Electronic Arts has quietly resurrected one of the most highly regarded and important PC franchises of all time, releasing a beta version of a new Ultima game called Lords of Ultima.

Originally created by Richard Garriott, the Ultima series has been going since 1980 and consists of nine different RPG games in the main story, though there are many spin-off titles too.

Fans who are hoping to get a slice of Ultima's classic RPG action though will likely be disappointed that the new Lords of Ultima is an online-only strategy game with MMO elements. Richard Garriott isn't at all involved in the title either and, from what we can gather, it isn't all that focused on the Brittania either, the central realm in the original games. It's essentially Ultima in name alone.

Developed by EA Phenomic, who's most recent other title was last year's Battleforge, Lords of Ultima pits players against each other in an attempt to build a strong, stable empire. It's already been compared to other online RTS games, namely the controversial Evony, by the likes of RockPaperShotgun.

Lords of Ultima is still in beta according to the main site and EA hasn't exactly made a big hoo-hah over the release, so it's very possible that the game could change a lot before the official, final release.

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