PATRON UPDATE: Talking about the next few videos

Howdy Patrons!

It's been a minute since the last update, so I figured I'd fill everybody in on the video topics I've been kicking around the old noggin.

First of all, I'll probably continue with this "one video Ultima, one video not-Ultima" thing I've been doing this year. Seems to be a good balance. It's crazy to reflect on how much of the Ultima series we've chewed through, and just how long I've been at it by now.

In case you're curious, here's what we've got left:

• Ultima VII: Serpent Isle

• Ultima VIII

• Ultima Online

• Ultima IX

And that'll be all she wrote. I may find a place to squeeze in Ultima II: Runes of Virtue for the SNES, since I think that could be a fun break from things. Will I have to acknowledge Underworld Ascendant's existence? Please no.

As for the next video... I hope we've got some King's Field fans round these here parts, because I'm currently working on the KINGSLIKE MEGAREVIEW. In this video, I'll be taking a look at a collection of King's Field-like games. Mostly newer indie (or indie-adjacent) games, such as Lunacid, but there may be some surprises in there too. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments below. I may not have the time to get around to every single King's Field-like game, but I hope to cover a bunch of them. If you enjoy the grab-bag videos, like RPG Maker games or Saturn RPGs, I think you'll like this video!

A lot of the time my personal litmus test for stupid ideas is waiting to see if they go away. TekWar, for instance, popped into my head one day. I thought "Man, it'd be kind of funny to do a TekWar review on the whole series". The thought lingered for many months, so a TekWar video manifested itself into reality.

During a stream a few months ago, Two Worlds came up. I don't know why, but I found the idea of doing a retrospective on the Two Worlds saga intriguing (and also silly). I actually have some history with these games. I purchased the original game on PC, and (for some sickening reason) PRE-ORDERED the second game on Xbox 360. I was 15 years old... and I literally, figuratively, lyrically, miracally don't know what the fuck I was thinking. But you know what? I kinda liked Two Worlds II... I even KINDA liked Two Worlds I. I haven't seen a deep-dive on this series before, and I'm morbidly fascinated by the increasingly bizarre & unethical """expansion packs""" that were released for the second game. I think it's high-time that somebody do an autopsy on the so-called "Oblivion killer".

Given the place we're at in the Ultima series, I've also had a compulsion lately to take a look at the System Shock series. I've been more reticent about this, because System Shock is a game that has been extensively covered on YouTube. As a rule, I try to keep my video topics to ground that isn't so well-trodden. However, while digging around for information on Ultima Underworld II, I found a wealth of really insightful interviews from the Looking Glass Studios staff, much of which related to System Shock 1 + 2. These interviews and documents really changed my perspective on the series, and made me appreciate certain design decisions in a way that I hadn't before. I can't say for certain whether somebody has analyzed the games through this sort of historical lens, but I'm interested in taking on the challenge, and I'm curious about what your thoughts are. I adore System Shock 2, and deeply appreciate System Shock 1, so I think this would be a fun project - and a timely one, given the imminent release of the SS2 Remaster from Nightdive.

That's about it for now. I have a few other ideas, but I'll let them ferment a little while longer before I decide whether or not it's worth talking about them.

Thanks for your support, and have a great summer!