well if you like it that much i can brake it down to ya ..bling …bling blah ..blah ..blah ding dong walla walla bing bang there ya go 8)~

Never having played Ultima IV, I still don’t know why you call it “one of the best games of all time”. It looks very similar to the previous entries in the series, so I can’t judge it by the video alone. You mention three of its merits: (1) a truly open-ended exploration experience, (2) being able to act like a hero, not a brute with a sword, and having (3) clear definite goals in every town. Then you harp on some of its shortcomings: (1) Inconsistencies in Lord British’s morals over the course of the series, (2) the implausibility of searching for a runestone in a superheated forge, (3) the fact that the character Katrina is nearly useless in the game, (4) the cumbersome spell system and, finally, (5) the ordeal of having to track down moongates with constantly changing locations.

So, why is this one of your favorite games again Spoony? I can’t tell from what you’ve shown and what you’ve said.

go to bed jacob!!

“THE BUM’S ALWAYS LOSE” nice. you mentioned things being less zany in the word of ultima this time around. i had been wondering at exactly what point in the series the various owners of the properties started to take notice of lord british’s…uh…shall we say “liberal borrowing” of other people’s concepts and the games would no longer feature tie fighters, hobbits, and obscure fantasy novel and gaming characters, and apparently, that point was number 4. in a way i miss the lunacy of the first 3, but it’s probably for the best that bilbo baggins can no longer possibly hijack a starship and go bebopping around the galaxy with an poor man’s ewok, elric with a blaster rifle, and luke’s landspeeder. certainly less exciting, but for the best none the less i think haha

I’m curious about something. concerning the footage, it seems that all the videos feature some very similar shots, and i was wondering if A) spoony is just showing us random clips from several of the ultima games all at once, not really concerned with matching the footage to what he’s talking about or B) there are different versions of the same game for different platforms that are both drastically different from eachother while somehow remaining similar from game to game on a single platform (if that made any sense) or i guess also C) something i haven’t thought of at all? does anyone know? i was wondering

also, wanna take bets on how long it takes people to start a massive war about this video not meeting their bizarre tunnel visioned expectations for the content on the site? place your wagers before time runs out people, we’re 70 comments in and people have been remarkably well behaved, it’s bound to happen any second.

i’m taking action on “why isn’t this a final fantasy review?” as well as good odds on “this video was so short, it’s not up to your usual standard because of it came beyond midnight, i JUST KNOW IT” and while the odds are long, we have a dark horse bet on someone demanding the next episode of wrestle wrestle. like i said, it’s a sucker bet, but big winnings could go to the daring! place your bets, gather round, place yer bets kiddies. nobody loses when it’s a great show!

UNLESS lord british himself is REALLY the villain, then it all makes sense. you see it’s his cunning plan to bring in blood crazed townsfolk raping madmen from other dimensions to wreak unprecidented havoc on all of the land so that the desperate people turn to him as their savior. and it’s working too. just look at how much british has prospered since the first game? they renamed the damn continent (maybe even the whole WORLD as far as the game is concerned) to Britannia.

it all makes sense if you think about it, plus this totally explains the “kidnap a princess for the dungeon of every castle in my land! THIS…I COMMAND!!!” thing, i think hahah

The early Ultima games (1 through 5, I believe) run on more or less the same basic engine, so there are bound to be some similarities. Additionally, there are several versions of most of the Ultima games. The story is usually intact, and only the gameplay and graphics change mildly in ports. The versions I spotted in this review are the original DOS version, the DOS version with an upgraded fan-made graphics pack, and the NES version with streamlined gameplay. In addition, there is a program that you can run Ultima 4 via that lets you play the game using some of amenities of the later games — most notably the ability to mix as many spells at once as you have the ingredients.

Spell reagents are a rarity in RPGs… but the Ultima ones… Why the crap does casting like a fireball use flowers and garlic?

Yes, you are the only one that sees that because it isn’t the old house…are you mad? He started this series very recently – you could see him render one of the episodes on his comp in the background during one of his V Logs, and it’s clearly his new place – but according to you he decided to do this one over a year ago, then went back to the start of the series only recently in order to show them in order. Bwha?????? Bizarre.

For the record, the sound was fine for me.

Oh god, I never did beat this game. I’d rent it and get frustrated or distracted every damn time. The spell components thing drove me nuts. Guess I was too young and too impatient to deal with it.
Still, I always did love messing with the beginning of the game more than the actual game itself.

First off, what happened to the new version of the intro of living illusion. It gave people the idea that the spoony was a total badass and knew that people were in for a ride once they saw the video.

Second, what’s wrong with the sound in the video? It sounds like a lot of the older videos that spoony made. No offence

Great review either way.

Dang, that King’s Quest V music at the start brought some memories flooding back. That was the second real game I ever played.

Oh man, no Avatar: the Last Airbender jokes? XD Good episode though.

