Before I start in with any of my rantly duties, I should inform you guys that thanks to your support, we now have enough fundage to pay all of the exorbitant fees associated with this move. Thank you so much for your help. Now, on with the show.
Every now and again, something odd happens to remind me that someone out there in the gaming industry actually reads these little comics I put up daily. Back in the day, it was Bill Roper sending me an e-mail when I talked about Diablo II. Last year, it was Cliff Hicks, who worked at Westwood at the time, inviting me to come to E3 with him. He’s now one of my best friends, but I digress. Recently, the little jolt I got was an e-mail from Electronic Arts inviting me to the premiere of Ultima X : Odyssey. When I first got the e-mail, I somewhat disregarded it. It looked like a form letter, so I shoved it to the back of my mind. That night, when talking to Tony, the subject of the new Ultima game came up. “Oh yeah,” i said, “I got invited to that. What is it?” His jaw promptly hit the floor. After him about mobbing me to MAKE me go to this thing, I went back and took a closer look at the e-mail.
Apparently, EA is willing to put us up in a hotel in San Francisco, and had I lived further away, they would have paid for our airfare as well. That’s when it hit me that this might, in fact, be a big deal.
You probably haven’t heard much about UX:O. From what I can tell, NOBODY has. But here’s what I gather : First off, it’s an Ultima game, and it’s online. Call it Ultima Online 2.0, or whatever, same diff. Secondly, it uses the Unreal Warfare engine, and from what I’ve seen, it’s sporting some pretty sweet 3D graphics. That’s really all that’s known for certain. I hear tell of a possible one-way or even two-way bridge between UO and UX:O. If I can bring my characters over from UO to explore the new lands, well hell… I am THERE. :) I don’t know if I’d permanently remove them from Brittania, however. Anyway, I digress. I don’t know how many people are going to be attending this shindig, but it looks like they’re scheduling each of the attendees a 30-minute interview session with the Dev team. I figure I’ll bring a tape recorder and actually try to piece together an honest-to-god interview, if I can. I don’t know how much they’re going to let me report on, but I’ll do my best. But for once, I’ll actually be getting Ultima news before anyone else does, and directly from the source. So yeah, Thursday and Friday I’ll be in San Francisco, and I’ll give the full report upon my return. If they let me. *grins*
