After having dealt with the eighties and the early nineties, today Drunken Irishman ventures into the late nineties, from the key title Fallout (1997) that introduced realistic choice and consequence in the genre, to Wizardry 8 (2001), a relic of a generation of RPGs that refused to adapt.

Aside from many elementary titles discussed thoroughly, this section, The birth of new era - late 90's to modern age, also shows how three of the most important franchises (Might and Magic, Ultima and Wizardry) come to a grinding halt with the rise of a new force in town, BioWare.

Coming up tomorrow, the final part:

• Modern Age - 2002-2007, the indies and a conclusion

Continue reading the article, starting from the new section, here.

He trashed Ultima IX... I won't forgive him that :(

Not very convincingly. Ultima IX wants to be like Zelda and Gothic is like Ultima without all those Zelda elements... yeah, I'm sure that's how it happened.

Not very convincingly. Ultima IX wants to be like Zelda and Gothic is like Ultima without all those Zelda elements... yeah, I'm sure that's how it happened.

Besides, "Ultima IX" shouldn't be in the article anyway, it's not a RPG, damn it, it's an action adventure, and an awesome one at that.

I'm 100% sure that it its title weren't "Ultima IX", it would be rightfully recognized as one of the most important games of its time.

I remember it only as a waste of money, particularly because of its main feature: the memory leak.

It isn't? Now I really have to download it.

It isn't? Now I really have to download it.

It's as much a RPG as any Zelda game. At certain points you can increase your health or mana, you can equip different things, there are quests and all, but that's all you have from an RPG. The core gameplay is action adventure in a large open-ended world.

The final part?