These are very informative reviews. I only played Ultima VIII and I didn’t know anything about the previous games, so I’m curious. I thought VIII was a pretty good game (not a classic one), especially for the spells, but I will talk about it on the proper review.

hey thanks. i was wondering, as the various vers. looked extreeeeeemely different. at first i just kind of figured he was just showing the whole ulitma series as random backgrounds that didn’t neccessarily sync up with what he was talking about. but then he mentioned katrina the sheperd and showed her in a screenshot that looked vastly different from the others, so i figured that at least was def. ultima 4, but the others still…oh hell you get it, it was confusing haha. anyway thanks for letting me know. though it is pretty amazing how massive the difference is between the DOS and NES versions. this is one time i would def. have to concede to the console vers. as the better one (at least prettier) than the PC, which is pretty hard to do.

Um I don’t think that’s from the Ultima game, I think it might have been from Kings Quest VII.

“The bums lost, the bums will always lose”
“well that’s just like… your opinion man”

MOTÖRHEAD RULES !! AND SPOONY TOO !!!

Omg that part about the bums never leaving despite receiving ridiculous amounts of money reminds me of Fallout 3. I collected Purified Waters (and later Aqua Pura, which is given out for FREE ANYWAY) and gave every single one of them (I seriously never drank one) to the dieing guy outside Megaton as well as as the one outside Rivet City. I swear I gave them lakes worth of purified water and still they kept begging me for more.

Without them Triple H would be a quarter of the star he is today.

I didn’t mean that he hates anime, just that he doesn’t watch a lot of it.

Well. It was either a dungeon shaped like a wang,or they recycle that zelda stage that looks like a swastika. Thankfully they didn’t go with the latter on that choice. And i was thinking there was gonna be a Last Airbender joke in this,but can’t have it all.

Actually, it’s not a swastika. It is the japanese kanji Ban, whish means “full” or “complete”.

Also, when it stands on its tip (like the swastika) it is the symbol for “rising sun” in china, the nazis just stole the symbol and put it on their flag.

You can close the box if you hover the mouse slightly above the video info box (above the X to close the ad)

Okay, upon first loading the site I am greeted with “I’m adorable but alone!”, so I was already laughing so hard before finally watching this review. That was one of my favorite moments in the Warrior Comic review…the hilarity never stops…ouch..my pancreas!

Great review, Spoons. I only have to complain on one thing: There’s actually 4.5 zillion degrees in a forge!

Troll alert. Just saying.

Not really, since you said it “looked” like a swastika (and it did).

Loving these Ultima reviews. I never had the chance to play the games as a kid, so getting the run down from you is always nice! ;)

Looking forward to 5 and some more FFX carnage!

THE BUMS LOST! THE BUMS ALWAYS LOSE!

Psst @spoonyone this was part 5, not part 4

Ultima IV had no plot? “Quest of the Avatar” is quite a plot you know.

If I could laugh you off the internet I would.

Great choice of music on this one Spoony!

Spoony, I must say that I am impressed with your selection of music at the end of this review. Lemmy is a god. Let us all bow our heads in observance to the great moled-one.

Sweet Lebowski reference, Noah.

The Dude abides.

I blame YouTube and Vince Offer, IMHO.

I also only played Ultima VIII back in the day, and the spell system was complex but fun. I loved playing that game, just trying to get the next powers or doing those weird rituals was great (invoking pyros comes to mind.. aphelion, mesostel, perivolcan… :D)

well if you want to play them, the ultima collection is available and the games will work on your computer. or you can get a emulator for it on the nes.

Is that a herpes sore on the middle of that dungeon cock?

Sorry, I don’t find creatively bankrupt game designers funny. Surely this clown didn’t think he could ripoff a masterpiece like Code Geass and get away with it? And look at those graphics. Code Geass aired in 2006, so this was clearly made after that, and yet it still looks so bad? Must be a Wii game.

Ah, man, I remember this game on the NES, a bottle of Dr. Pepper and no friends meant a good time. I love you, hands…wait, that didn’t sound right.

Also, Motorhead’s Heroes at the end? Awesome.

1:51 Cute. That should be his next movie. “John Cena is…THE AVATAR!”

… Eight virtues, eh?

Perhaps… Ultimate vitrues?

Creating some sort of… truce? Perhaps? … Yeah, I went there…

“You could go to /college/ with the money I gave your silly ass.”

… Oh right, in some countries you actually have to pay for college. 

*shot*

I am downloading it as i type but this game is free and legal now at GOG 

i have the same problem too. the quicktime thing is preventing me from watching this vieo, and a lot of other ones too!

+1 for the King’s Quest V soundtrack!  I actually thought my phone was ringing, because I have the intro theme as my ringtone right now.  ;~)

:)

awww….why cant I play it? Quickplay? I all ready have that! The hell?

Thanks to the sale at GOG.com, I’m playing this game for the first time.
Walked into the town of Trinsic and found all these Paladins wandering around.
And, of course, as a future Avatar, I had to ask them all, “What’s a Paladin?”

I thought that sounded like Lemmy.

What’s the other game you have footage for that you keep cutting to?

I do not get it: there are tow types of overhead view in the game? One with animated FF-esque sprites and one it static stickmen? What the heck?