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    Arcania: Gothic 4

    Game » consists of 10 releases. Released Sep 27, 2010

    ArcaniA: Gothic 4 is the 4th installment in the European Action RPG franchise Gothic, and the first after JoWood's split with the original franchise developer.

    The Gothic 4 Demo Got Me to Play Gothic 3...

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    Seppli

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    #1  Edited By Seppli

    It's the first time I kinda see past its flaws (also because it's pretty much patched to being bugfree and the mod community tweaked the AI for combat not to suck)...
     
    ...I'm hard pressed to say that Gothic 3 offers the most cohesive and alive gameworld ever to be created. Not even Morrowind can stand up to it. It's like 50 handcrafted squaremiles of realestate and every tiny bit has been placed purpusefully. The AI is mostly unshackled and pretty amazing stuff can happen dynamically all the time.
     
    Tonight I free Silden from the Orcs. After long preparations secretly arming the slaves and undermining the defenses it was time to strike. As I attacked all the slaves rose up and joined the battle. There's nothing quite like 50+ NPC character duking it out all around me. Myself being a ranger kiting fools around, killing them off one by one as they struggle to catch up. First I fought with my fellow men within the boundries the settlement. Havoc all around me. Of course the weakly and poorly armed slaves all fell to their captors eventually, so I had to lure the remaining forces into the wilds. Crossing a river, a bunch of crocodies aggroed my pursuers. I just stood by the riverbed rubbing my eyes at the epic sight of Orcs and crocodiles duking it out in the shallow riverbed sparkling with moonlight.
     
    It is here where I took my last stand. Aided by the forces of nature, I overcame the orc opressors and freed Silden. As I returned to settlement we struggled so hard over, I found corpses littering the street. Everybody in this formerly occupied village has perished. Devoured by the flames of war. I gave them hope. They rose to fight. They all died. Free men at least, yet too dead for it to matter anymore. I gave them hope. From hope came war. From war came death. From death came peace. I made their day. 
     
    Gothic 3 made mine. Epic!

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    FourWude

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    #2  Edited By FourWude

    Is it still buggy as hell with framerate problems or has that all been fixed? 

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    Seppli

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    #3  Edited By Seppli
    @FourWude said:

    " Is it still buggy as hell with framerate problems or has that all been fixed?  "

    Bugs are almost all gone. Didn't run into any gamebreaking bugs yet. I can't recall a single one. Had one crash over the 15-20 hours I played so far. That's it.
     
    Still got a stutter every now and then, when panning the camera into a huge vista. With modern hardware though, this specific technical flaw is neglectable. Having it all cranked up and it runs supersmoothly except for that. No matter how much I turn off, that's just hardcoded into the engine.
     
    You need to patch the game with all the official patches and get the fan-patch 1.74, which fixes all remaining bugs and gives you an option for hardcore RPG balancing (can't build up a superhuman anymore - got to specialize) and an alternate AI (which comes highly recommended, since it fixes AI combat behaviour and pathfinding).
     
    In any case, you still got to get over quite a hump of flaws, before you can enjoy it.
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    Diamond

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    #4  Edited By Diamond

    You should try Gothic 2, it's way better.

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    Seppli

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    #5  Edited By Seppli
    @Diamond said:

    " You should try Gothic 2, it's way better. "

    I played them all. I played Gothic & Gothic 2 to completion multiple times. Was my favorite franchise for a while. I'm not so sure anymore if Gothic 3 really is inferior to Gothic 2. At least now that it's more or less fixed and bugfree.
     
    It suffers from 'too much content', which kinda turns it into a grind, if you got the wrong mindset - but the content isn't of worse quality than Gothic 1 & 2. There's just sooo much more. Tiring amounts of content. Gothic 1 & 2 were much easier to grasp, since there is only a fraction of Gothic 3's realestate. I believe the devs said it's 5x bigger than Gothic 2, which was about double the size of Gothic 1.
     
    The best example I can make are caves. I love caves. You never know what you'll find once you explore them. Gothic 3's caves are all excellent. From animal burrows to a dragon's lairs to a goblin or thieves or wolves den to rebel hideouts. They're all handcrafted with loving care for detail. Each and every one unique and often huge. The downside is, after about 20+ of cave excursions, I'm getting a little tired of it. And I'm like only 20% in.
     
    Somehow I have hard time saying Gothic 3 is inferior to Gothic 2 because it's too big for its own sake, but that's the main reason (outside of all the flaws and quirks the series always had and the prevalent bug festival the game was at release) why I'm probably enjoying it less. Few people can take the time and patience it takes to actually see it through.
     
    Without the willingness to spend as much time as it takes in Gothic 3 and never to rush and push for the conclusion, it's impossible to enjoy oneself all the way through. Gothic 3's size is what's killing it.
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    Eric5676

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    #6  Edited By Eric5676

    With the latest community patch, though, Gothic 3 is way better of now than it was when it launched as an all time train wreck.  I daresay I rarely see people complaining about a game having too much or being too big like I think I'm seeing in this thread. For me, there's no such thing as too much in any kind of game where you can play at your own pace anyways.
     
