Gothic 3 []

Its a good game, and the patches fixed most of the problems (I still get te occasional enemy "under the hillside" that attacks me, its a clipping problem but a quick sprint backwards helps).

Superficially the game plays similiar to Oblivion, but the leveling choices you are given are far greater, and I actually felt like I had more freedom in Gothic 3 than in Oblivion.  In addition, there is a good faction system in game: based on what quests you complete, you gain reputation with orcs or humans.

Combat is cool, although extremely tricky at first.  I am playing an archer who also uses swords, and you can just run in and take on 3-4 orcs.  I usually take two down with my bow, a third with my sword, then I have to retreat 50 yards (thankfully things stop chasing you after you run away).  Combat in this game, atleast from my short time with it, is very much based on hit and run tactics.

Leveling up is done in an interesting way, sort of a combo between dungeon siege and World of Warcraft.  As you use a weapon, you gain skill points with it.  At each level, you also gain points that can be spent on various things: perhaps you want to buy sword training from an NPC (for example, a +5 to sword skill...same as if you got +5 through combat) or you can spend the learning points to upgrade a specific skill on your character, such as an "Orcslayer" characteristic.  Each of these characteristics has a skill requirement, however, so for example if you want to be an Orcslayer with a bow, you need a 150 bow skill to purchase it.  Not entirely sure on the exact specs, but its something like that.

People say Gothic 3 is beautiful, but it just doesnt look clean to me: the textures are grainy, and anything 100 yards away gets blurred.  Still, the gameplay makes up for this minor shortcoming.

The Gothic series is in a niche of its own respective to other RPGs, having a rather unique skill and leveling system. On the technical side, however, a good number of bugs remain unsolved, especially in the final part of the game, and sadly some sidequests remain unsolvable. Piranha Bytes promised a final "solve-everything-in-one" final patch to the game, but we've been waiting for it since December or January.

 Apart from that, however, the game plays great, and the story is very engaging, so I would suggest a buy.

I love the Gothic series, especially Gothic 2.

My personal opinion on the games is Gothic 2 > Morrowind = Gothic 3 > Oblivion.

The AI was better in Gothic 2. If you where fighting wolves they would stop chasing you if they encountered sheep. NPC's would have disjointed conversations, a bit like primative Oblivion AI. NPC's would have more interesting lives and would interact with you a bit more. Walking you home from the tavern just to give one example. Most of it was scripted but who cares? It was so detailed that it became a lovely rpg.

Gothic 3 improved on the faction concept but overall I just prefered Gothic 2.

I was a big fan of both Daggerfall and Morrowind. Was really excited about Oblivion until I played it, and realized how utterly stupid the random scaling systems where.

anything 100 yards away gets blurred.mrbojangles25

That's called depth of field. You can switch it off if you like.

I think that the graphics are lovely.

Its a good game, and the patches fixed most of the problems (I still get te occasional enemy "under the hillside" that attacks me, its a clipping problem but a quick sprint backwards helps).

Superficially the game plays similiar to Oblivion, but the leveling choices you are given are far greater, and I actually felt like I had more freedom in Gothic 3 than in Oblivion.  In addition, there is a good faction system in game: based on what quests you complete, you gain reputation with orcs or humans.

Combat is cool, although extremely tricky at first.  I am playing an archer who also uses swords, and you can just run in and take on 3-4 orcs.  I usually take two down with my bow, a third with my sword, then I have to retreat 50 yards (thankfully things stop chasing you after you run away).  Combat in this game, atleast from my short time with it, is very much based on hit and run tactics.

Leveling up is done in an interesting way, sort of a combo between dungeon siege and World of Warcraft.  As you use a weapon, you gain skill points with it.  At each level, you also gain points that can be spent on various things: perhaps you want to buy sword training from an NPC (for example, a +5 to sword skill...same as if you got +5 through combat) or you can spend the learning points to upgrade a specific skill on your character, such as an "Orcslayer" characteristic.  Each of these characteristics has a skill requirement, however, so for example if you want to be an Orcslayer with a bow, you need a 150 bow skill to purchase it.  Not entirely sure on the exact specs, but its something like that.

People say Gothic 3 is beautiful, but it just doesnt look clean to me: the textures are grainy, and anything 100 yards away gets blurred.  Still, the gameplay makes up for this minor shortcoming.

mrbojangles25

I love the Gothic series, especially Gothic 2.

My personal opinion on the games is Gothic 2 > Morrowind = Gothic 3 > Oblivion.

The AI was better in Gothic 2. If you where fighting wolves they would stop chasing you if they encountered sheep. NPC's would have disjointed conversations, a bit like primative Oblivion AI. NPC's would have more interesting lives and would interact with you a bit more. Walking you home from the tavern just to give one example. Most of it was scripted but who cares? It was so detailed that it became a lovely rpg.

