA enough to relase it.

[gwaine]

Thanks for the link! I spent hours on that game in 4-color glory on my PCjr back in the day. It very well might be the best in the series, IMO...though 6 and 7 were awesome too. Either 5 or 2 is my sentimental favorite because they consumed so much of my free time when I was young. The open-endedness of those games was so great. Remember the king's vault in Castle Britannia with those magic axes? I kept taking them and then wondered why British would show up in my campfire saying "You have strayed far from the path of the avatar..." :/

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I'm really trying not to be a member of the "don't ruin my game!" category mentioned in their FAQ, but I kinda liked the original just fine - the whole 3D thing, especially if - and I don't know if it is - Dungeon Siege is a "swooping camera" type game, opens the original style of game play up to a boatload of problems.

I'm gonna take a wait-and-see attitude to this one - I'm intrigued, at least. And the wallpaper rendition of the Shadowlords rocks.

They needn't worry about Origin - like Westwood Studios and Maxis, it has been assimilated into the EA collective - but they may well have to worry about EA hounding them.

[calthaer]

As long as they don't try to sell the game, I don't think EA is going to bother them. For one, they've never hounded any of the other Ultima remakes (there's pretty much one for most of the games, I think - I know there's one for VII, IX, I think VI, IV, etc.). Secondly, it also helps create buzz for that rip-off Ultima X that they're trying to foist off on the public. Making an Ultima game without Richard Garriott - ha! I hope the public sees through this facade and that EA's fiasco fails.

[IntvGene]

I thought I would never say this... but the series only has one direction that it can go from Ultima IX, and that's up.

[calthaer]

You've obviously never played any of EA's other online "games," then. As bad as Ultima IX was, it actually became playable after the last patch. I've played through most of it and while it's a far cry from the glory of U7 it's way better than U8...and I hate to say it, but it's also better than that POS Earth and Beyond that EA tried to pawn off. If UXO is as rushed as E&B was, then it has a fair chance of being even worse than U9.