BioWare and Electronic Arts have revealed a new free-to-play title that will be based on the Ultima series, called Ultima Forever. According to the companies, the first great Western RPG has been lovingly restored in Ultima Forever, meaning that players will be able to return to the Ultima series in BioWare’s new cross-platform action RPG. Players can choose between a Fighter and a Mage, and travel alone or with friends, in order to restore virtue and become the Avatar.
Those interested can head over to Ultima Forever’s official website and sign up for the upcoming beta phase.
Ultima is a series of fantasy role-playing video games from Origin Systems. Ultima was created by Richard Garriott, a.k.a. Lord British. Several games of the series are considered seminal games of their genre and today, Electronic Arts holds the brand.
The main Ultima series consists of nine installments (the seventh title is further divided into two parts) grouped into three trilogies, or “Ages”: The Age of Darkness (Ultima I-III), The Age of Enlightenment (Ultima IV-VI), and The Age of Armageddon (Ultima VII-IX). The latter is also sometimes referred to as “The Guardian Saga” after its chief antagonist. The first trilogy is set in a fantasy world named Sosaria, but during the cataclysmic events of The Age of Darkness, it is sundered and three quarters of it vanish. What is left becomes known as Britannia, a realm ruled by the benevolent Lord British, and is where the later games mostly take place.
The protagonist in all the games is a canonically male resident of Earth who is called upon by Lord British to protect Sosaria and, later, Britannia from a number of dangers. Originally, the player character was referred to as “the Stranger”, but by the end of Ultima IV he becomes universally known as the Avatar.
No new information has been revealed as of yet for this free-to-play title, so stay tuned for more.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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