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Perhaps being nine years old when it was released may have dulled my appreciation of the original Ultima Underworld. Looking back, it's a vitally important, genre-defining game, but I was just too young and inexperienced to appreciate it at the time. Decades of playing immersive sims later, and I am practically buzzing with anticipation for spiritual successor Underworld Ascendant. Today, OtherSide Entertainment (who are also working…
Feature: Blissful abyss
Underworld Ascendant is a game for anyone who has ever tormented a GM during a tabletop RPG session. The maps have been drawn up, the traps have been primed and all of the plans are coming together. You're deep in a dungeon and the story is about to take a very unpleasant turn. And then... “You said the spikey pillars are made of the same…
Feature: Scroll for more
Imagine you’re on a quest for a powerful artefact in Divinity: Original Sin 2. Perhaps you conversed with a ghost who pointed you in the right direction. Now you see demons close by. You cast Chameleon Cloak to try to sneak by, but alas! you are spotted. The fight begins. You draw your weapons, inscribed with runes. You weave protective spells. You summon your cat…
In the kind of Getting The Band Back Together news that makes me hyperventilate ever so slightly, the news just broke that Warren Spector has joined Otherside Games, the studio working on System Shock 3 and Ultima Underworld spiritual successor Underworld Ascendant.
"A rogue's view of the dwarven magic controlling the flow of lava in the Stygian Abyss' Volcanic core." That is how the folk at OtherSide Entertainment teased a video for a prototype of their RPG Underworld Ascendant [official site]. I'm a sucker for wanting to peer into Stygian Abysses (provided they don't start peering back into me) and thus here we are. They did not…
Oh goodness me. If Underworld Ascendant [Kickstarter] can at least match my hazy, confused memories of Ultima Underworld 2, the first game I ever played on my dad's PC, then I'll be a happy bunny. If it can match what's being said by the team about their "improvisation engine", then my jaw will hang agog. They are, it seems, attempting to create a setting where…
Feature: Experimentation and improvisation
Underworld Ascendant [official site] has some big shoes to fill. Big shoes of Nostalgia +8. As a continuation of the Ultima Underworld series, with a team led by Looking Glass veteran Paul Neurath, Ascendant is picking up where the immersive first-person RPG left off a couple of decades ago. The game is currently well on its way to a $600,000 Kickstarter target and I spoke…
Edit - links fixed As old school PC gamers' desires for a comeback go, a new Ultima Underworld is right up there with new System Shock or new true-blood X-COM. While a huge number of '90s PC devs have burst back into the limelight thanks to Kickstarter and a legion of people who are terrified of new things, I don't believe we've yet seen anyone…
Feature: From The Archive
Every Sunday, we reach deep into Rock, Paper, Shotgun's 141-year history to pull out one of the best moments from the archive. This week, Adam explores his own gaming history to understand why he plays and why he writes. This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn't play…
Be still my beating heart. No, wait, not quite that still. Somebody fetch the defibrillator. There's a new Underworld game in development. That's Underworld as in Ultima Underworld, as in a couple of the greatest RPGs that have ever graced computing devices. Underworld Ascension doesn't have the Ultima name and we know very little about it, but the developer at the head of the team…
That's right - Ultima 1-9, plus the two Underworld games, for the price of a pint. And not one of those fancy craft ales that you'd sup in a tweedy pop-up bar that charges sixteen quid for a thimble filled with 'paprika-spiced apple cinnamon wedges' that taste like rancid Doritos. GOG.com are currently offering the Ultima bundle for $7.14. That's the price of a pint…
Feature: "We have to get past media envy."
In this second part of my conversation with Warren Spector, we discuss the good and bad of Disney, Spector’s new role as an Academy director, the benefits and drawbacks of growing up as a gamer, and the parallels between Hollywood in the late forties and the games industry now. Also, why indie development is the place to be.
Feature: "I think we became an artform with Pong."
There are a lot of words being written about the new consoles this week but when I spoke to Warren Spector a few days ago, he was clear about where his future lies: “I think all the interesting stuff is happening on PC now… Assuming I make more games, which I intend to do, PC and Mac are going to be my targets.” It’s good…
Feature: Escaping the shackles of simulacra
This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn't play any games either, unless you consider freezing to death on a remote Welsh hillside to be some sort of game. As is often the case, not doing something for five minutes has made me think about why I do…
Good Old Games are once again scooping up the games of the past, dusting off the cobwebs, teaching them about the future ways, and then setting them free into the internets, unfettered by leashes or DRM. And if you've been concerned that their definition of "Good" has been somewhat loose of late, this time they have some true classics. How classic? Pretty much as classic…
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As a retired don in the great university of the bedroom, I wasn't expecting to be aroused by Professor Rossignol. Later, I was also disturbed when he woke me up, demanding that I spout some waffle on the importance of some games none of the current faculty really felt able to talk about with confidence. Of course, with my famous arrogance, I felt confident to…
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As we mentioned last week, after hurriedly deciding to do the Gaming Made Me feature we hurriedly sent a mail around to those RPS-correspondents and famous-folk we didn't feel too bad about hurriedly asking to hurriedly write a little thing about the games that made them who they are. 2K-Boston's Ken "System Shock 2/Freedom Force/Bioshock" Levine didn't write a little thing, instead giving us a…
