Nice release.. but I'll wait for 6-9.

U1, I don't know.
U2 and U3 are very short compared to U4 and far less complex.
The greatness of the series begins with U4. But if you like this, you will like 2 and 3 too.
Thus I would say: wait for 4 to be free; than decide.

Disabling your account affects you. If gog revokes your game from your GOG account, you still will be playing it illegally, if you do it after that. In theory, because I don't think such provisions are legal anyway.

Who's to say that the license isn't 'time-restricted'. There are plenty of license agreements that are only valid for a limited time (including all the 'rented IP' that is used to create plenty of games out there). If at all, it seems like 'false advertisement' (either by EA or GOG) to me, but that'd be rather borderline and very tricky to prove.

Anyway, I'm going to stop derailing this neat release of Ultima and patiently wait for the free 4th part that hopefully hits the shelf today or tomorrow, since Populous is due on Thursday.

Edit:
Erm? Sorry, but where do you get that point in their ToS? They mention ceasing the account, but never the license for games you 'purchased' with them, or did I miss something?

The best would have been 'Ultima IX: Ascension - Dragon Edition' that included all Ultimas from Ultima 0 (aka Akalabeth: World of Doom) to Ultima IX: Ascension for 9.99$. Had they done so I'd bought several but now, considering I already own the best of the series (U7 part 1&2 with expansions), I'm unlikely to buy anything else other than the two Worlds of Ultima games (The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams) and even then only if they are bundled together.

I'm surprised at the high level interest to this release. I will personally applaud to any new gamer who completes any of the three games to this day and age.

They are certainly part of gaming history, but to quote certain horror movie (anyone?): "Sometimes, dead is better.".

(Actually, I'm now a bit interested now to try out Wizardry (the first one). I remember seeing it running on some Apple IIc system when I was a kid, looked quite different to Ultima (1-3). But if GoG now goes to release Wiz1, I don't think I will actually buy it for five bucks.))

For it to be time-restricted, this has to be explicitly stated in the EULA, which is usually the case in subscription services. It is not in the case of the EA EULA - it simply states that EA has the right to arbitrarily terminate the agreement.

Unlikely as it would be, if any court were to deem this permissible, a company would be able to take someone's money, provide them with the software and licence and then terminate it immediately, leaving them either out of pocket or forced to use the software illegally.

I think you can agree that no court or legislator in their right mind would agree to this. It would destroy the software industry.

Of course, it is possible to include a clause that the parties can AGREE to terminate the licence agreement, but that is implicit even without the clause.

Definitely.

The earlier Ultima games were landmarks of the time, raising the bar of what adventure games could be. When you compare the Ultima's to their contemporaries (Urogue, Scott Adams' Adventures, Sierra's Mystery House, Temple of Apshai), you're struck by the increased depth of the games and the strength of their writing. That, and they were fun to play for many, many hours.

Since I care more about playability than eye-candy, I still enjoy them. I still enjoy Hack, for that matter. I feel sorry for those who pass up a game because it doesn't have pretty, 3-D graphics. Those people are really missing out.


-Khalaq

GOG may change, suspend, or discontinue all or any aspect of the Service at any time, including the availability of any feature, without prior notice or liability.

It does mean also games. When GOG ad. says "you buy it, you own it" they lie. You can't own a game distributed digitally. It's not an ownership, it's only service. Great difference.

Even if you buy retail copy of a game, you don't own a game. You own a box and CD with a game, but not the game (which is still producer's IP) itself.

Decide for ourself: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/ultima-series-and-populous-come-to-gog/ (courtesy of TheJoe, see forum thread)
Since they've be right with the U 1-3 on Tuesday prediction, personally I think that the're going to be right on the follow up as well.

Peoplee know about populous because of this :
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/ultima-series-and-populous-come-to-gog/


edit- beaten already

WHAT A SURPRISE!

I really really did not see that coming. not at all.

Slight difference between licence and service here and the critical difference between Steam (for example) and GOG. If you bought a licence for a game, downloaded it, burnt it and GOG decides to shut up shop tomorrow, you're still entitled to use your burnt copy - you still have your licence.

It's just that GOG reserves the right on the other hand to stop allowing you to download it from their server should it ever go down. It's an ass-covering technique preventing litigious trolls from sueing GOG in the event that they can't download their games any more. That's why I tell people all the time - BACK YOUR GAMES UP!

It's actually not an unreasonable clause, it's just in very unfriendly-sounding legalese. You can still play your games if GOG dies.

Which is more than can be said for Steam. You will still have your licences if you buy a game from Steam and Steam dies. You just won't have any way of exploiting them, and the SSA (dubiously) absolves Valve of all liability in this respect. Charming.

Depends on your jurisdiction. In the US and Germany you'd be right. In the UK, you're deemed to be in ownership of that COPY of the game with certain restrictions.

I must say, I am incredibly happy to see the series here (outside of Ultima Underworld of course)! :D I assume the next pack will hopefully include 4-6 and then potentially have 7 and 8 (Ultima 9? No such thing ;) ) packed separately. Bah, I'm rambling, needless to say I'm very pleased for this release and look forward to the following parts of the series. Thank you GOG!