I love exploring beautiful worlds and from the screens this looks pretty nice. Can anyone recommend this game to me? anything I should be aware of that makes this game kick ass or not kick ass?

I'm a little biased towards it because I love the Gothic franchise - it's a great game but marred by many bugs (although I think a lot of them have been fixed in the patches released since the release).

It's not quite as good as the first two games (mainly the story is lacking) and upon release it was probably the most broken of the series, though most of that has been fixed by now through various patches... It remains a game that is maybe a little too ambitious for its own good, but it has its moments and is definitely worth playing if you liked the previous instalments. Whatever you do though, don't play without the official and community patches. Bugs = not fun.

I 've never played a Gothic game, but love the Elder Scrolls series. Should I get Gothic 2 or 3?

Gothic 2 is getting old, so be ready for dated graphics. The interface of the game is rather clunky as well, far from streamlined. But the game is challenging and the open world environment mirrors the open ended, almost sandbox style gameplay. It doesn't hold your hand and it can become frustrating difficult at times. There is a ton of exploration in a well detailed game world, and combat is a large part of questing. It is a very combat oriented RPG, which is the way I like my open world RPGs, but the combat system itself isn't the most user friendly having a unrefined feel about it, but it is not horrible.

I like Gothic 3 more. It is a much better looking game in every way. There is a new community patch out for it [ 1.75 ] that really cleans up most of the game's technical and performance issues. The game running maxed out in a high resolution looks fantastic! I have always enjoyed playing the game, but tech issues made playing through it a real chore. This latest patch makes Gothic 3 run like a dream on my computer! I always thought G3 was among the better open world RPGs to be had, and now this latest patch makes it a lot more fun to play. If you have been a fan of Gothic 3, but couldn't get past the tech and performance issues, it might be time to patch it up and revisit this classic title. It has a lot to offer the open world RPG genre, especially if you favor lots of combat, exploration, and looting!

If you've never played a Piranha Bytes game before prepare for terrible combat. Everything else is great but the combat in these games are atrocious. Also it's a continuation from prior games so there's that. I'd recommend Risen personally. It may be streamlined and smaller in scope but it's a hell of a lot more polished. Dont play Risen 2 unless you really like pirates...