Gothic 3 improved on the faction concept but overall I just prefered Gothic 2.

I was a big fan of both Daggerfall and Morrowind. Was really excited about Oblivion until I played it, and realized how utterly stupid the random scaling systems where.

I think that the graphics are lovely. Lilac_Benjie

Wow, my thoughts exactly on these games except that I would rate Morrowind = Gothic 2. Oblivion had a lot of issues that were a huge turn off. Luckly all it takes is a few mods to fix what you don't like. Level scaling and the UI were terrible.

So have all the problems been patched? Cuz I've seen in reviews that Gothic 3 is chalk full of em!GPAddict

So have all the problems been patched? Cuz I've seen in reviews that Gothic 3 is chalk full of em!GPAddict

Damn!!!! That game sucked so bad. I won't finish it. The AI is completely moronic, the combat system is somewhere out of 3rd grade, the voices and conversation lines are so bad they sound like a godzilla movie. You've got all these people who loved the game out there so I would love someone to tell me why at at 7th lvl and lower, I can wipe out an entire orc encampment, but seconds later die fighting a big bee? I guess that means that big bee could have wiped out the orcs too. Now this wouldn't be to bad but these orcs are the very same orcs that are wiping out the humans.

Or why is it that during every swing of the sword, I have to step forward? I've taken fencing. I've taken medivial combat out of college. Not once did I have to take a step forward to attack my adversary. In fact I could swing stepping backwards. May not get as much power out of it, but I could do it. In fact you'll walk right off a hundred foot cliff, just swinging away if your not carefull. Can't stay in a doorway for cover cause you'll end up walking right out the door.

Now back to the orcs. They're so bright the AI has them stand around and attack one at time, while the others crowd around to wait there turn, that is unless they have a crossbow. The only thing good about this game is the fact that you can go all over the place. Lots of places to see and explore.

Oh yeah one other thing. Your allies will let you die in crappy armor cause even if you've got the money they won't sell you good armor unless you've done a million and one thilngs for them, and are like a god to them, then they'll sell you some decent armor. To top that off, you can't take armor off fallen foes. They'll die with there armor on, then I guess when they die they secrete some sort of clue that makes it imposible to remove from there corpses. Brilliant!! Let's let all our allies die cause we're too stupid to sell them good armor.

If you like really crappy games, go ahead and get it. I've got 3x more stuff to tell you about the crap in the game but this is already too long with just the stuff I've listed. I wasted my money on that piece of art, and now it decorates the bottom of my garbage can.

the best thing about gothic3 is its open-endedness. most people say you can only join the orcs or rebels, forgetting the other factions...druids, desert rangers, hashishin, water mages, clans in nordmar...also, xardas is almost a faction by himself.

 there is really just so much to do in this game without even following quests, which is what i loved, the exploration.

make sure you download all three patches and check out the jowood forums for technical support. they'll tell you the best ways to get good performance from the game, but it does take some ini tweaking, which most casual gamers seem to not take kindly to.

its got quirks, npcs are subtler than in hollywood games. there are underlying themes beyond merely good vs evil, its all very interesting. essentially there is no 'right' way. once you get to know each faction's motives, it gets really interesting. they are all very tangled up in their affairs. my advice is to play the game exploring don't just jump in and choose a faction. play it, explore, learn about the world, its not fed to you on a plate like linear games, it kind of sits back and lets you decide and then things change as a result of that. or you can remain completely neutral, i mean entirely neutral right to the end.

 combat took some getting used to, its not the best system, because spamming is actually a lot easier than planning your attacks, bit unbalanced in that. magic is the best way to go eventually, its a bit of work though. once you learn mana regen you pwn.

hmm, bit of a long post, but i really really enjoyed playing this game, hope you do too!

[QUOTE="Draccon"]Check Out This Game Coming Out In May, sometime http://www.2-worlds.com/[/QUOTE]

maybe...but its a console port...

mm think i was a bit hasty with that post.

it does certainly look quite promising.

Two worlds was going to be a game that was suppose to challenge Oblivion and Gothic 3 for being a killer rpg untill they got bit by the "I'm a big fat dumbass" bug and desided it would make more money as a MMORP (Dumb asses). Like we don't already have enough of them. It will soon be washed away in obscurity and forgotten by all. Hell the graphics are subpar already. The games already a joke brought on by corporate greed. I won't touch it and neither will any of the gamers I know. Switching over in the middle of the project sounds half baked and that's how the product will feel in the end. Smells like crappola in the air.wallydog63

Two worlds was going to be a game that was suppose to challenge Oblivion and Gothic 3 for being a killer rpg untill they got bit by the "I'm a big fat dumbass" bug and desided it would make more money as a MMORP (Dumb asses). Like we don't already have enough of them. It will soon be washed away in obscurity and forgotten by all. Hell the graphics are subpar already. The games already a joke brought on by corporate greed. I won't touch it and neither will any of the gamers I know. Switching over in the middle of the project sounds half baked and that's how the product will feel in the end. Smells like crappola in the air.wallydog63

er yuck, really? mmo? *pukes*

i really hate those things...

