Friday, March 31, 2006

Ultima V: Lazarus

If you've never heard of Lazarus, here's a description from the website:
Ultima V: Lazarus is an exceedingly ambitious project that will greatly improve the graphics and sound in the PC version of Ultima V. However, that's not all. Rather than releasing an "upgrade patch" as happened with U4, what we're doing is a true from-the-ground-up remake of the gaming classic, Ultima V.

It will be built in the Dungeon Siege 3D RPG engine, which you can learn more about at
DUNGEONSIEGE.COM and it will have brand new graphics, CD-quality orchestral music (including re-mastered versions of the original U5 music plus some new pieces), improved and expanded dialogue, and a much more "alive" design for the Underworld, amongst other improvements.

It should give you an idea of how long this mod has been in development that the original Dungeon Siege engine is being used. But to play an Ultima game (and V was one of the best) in an upgraded engine, even an older engine, is a real marvel.

I've been waiting to write about this until the 1.2 patch was released, but now it has been, and you can get it here:
http://tinyurl.com/hhs4z.

That's a File Planet link, which is the only place you can get it right now (registration required). However, there should be mirrors up fairly soon, and you'll be able to find them here:
http://www.u5lazarus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4337.

If you've never played an Ultima game (which means you're much younger than I am), this is a chance to experience the series in one of its finest hours.

Site Meter