Any Klingon would approve.

…well, that’s the last time I decide to move twice over the holiday season.

As such, he hasn’t made as much progress in Ultima 4 as he had hoped. That said, he did manage to get a play session in recently:

The last time I scribbled down a bit of these adventures, I mentioned that I was ready to gain partial Avatarhood in Honor, Justice, and Humility, and that my plan was to head off to garner the two partials I could gain on the mainland before heading for Magincia to find out what I needed to do the same for Humility. Which I was all excited about, because I absolutely adore Magincia in Ultima IV, but… alas, I’ll have to wait for another day to gush about what I like about the ruined city, because as it is with nearly all plans, they were derailed somewhat, and I still haven’t made my way there yet.

And, indeed, he did manage to gain partial Avatarhood in Honor and Justice…and more than that, too:

I made my way back to the castle of Lord British, where I tasked myself with my now-standard process of healing up, donating blood at the healer’s, and checking in with Hawkwind. To my surprise, he informed me that I was ready to achieve enlightenment proper in the virtue of Sacrifice as well! That modified my plans for Magincia slightly, since Minoc was a bit more easily accessible via moongate. Before I did that, though, I had another partial to gain. So I ducked through the moongate to Yew, and blundered around the forest for a while trying to find the shrine in the darkness. Many battles were fought in the process, and by the time I found the shrine and received another vision, Shamino was ready for a level gain and when I dropped by the castle to do so I also found out Valor was ready for advancement! All this adventuring is doing me some good, it seems.

That is about as far as he was able to play in his most recent session, but it is not at all where his post ends. Indeed, he devotes more than half of its length to discussing one of his favourite aspects of Ultima 4:

…I’ve also reminded myself of one aspect of the game that I don’t see as much in more modern games – and that’s making the player act on their own initiative. Plying the townsfolk for information, going from place to place to follow up on leads, having to remember what leads I’ve got and how things were worded and getting directions and getting lost trying to follow them properly – this is what helps make the world feel lived in for me. It feels more organic, not simply having everything laid out for me point-blank. Some of these hints I can blink and miss – I know I didn’t see a lot of them my first time through the game, and it was years before I realized Lord British actually has dialogue if you ask him for ‘help.’

You’d best click on through to read the remainder of his thoughts on this. I daresay I’ve excerpted far too much of his post already!