Ultima Online: Third Dawn

by Electronic Arts

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000059S8B
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 22, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,864 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The vibrant world of Britannia, first explored in the Ultima games of the early 1980s, became an online adventuring ground for thousands with Ultima Online. UO displayed its world with the flat 2-D graphics of the old Ultima games. While this was fine at first, gamers began to complain once more advanced graphics technology became available. With Third Dawn, Electronic Arts responds to its loyal community with sharp new 3-D character graphics and more.

Third Dawn adds an additional landmass that presents even greater challenges and rewards for UO players. Third Dawn also adds new monsters to the UO landscape, and for combat, players can try out new weapons and armor, some of which feature an oriental/samurai look and feel.

Now Ultima Online is better than ever with improved graphics, music, and sound effects. Explore the beautiful world of Britannia and see and hear the difference.

Ultima Online is a multiplayer online game you play via the Internet. A stable Internet connection is required to play. Electronic Arts charges a small monthly fee for this game, separate from your Internet service provider access charges. The first month of this fee is included in the purchase price of this package. You must provide a valid credit card to register and play. After your first month, you can use your credit card to buy more time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, May 7, 2001

By 

DAN M CABLE (Painesville, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultima Online: Third Dawn (CD-ROM)

I recently upgraded to Ultima Online: Third Dawn, and was not at all impressed with the graphics or performance of this new client.

(For new players: the 'client' is the program which runs on your computer to show you what's going on in the game. All the actual information is stored on the server you connect to. Players using different clients can still interact with each other.)

Let me begin by saying that my hardware configuration is well above the minimum requirements. (PIII 800MHz, 448MB RAM, 32MB AGP video) Third Dawn runs visibly slower on my computer than the old 2-D client, with few changes to make it worthwhile. The new graphics simply include 3-D objects and lighting effects which are far from impressive. There are improved sounds, and the containers (backpacks, chests, etc.) are larger, making it easier to organize items within the game. Aside from that, the only real advantage to using the 3-D client is that you can visit the new lands (Ilshenar) In addition to the shaky performance, Third Dawn is filled with bugs. I encountered two bugs in my first hour of play.

Fortunately, the old 2-D client is included on the Third Dawn CD, so you are not forced to use one or the other.

My advice- do NOT pay ... for Ultima Online: Third Dawn.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Would that we could put 0 stars, as a review..., April 6, 2001

By 

Barry Salmon (Lubbock, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultima Online: Third Dawn (CD-ROM)

I've played Ultima Online for over 3 years. I participated in the beta for this 3D add-on for the game. I run a large guild, and host bi-weekly events. Despite all it's problems, I've always been a supporter of the game in general. There is so much to it, and so much to do... it can keep a gamer busy, literally, for years.

This 3D client has the potential to add a lot of worthwhile content to the game. New items, new areas, and new creatures can all be added to the new areas without having to cut new CD's. New gestures, new lands to explore, new monsters to fight. All of which is needed in a 3+ year old game.

That said this 3D client, as delivered, is non-functional. It's got a memory leak so big you can throw a truck through it. Most players refuse to use it anywhere dangerous (such as fighting monsters, or other players... or anywhere that might happen) as more likely than not the 3D client will crash to your desktop before it hardly gets started. Leaving you at the mercy of what you were fighting.

While the environment art is beautiful and some of the new creature art are wonderfully done, the rest is rather childish. They still can't even get the colors to match the 2D client, for the character models. The character models themselves, are ugly till you zoom in close enough that it's the only thing you can see. Most of the creature graphics are just as bad. The "wonderful" character animation you read about in the description, is awful to the extreme.

If you wish to play UO with the same old 2D client, then do so. But don't buy this expecting to play with the new 3D client. This Alpha stage client, that was tossed out as a beta... is barely in what should be considered beta stage, upon release.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating, April 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ultima Online: Third Dawn (CD-ROM)

A long standing player in the UO community (2 years) I have enjoyed almost every aspect of the game. I was happy when I got my name into the Third Dawn Beta. I spent hours and hours playing Third Dawn, finding bugs and posting them. I was and am frustrated with Origin for sending the game Gold before it was ready.

The game is virtually unplayable (Build 61). Massive memory leaks, crashes, and poor graphics should keep any serious MMORPG gamer away for the time being.

The Game, we must also remember, is part of a virtual community. This community is presumably nutured by the company which made it, however any serious gamer who plans on sticking around will want to make sure they agree, and follow, the companies views of customerism. OSI is not committed to their customer base. A solid 3-4 month lay over of their Veteran 'rewards' program is a good example of their desire for the bottom dollar. Third Dawn was rushed for money, not for your playability.

Instead of Third Dawn, I suggest buying UO: Renaissance and take advantage of the free month of play before you commit to Third Dawn.