UWO: Origin and Ultima V

Here’s some related newstids. First, in prominent MMORPG news, UltimaHaven boasts of a new screenshot of a female Jukan casting two simultaneous spells in the (IMHO) beautiful-looking Ultima Worlds Online: Origin.

Secondly, you might know already that there’s a team working on a remake of the classic Ultima 1. Well, now there’s word of a different team taking Ultima 5 and giving it some new millenium polish as well! A friend of mine (I started with U6) said that Ultima 5 was his personal favorite, so I’m pretty excited about this one. For more juice than you could squeeze out of a Capri Sun on this baby, take a look at the interview with the man behind the project over at UltimaWorlds. Here’s a dribble on dialogue:

Q: …if you could compare U5 (rich dialogue) with U9 (mostly not really much of a dialogue) what do expect to end up with Lazarus??

A: What we’re going for with the dialogue is the level of quantity and quality that was in Ultima VII. We’re not going to change the information that the NPCs actually say, but we’re going to re-write it in a much more “realistic” manner. We’re also adding narration. However, I think the single biggest improvement will be the addition of “banter” between party members, similar to what you would have seen in Ultima VII or, to use a more recent example, Baldur’s Gate II. I expect that little things like Dupre and Iolo joking around the campfire will greatly increase the player’s feeling of immersion in the game.

For yet more, gallivant over to the official Ultima V project page.