Gothic 3

[Lemur]

Anybody else jazzed for the upcoming release of Gothic 3?

[Husar]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
You started my thread!
Argh, I knew I'd be too late.
Ok, I have to admit, I am playing it for over a week now.
Don't be too eager to get it, it has some bugs.
I can live with most of them, though the balancing can get frustrating with monsters killing you way too easily etc pp.
I gotta sleep now, will post more tomorrow.

[Spino]

Yes and no.

Yes because the Gothic series kicks ass.

No because Jowood titles have a reputation for being released prematurely and can be notoriously buggy. The word on the net is that Gothic 3 is no exception. I would wait at least a month or two (or three) before purchasing.

[Xiahou]

I loved Gothic2 (even though I never finished it), the immersion and npc behavior was amazing, imo. Part 3 looks promising, but I'm going to wait to hear more before I grab it.

[Lemur]

Hmm, there are some YouTube samples of gameplay up, and they're not the most encouraging things in the world. This one, in particular, makes me very worried.

[edit]

Although chicken fighting looks pretty amusing.

[Fragony]

From what I heard the graphics are terrible, and the game very sluggish. And like the other Gothics it's released in beta fase.

[Stig]

From what I heard it's Oblivion but 5% less on graphics and a far more entertaining world.

Will there still be a demo?

[Daimon]

From what I heard the graphics are terrible, and the game very sluggish. And like the other Gothics it's released in beta fase.

Neh, they aren't that bad..

I love the game but the problem is i can run Oblivion just fine but this one's keep lagging as hell just not normal anymore. I tweaked here and there and it's now a little bit better but still

But i just wait untill the patch is there it should solve many problems like the "Stun Animations bug" (The most annoying) and the lag will be solved to ^^ In 5 weeks

[Husar]

Ok, my turn now.

As a proud German, city member of the developers(not that this means anything) I do of course have the game for over week as I said already.

First off some screens, since they are 1280*1024 I will only post the links:
My settings as preset by the game:
https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i...3-43-20-39.jpg
A herd of friendly Bisons:
https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i...3-42-40-31.jpg
The contrst between high and low detail, if you have a uber graphicscard, you can set it to high and/or tweak it in some ini to set it further away:
https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i...3-42-04-37.jpg
Fighting against some Urvieh:
https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i...3-39-19-14.jpg
A castle guarded by orcs:
https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i...3-35-20-62.jpg
A troll and waterfalls:
https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i...3-41-29-98.jpg
Ok, before I start a huge list, here is my Photobucket album:
http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...85/Gothic%203/

I have uploaded a lot there and may upload more later, they're all unedited(except for making them jpg and a bit of compression for Photobucket).

Ok, IMO the game looks a lot better in motion than on any screen and I use only medium details. The big contrast between low and high detail bothers me only slightly, I may even be able to set it higher, but so far I'm satisfied.
There are bugs in the game and the developers know it and one really admitted that they ****** up some things. The fighting can be really weird because some enemies either attack in such rapid succession that you will be stunlocked until death if you cannot survive more than 10 or so hits from them. Some other enemies rarely get to hit you because you kinda stunlock them. The devs say on this is they are working on the fighting system though it may not be completely fixed by the second patch(that may arrive before international release).
Now the world is pretty huge and demanding, 2GB are said to be required to play fluently because of the constant streaming of the completely seamless world, DualCores help here because the second core can do the streaming.
There are still bugs like I can see the sun through terrain and buildings, even in caves, I would guess the bug videos sum them up though I personally didn't get all the bugs that were reported.
Now the world in itself is pretty great with few drawbacks, Nordmar, the northern icy part is supposed to be dangerous which in the game means a lot of enemies everywhere and since the combat system is still unbalanced, this can be a nightmare, imagine five goblin shamans with fireballs(three or four fireballs could kill me on level 40 or so with 600hitpoints) and you are a sword fighter...not to forget about the other normal goblins around.
Especially moving around with NPCs who mindlessly run into such hordes can be a pain in the rear there.
Myrtana in the middle is mostly woods and orcs(unless you help the rebels and free Myrtana), worst enemies are boars because of their rapid attacks.
And then there is of course Varant, the desert, which I like a lot so far.
The dialogues there are IMO a step above the dialogues in the other two parts and I like the personality of some of the Assassins, though they are pretty unforgiving.

Well, I wrote so much even though I should know I am not good at writing.
I just want to add I may upload more screens today and the devs are working on patches and admitted their timeline was too short(they couldn't easily delay it for several reasons like buying shelf place in some countries).
I am curious on how they turn out and will keep you updated.
And since my skills for reviewing are so bad(at least LEN said that ), you better ask questions, in the meantime I will enjoy the game however buggy it may be, the world still drags me in.

