Topic: Gothic 3 - Update: G3 joins GOG at $10

[MysterD]

Update -> 12-6-2010:
Gothic 3 joins GOG and is $9.99 - patched up to Community Patch 1.6.
For those who are curious, Community Patch 1.74 is the newest version of the G3 Community Patches.

OLDER:
Gothic 3: Enhanced Edition
Gothic 3 - Community Patch 1.74 released.

[MysterD]

Gothic 3 (Vanilla) -> REVIEWS

US Reviews:
7.6 from GameSpot
5 from 1Up (out of 10) -- owwie!
4.9 from IGN....major freakin' OUCH!
1˝ stars from GameSpy (out of 5 stars)....VERY OUCH

Euro Version Reviews:
9.0 (out of 10) from HonestGamers
88% from PixelRage of Romania
86 from Playfuls.com (out of 100)
8.5 from ComputersAndVideoGames
85 from Computer Games of Romania
8.1 from Jolt UK
8.0 from Eurogamer
79 from DriverHeaven (out of 100)
7.5 from GamersHell.com
7.0 from DarkZero (out of 10)
7.0 from GameSlave
7.0  from HookerGamers.com
2.0 from RewiredMind(out of 10)

[Xessive]

Ok, so I got to see a lot more of Gothic 3! A friend of mine actually got the UK version. After I showed him Gothic and Gothic 2 he got so psyched he just ordered it hehe

So, first impressions:
After installing the patch the game is not quite as buggy as previously indicated. It does have its little bugs, but so far there have been no crashes or any serious graphical issues. The game looks decent, though it can be a little on the heavy side, especially when the details are set to High. It usually jitters and stalls a bit when you first load it up, regardless of quality level, but then it smoothens out. Graphically it's an impressive improvement over its predecessors. I'm still hoping for a patch to improve overall performance.

The loading time is a bit of a drag, but you only have to load once. There are no loading sequences, although the game may hang for a few moments as you enter a new region. It's not that bad though. The world is reminiscent of Oblivion, but on a smaller scale.

The controls are not bad, definitely a vast improvement! The only issue I'm having with them is that the mouse camera controls are kinda sluggish. There's a lot of momentum when you move the mouse. It's not terrible, but I have to be very aware of how I move the mouse, and I have to sort of "pace" myself with the camera. It's most noticeable in the 1st person view; which brings me to "Hey, there's a 1st person view!" Pretty cool, it's a lot like Oblivion or Thief, and you can see your limbs.

The interface is clearly better than before, and the new inventory is a Godsend! Overall I'm happy with it, but there is one teeny tiny little detail: the trade interface. When you trade it brings up 4 panels: Merchant's goods, your inventory, "Buy" panel, and "Sell" panel. The idea is that you can trade with the value of goods as well as gold. If you're trading goods and they don't equate the value of the goods you'd like there's a 'gold difference' button, which basically fills out the remaining equal value in gold. The only little thing you have to always keep in mind is that when you want to sell items DO NOT click TRADE until you've clicked the 'gold difference' button, otherwise you'll 'agree' to trade your goods with the merchant for nothing.

The sound is great, and the voice acting is not bad, though they have changed a lot of familiar voices. Basically everyone's voice is significantly deeper than the previous games, which works out really well for the player character (I think he sounded too wussy before). Oh, and I think Michael Gough's voice is in! He's the guy who did Cain in the Diablo games! I like his voice It's very reassuring

There is one thing peculiar I've noticed about the voice acting though.. They seem to kinda mispronounce things, especially names. For example, there's one character called Javier which we all know sounds like "ha-vi-ehr" (it's a Latin name), but everyone in the game insists on pronouncing it "jay-vee-ir".. "Go look for Jay-vee-ir!" I kept looking for a guy called "Jay-vee-ir" (it was never spelled out for me, there were no subtitles/captions), and it took a bit to realize that "Javier" was "Jay-vee-ir".. I just thought it was weird.. It's like pronouncing Michael like "my-tshyle" it's weird.

All in all, it looks like a great game with a lot to offer. It still needs a bit pf patching here and there, but it looks good so far.

[Pugnate]

There is one thing peculiar I've noticed about the voice acting though.. They seem to kinda mispronounce things, especially names. For example, there's one character called Javier which we all know sounds like "ha-vi-ehr" (it's a Latin name), but everyone in the game insists on pronouncing it "jay-vee-ir".. "Go look for Jay-vee-ir!" I kept looking for a guy called "Jay-vee-ir" (it was never spelled out for me, there were no subtitles/captions), and it took a bit to realize that "Javier" was "Jay-vee-ir".. I just thought it was weird.. It's like pronouncing Michael like "my-tshyle" it's weird.

That is funny.

[MysterD]

Maybe they were trying to be different and decided to pronounce Javier different.

[Xessive]

Maybe they were trying to be different and decided to pronounce Javier different.

Haha I guess, but that was just the first of many others LOL! I bumped into a guy who's name is spelled "Silas" (if anyone is familiar it is ponounced "Sahy-luhs" i.e. the albino monk in The Da Vinci Code) but he calls himself "See-lis".. I ask him about a guy called "Bufford" which they apparently pronounced "Byoo-ferd".. Geez I can't wait to meet "Manuel" or "Juan" who'll probably be "Man-yoo-wel" and "Joo-wan" It just sounds really weird haha! It's like a bunch of culture-deprived guys did the voice acting!

I don't know if I'll get over it, it just sounds funny almost everytime I hear them pronounce names

I've come to realize that Save/Load times can be frustrating considering how easy it is to die in Gothic 3. Saving takes about 10 seconds, so when I hit the quicksave key the game freezes for about 10 secs while it saves. Loading on the other hand takes about a minute. It doesn't sound like much, but when a single wolf (one of the weaker monsters) can potentially kill me because I hit 'attack' at the wrong moment, you can bet I'm reloading my saves a lot. It's pretty tedious, but I've seen worse.

