Ultima Online: Third Dawn

The Good
UO3D adds a lot of nice new features to the previous edition (UO:Renaissance). One is the 3D graphics. All PC's, NPC's and monsters now use 3D graphics (items and buildings are still 2D). Also, terrain such as mountains and grass now use sharper-looking graphics. Second, the zoom function. By pressing a certain key or using a mouse with a scroll button, players can zoom in or out to see more detailed graphics and such. Another feature is the new emote system. In previous editions of UO, waving goodbye would look something like this: waves goodbye In UO3D, a player can press a certain combination of hotkeys and their character will physically wave goodbye or display other actions, such as shrugging, yawning, dancing, fainting, or even waving his/her arms in the air in celebration. The most significant addition is a new land to explore called "Ilshenar." Ilshenar is a rather difficult area to survive. There are only one or two towns- none of which have guards- and where powerful monsters require some finding in other areas, a player in Ilshenar will scarcely have to venture outside of town to be fighting drakes and wyverns.

The Bad
Well, it sounds good at first, but UO3D is far from perfect. There are the bugs. This game will require a very fast modem and a very good graphics card. Otherwise, you will get lagged down quite a bit when venturing into populated areas. Some other bugs include: -PC's and NPC's skin always being the same shade of grey -A very strange bug in which the entire map goes black and you can't do anything except walk around. The worst thing is for this to happen during a fight. When it happens, you will have to restart your computer for UO to work at all. -Several dozen others that seem to happen randomly

The Bottom Line
UO3D is mainly an upgrade for die-hard Ultima Online players with a good computer and powerful characters. It offers several advantages over UO: Renaissance, but the disadvantages about equal those out. I would suggest that new players buy Renaissance first; it is a bit less confusing.