As far as I could tell, the only major update to the Ultima franchise
between 4-9 occured with Ultima Underworld, which was written by Blue
Skies/Looking Glass Studios and was produced by the legendary Warren
Spector.

While we tend to give some producers more slack than others (Spector got
bombed for DX:IW, but redeemed himself with T:DS), some are just
obviously out of their prime. Just as David Crane was legendary for his
Atari Activision games, so too will RG be remembered for his
contribution with Ultima. I'm just not going to expect Crane to shock
the world with a follow-up to Pitfall! or Grand Prix -- and I'm not
going to expect RG to shock us with anything labeled "Ultima".

All that being said, I'm getting more and more interested in this 1st
person Action/RPG follow-up to The Bards Tale. Easily my 2nd favorite
series of all time, I'm very curious how it's transition to the 21st
century will stand up.


-----Original Message-----
From: warpig [warpig--insightbb.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 12:33 AM
To: <Address Masked>
Subject: RE: AR Mailing List


I tend to disagree. Richard Garrison was not the problem. EA was the
problem. Up until Utilima 7.5 it was good series, then EA bought them
and they went down hill. Peter Molyneux on the other better be able
pull off Fable cuz I sure was not impressed with Black and White.



-----Original Message-----
From: Piringer, Frank [Frank.Piringer--msnyuhealth.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 9:33 AM
To: <Address Masked>
Subject: RE: AR Mailing List

Richard Garrison is, in no uncertain terms, irrelevant.

He may have had some great ideas once, but his status as a "cutting
edge" designer faded some time around 1995. To be totally honest, the
Ultima series peaked with 4, and only got a brief surge of life later
when it went MMO. He may have had a great idea to begin with, but *ten*
sequels does not an original idea make.

I'm more excited by what's coming out of guys like Peter Molyneux
(Fable), Wil Wright (The Sims, The Movies), and Shigeru Miyamoto (even
putting Mario into every game, he still has an original idea now and
then eg. Pikmin)

As for our beloved RPG's, I can only say that the trend to push them all
online will only get stronger. I think it might be the end of an era --
one started, ironicly, by games that had drawn us to CRPGs in the first
place. We can only imagine what ARO would have turned out like, for
good or ill.

--Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: Listmaster
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 4:32 PM
To: <Address Masked>
Subject: AR Mailing List


Greetings,

Are we all still around? I never like when this list goes dead for a few
weeks.

Here is a topic for discussion... What the heck did EA do to the Ultima
series! Ultima X?? Uggggg!
http://www.uxo.ea.com/

Be well,
Alexander J Rementer