Speaking of dying easily, one of the contributing factors is that pretty much all enemies will attack you in combo attacks. That's fine, but there are some monsters you cannot block or parry. The devs mentioned that the new combat system makes you look for openings in your opponents moves, so you can attack when they're most vulnerable (right before or right after an attack). That works very nicely with humanoid enemies (humans, orcs, goblins, etc.), but with certain monsters it's extremely difficult to see an opening or to even get one. For example the Minecrawlers; when they attack it's literally like a jackhammer coming at you, and I'm not sure if it's a bug or not but 1) you can't block it and 2) they can continuously attack you endlessly. The only way to take one out is to rush it and get as many hits as you can before it starts attacking; if it does start attacking and you're lucky enugh that it missed just run away and wait until it stops. It's weird and irritating especially compared to the minecrawlers from the previous games.

[MysterD]

So Xessive, is this the best Gothic so far?

I ain't played Gothic 3 yet, but I loved Gothic 1. Gothic 2 was good, but it was no Gothic 1 -- especially in the storyline and all.

Will there be an SDK for G3? Any clue???

[Xessive]

I'm liking it so far, there are plenty of side quests. I havenb't gotten far enough in the story to really know how good it is, but the prologue was pretty good. The intro shows you and some companions arriving at the mainland, which has been overrun by orcs. You're literally thrown right into the action when you start.

I like that your friends Diego, Gorn, Lester, and the fire mage (I can't remember his name, it starts with M) are with you.

My favourite Gothic is also the first one. In Gothic 3 the combat system definitely needs some tweaking. Either way this one may become my favourite Gothic.

[Xessive]

Now that I've played Gothic 3 a lot mroe I can say that yes it is bug ridden, and unbalanced. Most of the bugs are gameplay-related, and there are few technical bugs.

I am certain there's a memory leak though, the game stalls more the longer you play and the load times get longer. I also discovered that there's an error in the INI which limits the memory usage drastically.. Even lower than what "low" settings are supposed to be. I fixed that, but hopefully it will be addressed officially in a new patch.

The gameplay bugs really make the game frustrating at times. After going through the JoWood Gothic 3 forums and the World of Gothic forums I realized a number of bugs. The Mincrawler thing I was talking about earlier? That's a bug. And I also figured out why the hell I die too frickin' easily! Apparently the Armor values are insignificant. For every 10 points of armor you're wearing you only get 1 point toward defence. The armor I'm wearing gives me 10 against blades, 10 against impact, and 20 against "missiles" which basically means I only have 1 against blades, 1 against impact, and 2 against "missiles" (by the way the translation is pretty rudimentry, by "missiles" I think they meant "projectiles").

There are tons of other gameplay bugs, which will hopefully be addressed A.S.A.P. As it is the game feels more like a beta.

[MysterD]

Now that I've played Gothic 3 a lot mroe I can say that yes it is bug ridden, and unbalanced. Most of the bugs are gameplay-related, and there are few technical bugs.

Uh-oh....

I am certain there's a memory leak though, the game stalls more the longer you play and the load times get longer.

Not good.

I also discovered that there's an error in the INI which limits the memory usage drastically.. Even lower than what "low" settings are supposed to be. I fixed that, but hopefully it will be addressed officially in a new patch.

Was it hard for you to fix? Or did you just change the value in the INI yourself?

The gameplay bugs really make the game frustrating at times. After going through the JoWood Gothic 3 forums and the World of Gothic forums I realized a number of bugs. The Mincrawler thing I was talking about earlier? That's a bug. And I also figured out why the hell I die too frickin' easily! Apparently the Armor values are insignificant. For every 10 points of armor you're wearing you only get 1 point toward defence. The armor I'm wearing gives me 10 against blades, 10 against impact, and 20 against "missiles" which basically means I only have 1 against blades, 1 against impact, and 2 against "missiles" (by the way the translation is pretty rudimentry, by "missiles" I think they meant "projectiles").

Whoa.......no wonder you are getting your ass handed to you. That sucks. They forgot the 10's part on the value! Bleh!!!

There are tons of other gameplay bugs, which will hopefully be addressed A.S.A.P. As it is the game feels more like a beta.

Like what? Quest bugs? Journal bugs? Any nasty CTD's (crash to desktops)

Games really have to stop being released in such a buggy state. -- especially such high-profile ones. Hopefully, the US Version retail box will be in a nice patched-up state, once it hits our shores....

Would you say this is buggier than Morrowind was out the box??? Morrowind was pretty buggy, out the box.....

[Xessive]

The INI issue was easy enough, I just adjusted the values myself. Basically the mem string for "High" (ResourceCache.u32SpeedTreeMaxMemUsage_High=100000) is missing a 0 at the end of it.. So do the "Medium" and "Low".. They've got the solution up on almost all the forums now.

Luckily I have yet to experience any crashes or CTD's.. Nothing major besides the memory leak. The gameplay bugs are all things like quest bugs, journal bugs, dialogue bugs (i.e. I clicked "Yes" but my character said "No"!!), and several other similar bugs.

To compare it with Morrowind, I'd say Morrowind had a majority of technical and graphical bugs, but fewer gameplay bugs.. Gothic 3 on the hand has a majority of gameplay bugs. They can be irritating, but the stuttering of the framerates is infuriating, especially when it happens in the middle of a fight!

Overall the game feels half-baked.. All that considered it still got some very good scores and ratings!

