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Spanky wrote a few notes on his first 10 hours playing Ascension..

Getting Ready

... being as smart as I like to think I am. I ordered Ultima IX Ascension 2 weeks before it was released. I live out here in the boonies... Wal-Mart doesn't get the new releases for WEEKS... and only if its a top seller. As soon as www.ea.com offered the game at a $15 discount to current UO subscribers, I whipped out ye ole Master Card and gave it a hearty exercise in capitalism.

I didn't expect the game to arrive till 3-5 days after the 23rd. The shipping charge was only about $5, so the little man in the brown uniform wasn't going to take my package as a priority, but, lo and behold.. *knock knock*.

'Yeah Baybay! Let's get this thing started right up!'.

Tuesday Nov. 23, 2:20pm
There's feeling I only get when opening a fresh gamebox. The smell of pressed, glossy waxed paper makes goofy. Opening the box to see the goodies I find...

8 tarot cards each containing an image pertaining to the virtues
1 limited edition cloth map
1 spell book
1 players journal
1 cd case containing the install cd and the game cd
1 install guide
..various pieces of other crap..

*Fwoom* Out with the cd... popped it in and began the install in Windows NT. I remember reading a FAQ somewhere that it would work on NT 4 so I gave it a try. NT is my preferred environment.

While it was installing... I began to thumb through the players journal.

Table Of Contents:

Letter from a friend.
It's an introduction to the game. Not sure who is doing the introduction but I think it's either the narrator in the beginning of the game... or maybe Lord British.

The Eight Virtues Of The Avatar.
A little detail on the virtues.. giving some meaning behind them. The game holds very true to these... so get to know them!

The Tapestry of Ages.
Ascension will be the LAST Ultima game based on the Virtues and the Avatar. It retains a lot of history from the earlier games. In Britain, there is a museum with a large interactive tapestry. Clicking on parts of the tapestry corresponding to an earlier game gives you a summary of that game. Yes! Ascension is on the far right of it. From the sound of it, the game looks like it might have a sad ending.

Places Of Note.
A brief summary of major locations in the game. It covers the cities, shrines, dungeons and a couple of places not of Britannia like The Ethereal Void.

Skills And Combat.
This part gives the fundamentals of combat. Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity... goes on to explain training, tactics, arms, and armaments.

(Crap! The NT Install Failed.... Lets reboot to Win98.....)

Bestiary
The game was described by Origin as having about 60 monsters in the game. The book only mentions 28.

The Cosmos
This is one page, in story form, about Lord British in his Observatory noticing a disturbance in the alignment in some stars and planets.

Music
Explains where music fits in Britannia and contains the lyrics to his favorite song 'Stones'... one Page.

Runic
A key to the alphabetical values of the runic symbols. The letter X and its rune is missing in my book!

Travel At Sea
... advice and explanation on ships and how to use them.

Glossary
Definitions for 11 words used in the game.

(Win98 install is done)

I had 3 install options. I picked 'typical'... about 718 megs.

*click*

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