Ciao!

I play Gothic 3 ...is a good game and if you have a super Pc the graphic is superb.

You can learne quick all the skills but you have to kill as many as possible.

 Enjoy! :D

My main complaint with Gothic 3 is the performance. I have an AMD 4000+, 2 gigs of RAM & a 7800GT. My hard drive is defragged and clean of spyware and other assorted crap. But I still get frequent frame rate stuttering/lag. It's really, REALLY annoying. I have shadows turned off and some other settings are down, and I used the performance tweak for gamers with 2 gigs of RAM. I'd like to use the tweak that has decreases the blur effect but I'm afraid I'll get more stuttering.

Other than that, the game is pretty cool. Combat was really weird at first, but I got used to it. The thing I like about it, is that I'm at level 10 but I can still get badly beaten by an enemy if I'm not careful. The A.I. is a little weird. I can pretty much click the RMB for fast attack over and over again, and the enemy doesn't back pedal quickly enough so they'll die like that just about every time.

Another weird thing is that the enemy stops chasing you if you run away. I don't have a big problem with that, 'cause eventually an enemy should stop chasing you. But I think humanoid enemies should at least chase you a little farther & they should be able to sprint. I also think it's strange that wolves run really, really slow but other animals like wild boars run faster.

The story doesn't seem too strong right now, but I'm not very far in the game. Hopefully, it'll pick up. This game was a pleasant surprise for Herrick. I never got into Gothic 2 and never played Gothic 1 so I wasn't really looking foward to this game. It's different from anything else I've played before, and that's why I like it.

Oh yeah one other thing. Your allies will let you die in crappy armor cause even if you've got the money they won't sell you good armor unless you've done a million and one thilngs for them, and are like a god to them, then they'll sell you some decent armor.

wallydog63

Do you consider Heavy Rebel Armor to be crappy? That's available in Reddock which is very early in the game. You may have to do one quest for Gefford. I think that's his name. He sells armor right outside the Reddock cave. Edit: Nevermind. I am completly wrong. I never tried buying that armor and now I se that they won't sell it to me unless I build up my reputation. 

Here's a tip for anyone who wants to make money fast and this has to do with the bad A.I. in this game. There's a hunter named Jens who is near Cape Dun. Beat him down and take his Ranger Bow. It's worth $5,500. Anyone who has the cash will pay for it, I think. You can repeatedly visit and beat down Jens and make lots of money this way. He'll even train you.

These NPCs sure don't hold grudges :lol: This technique was called "Beat Pocket" (instead of Pick Pocket) on the official Gothic 3 forums :lol: This technique can probably be done on anyone with expensive weaponry, but the main reason I choose Jens is because he's alone and no one else will care if you beat him down and take his stuff.

[QUOTE="Arcadius"]GOTHIC 3 It is a great game, though I had trouble running it on a Windows XP x64 rig, a bug which was inherited when I switched to Vista x64, so I go dual boot with the standard Windows XP. The only bug (not a showstopper mind you) is the saving bug, but if you remember to save often and in different slots you are all set. Its so inmersive that I had to give it a rest to lay way for the newer games, since it took most of my time. (I am a thorough explorer). I say go for it. Trashface

Umm, I think you mis-read his post, Sir. He said he had to take a break from Gothic 3 'cause it took up so much of his time. So yes, he's played it. 8)

Two worlds was going to be a game that was suppose to challenge Oblivion and Gothic 3 for being a killer rpg untill they got bit by the "I'm a big fat dumbass" bug and desided it would make more money as a MMORP (Dumb asses). Like we don't already have enough of them. It will soon be washed away in obscurity and forgotten by all. Hell the graphics are subpar already. The games already a joke brought on by corporate greed. I won't touch it and neither will any of the gamers I know. Switching over in the middle of the project sounds half baked and that's how the product will feel in the end. Smells like crappola in the air.wallydog63

[QUOTE="Trashface"][QUOTE="Arcadius"]GOTHIC 3 It is a great game, though I had trouble running it on a Windows XP x64 rig, a bug which was inherited when I switched to Vista x64, so I go dual boot with the standard Windows XP. The only bug (not a showstopper mind you) is the saving bug, but if you remember to save often and in different slots you are all set. Its so inmersive that I had to give it a rest to lay way for the newer games, since it took most of my time. (I am a thorough explorer). I say go for it. Herrick

Umm, I think you mis-read his post, Sir. He said he had to take a break from Gothic 3 'cause it took up so much of his time. So yes, he's played it. 8)

It's nice game.:D I very like it.:)But this not long.:(