EDIT:
You know there's a bug when the game performance increases when you switch to High quality detail! I just switched to High just  to see how much greater it would look, and the game actually runs better!

The memory leak is a real bitch though.. I can't stay in thge game for more than a ˝ hour before it starts bogging down. And if I visit too many places, especially if I teleport a lot, it gets really heavy. It even takes about 4-5 minutes for the game to shutdown after I click QUIT. So, that's one issue they really need to put on the 'FIX NOW' list.

[MysterD]

GameSlave review added for Gothic 3 (Euro) at beginning of the thread.

And what an orchestra. If there's one area which Gothic 3 executes flawlessly it's in its soundtrack. A diverse array of pieces that include everything from a female singer to a choir, Gothic 3 is a joy to listen to from start to finish.

You know, The Gothic games have always had great soundtracks -- G1 and G2.

Xessive, do you feel the same about the music as GameSlave does on the Gothic 3 score???

[Xessive]

I feel the music in Gothic 3 is a big step forward from the previous games. When you're in the 'forest' environment the music is very reminiscent of Oblivion. At first the only music changes I noticed were town, wilderness, caves, and combat.. Then when I first arrived at the desert the music completely changed into something with an Arabic style and some female vocals! I instantly started paying more attention to the music every time I enter a enter a different environment. The music is very well done.

The combat music is helpful because it actually alerts me that something is trying to attack. There's only one part of the music I don't like, and it's kinda irritating. In the 'forest' music there's a part that starts to build up just like the combat music, it alerts me, I pull out my weapon and look around only to realize the music suddenly calms down. The music can get a little repetitious, but I don't mind it too much, and I'm grateful each region has it's own distinct sound.

Y'know, if they fix the bugs and the game performs really well you and Que would really like it! As it it stands the bugs interfere too much with the gameplay dynamic, and I'm trying really hard to ignore them and enjoy the game. The game performs beautifully in "Varant" the desert country.

[MysterD]

More Gothic 3 patch news, from RPGWatch (the new location for RPGDot):
http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=2430

Piranha Bytes Mike Hoge has posted some news about the next Gothic 3 patch in the World of Gothic boards.

According to Hoge most of the Piranhas have worked on the 2nd patch until last week, so it seems, patch #2 is likely to be released soon. The patch will include bugfixes of course, more finetuning and completely redesign the crossbow. PB also says, they need more time to finetune the close combat system, so that hints to another patch.

Source: World of Gothic

[Xessive]

Good.. good.

[MysterD]

DriverHeaven review added to top of the thread

[Xessive]

New patch v1.08 has been released!

Gothic 3 @ 3D Gamers

Gothic III v1.08 Patch notes
24.10.2006



0. POSSIBLE EXPLOIT
===================
To avoid using the patches (same for 1.07) as an exploit:
- unequip all items
- save game
- apply patch
- load game
Otherwise equipment bonuses will be counted doubly after
reequipping.



I. TECHNICAL BUGFIXES
=====================

Build 1.08
----------
- Several crash bugs fixed
- Performance increased
- Combat AI for several monsters improved/simplified (e.g. boar)
- Lots of AI Fixes ( Murderer Reaction from party member fixed, AI comments improved)
- Sleeping NPC's AI reactions improved
- Camera Control: Inverting the X-axis is now saved
- Lensflare/Sun doesn't shine through mountains and buildings anymore
- Rhobar and Zuben are dead after defeating them
- Revolution mechanics improved
- Lester does now talk even when not sitting at the campfire
- Epilogue fixed
- "No mission success after 2 times "not enough gold" fixed

Build 1.07
----------
- Glowing vegetation bug in older shader versions has been fixed
- Several crashes and bugs related to the physics system have been fixed
- Flickering objects and invisible particle systems bugs (mostly fire) were fixed
- Some bugs were fixed which lead to the hero being invisible after loading
- Some bugs were fixed which lead to skeletons and golems disapperaing after death
- Z-Fighting bugs and alpha object order bugs were fixed, especially magic barrier vs. sky plane
- Several bugs with rendering objects under water were fixed
- An illumination crash bug on multicore systems was fixed
- Several bugs and optimizations relating the the dynamic music system were done
- A bug was fixed that lead to the damage value for modified weapons being not be displayed correctly
- The mouse cursor sometimes appeared at wrong positions. This was fixed.
- We fixed a bug where, after loading a save game, unique treasure chests would hand out the first item in the list again
- A bug in the soul travel spell was fixed (hero did not recognize that he has transformed back, resulting in an invincible state)
- The height of wade- and swim effects was adjusted
- A bug was fixed that calculated the fall damage (sometimes too low)
- Fixed a bug where skills granted by items would not be shown as enabled
- Fixed a bug where when running in fullscreen and using draw scale the GUI's mouse sensitivity would be reduced
- A crash was fixed that sometimes happened after casting the fire rain spell
- Several bugs related to the Pause mode and Quickload/Quicksave were fixed
- Several optimizations related to arrows were done
- Bugs related to following NPCs were fixed
- A bugs was fixed that reversed the order of tabs in the mission screen

II. CONTENT FIXES
=============

Build 1.08
----------
- Vak and Gonzales are now still there after a revolution
- There are now more weapons at traders and in chests
- Annoying NPCs from Faring arena removed
- Story and Missions in Al shedim improved. (Lester,Saturas,Wutras,etc...)
- Snorre's ancestor stone fixed
- All problems of Hogar and the southern Orcs fixed
- Ronar Trading fixed
- Less monsters/Orcs in Nordmar
- Vibald is now carrying explosive arrows
- Bogir dialog fixed
- Osmund dialog fixed

