Rampant Games - How CRPGs Warped My Brain #3 & #4

Oops, I overlooked the last one of these.  Rampant Coyote has Part 3 and Part 4 of How CRPGs Warped My Brain. From Part 3, on what I consider to be the pinnacle of RPG design:

Ultima VII- The Black Gate: Uh-oh. So my third experience of an RPG blowing my mind happened the same year as Ultima Underworld. I pretty much worshiped at the altar of Origin after this, until they went and blew it with Ultima VIII. But Ultima VII: The Black Gate (and expansion) remains to this day my all-time favorite RPG. From this game, my holy grail became this combination of open world design, extremely interactive environments, believable “simulated worlds” to explore, and beautiful storylines that were explored by the player rather than told to the player.