What's your favorite Ultima?

[Tanuvein]

I felt hte need to load up my favorite Ultima - Ultima IV - to play while I'm in class and that. It started to make me wonder which you guys liked best? I realize Ultima I-III and Ultima IX may not get any votes, but hte first three are classics and I actually liked IX, so they are there.

 

If there are any other ultima games I forgot about, you can write them in. "None of them" is not an option. Unless you send me money.

 

And a cookie.

 

Also, tell why, if you don't mind:

 

Mine is Ultima IV. It was the first of the series to add a true story, the other party members became huge players in the following Ultima games and it had a truly unique concept - not to become the uber baddassness of all badassness, but to become the symbol of virtue to represent what the world should become.

[roshan]

Where can I get ultima 4 to 8 from?

[Jumjalum]

Uhh I'm afraid your poll is a bit messed up, there were two Ultima VIIs and only one Ultima VIII. There were also two Ultima Underworlds and the two 'Worlds of Ultima' games 'The Savage Empire' and 'Martian Dreams' but they aren't really part of the series.

 

Edit - Roshan you can get Ultima IV VGA and the two 'Worlds of Ultima' games at Home of the Underdogs. The others shouldn't be very hard to find.

 

http://www.the-underdogs.org/search.php?search_game=ultima

[SteveThaiBinh]

Small problem with the poll: it's Ultima VII that had two parts, The Black Gate and Serpent Isle.

 

I vote for Ultima 7: The Black Gate. So many reasons why, many of which contain spoilers:

 

1. The Fellowship Theme, which I can still whistle from memory, simultaneously churchy, perky, and sinister.

 

2. The whole Fellowship concept, the new modern religion replacing the rather outdated Virtues, and the cult as a cover for a sinister darker purpose. Batlin was a great villain, too.

 

3. The shock of returning from Skara Brae and finding the guy who sent you there had been butchered, and the Guardian's laughter as you walk in and the scene is revealed.

 

4. Serious issues in a computer game! Drug addiction, cults, discrimination against travellers (a big issue at the moment here in the UK), racism against wingless gargoyles etc. I think it was pretty groundbreaking at the time.

 

5. The mockery of EA's logo.

 

6. The way people responded to your wearing the Fellowship medallion so realistically.

 

7. Spark: Torture? Cool! (looks at noble Avatar) Oops.

 

8. Interesting party members, well developed by the standards of the time. Hundreds of NPCs, all with some problem or sidequest to solve.

 

9. The ability to kill Lord British, who isn't even British and has no right to use the name.

 

10. The Guardian's voice. Very scary.

 

I enjoyed Serpent's Isle, too, although I didn't replay it much because the whole world gets killed, so there's not much motivation to run around doing quests for everyone. But the scene with Batlin at the wall of mirrors was a fantastic point of high drama, and very memorable.

 

Gosh, that was a fun trip down memory lane. Thanks for a great poll!

[Yst]

I only ever played, I think, Ultima II. So my favourite Ultima is Ultima II.

 

Also, my least favourite Ultima is Ultima II.

 

Really, I have nothing constructive to add here

[Kaftan Barlast]

You can download the bulk of the series for free at Abandonia

 

 

I only played Ultima 8 - Pagan but I really liked the atmosphere. Never finished it, though. I used some rune or whatever that you had to have later in the game.

 

 

plunder, plunder, plunder...

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Nunber IV and number VIII.

[shizawn]

Ultima VII: The Black Gate.

 

It being the first Ultima I played I have a sentimental attachment to it, but it was also the most enjoyable of the ones I played, story-wise.

 

I also remember loading it up for the first time on my POS 386SX-16 and being totally wowed by first the intro and then the gameworld. I knew I was in for a treat.

 

It's one of the few games I would like to experience for the first time again.

[Tanuvein]

Damnit, I can't believe I did that :\ I can't find a way to change it either.

[Gorth]

Ultima IV. Still remember getting that nice big box with all the goodies in it, maual, ref chart, map of Britannia and a plastic Ankh...

 

I gave III a try after that, but didn't complete it.

 

IV had way superior music and sliglty easier on the eyes gfx on the C64 version compared to the PC version, you might want to find those and try on a C64 emulator intead of the ugly PC version.

[Judge Hades]

Ultima 4 was the best.

[Pidesco]

I voted Ultima IV but it's a close call between it, Black Gate and Underworld II.

 

@Hades: Seeing how you hate first person view in RPGs, what's your take on Ultima Underworld?

[Volourn]

I loved the Ultima series; but to be honest I can barely remember the stuf in them so it wouldn't be fair to judge them. That's why other than me saying I like Ultima; you won't find the Ultima series in my top 10 other than as a series. I also worry about replaying them now as for some reason even grpahics aside, I doubt they'll hold up all that well. No other older game does.

[medevac99]

I voted for V - I REALLY loved IV, but, for some reason, V was scarier and I liked that. I will never forget the execution at Blackthorn's castle - OOOOOHHH!

Seriously, I think I was like 14 when I played it and it was so dark - it had edge of your seat quality back then. The hair on my head stood up when I was facing the Shadowlords (before I learned how to defeat them).

[Darque]

You can download the bulk of the series for free at Abandonia

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Kaftan, you are awesome thanks for the link

[jaguars4ever]

You can download the bulk of the series for free at Abandonia

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(w00t)

[pulp]

Ultima 5.

 

My very first CRPG. It's a close tie between U5 and U7, but U5 was for me the most frustrating but one of my best experiences early on -- I took close to two years to get that game completed, playing on and off on my old 80286. Mongbats and magic axes, anyone?

 

U7 was brilliant for the sheer atmosphere -- it was my first real encounter with fictionalized propaganda and its associated evils. In U5, you knew where you stood. In U7, you thought you knew where you stood, but the principles advocated by the Fellowship looked good on paper -- even slightly.. socialist? -- but horrific in practice.

 

The addition of the (seemingly) omnipresent, evil Guardian to the mix really -- for me -- livened up the game (which kinda stank with its sixth iteration); you weren't fighting almost-corporeal shadowlords anymore, but a new, viciously insidious kind of evil -- a very real sort of evil. It really made me feel that the Avatar had, by circumstances, been driven to a lonely sort of crusade.

[Tanuvein]

No votes at all for Ultima IX? Despite a lot of bad rap, I enjoyed that one

[mkreku]

I feel so unoriginal, but I also have to vote for Ultima IV. It was so groundbreaking when it arrived, with its virtue system, its huge world and its text parser dialogues. I had never seen anything even remotely like it at the time, and it played like a dream. I still, to this day, have never completed that damn game.

 

Of course, Ultima V was the better game, but it wasn't as awe-inspiring as it had already been done once before..

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

No votes at all for Ultima IX? Despite a lot of bad rap, I enjoyed that one

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That was a game made before the technology was ready for it...

[Tanuvein]

No votes at all for Ultima IX? Despite a lot of bad rap, I enjoyed that one

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That was a game made before the technology was ready for it...

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Yea, I couldn't play it til two or three years after it came out.

[Aponez]

I only played Ultima VII: Serpent Isle, then I suppouse that is my favourite

[elkston]

Ultima 5. So *very* closely followed by both U7's though.