Build 1.07
----------
- Navigation problems in temples and Ishtar fixed
- Phil in Kap Dun now fights in Revolutions
- Fixed the Montera slaves that walked around the well and through the fire
- Turned around a chest near Vengard
- Fixed a problem with Daryl's Orcs
- Fixed Scavenger problem near Porgan
- Kamak doesn't care about the monsters anymore
- Fixed Peer's daily routine
- Remove wolf skin in Gamal's tent
- Fixed flying Orc in Vengard
- Arena Fighters in Silden have now collission
- NPCs now react to drawing the weapon in Silden
- Turned around a chest in Silden
- Destination point for Vengard stone moved
- Removed some healing plants in Myrtana
- Several plants with permanent effect werde added
- Seruk now stays in town after Revolution
- Removed some heavy smalltalk groups
- Kor Shach's navigation was adjusted
- Tippler's hut is now furnitured
- Flying objects after changing sectors were fixed
- Lukjan Overtime quest was fixed
- Sanford's letter mechanic was improved
- Tyler now goes to Trelis
- Cyrus now leaves the party mode
- Avogadro now goes to the farm after the quest succeeding
- Kelvin now goes to the temple
- Osko now goes to the farm
- Some dialog fixes with Flint in Faring were done
- The healing potion quest from Pranck is now solvable
- Spike was fixed
- Experience points in Kap Dun were adjusted
- Nemrok quest and reputation fixed
- Mojok dialog mechanic adjusted
- Bored guard dialog fixed
- Folleck dialog fixed
- Ali dialog fixed
- Gunock talks about Grok dialog mechanic fixed
- Sulfock dialog mechanic fixed
- Lares dialog fixed
- Sulfur was added to traders' treasuresets
- Antidote was added to traders' treasuresets
- Yepas has now the correct political alignment
- It's now easier to hit alligators
- It's now easier to hit the straw wolves near Montera
- Seruk's guild adjusted
- Traders have now more water
- Kamak's guild adjusted
- Map coordinates fixed
- Several recipes fixed
- Wenzel doesn't attack the orcs problem fixed
- Nasib's enclave fixed
- Staff and robe traders adjusted
- Stone tablets distribution improved
- Beds and chests at Nomad camps added
- Yasmin's und Alima's daily routine adjusted
- Navigation problems in Mora Sul fixed
- Hamid's daily routine adjusted
- Masil's daily routine adjusted
- Navigation zones in Al Shedim fixed
- Monster distribution in Al Shedim adjusted
- Quest mechanics in Al Shedim improved
- Dialog with Lester in desert fixed
- Fasim now invites you to the arena
- Reputation mechanic in Mora Sul improved
- Lukor dialog fixed
- Angar's guild changed, Party member added
- Several fixes in Ornarok's quest.
- Dialog problem with Yasmin fixed
- Ilja's amulet is now unique
- You can't buy a flame sword now
- Raw meat bugs were moved to the right inventory category
- You can buy more maps at traders
- Lukor quest fixed
- Ali's key fixed

III. CHANGES/ADDITIONS
======================

Build 1.08
----------
- Crossbow handling improved

Build 1.07
----------
- A sort order for skills was implemented
- Strings can now have UTF-16 format
- Character now won't slide if the ground entity has a volume < 3m3
- The HUD now automatically selects the smallest map that contains the player's position upon opening the map list
- A sort order for spells was implemented
- The sort order for consumables, artefacts and documents was improved
- Several Balancing values have been adjusted
- Summoned party members now defend the player

[MysterD]

That's it, Piranha....keep them patches coming....

That would be great that once it hits the States, since it will be patched in the US box, that the game sheds most of the issues it had from the Euro Retail Version 1.0.

[MysterD]

GamePressure got their online Game Guide for G3 up.

[MysterD]

A nasty 2.0 from RewiredMind(out of 10)

Rating this game has never been easier. Stay the hell away from Gothic III. The amount of glitches in this game instantly ruins whatever experience it aimed to achieve. There are not enough patches in PC gaming history to sort this one out.

[MysterD]

The English language UK version of Gothic 3 is $34.90 on their 48 Hour Madness...then of course, you'd also pay for shipping, too...

[Xessive]

The English language UK version of Gothic 3 is $34.90 on their 48 Hour Madness...then of course, you'd also pay for shipping, too...

It would be more worthwhile to just wait for the US release. It'll have some much needed fixes as well!

[MysterD]

It would be more worthwhile to just wait for the US release. It'll have some much needed fixes as well!

Plus, US version retails new for $40, anyways -- which'll be out in like around 2 weeks, anyways.

[MysterD]

Gothic 3 gets patch 1.09

Gothic 3 - Patch 1.09 OnlineGothic 3 - Patch 1.09 Online    [PB] MR    

This patch only addresses an issue that can lead to a crash when saving the game under special system configurations especially after playing for a longer time. No other changes to 1.08 have been made.

Patch 1.09 Changelog

Download Gothic 3 Patch 1.09 (62MB)

[MysterD]

G3 interview w/ the Exec Producer of Aspyr (North America), Blaine Christine for the US Release of G3 coming up

Exec Producer Blaine Christine Talks Gothic 3
Aspyr’s Blaine Christine talks about the North American launch of Gothic 3, which ships to stores next week.

Hi, Blaine.

Hi.

Nice hair.

Thanks.

Gothic 3 has been out in Europe for almost a month now. Now that the game is finally coming to North America, are gamers over here going to get something different than their European counterparts when they pick up a copy at the store?

Well first off, we just want to be clear that there is only one version of Gothic 3 worldwide. The core gameplay, graphics, etc. are the same whether you bought the game in Germany last month or will be purchasing it this month in the U.S. And, obviously, the North American version will have English text and great voice over recorded this past summer.