[Stig]

you said we could ask question well here they come:
In which way can I make my character. Can I choose, Orc or Human, and then have 20 different options, or can I change everything as in Oblivion and the Sims 2?
Can I also choose female or male?
Do you get to choose Combat, Magic, etc as in Oblivion?

[Fragony]

Those are a far cry from these Husar, they look like Gothic 2. Ah well, don't have the hardware for this game anyway, shame because I like the Gothics, a nightmare to control but good stuff for the hardcore rpg lover.

Which I am not really, more Disgaea YAY

[Spino]

Apparently Gothic 3 also has a memory leak which is why it might be sluggish on some people's machines.

[Husar]

you said we could ask question well here they come:
In which way can I make my character. Can I choose, Orc or Human, and then have 20 different options, or can I change everything as in Oblivion and the Sims 2?
Can I also choose female or male?
Do you get to choose Combat, Magic, etc as in Oblivion?

You cannot choose anything, because as in all Gothic parts, you are the nameless Hero.

And Fragony, some of the preview screens were made in 3DS Max or so, parts of the detail got dropped because of performance issues and keep in mind that I use medium settings, yet it looks better than Gothic 2. On high texture detail for exmaple my 128MB GF 6600GT passed out and got me some 3 fps or so. Feel free to PM me about donations for a new card.

Concerning some questions, there are answers and statements directly from the Piranha Bytes developers in german and english(translated by fanpage staff).

[Daimon]

SomethingY that i find a little bit borthering is...It's a Man's world..Yeah their are women but the bosses and important characters are all male....

And i want to play the game normal without the lag!

[Husar]

One dev said they simply didn't have time to implement women anymore, they made 10 models but the sspeech was lacking and they couldn't get all that stuff to the leveldesigner soon enough for release...
Sounds like they really tried too much and ended up having not enough time to polish it. They're a small team after all. But I still like the game.
Also some desert pics are uploaded, though they are all night pics.

[x-dANGEr]

Gothic 3 has an "engine" bug.. One that handicaps the game making the performance sluggish. For more infos: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199

Though, as a game, it is really more than just crisp graphics. It is pure gameplay.. Yes, there are bugs, but there are also workarounds.. You will only need to live with the bugs till the patch is out, and then you'll taste the real crispyness of the game.. One word to sum it all up: Ownage.. One and only problem is the bugs it has.. So, I suggest you all wait till the second patch is out, then buy it for a probably lesser price and enjoy it's sweetness.

The fighting can be really weird because some enemies either attack in such rapid succession that you will be stunlocked until death if you cannot survive more than 10 or so hits from them. Some other enemies rarely get to hit you because you kinda stunlock them. The devs say on this is they are working on the fighting system though it may not be completely fixed by the second patch(that may arrive before international release).

Honestly, I think that what makes the Gothic series so great.. Each "beast" has it's own tactic and nature of fighting, and you need to adapt to that. (Of course, I don't mean the Wild Boar imbalance by this )

[Husar]

The new patch(1.08) is out, I just can't try it until Sunday or Monday.

[alman7272]

americans have to wait until november 20th. is the game truly worth it?

[x-dANGEr]

Well, as I said, it's only downside is it's bugs.. So I suggest you either wait till they are fixed and then buy the game, and believe me, it is truly worth it.. There isn't one inch that hasn't something different, it's all filled of content (Not just some hollow graphical world).

[Husar]

If anyone didn't notice yet, there is a demo out for some time now.

[Lemur]

I picked the full game up the same day I got Medieval 2. Sadly, G3 has been languishing uninstalled while I conquer the world as the Scots. Soon, though, soon ...

[Husar]

Heh, today I read a rant about how unfinished the game was on release and had to agree a bit with it. It's not a bad game but I prefer Medieval 2 for now.

[Lemur]

Due to work and problems with my gaming PC, I didn't get around to playing G3 until last week. Every evening, after tucking in the little lemurs, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of hours to try it out.

I think maybe I don't like it. Yeah, I've had some hard crashes from it, and given that the quicksave button only works about 1/3rd of the time (some kind of bug there) the BSODs are frustrating. It really is quite buggy.

It's possible I'd have more fun playing an Oblivion mod. There, I've said it. I'm kinda not in love with this game, which is funny, 'cause I really grooved on G2. Oh well. Should have waited until it hit the bargain bin.

[x-dANGEr]

Gothic 3 was given "The Biggest Disappointment in 2006" as an award, from gamespy I believe, and it certainly was.. Too many bugs make lives hard. Ow what a "great" hit it would've been if released "finished".

