Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan?

Final Fantasy is not better than Ultima. I tried to play FFVII. Just
can't. I gave up.
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

On 2 Oct 2005 15:32:27 -0700, "Sean" <sean RemoveThis @earthtribe.net> wrote:

>Ultima VI and VII are by far my most favored computer games ever. I
>even went back to play through Exult a couple years ago once that
>became playable. I loved how these games were so open-ended, yet still
>maintained a strong plot, and weren't just based on building up
>character stats.
>
>Does anyone have suggestions for other RPG games that would appeal to a
>long-time Ultima fan? It doesn't have to be new, or have flashy 3D
>graphics. I'm just looking for something fun.


Try Gothic and its aptly named sequel, Gothic II. They both have
fairly open gameworlds, lots of interactive objects, PCs with
schedules, a pretty neat character development system and a pretty
good world/story. Some turn offs might be that combat is real-time
(but if it really annoys you god-mode is available), no party and some
people seem to take real issue with the control scheme (I never
understood why; it's pretty much a WASD keyboard+mouse scheme).
Graphics aren't high-end, but still quite acceptable (even pretty at
times, particularly in Gothic 2), especially if you tinker with the
console/INI files to push back the fog.

Completely different but also good is Planescape, which any serious
CRPG player has to own. It's a law, or something. There gameworld is
pretty static, like all of Bioware's products (no schedules,
interactivity, etc) but the strong story and characters make up for
it.

And although they don't really rank as "favorites RPGs" for me, you
may wish to pick up "light RPGs" like Knights of the Old Republic or
Fable. Yeah, they're linear, have little interactivity, cliched
storylines, and are full of Fed-Ex quests, but they are also fun,
especially in short bursts. It's like reading a comic book to cool off
the brain between reading serious novels.
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

"Sean" <sean DeleteThis @earthtribe.net> wrote in message
news:1128292347.739060.67580@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Ultima VI and VII are by far my most favored computer games ever. I
> even went back to play through Exult a couple years ago once that
> became playable. I loved how these games were so open-ended, yet still
> maintained a strong plot, and weren't just based on building up
> character stats.
>
> Does anyone have suggestions for other RPG games that would appeal to a
> long-time Ultima fan? It doesn't have to be new, or have flashy 3D
> graphics. I'm just looking for something fun.

Since they're on my mind at the moment: have you already played/tried at
least one of the Final Fantasy games, VII and VIII being most obviously
available for the PC?

--
'Triad'
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

"Michikawa" <maugister.RemoveThis@saunalahti.fi> wrote in message
news:1128352824.804197.238140@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>I have to echo some of the words uttered here:
>
> Planescape: Torment, while being quite straight-forward and tight in
> it's form contains so good dialogue, atmosphere and sense of really
> "being there" that one cannot recommend it enough. There are those, who
> think it has too much dialogue even, but I think it's almost a novel
> converted into a computer game.
>
> If you haven't tried Underworlds, they are a must. I enjoy UW2 even
> more than the first one, especially because it really thickens the plot
> which began in Ultima 7.
>
> And while it's not exactly "like Ultima", far from it, I have to say
> that Deus Ex and System Shock were really good examples of games where
> the creators manage to combine working plot and storytelling with
> 3D-action.

I never played the 1st one, but System Shock 2 was fantastic. Origin put out
some goodies back in the day, didn't they?
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:49:23 GMT, "Rex Kwon-Do" <Rex.DeleteThis@Kwon-Do.org>
wrote:

>> And while it's not exactly "like Ultima", far from it, I have to say
>> that Deus Ex and System Shock were really good examples of games where
>> the creators manage to combine working plot and storytelling with
>> 3D-action.
>
>I never played the 1st one, but System Shock 2 was fantastic. Origin put out
>some goodies back in the day, didn't they?
>
Yes, they did. But that's beside the point, as they weren't involved
with System Shock 2.