Some great news for the patient North American fans though. The extra time has allowed us to implement all of the fixes and changes that are included in the first two European patches. When you buy the North American version of Gothic 3, just load up and play.

So what kind of fixes and changes are we talking about?

Developer Piranha Bytes has made many improvements since the game first shipped in Europe. Melee combat with creatures has been tweaked so that wild boars will no longer dispatch the hero with ease and go on to ravage entire villages. For the spellcasters out there, many of the spells now scale in damage in relation to the Arcane Knowledge attribute, making spells such as Fireball useful all the way to the end of the game for extended face melting pleasure. These tweaks also make it easier to focus on magic even earlier in the game. Additionally, there have been many fixes to resolve minor issues found with some of the quests and game endings to ensure that players are properly rewarded for their efforts.

Now that we’ve got you cornered in your office, let’s talk more about the magic in the game. Usually in RPGs such as this, the magic user route is the most fun to take, what with all of the blowing things up and summoning of minions and such. Can you give us more detail on how you develop as a spell caster in the game, specifically early?

Developing your spell caster character is similar to a warrior or archer build, but instead of visiting trainers for new abilities you will be visiting shrines and mages. Due to the potency of magic you will probably find yourself resting a bit more often than a fighter would so that you can recharge your mana. But with some smart decision-making and the right equipment, you too will be able to last through long battles as fighters do.

Go into detail about “light” and “dark” mage routes.

First let’s clarify that spell casting in Gothic 3 is not reliant on a skill tree, but only your Ancient Knowledge attribute. That is to say that if you want to get the “Fire Rain” spell, you only need your Ancient Knowledge to be high enough. You don’t necessarily have to learn “Fireball” first.

With that said, building a “light” or “dark” mage is simply a matter of choosing the spells that you think fulfill that description. If you want to make a “dark mage” type of character, then you will pick up spells such as Army of Darkness, Summon Demon, and Poison—basically just about any of the spells from the god Beliar. If you want to make a “light mage” then you’ll probably take more spells from the god Innos such as Healing and Banish Evil.

How does playing as a more pure magic user change how you play the game, or which quest routes you take?

A pure magic user is going to play the game very differently from a more balanced character build. If all of your Learning Points are going into Ancient Knowledge, then that means you are going light on Strength. As such, a pure magic user will be spending a lot of effort and mana to keep enemies outside of striking range or even avoiding combat altogether with some magic trickery (which can be quite entertaining!)

If your character is completely invested in magic, then you will most certainly be avoiding the arena combat quests since magic isn’t allowed. However, you will find that those big area effect spells that you’ve worked so hard to obtain do a great job of taking out those strong enemies that you’d otherwise have to spend ages trading blows with.

What is your favorite end-game spell?

If you ever catch me laughing maniacally at my desk, it’s probably because I’m casting Meteor. Calling down a huge comet from the sky to land in the middle of your opponents and send them flying is incredibly satisfying!

[MysterD]

This looks like a very nice Journal System.

Xessive, do you like this Journal System G3 has...?

[Xessive]

It looks nice enough, and from what I experienced it had good points but more bad points.

The good:
-The quests are categorized by town/camp.
-The map in the quest log can be sometimes more helpful than the world map (it actually displays camp locations).

The bad:
-There are no journal entries. When you select a quest it only shows the relevant dialogue in chronological order.
-The journal does not give you any useful information about your quests at all, besides a transcript of the dialogue which is often vague.
-It gives you no bearing as to how far or near the given quest would be from the its starting location. Sometimes it's right next to you, and sometimes it's far FAR away, like irrelevantly far. A small marker to show the general destination would have been extremely helpful. Needless to say it's very easy to get lost.
-It would have been nice to be able to sort the quests as well. They can pile up.

The journal was generally one of the most complained about features on the official boards. It's better than nothing, but it's not particularly good.

[MysterD]

It looks nice enough, and from what I experienced it had good points but more bad points.

The good:
-The quests are categorized by town/camp.
-The map in the quest log can be sometimes more helpful than the world map (it actually displays camp locations).

Very nice.

The bad:
-There are no journal entries. When you select a quest it only shows the relevant dialogue in chronological order.
-The journal does not give you any useful information about your quests at all, besides a transcript of the dialogue which is often vague

That's odd. It's cool that it shows dialogue, but it should also state what the player is to do next, like most PC RPG's like next to the dialogue....

-It gives you no bearing as to how far or near the given quest would be from the its starting location. Sometimes it's right next to you, and sometimes it's far FAR away, like irrelevantly far. A small marker to show the general destination would have been extremely helpful. Needless to say it's very easy to get lost.

Ick,

-It would have been nice to be able to sort the quests as well. They can pile up.

Ick again.

The journal was generally one of the most complained about features on the official boards. It's better than nothing, but it's not particularly good.

I hope there's plans of Piranha of uphauling it and modifying the Journal......

[MysterD]

Gothic 3 Impressions @ IGN

[MysterD]

Looks like the next Gothic 3 patch is planned in 2-3 weeks, in EARLY December

According to posts in the Jowood and World of Players Forums, the next Gothic 3 patch is scheduled for early december (quote: in 2 -3 weeks) and will address at least the ambient sound bug, no more has been disclosed so far.

