I've been wanting to get into the Ultima series for a long time now. I've played IV and while it is definitely dated it's still an excellently crafted RPG. However, I have heard horror stories of the last two games and how the series basically ended on a horrible note, especially in regards to IX. I have been wondering if there are any mods out there to fix these two games, not just from a gameplay perspective but from the story as well. I doubt there are any for VIII, but I am curious about IX. I don't want to play through the whole series and be forced to finish with those two games. I am aware there's a mod of Morrowind that serves as a fan remake of IX, but I don't know enough about it. Any suggestions are welcome.

Check the sticky at the top of the forum. I haven't heard of that, but it sounds interesting.

There was a mod for VIII that was about restoring some of the cut content, but not sure it ever was finished. VIII isn't horrible, its just a very different game from the previous ones. A lot of people objected to having to do some very unAvatar things to complete the game, though that was sort of the entire point of the game (Each game has a theme like that).

As for IX, if you want to play it, there are two mods that are musts IMO. The first is the unofficial patch. It fixes a lot of the glitches that the last official patch didn't. The second is the community dialogue patch. It SIGNIFICANTLY changes the story of the game to make it far more inline with the history of the game. The only downside is that you have to turn off the voice audio, otherwise you get text saying one thing and voice saying an another!

So should you play IX? I played it for completion. Its still a beautiful game, even today, even if the gameplay isn't great. I will say that I basically had to force myself through the last 1/3 of it. Once you get past the fun of exploring Britannia in 3D, the annoyances of the game really started to grind at me. I was literally angry at the end of playing sessions at the end. I was hoping the very end would be payoff enough that it was worth it. I don't know. It certainly didn't feel like it to me, but if I hadn't played it through, I'd probably keep coming back to it thinking I should.

FYI, if you need some more Ultima fix, I HIGHLY recommend the two Dungeon Siege mods that redo V and VI. Both are excellent. I really wish they had redone IX instead though! I don't think the Morrowind mod was ever finished.

Even with the patches, the games has more bugs than a dead animal on several large fire ant hills! The only good things of Ultima 9 is the gwaphixs and music, as the rest of the game is a unsatisfying and disorganized mess. Also Ultima 8 does suck, as its combat is a brainless clicking the mouse like Ultima 9, boring platforming, and the annoyance of doing rituals with the fucking inventory system of Ultima 7. But I do wish someone one day will do a remake and fix all the problems of Ultima 8 and 9, to make a awesome coherent finish to the Ultima series :)