🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, I would never think of myself as an older gamer, but I've been playing
the Ultimas since Ultima II.  I remember looking at Ultima I but it was too slow, 
and then when you redid it, I couldn't last five minutes without dying.  

What I didn't like in the Ultimas
---------------------------------

Ultima IV was great, but I really didn't like the fact that I could lose my
avatar points so easily.  My brother played the game for thirty seconds and
knocked me back about 5 days worth of playing by saying "Yes" when someone 
asked if he was humble. 

Ultima VI, I thought, gave up too much strategy for the new graphics.  I 
felt like I was just connecting the dots a lot of the time.  Perhaps the
plot was too linear.  Oh, yeah, and it crashed a lot.  I had to go into the
thing with a hex editor when the game crashed with my characters on a ship
at the edge of the world. 

What I loved in the Ultimas
---------------------------

Ultima VII had some great surprises and really made better use of the heavy 
graphical GUI.  

Ultima V started sketchy (I remember being _way_ to frustrated just trying to 
keep fed and alive.)  Once my character got to a certain point, that wasn't an
issue anymore.  The game's plot was very well done.  I remember such elation
when I was following British's trail and I found the abandoned raft underground. 


To be truthful, I haven't played U8 or even Serpent Isle.  So in my answer I 
have a question: should I play Serpent Isle or continue to U8.  U7 was so 
long ago, unless S.I. is needed (plot-wise) I'd rather just grab U8.