Source: Gamestar
Newsbit options: Comments (0) | Forward this newsbit | Link to this Newsbit

[MysterD]

IGN w/ a vicious review on this one

Unfortunately, the quests themselves don't offer much variety, consisting mostly of fetch and kill quests. If you don't like a certain batch of quests, you can always move on to the next town. However, this means whenever you return to a town you'll have to deal with the game's quest log. Like many other aspects of Gothic III, the quest log stumbles around on the shaky wall dividing a game's drive to mimic reality and be user-friendly. While the log can be organized based on where a quest was obtained, the descriptions are woefully inadequate. Snippets of your conversation with the NPC are recorded, which many times provides little to no insight on what you're supposed to do. Even when an entire quest conversation had been recorded, the goal still could still be vague, which is where the "realism" part comes in. It makes sense for an NPC to not know where a specific cave is or where a plot-important NPC is holed up, and it's part of the fun of Gothic III to find out exactly what the deal is. Still, it's far too easy to forget what you were doing or where quest givers were in a certain area if you've been hacking around in other parts.

This sounds like the mess you were talking about, Xessive. Sheesh....

The nod towards game realism over user-friendliness continues with the placement of teleportation stones. These things can be picked up in every community and allow the player instantaneous travel to that area afterwards.

Cool.

While a few are easy to find, it eventually becomes a gigantic pain to nail all these down since they're tucked away in obscure locations. Sure, it may make sense that a teleportation stone may not be in an obvious place if it's a valuable item. After all, nobody leaves a diamond necklace sitting on their front stoop, right? Unfortunately it translates into an unnecessarily frustrating experience for the gamer to hunt them all down. In Geldern and Braga, for instance, we rooted around for over an hour before discovering the stones were being carried around by certain town dwellers. We only found this out by randomly knocking them out. In other communities, the stones are buried in random treasure chests, ensuring you'll waste large amounts of time.

You mean there isn't like a main quest find these stones?!?!!?

The game's need to stay true to realism is starkly contrasted by the combat, which proves strikingly shallow and glitchy. Just to give you an idea, we were able to slaughter the entire town of Trelis by repeatedly clicking the left mouse button to kill an opponent with sword swings, running and hiding behind a wall, and then repeating. Pressing and holding LMB allows for a power swing, parrying with a weapon or shield is accomplished by holding the RMB, and from there a quick strike can be initiated with a LMB click. Even with these options, nothing remains as effective as jamming LMB. The game automatically directs you to an opponent should there be a group around, and you can switch up targets if you like by turning your character around. While locked in, nobody else will attack you unless they're firing arrows or magic blasts. As a result, you can stand in a group, target one foe, and initiate a barrage of LMB strikes, taking down one opponent after another. A humanoid's general reaction is to block, a beast's general reaction is to back up. As long as you continue to hit LMB, you'll occasionally pierce their flesh with your weapon. Though this method proves amazingly effective, opponents humanoid and beast alike will occasionally unleash a practically unblockable series of attacks that more often than not kill your character. This seemed to be especially true of beasts. Either way, combat is reduced to a trivial affair where you jam LMB, run and heal, run back in, jam LMB, and win. If this game is trying to mimic how a real world functions, how does it fit that one man is able to take down an entire town by doing figure-eight's with a bladed weapon?

Damned if I know....

The combat runs into even more issues that pile on frustration. First, opponents can run through walls. Not every wall, mind you, but it occurred with surprising regularity. We saw NPCs run through solid rock, monsters move effortlessly through cave walls, and humanoids breeze right through stone ruins.

Ooooh......clipping....

They also seemed to get stuck at certain points. For instance, a large group of foes attempting to cross a bridge all got glued together somehow, jittering in a line as we waited patiently at the other end for an opponent to detach themselves. In some instances we saw groups of baddies freeze in place as we watched from a distance, only resuming their battle actions after we planted an arrow in the back of their necks. Some opponents didn't seem to realize they were being attacked, never drawing a weapon, others suddenly veered in totally wrong directions while pursuing us in combat, while others got stuck in ceilings yet still managed to continue the battle while only half-present in the room. The Nameless Hero gets stuck frequently as well. If there's any debris on a battlefield, you'll want to move to a different location. Even when stepping up on a small rock, the Nameless Hero gets stuck on its edge, incapable of moving forward without jumping off or performing an aggravating slide during which no other action is possible. Needless to say, this doesn't bode well if there's an enemy poised to chop at you.

Bleh!

While we wanted so badly wanted to become immersed in the world of Gothic III, there were yet even more issues that brought us screaming back to reality. If you attack an NPC in a town you're friendly with and choose not to perform a finishing stab once they've hit the ground, they'll completely forget you attacked them even if approached only 10 seconds later. They won't even mention the fact that you just randomly beat the crap out of them, instead offering up a standard greeting. This really breaks any kind of immersive qualities about Gothic III.

*raises eyebrow...*

Closing Comments
With the promise of a gigantic game world within which you're free to do whatever you want, Gothic III is certainly a tantalizing title. It's got the graphical backbone to support the immersive gameplay it aims to deliver, a strong character development system, and a great soundtrack. Unfortunately, there are far too many problems with Gothic III to maintain the immersion. In a game where the illusion of a dynamic, realistic world is so crucial to the experience, technical bugs and awkward design decisions do a marvelous job at hamstringing Gothic III's gameplay.

It's a shame the bugs still kill the game, after the patches and all.

It's still possible to wander aimlessly through forests and deserts engaging whatever challenges you happen upon, which can be entertaining, but you'll never be free from the terrifically awkward combat. It doesn't help that some quests flat out don't work, the game frequently crashes, and little besides the soundtrack is worth listening to. Gothic III gives you a giant world and plenty of choice, but is ultimately engulfed by its own aspirations of complexity.

Xessive, since you've played a lot of this by now, how is the combat, in your opinion???
Any better than past Gothic games? Or worse?

[Xessive]

There are things I like and dislike about the new combat system.

Good:
-Quick and easy mouse interface: left = attack, right = block.
-Some variety in your attacks based on combinations and how long you hold the attack button.

