Shocking News: OSI's "sorry we screwed up" gifts are...screwed up!
Posted May 28, 2003 - 2:02 PM PDT by Jade
I know, you're probably shocked!
Read about it here and tell us what you think!
SiK Event Tonight!
Posted May 26, 2003 - 3:29 PM PDT by Jade
Title: Scavenger Hunt with a SiK Twist
Date: Monday May 26th (Memorial Day)
Time: 6PM PST, 8PM CST, 9PM EST
Tired of being pked????
Here is your chance to get back at us for pking you!!!
The SiKness (SiK), one of the most feared pk guilds around, will be roaming the lands of Felucca this night.
Come search us out and get revenge.
Grand Prize: 1 Million Gold
Bonus Prizes: 115 Anatomy Power Scroll and Various Neon Weapons
(maybe more to be announced)
A scavenger hunt is a game in which your given clues to different locations so that you may find a certain item. With this item, in combination with other items, will gain the prize. Whoever has the most items listed will receive the Grand Prize.
Goal:
We will be gating anyone who wishes to join us to a designated house in Felucca to be given clues to the locations of these items. A group of SiK team members will have to be defeated in order to obtain the items requested. Once all items have been looted, they will have to be brought back to the designated house in order to get the grand prize.
General Rules:
1) No Rez killing
2) If you should die, stay next to your body and await being rezzed.
Gates will be given from the Yew moongate in Fel and West Brit Bank in Tram.
Special thanks to Deadly Whisper of SiK for all the planning and effort!
LESTAT of SiK
Rate Hikes
Posted May 22, 2003 - 8:00 AM PDT by Jade
The Ultima Online monthly service rate will change from $9.95 per month to $12.99 per month on June 25, 2003. This rate change will allow us to increase the level of quality we provide our players. To make the change easier for you, we’re also introducing the following two multi-month discount packages, which will be available on June 25th:
3 Month Prepaid Discount Package — $34.99
6 Month Prepaid Discount Package — $59.99
By choosing our new 6-month discount package, you can keep your monthly rate at $9.99 per month — effectively maintaining your rate where it is right now!
Starting today, you can visit www.ultima-registration.com to choose your new monthly discount package.
You can find out more details regarding these changes here on our site at www.uo.com/costs.html, including information about how you can chose your new monthly discount package. This page will continue to have all of the most updated information on our service rates. Additional information and details can also be found here.
Note: All current retail game time cards will be accepted.
Care to comment?
Ever just get tired of UO?
Posted May 18, 2003 - 8:43 AM PDT by Adam Ant
Our very own Mr. De Luxx had this to say about UO and its place in the world of gaming.
I think it's a good read,
Enjoy
-------------------------
This seems to happen to me every few months or so, but this time it seems a little different than before. I lost interest in UO about a week or so ago, so I installed Battlefield 1942 and was playing that off and on. Tonight, I started playing the newly released GTA: Vice City, and after a couple hours I quit and loaded up the GMN forums to see what's been going on around here. While looking at some screenshots in a story, it suddenly hit me that UO really needs a leap forward in the technology that it uses. Newer games provide so much more immersability than is possible in either version of the UO client.
In my opinion, a good part of this is due to the obsolescence of the in-game graphics and sound, but that's not the whole reason. Another problem is that the motion in UO lacks any sort of fluidity, so instead of helping you imagine that you're galloping through the forests of Sosaria on horseback, the lack of fluidity and realism in how your avatar moves makes it hard to keep in mind that you're supposed to be engaged in a medieval/fantasy battle. Horses that not only stop, but turn around 180 degrees on a dime without losing speed? Everyone runs the same speed regardless of weight? Each attack is the exact same animation every time? There are only two speeds that things move, walk and run, with no time needed to transition between them?
While playing GTA:VC tonight, for a few moments, I felt as if I were a part of the game, playing the role of a big-hair 80's bad-ass riding a Harley down the strip in Miami with the wind blowing through my hair, and an Uzi in my hand. Yeah, it's just a game, but it sure looked cool doing a wheelie and shooting the bad guys at the same time. Same with BF 1942, taking off of from an airfield on Guadalcanal in a Corsair to bomb a Japanese battleship that was shelling my tanks on the beach. I took off into the sun, and couldn't see much in front of me due to the glare. I get hit, and smoke starts trailing from my plane, so I bail out into the ocean. I can hear the distant sounds of shells exploding from the island in the distance.
That feeling of "being there" is what UO is sorely lacking. And it's not just graphics and sound, because I've had that feeling before in games that were out before UO was more than an idea in LB's head. It's all the little things that add up that when added together take away that feeling of being immersed in the world you're supposed to be living in. The example of how your avatar is controlled is probably the best example of this, because it's just so unrealistic in a non-fun manner that it forces you to "play a game" rather than live in a world.
I hear rumors of this new UO:X, and I'm hoping it's a giant leap forward using the cutting edge in video game technology, including a less "game-like" sense of control, because if it's not, I just don't see UO lasting more than a couple more years. I know people have been saying it for a long time, but there is this dark cloud that seems to be hovering over the game these days.
I just hope EA/OSI has the balls to make a complete break with the current client and start from scratch. I remember a dev team member talking about building bridges between one generation of a game to another, so I'm hoping those comments are more than just a fanciful concept that will never see the light of day.
Care to comment?
GUL Pit Fights! 05/10/03
Posted May 9, 2003 - 1:50 PM PDT by smerx
This week's pit fight will be a 2v2 single elimination!
(Saturday, May 10rd)
Sponsored by Felix of Fire Isle Realty!
Team Prizes:
1st place - 600k
2nd place - 200k
[ Rules and information ]