It was still a good game, though.
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

"Spalls Hurgenson" <yoinks.TakeThisOut@ebalu.com> wrote in message
news:9oo3k1ltq9snjgc9ucq9k8is8ge4crrq82@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:49:23 GMT, "Rex Kwon-Do" <Rex.TakeThisOut@Kwon-Do.org>
> wrote:
>
>>> And while it's not exactly "like Ultima", far from it, I have to say
>>> that Deus Ex and System Shock were really good examples of games where
>>> the creators manage to combine working plot and storytelling with
>>> 3D-action.
>>
>>I never played the 1st one, but System Shock 2 was fantastic. Origin put
>>out
>>some goodies back in the day, didn't they?
>>
> Yes, they did. But that's beside the point, as they weren't involved
> with System Shock 2.
>
> It was still a good game, though.

Oh, I didn't know that.
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

On Tue, 04 Oct 2005 09:49:33 -0600, Tristan Miller
<psychonaut.TakeThisOut@nothingisreal.com> wrote:

>> Does anyone have suggestions for other RPG games that would appeal to a
>> long-time Ultima fan? It doesn't have to be new, or have flashy 3D
>> graphics. I'm just looking for something fun.

>I enjoyed Knights of Legend, by Todd Mitchell Porter and also released by
>Origin. Like the Ultima series, the gameplay is fairly open-ended; there
>are lots of places to explore and lots of quests to complete, though you
>can do so in any order. The graphics were also great for its time (c.
>1988), featuring paperdolling and a scrolling, non-tiled map. The only
>thing that I find annoying about the game is the turn-based combat system,
>which is so detailed that it takes forever to fight.

>Another game I enjoyed is Dragon Wars (also circa 1988), which owes more to
>the Bard's Tale series than Ultima.

Oh man, I *loved* Dragon Wars. I must have played that a hundred
(well, maybe a dozen) times on my old Apple ][c. I remember playing it
for the first time and being *so* impressed with wall textures (the
green ivy especially). I also made a really nice hand-drawn and inked
map of the realm, and even wrote some fanfics (fortunately never
released; they were *terrible*) based on that gameworld.

But since we're speaking of old-school RPGs, the original poster might
also want to check out 2400 AD, another Origin RPG that uses a
modified Ultima 4 engine. It's a sci-fi game set in the future (guess
what year and while it's focused more on combat than story, it's
still pretty fun - especially if you want to experience some nostalgia
for games of yore.

Oooh, ooh, and Might and Magic! Silly game but its huge gameworld was
so amazing back then. It doesn't hold up very well nowadays, though.
But I have good memories of it nonetheless. Didn't care at all for the
sequels, though (except for one thing in M&M2; it had a monster called
"The Cuisinart" that did, like, 50,000 points of damage per attack...
but if you killed it you got a million experience points. It respawned
too, so once you got the trick of wasting it, you could level up very
fast).

Man, now you got me started. Bards Tale, and its sequels. Loved the
third one. Wrote some fanfic for that too. Some of the names I
generated for heroes in the original Bards Tale survived to be reused
in other CRPGs and even were given to characters in my table-top
role-playing games. The "album covers" with the printed-on maps were
awesome. Sadly, my copies were lost sometime during the last twenty
years.

Gosh, there were some really great games back then. Now, I can't even
get through Fable twice before I tire of it. I'm so jaded.
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

Michael Cecil wrote in news:pdr6k1tjo7pmkc3uq40ennmjs84ubj1638@4ax.com:

[snip]
>
> I don't think it's jading but rather the lack of freedom in many newer
> games. The ability to just go do anything has been reigned in to keep
> the player on the plot track. Not sure if that's a console effect or
> just some bad designing from the industry though. Anyhow, for me
> being told how to play really kills the fun. I like to go exploring,
> even if I get lost or killed a lot.

Morrowind is a great game if you want the freedom to do absolutely
*anything* you want, and go *anywhere* you want in a huge game world. It
does have its bugs, but it's one of the best RPGs released recently.
There are also a couple expansions for the game, and it's "old" enough
now that you can probably find it in the bargain bin.

Bethesda's also gearing up to release Oblivion, their followup to
Morrowind.