Bad:
-The lock-on system needs a bit of tweaking.
-Reach is a real issue. Almost all creatures can easily dodge any of my attacks.
-Some creatures seem to be impossible to hit; Trolls (frickin' huge titans) are extremely tedious to attack with any melee weapon; I land about 1 out of every 8 strikes for some odd reason.
-A lot of collision problems; my weapon clearly crosses through an enemy but it doesn't register as a hit.

  There's no sense of impact when a hit lands. The only indication is a blood spatter accompanied by a subtle cut sound. It would make sense if I was using a Light Sabre, but as it is there's no sense of actual combat. It's the same when enemies attack me, my health just seems to drop without any immersive indication. That's Probably one of the reasons that death comes so easily, you don't really know you're dying or losing health unless you pay very close attention to the health bar.

  The old combat style had a unique and strict structure. According to the forums, a lot of people want the old system back; even though it's a little more clunky it was way more reliable, and everyone's used to it. It had more of a "duelling" feel to it, and you had to be a little tactical about your moves. The new system is claimed to be clever, but it's just another "bash your mouse button!" They set it so you time your button clicks rather than timing your opponent as in the old system.

  In the old system, the timing had to do with waiting for an opening then attacking (wait for your opponent to attack, just before or right after he attacks he's wide open). In the new system the only timing they focused on is your clicks; you have to click at the end of each consecutive attack in order to complete a combo. This is no guarantee of a successful attack, it usually just means you'll look slightly cooler. I think this was supposed to prevent players from just bashing their mouse button, but it doesn't work. Trying to complete a combo leaves you open to receive a flurry of attacks, and bashing your mouse button actually ends up being the superior tactic.

  The game has no support for stealthy players. The stealth options they have are practically useless for attacking or ambushing; they're just for stealing and hunting. To compensate I had fun with the ranged attacks, and I loved using the bow, pretty slow though. The crossbow was way too slow, but handy if you're far enough.

Eventually I got bored of Gothic 3.. I got bored of waiting for the "newer" patch.. I stopped playing it.. Uninstalled.. Went back to Oblivion.

[MysterD]

5 from 1Up (out of 10) -- Matt Peckham scorches Gothic 3 namely for its combat and bugs galore.

Gothic 3
There's a hole in my RPG, dear Liza, dear Liza.
Platform: PC

Publisher: Aspyr   
Developer: Piranha Bytes

ESRB Rating: Rating Pending   Genre: RPG

by Matt Peckham 12/04/2006    
This review appears in the March issue of Games For Windows: The Official Magazine.

Every RPG has its hook. Some are practically orbital, trading depth to trace the contours of entire continents. Others might as well be fantasy sports leagues for all their buckets of exotic info. Gothic 3 is the culmination of a third approach that renders midsized environments in painstaking detail while keeping its mechanics simple and unpretentious. I definitely heart the latter, so it's a pity to report that Gothic 3 was released too soon, with too many glitches to warrant a recommendation unless you're supremely patient and own a sturdy desk -- because when Gothic 3 chokes, you will pound it.

Ouch.....my hands....

Gothic 3 picks up where Gothic 2 left off, and continues the saga of the nameless hero who broke out of a magical prison and eventually slew an undead dragon. Fresh out of the frying pan (Khorinis, the island setting of the last two games), you disembark on the mainland in time to grapple with an inferno: Orcs have overrun the continent, enslaving most of the human population...and only the capital's holding out. As a free-roaming mercenary, you can join with the orcs, side with the humans, or pass the buck entirely to follow a mysterious third path.

Ok.

Most of the questing between times boils down to the usual RPG chores. Kill some stuff to help a village; collect a bunch of stuff for a mage; defeat something to get five animal hides for a guy who tells you how to enter a building where another guy asks you to do more or less the same thing. Still, you have to admire the fidelity here. Gothic 3 wears "old school" like a Boy Scout badge, and that's terrific news if you're into this sort of thing.

Sweet.

Bugs...why'd it have to be bugs?
Other kinds of fidelity are less admirable, and Gothic fans who put up with the last two games' foibles probably won't be shocked to hear that Gothic 3's troubles come in two familiar flavors: loopy design choices and out-and-out bugs. The European version's been available for months, but even the patched U.S. version (up to v1.09 already -- yikes) still has the creepy-crawlies. Loading or saving games sometimes elicits "out of memory" crashes. A few quests can't be finished because the game won't acknowledge that you completed them.

Ick!!!

Overlong quest descriptions in your journal get truncated and -- this isn't so much a bug as a missing feature -- NPCs no longer come a-running when you bust into their homes. Sleep in their beds, pilfer their goods...it's like paradise for newbie thieves or something.

What fun is that?!?!?!!?

I want at least some challenge....

Maybe in another patch....

More weirdness: Some NPCs get stuck against crates and jitter in place or fall through objects, and the text names over their heads are some kind of fugly font that looks glued in.

Yuck.

You're also denied a crosshair reticule, which means constantly stumbling over items or bodies you're trying to target. Visual effects like lens flare (cameras in medieval times, guys?) render everywhere, including straight through mountains and inside caves. And on high-end systems, the game pitches and heaves for several seconds as on-the-fly scenery loads, like film hitching in a crappy projector. None of these by themselves are showstoppers, but taken together they certainly scuff up the chrome.

Bleh.

It's the goofy combat, though, that's most off-putting. By holding different buttons on the keyboard in conjunction with variably timed mouse clicks, you can punch, jump-attack, parry, cast spells, loose arcing quarrels and arrows, and pull off killing blows. It all sounds wonderful in theory; in practice, the game's creatures and human enemies only seem to know two moves: "lunge" or "back-up-really-really-fast." Which means you're either clicking like mad to keep your backpedaling opponents at bay, or falling over (much too frequently) when they score a hit. It's tough to actually lose a battle if you click fast enough, because you're constantly stunning your opponents. In short, a combat system meant to be tactically plush comes off instead as shallow and monotonous.

