Ultima™ 9: Ascension

I'm tempted to just put a link to The Spoony Experiment's video review of this game, but if you're curious just google it yourself. The reason this game is so despised and understandably hated though is a matter of, not just continuity, but loyalty. People hate the Star Wars prequels for 'medichlorians' (amongst other things), people hate Metroid Other M for ruining Samus' character, and people hate Ultima IX for much the same reason: taking what we know, and love, and have grown invested in, and bending it over the table. EA should pay us to not play this horrible game.

"What's a Paladin?"

This game makes a fine monument for what EA was and what it did to their own Franchies

This is a buggy, poorly written, rushed zelda clone. This should have been the clymax and the answer of all the questions in the three trilogy. This is a mess and a joke instead. If you've played any other episode of the Ultima saga, never even touch this one.

Expanding Britannia into 3D was an excellent move. There is plenty to explore and discover. As mentioned previously, your character's strength can be a major factor in determining what you can safely explore. When I played this in 1999, there were some annoying technical issues, generally in the form of game crashes. Hopefully GOG has fixed these problems and this is a fully functional copy. If you're a "hardcore" Ultima fan, the story and moronic Avatar may bother you. Apart from these considerations which cause elitist rantings against Electronic Arts and Ultima canon, neither of which are a logical basis for arguing against Ultima IX as a game, it was a pioneer title in open-world exploration. Hell, they even gave the Avatar a ship at some point and allowed free-roaming (though, of course it was very buggy). Considered on its merits as a game, Ultima canon and EA aside, it's a decent open-world title. Again, hopefully GOG has fixed it up to resolve the major technical issues.