Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn Previews

Both MMORPG.com and Warcry have written up previews of Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn, based on what they learned about the upcoming add-on at EA Mythic’s recent press event. A snip from the article at MMORPG.com:

Some of the monsters are going to look a little bit different now that the developers have the ability to add a higher level of detail. The example that best fits is the earth elemental. Before, it looked like a kind of mud-creature, now it appears to be made out of joined boulders. This is because the developers went back to the original design documents. They are (re-building the original vision of the designers) by doing the things that couldn’t be done justice back in 1997.

And a snip from the article at Warcry:

Kingdom Reborn also comes with an overhaul of the game’s user interface. They’re applying “modern design principals” to help today’s gamers discover the world of UO. In 1997, there were no industry standards, because there really wasn’t a mass-market MMO genre. Things that are second nature to every game today like a hotbar, hadn’t been invented yet. With Kingdom Reborn, all the lessons of the last decade are being put into the game so that players who love MMOs can go back and easily get their teeth into the world that kick started an entire genre.