A long and winding road
Nine patches in, Gothic 3 has a long road to hoe before rating "close enough for government work." Try it if you're hardcore and even-tempered. But yep, here we go again -- closing with another "until it's adequately patched, caveat emptor."

You know, it's a damn shame another Gothic series game, again, has to be plagued w/ bugs. I waited a while on G1 and G2 b/c of this, now it looks like I'll probably do the same w/ G3.

I'm glad NWN2 came out in a better state than G3, but at least its issues were minor. Thankfully, 1.03 fixed most of my whines and moans w/ NWN2 -- would've been nice if it ran like that out-of-the-box.

Sounds like G3 still needs A LOT of work, on the patching side. Damn shame.

I'm gettin' tired of games being released too early -- especially if it is to just make that X-Mas rush.

[MysterD]

Gothic 3 patched to Version 1.12 now, which is around 63 MB

Here's again the overview of fixes:

- Fixed ambient sound bug
- Sound occlusion improved
- Several physics and character movement bugs fixed
- Inventory exploit fixed
- Camera behaviour improved
- Several mission logs fixed
- Several small quest bugs fixed
- NPCs don't die as quickly as before when fighting monsters. This helps party members to survive.

[MysterD]

Bioware's very own Ray Muzyka seems to be addicted to Gothic 3 right now....

CVG: What for you was the highlight of the videogame world last year, and which title released in 2006 would you say most pushed videogame boundaries?

Ray Muzyka: Focusing on PC games (since that's the focus of this story!) there were a number of solid titles last past year - Company of Heroes, Oblivion, Medieval 2, Half-Life 2 Episode One, Neverwinter Nights 2, Prey, Gothic 3 (Gothic 3 is my current PC addiction - it's quite good and definitely worth checking out, a few minor issues aside) and many others.

[Pugnate]

D you've been following this for a while. I definitely want to buy Gothic 3. Should I get the Euro or US version?

[MysterD]

D you've been following this for a while. I definitely want to buy Gothic 3. Should I get the Euro or US version?

Though, the US Version is patched up further than the Euro. Both are on DVD.

Either way, both US and Euro take the SAME patches. Euro version came out earlier in the middle of 2006, US came out w/ a patches behind it in Nov. 2006.

I'd get whatever's cheaper. Either way, you're going to have to patch it up big time!

Personally, I'd wait until you can get it for like $20 or less -- that's what I plan to do.

It's s'posed to still need A LOT of patching, even in its current state w/ the latest patch.

[Pugnate]

The US version hasn't been censored in any way has it? I don't really care for nudity but I want the game in its original form.

[MysterD]

The US version hasn't been censored in any way has it? I don't really care for nudity but I want the game in its original form.

This is somewhere earlier in this thread, actually....hehe.

To make it easy for you, so you ain't got to look all throughout this huge-ass thread, I'll link you to the page w/ the info on it and quote it.

Yes, both versions are the same, pretty much...

[Whomever interviews her]: Gothic 3 has been out in Europe for almost a month now. Now that the game is finally coming to North America, are gamers over here going to get something different than their European counterparts when they pick up a copy at the store?

Blaine Christine: Well first off, we just want to be clear that there is only one version of Gothic 3 worldwide. The core gameplay, graphics, etc. are the same whether you bought the game in Germany last month or will be purchasing it this month in the U.S. And, obviously, the North American version will have English text and great voice over recorded this past summer.

Some great news for the patient North American fans though. The extra time has allowed us to implement all of the fixes and changes that are included in the first two European patches. When you buy the North American version of Gothic 3, just load up and play.

[Pugnate]

So the American one has the better voice acting? Definitely getting the US version then, even though I just saw a UK one going for $4.

edit:

http://www.rpgdot.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2541936&sid=6f08be132ab885b81ee9c29b2bed4f76

We´ve exchanged several emails with Aspyr to clear up some rumors and misunderstandings circulating about the North American Gothic 3. The official site has also been updated. Here´s the summary:


Release date
The date given on Aspyr´s site (Nov 13th) is not final: "We have not made an announcement on an official release date. The date you see on our site is a good bookmark though. As soon as we can lock down an official date we'll let you know."
ESRB rating
"The ESRB gave the U.S. version of Gothic 3 a Teen (T) rating this week. A T rating clears Gothic 3 as suitable for ages 13 and older." (source: Gothic3.Aspyr.com)
Packaging & medium
The game will ship on DVD only "in an Amaray DVD case with a wrap that includes a flap."
Collector´s Edition
Not planned.
System requirements
The system requirements have been posted on the official site. Link see above.
Differences US <-> UK versions

Gameplay: "There will only be one version of Gothic 3 worldwide. I can't stress that enough. One version.[...]In-game content is identical."
cucumber: Will be modified to include Aspyr.
Intro: "I believe our intro movie will have some minor technical tweaks (taking advantage of the extra time), but this will be minor. Content of the movie will be the same. And obviously the intro movie does not affect gameplay."
Patches:
Here´s the full quote, since this sems to be main reason for the delay:
"It is true that the US version will ship later than the UK version. As such, the US version will ship with any updates and fixes available from the first Gothic 3 patch that will be released. Instead of downloading the first patch like the European gamers, US gamers will already have the updates in their retail copy when it ships. This bit of detail may be causing the confusion
and may be why some people think the US version will be "different." "
Translation and voice overs
"The UK and US versions will have the same translation and voice overs."

Cool I will take advantage of the UK version now.