    Gothic 3 is worth a revisit from anyone that likes open world RPGs that don't hold your hand for you. And try Risen while you're at it. :)

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    Seppli

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    #7  Edited By Seppli
    @Eric5676 said:

    " With the latest community patch, though, Gothic 3 is way better of now than it was when it launched as an all time train wreck.  I daresay I rarely see people complaining about a game having too much or being too big like I think I'm seeing in this thread. For me, there's no such thing as too much in any kind of game where you can play at your own pace anyways.  Gothic 3 is worth a revisit from anyone that likes open world RPGs that don't hold your hand for you. And try Risen while you're at it. :) "

    I guess sometimes, you just want to move on.
     
    Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the shit out of Gothic 3 right now. It's really grand. It's just, I'm now in Geldern, doing the questing bits to get my reputation high enough to start the revolution (of course I could just go and 'break' the game and just attack the orks outright and miss out on the questlines et all. It's even buildt to work that way too).
     
    I read, that if I free too many towns, all Orcs will immediatly attack me as they see me. It's like I'm about to start an all out open war. A revolution in the making! It bums me out a bit, because I'm gonna miss out on alot of quests, if this is true. Then again, I'm in Geldern now and I've already freed like 5 towns before it. It's starting to get tiring. I guess I should put in a little pause or something. Maybe play the copy of Bioshock 2 I picked up today out of the bargain bin.
     
    I guess I'm just the kind of guy who wants things to move forward. Gothic 3 doesn't do that. It lets me explore a gigantic world and every nook and cranny is filled with content. Completely awesome, but also a little tiring.
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    valrog

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    #8  Edited By valrog

    Why is this in the Arcania board again?
     
    Also, I seriously suggest you to wait with liberating cities.

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    Seppli

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    #9  Edited By Seppli
    @valrog: 
     
    Good call. Think I'll do so. Too messy and too many 'named' characters die. Don't want to screw this mother up.
     
    I'm just about ready to take down Geldern, but I guess I'll postpone that 'til I'm done questing in the cities.
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    deactivated-5d8bd173e1e3b

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    I have both gothic 2 and 3 but the controls and camera seem weird to me, I got them for some recent sale, maybe I should give them an actual try.

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    valrog

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    #11  Edited By valrog
    @Seppli:  Not only cities. Entire map. Because... Well, I don't know if it's much of a Spoiler, but you probably got hints of what would happen.
     
    I suggest you do every neutral quest that you can, until you only have the quests "Liberate Rebels/Orcs" and then choose what to do. Also, this counts for Varant as well. Nordmar Orcs are hostile by default and don't offer any quests so don't hesitate when you have quests to kill them there. Hope this helped.
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    Seppli

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    #12  Edited By Seppli

    Dang - Gothic 3 is gigantic. It must be about as big as Vanilla World of Warcraft. Really overwhelming. Hoping to getting it done 'til Medal of Honor hits slowly starts to seem unrealistc.

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    Seppli

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    #13  Edited By Seppli

    I did it. After a good 3 weeks full of exploration and questing and tedium and some of the most fantastic and epic moments, Gothic 3 has released me from its iron grip on my gaming life!
     
    I went from being a master hunter and thief to becoming a strong warrior. I learned alchemy and finally I grew into the most powerful magician in the world. I was the avatar of Innos, the god of light and good and I've freed all men from chaos and tyranny. I've slain every creature of Beliar and finally, I became king.
     
    Sweet jesus. That must have been the grandest adventure singleplayer WRPGs have brought forth yet. I doubt somebody will craft a grander game anytime soon outside of the MMO realm. Gothic 3 - OUT!

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    myslead

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    #14  Edited By myslead
    @Eric5676 said:
    " With the latest community patch, though, Gothic 3 is way better of now than it was when it launched as an all time train wreck.  I daresay I rarely see people complaining about a game having too much or being too big like I think I'm seeing in this thread. For me, there's no such thing as too much in any kind of game where you can play at your own pace anyways.  Gothic 3 is worth a revisit from anyone that likes open world RPGs that don't hold your hand for you. And try Risen while you're at it. :) "
    what is the last community patch? 
    1.74 ?
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    Eric5676

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    #15  Edited By Eric5676
    @myslead said:

    " @Eric5676 said:

    " With the latest community patch, though, Gothic 3 is way better of now than it was when it launched as an all time train wreck.  I daresay I rarely see people complaining about a game having too much or being too big like I think I'm seeing in this thread. For me, there's no such thing as too much in any kind of game where you can play at your own pace anyways.  Gothic 3 is worth a revisit from anyone that likes open world RPGs that don't hold your hand for you. And try Risen while you're at it. :) "

    what is the last community patch? 1.74 ? "
    Wow, sorry for the late answer: Yes.  
    http://www.worldofgothic.com/dl/?go=dlfile&fileid=166 
    http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showthread.php?t=825092
     It's the last patch they'll ever make apparently. 

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