Unfortunately, that's about the only recommendation I can give as my
machine won't run a lot of the newer RPGs I've wanted to try -- and I'm
definitely going to have to upgrade before Oblivion.

--
~sethra
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

Betrayal in Krondor and Betrayal in Antara. And if you're set up for
Underworld, BiK is easy, since it uses the same setup! (Expanded
memory, etc.) BIA does better with Win95/98. I got it to run once with
XP (in emulation mode) but it won't run again.

These are very open-ended games where you wander around, solve quests,
learn about what's happening, fight monsters, and get lots of treasure.


LP
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

"Sean" <sean DeleteThis @earthtribe.net> wrote in news:1128292347.739060.67580
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> Does anyone have suggestions for other RPG games that would appeal to a
> long-time Ultima fan? It doesn't have to be new, or have flashy 3D
> graphics. I'm just looking for something fun.
>
> Thanks,
> -Sean

Knights Of The Old Republic I and II. You don't have to be a Star Wars fan,
but you'll get more out of it if you are (though probably not much, they're
very self-contained).
They're built using a modified AD&D engine, to give you a sense of their
complexity. It might be a bit too linear, but both have great stories and
KOTOR II is specifically designed to be a little different every time you
play through it.
You do need a fairly modern computer and graphics card, though.

From the Sith Lords box:
100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer
Windows 98 SE, Millennium (ME) 2000, or XP
Pentium III or Athlon Class 1 GHz or faster required (KOTOR1 says something
like 800 mhz)
Memory: 256 MB Ram Required
Graphics Card: 23 MB OpenGL 1.4 compliant AGP or PCX 3D graphics card with
Hardware Transform and Lighting (TnL) capability required.

There is an OSX version of the first one, and Xbox versions of both.

-==Kensu==-
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

"Michikawa" <maugister.RemoveThis@saunalahti.fi> wrote in news:1128352824.804197.238140
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

> I have to echo some of the words uttered here:
>
> Planescape: Torment, while being quite straight-forward and tight in
> it's form contains so good dialogue, atmosphere and sense of really
> "being there" that one cannot recommend it enough. There are those, who
> think it has too much dialogue even, but I think it's almost a novel
> converted into a computer game.

I believe the same team also made Knights of The Old Republic II.


-==Kensu==-
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

Quoth "Sean" <sean RemoveThis @earthtribe.net>:
> Does anyone have suggestions for other RPG games that would
> appeal to a long-time Ultima fan? It doesn't have to be new, or
> have flashy 3D graphics. I'm just looking for something fun.

If you don't consider a pseudo-Medieval setting necessary, I'd
definitely go for the Fallout 1 and 2 collection (it's been on budget
release for ages). In fact, I'm surprised no-one here has mentioned
the Fallouts yet (AFAICS).

IMHO, they're as good as the better Ultimas and Planescape: Torment.
Can't comment on Gothic, since it was never released here in the UK. :
(

--

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 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan? 

"Samurai" <nospam.TakeThisOut@dev.nul> wrote in message
news:434bb611$0$23035$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...
> Quoth "Sean" <sean.TakeThisOut@earthtribe.net>:
>> Does anyone have suggestions for other RPG games that would
>> appeal to a long-time Ultima fan? It doesn't have to be new, or
>> have flashy 3D graphics. I'm just looking for something fun.
>
> If you don't consider a pseudo-Medieval setting necessary, I'd
> definitely go for the Fallout 1 and 2 collection (it's been on budget
> release for ages). In fact, I'm surprised no-one here has mentioned
> the Fallouts yet (AFAICS).
>
> IMHO, they're as good as the better Ultimas and Planescape: Torment.
> Can't comment on Gothic, since it was never released here in the UK. :
> (

Actually, I was wondering about that--after hearing much about Fallout and
its sequel, I was finally able to buy both, and played Fallout for some
time. However, I never really understood what about it others found
particularly enjoyable--though Planescape: Torment I did enjoy greatly.

(Possibly it was the viewing distance...? No idea.)

--
'Triad'
 >> Stay informed about: Other RPG games for a long-time Ultima fan?