Best RPG Ever Available for Free Download

[Llil]

Well, you can't beat that price. I've never played the Ultima games, but I'm going to have to try this one. I'm always interested in the classics. That virtue thing sounds much more interesting than the standard "bad guy wants to take over the world, go kill him".

Sorry, I upgraded to 3D graphical technology eight or so years ago. Since then my nostalgia level hasn't been high enough to convince me to play these "greatest games ever". Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Fallout to go play.

Fallout isn't 3D, if that's what you're saying. But it sure is one of the "greatest games ever".

 

[Clonekiller]

Well, you can't beat that price. I've never played the Ultima games, but I'm going to have to try this one. I'm always interested in the classics. That virtue thing sounds much more interesting than the standard "bad guy wants to take over the world, go kill him".

Sorry, I upgraded to 3D graphical technology eight or so years ago. Since then my nostalgia level hasn't been high enough to convince me to play these "greatest games ever". Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Fallout to go play.

Fallout isn't 3D, if that's what you're saying. But it sure is one of the "greatest games ever".

Correction: Fallout: New Vegas. Happy?

 

[Weaver]

Hopefully we get Ultima 7 for free too!

 

[Llil]

Correction: Fallout: New Vegas. Happy?

Aye. I thought so, but I chose to misunderstand anyway. It's important to use the right names.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, Blades of Exile has been open source[footnote]will have to give another go at getting it to work on my newer laptop[/footnote] for...wait, Ultima 4?

 

[Liquid Paradox]

rose-tinted glasses much? I also miss the good old days when even figuring out the controls, much less actually playing the game, was too hard to actually bother.

I'm gonna go back to ME:2 now. (somehow I managed to delete my ren fem file, and now I have to play it over again in order to get my ren fem in 3)

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

...

What is this?

I don't even.

But you didn't say ___________ in the title as the best RPG ever.

 

[itf cho]

TOS when you go to install the game says you agree to have Origin installed... no thanks.

 

[kayisking]

At first I was like OMG BALDUR'S GATE 2 FOR FREE!?

Then I was like... meh.

Same here, but with Planescape Torment...

Morrowind for me

Although apparently, Ultima inspired TES in part, or at least Todd-era. Might check it out.

Hey, Persona 4 is now free? Oh...

 

[ResonanceGames]

Sweet, I will pick this up. I hope this means they're going to re-release all the Ultimas, I'd love to play VII again.

 

[imperialreign]

Wow . . . I'm defi gonna have to check this out for old-times sake . . . I remember playing through the whole series as they were released on C64, and U4 was really the only non text-based early RPG that I fondly remember. Ultima3 came a close second.

For y'all youngin RPG fans - don't knock it till you try it, especially just cause it's not your favorite title. There's something about U4 on the older systems that feels right, unlike the many ports to early consoles that just felt all glamored up and lacking in substance. This easily falls into one of those categories of "know your roots," much like Doom is to FPSes, and DuneII is to the RTS.

 

[GrayJester]

Awesome game. Picked it up a while ago. Brilliant idea (virtues mechanics), dreadful (by modern standards) UI and graphics. Conclusion: need a remake. Not by EA, though.
Indie devs, anyone?

 

[Zerbye]

This game was not restricted to the Apple II...I had the PC version on floppy (the big floppies). Then there's the Nintendo version. Anyways, this is not the first time PC gamers had legal access to Ultima IV.

 

[Tiamat666]

I might have missed something, but I remember U4 being made free for download on an EA related site a long time ago.

 

[RandV80]

Yeah I played this on the Sega Master System years ago. Could never get that far until I randomly discovered that pressing butting 2 on controller 2 while in a dungeon brings up a cheat sheet that tells you the coordinates to everything from where to find a dungeon to where you can get nightshade/mandrake, complete with a full spell book. Still had to do some detective work to figure out the 'words', but in the end I could never beat the game because I could never figure out the final answer, the character trait that binds all others together (or whatever it was).

I'll download it but I'm not sure if I'll install it if I have to install Origin as well. I still win here though cause someone mentioned Blades of Exile being open source, thanks a lot! I remember playing the demo of an Ultima IV style RPG game called something-Exile-something on a friends computer years ago and have occasionally wanted to try it again but could never find it with a google search because I didn't know it's proper name.

 

[oldtaku]

I don't think you people will be able to handle this. The old Ultimas were HARD.

- No automaps.
- No quest tracking.
- You have to keep track of everything on paper (NPC text that sounds important) mark, organized by town, mark off when done.
- You have to do some fairly sophisticated putting two and two together to figure some things out - sometimes it will tell you 'hey, you should go over here and talk to this guy and ask him about this', but sometimes you need to figure that out yourself, and if you don't, you are stuck, especially for the endgame stuff where it's all multiple hints.
- All the mechanisms predate the conventions you're used to, so they will feel wrong.

Nothing you've played will prepare you for this unless you grew up in the Bard's Tale / DQ1 age. Heck, I beat this game when it came out - it took months, and now even I find it too primitive to really play.

 

[Pyrian]

...in the end I could never beat the game because I could never figure out the final answer, the character trait that binds all others together (or whatever it was).

Spoiler

Infinity. You get the 8 letters (in Ultima-rune-code) by praying 3 cycles at each shrine. And, egad, I know that from memory, having not done so since I originally played the game on an Apple ][e.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Do you have to use Dosbox for this?

It's a GOG game. If you're unfamiliar, they got that shit covered. If it requires DOSBox, DOSBox will run without you needing to do a thing and the game will launch. It's why so many people love GOG - they make old games very easily compatible with modern systems.

 

[Towels]

Ultima 4 was way ahead of its time, but the original could definately use an update. I strongly recommend first-time players use the N.E.S. version over the PC version. The NES version came out later, allowing needed updates, and its much more easier to follow. Characters in the PC version are all mostly the same, save for restrictions on item usage. (Mages can't wear plate, etc.) This takes out a lot of strategy that should be able to be used; Most of your party will be smashy-smashy fighters with the random mage/healer. The NES version fleshes the characters out much more, and allows for more sophisticated combat strategy and character growth; instead of just Fighter/Mages, you can also have tanks, buffers, rangers, item specialists (grenades). And the NES version is just prettier.

What I loved the most about Ultima was being able to control a party of up to 8 people. I loved using 5 people in Final Fantasy 4, but then those games kept making the party smaller and smaller.

 

[Traun]

Ultima, M&M...now if they upload Wizardry 7 and Darklands we'll have a collection of "all the RPG's you have to play."

Spoiler

Neither KOTOR, nor BG, nor PT for that matter can come close to these masterpieces