[Husar]

Due to work and problems with my gaming PC, I didn't get around to playing G3 until last week. Every evening, after tucking in the little lemurs, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of hours to try it out.

I think maybe I don't like it. Yeah, I've had some hard crashes from it, and given that the quicksave button only works about 1/3rd of the time (some kind of bug there) the BSODs are frustrating. It really is quite buggy.

It's possible I'd have more fun playing an Oblivion mod. There, I've said it. I'm kinda not in love with this game, which is funny, 'cause I really grooved on G2. Oh well. Should have waited until it hit the bargain bin.

The quicksave bug was supposed to be fixed with one of the patches, as was the memory bug that made it crash after a certain time if you have 2GB RAM. Did you apply the patches? Newest version should be 1.12 from December 21st, at least that is the latest patch for the german version.

[Lemur]

Hi Husar, yes, I autopatched it to the latest version. I hadn't read up on the bugs, so I wasn't aware that I was experiencing two known issues. And yeppers, my gaming rig has 2 gigs of ram, so I fit the profile nicely.

I guess I'll put it back on the shelf and see how it looks in a few months with some more patches.

[Husar]

Hi Husar, yes, I autopatched it to the latest version. I hadn't read up on the bugs, so I wasn't aware that I was experiencing two known issues. And yeppers, my gaming rig has 2 gigs of ram, so I fit the profile nicely.

I guess I'll put it back on the shelf and see how it looks in a few months with some more patches.

Heh, the weird thing is that the bugs are mostly supposed to be fixed already, for example the ambient-soundbug(ambient sounds starting repeatedly again and again, resulting in a machine-gun sound) was supposedly fixed with the last patch, but it's still there. The memory bug that appears when you quicksave was supposedly fixed as well, but I still don't use quicksave, the best thing seems to be to use three usual savegames and rotate them. For the next patch they wanted to improve the balancing a bit(rework the whole fighting maybe) IIRC, but I'M quite curious as to how that turns out, the biggest annoyance so far was that I couldn't finish the quest that is mandatory in order to be able to learn how to make ore-only weapons(or whatever the best weapons are called in the english version), simply because I finished part of that quest accidentally before I even got the sub-quest(well, it doesn't count as completed).
The thing that bugs me a bit by now is that they always need a whole lot of time to fix some ten bugs or so and some of the fixes are not really working for everyone etc. If you compare that to the Medieval 2 bugfix lists, TW gamers have to be quite happy people(luckily, I play both ).

[Bob the Insane]

I finally picked this up...

Now I enjoyed Gothic 2 though I never finished it, the endless fighting got to me in the end and unfortunately Gothic 3 coincided with Oblivion. I tried the Gothic 3 demo when it was released but was not impressed and found it awkward...

Well I was rooting around for an RPG. I had tried mods to make Oblivion more interesting and all but was still looking for something new. I saw this again, saw the patches and community updates and thought well it can't be that bad so i got it...

Wow, OMFG, etc... this is fantastic...

I have a reasonably beefy machine (dualcore extreme, 2GB RAM, 8800GTX, etc) so can run it in all it's graphical splender (and even used the nvidia control panel to force a higer level of AA).

What can I say, this is a sweet game. Don't judge it just by the demo, the starting area is pretty undeveloped, there are some much more interesting castles settlements to follow... The world is smaller tham oblivion but I this it is more interestingly designed and the way the different factions are not painted black and white (as far as good/evil is concerned) is great.
While overall the tha game is not that open ended, you have pretty definate goals but it feels open. Feels like you are doing want you want to ...

What can I say... If you are in the market for an RPG (which is unashamably directed towards conflict rather than peaceful resolution) then i would give this a go...

[Husar]

Have you tried the latest community patches?
Since Piranha Bytes and JoWood split upo there won't be any official patches, instead JoWood workes with some guys from the community who were going to try it anyway and now release community patches to fix broken quests, make unlearnable perks available etc.(oh and the latestchangelog says "- Censoring of nude women removed.", whatever that means ) You can read the changelog here and get the patch from here though I'd advise to read the readme if there is one, haven't tried the community patches myself so far but I think I'll do that some time.

[Bob the Insane]

I have used the community patches and they seem to help (they appears to mainly fix broken quests)...

I have revisied my opinion a little now that I have reach the northern area where combat is feeling a bit more of a grind (can't go ten paces without running into some preditor or others). The over all impression from the boards and the game experience so far is that the middle area Mrytana is better finished that the others but it is still fun.

Overall still having a good time...