the chief criticisms of Ultima IX was that the story did not do justice to the continuity of earlier parts of the series, and in fact, largely ignores it. The game was said to be made to attract a more general gamer audience with little or no knowledge of previous Ultimas, so many facts and events from earlier games are disregarded, while others are altered to suit the plot of Ultima IX, as well as dialogue where the Avatar questions certain aspects of past installments of Ultima that the Avatar should remember, such as the infamous "What's a paladin?" quote. Some fans have found a considerable number of errors in the game. The game also received a lot of criticism for being launched with a lot of bugs. Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen called Ultima IX "the best PC RPG ever made", and "easily the deepest, most fully realized entry in" the Ultima series. However, he criticized its technical issues, and docked the game one star from a perfect score until "after EA patches it up some." Drew Hunt of AllGame gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "one of the most notable examples imaginable of a game that could have been among the best ever made in its genre if only its release had been held off another half year. With all the bugs gone and the overall game speed increased, any remaining problems would have been virtually insignificant." The game was commercially unsuccessful, with sales of roughly 75,000 units in the U.S. by August 2000. The game was a finalist for the "PC Adventure/Role-Playing Game of the Year" award at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, although it lost to Asheron's Call. The staff of PC Gamer US also nominated the game for their 1999 "Best Roleplaying Game" award, which ultimately went to System Shock 2. They wrote, "The fact is that on a top system with bug patches applied, Ultima IX is one of the best roleplaying games of all time. If it had been released without those bugs, it would have run away with this year's award". The game won GameSpots 1999 award for "Most Disappointing Game of the Year", and was a runner-up for the "Best Graphics, Artistic Design" award, which went to Rayman 2: The Great Escape. References External links www.ultima-ascension.com official Origin Website for Ultima IX