And it terrifies me to my core (NSFW, lots of language):
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/05/29/ultima-9-ascension/

Lol, I have been waiting for sometime for Spoony to tear that POS a new one and thankfully he didn't disappoint. Shame that there's going to be the inevitable "Oh he was being too harsh on it, Ultima IX is not a bad game" types posting either in this thread or in the comments. Some people just can't except that just because you like a game does not mean it's still not a horrible piece of crap. It is, just except that it crap and move on. Honestly there is nothing wrong with liking a bad game, for example I still like Hylide for the nes.

The stupid, it burns me so. You know, they probably had to find some way to explain elements from past games to new players, but did they need to make the Avatar so stupid in the process?

LOL, I like Hydlide myself. True story, I had a rental copy that got burned in a car fire.

Yuuuup :D you know what this means... Ultima 9 on GoG next week. What's a paladin?

Why is everything EA's fault?

Let us count the ways? lol

Bullfrog
Never forgive, never forget

you also forgot Origin and Westwood

Sure, but for me personally Bullfrog sticks at me the most.

Great, he had to post this before I went to bed. Dammit.

Ugh, so many horrid memories of this game. I've been a fan of Spoony for a long time and I was happy to see this is finally posted (looking forward to part 2 or more). I got a huge kick of the Guardian "guest" it was pretty well done.

As for Ultima IX, I concur so much could have been done to save it that wasn't. For example, to explain the Avatar's stupidity they could have written that it wasn't the original Avatar but an alternate. (yes I realize the codex is required to become the avatar, but it makes a lick more sense than what they did)

As for the original Avatar, the story could have been written as dun dun dunnnnnn the Guardian IS the original Avatar corrupted. Since Ultima HAS involved time travel in the past a time travel story could have worked. It would also explain the Guardian's perversity of the 8 virtues. Since in U8, the Avatar was forced to become a god; it isn't outside the realm of possible that said power corrupts (as the old axiom goes).

A time paradox would have been a load better than the shovel heap of excrement that was U9. Also it would make for an interesting plot device that the Guardian needs to corrupt the Avatar to become the Guardian in an infinite cycle. It would play up the morality angle and show how even good people do bad things. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that.

I really liked this review because it showed pretty well how sadly a great series fell to utter crap. To paraphrase Spoony from the Highlander 2 review, "how do you completely buttf*ck a series in such a short amount of time?"

Incidentally, isn't it kind of funny of life imitating art with how EA took something good such as Ultima and corrupted it; kind of like how Blackthorn did so to the 8 virtues in Ultima V though not to the same extreme?

This video was hillarious, but seriously why is this guy reviewing a game that came out in the last millenium? I still love U9 even with all of it's obvious flaws. I guess i'm a sucker for the classics.

Maybe I'm just missing the humour, because he comes across as more a butthurt fanboy than anything else.

Yeah. Pretty much this.