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Close this windowUltima Online Kingdom Reborn Announced
Posted January 18th, 2007 by Ethec
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Ultima Online to Celebrate 10 Years with Newly Announced Expansion and Free Graphics Revamp
The newly announced "Stygian Abyss" to become UO's eighth expac, while "Kingdom Reborn" modernizes the MMO forebearer at no additional cost.
by Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
January 28, 2007 - Seven expansions and five continents later, EA Mythic showed members of the press exactly what they have in mind for Ultima Online over the next year: a cost-free complete graphical revamp titled "Kingdom Reborn", and a newly announced expansion - "Stygian Abyss" - featuring gargoyles as a fully featured playable race for the first time. As Producer Aaron Cohen, described the news: "The game that started it all is about to start again." The decade-old base game, Ultima Online, is widely considered to be a touchstone for a number of MMORPG staple features, among them "sharding" (or sequestration of the playerbase onto self-contained worlds / servers), highly customizable player housing, and a player-driven economy.
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The announcements are the first word to come out of the annual Mythic press event now hosted by the newly formed EA Mythic studios. Aaron Cohen, Producer for Ultima Online, called the new "Stygian Abyss" expansion "basically a land unto itself... it's mysterious, it's weird. Stuff's going to happen in there that's you've never seen happen anywhere else in UO." Cohen described the gargoyles as "our second added playable race. We added elves with our last expansion pack, now we have gargoyles. Gargoyles have a long history in Ultima Online. Gargoyles are extremely noble, extremely stoic... very good at shaping stone and manipulating energy. Their cities are going to be fantastic, their weapons are going to be very powerful. They'll be amazing craftsmen. They have other powers that we're not going to talk about right now, but there's plenty to come."
Aaron Cohen Explains |
"Stygian Abyss" will be a summer 2007 expansion following "Kingdom Reborn," which is currently slated for release this spring. "Kingdom Reborn" is less an expansion than a complete graphical revamp for an MMORPG that's survived three iterations of MS Windows Home Edtions in its tenure. While EA Mythic has poured some effort into flattening the learning curve for new player, the rest of the game will remain as it currently stands, albeit with a look more "aughts" than nineties.
EA Mythic unveiled "Kingdom Reborn" as a playable demo for the first time on Thursday, January 26th. The updates are manifold, involving both the graphical detail and user interface, to the point where the cornerstone MMO might seem as comfortably steadfast and surreal as The Price is Right background decor. For example, with "Kingdom Reborn" a hotbar will be available to UO players for the first time. This example highlights the interface changes which underlie the revamp, which may be unsettling to such an established player community.
What a difference ten years makes... |
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Legacy Client |
Kingdom Reborn |
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For those set in the old ways, be pleased to know that the update is client-side only; those using the elder client may continue to do so (gaming alongside- and on the same shard / server - as players using the "Kingdom Reborn" enabled client). Aside from Nostalgia and graphical and UI enhancements, EA Mythic is offering a number of good reasons to upgrade, or perhaps check out Ultima Online for the first time.
- The lack of a price point. "Kingdom Reborn" is a free and optional upgrade to the existing game.
- "Kingdom Reborn" allows game artists and designers to fully realize the original vision for Ultima Online. Cohen cited one particular mob, a rock elemental, that couldn't be created as per the original design docs.
- Like the legacy client, "Kingdom Reborn" is targetted toward a very low system spec. Cohen joked that the new client "would not melt your videocard at all," estimating that any computer bought within the last five or six years would run the new client, no problem.
Though the legacy client will be entirely usable for some time, Cohen hinted that the "Kingdom Reborn" client will be required for future expansions and that UO's original window on its world will be phased out at a point determined by the adoption rate of the new client.
Rebuilding ten years of content was what Cohen called "EA's most significant investment" in the game since its launch and, as it's included with the UO subscription, a "gift" to the game's loyal playerbase. For those discounting Ultima Online as a stunted relic of the gaming past, EA Mythic seems to be offering clear evidence that it's ready and willing to freshen up the elder statesman of online games.
Learn more about at the game's Ultima Online official site, or click here for the latest Ultima Online news.
Genre: Fantasy
Status: Published
Release Date: September 30, 1997
Fee: P2P/Item Mall
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