Gothic 3... To rival Oblivion?

[The Mullinator]

http://www.totalvideogames.com/articles/Gothic_III_Q&A_Feature_8738_5204_0_0_0_0_20.htm

A german game that I have talked about before. The first two were really sleeper hits outside of Germany but I consider them to be some of the best RPG's ever created, at least some of the best created in the last 10 years. If the amazing amount of fun I had with the first two was any indication then I may actually have a big debate on my hands once I own both Gothic 3 and Oblivion over which one I prefer. I certainly prefered both Gothic 1 and 2 over Morrowind.

How impressed should we be with the game’s AI? Will actions and the way you interact have a real effect on the way people respond and regard you?

That is one of the biggest strengths of Gothic: the believable world. Here the AI is very important. In the Gothic series every action has its reaction. Also the people will remember your action during the whole game AND they will tell stories of you to other characters… Short example: When you kill a sheep and a farmer watches you he will tell anyone that you have killed one of the sheep… So no farmer would help you until you clear the situation out with the farmers (pay them money, fulfill a mission for him)… P.S.: If you would kill the farmer after you have killed the sheep no one would know that you killed them… Except another person has seen you…

Some screenies:
http://www.totalvideogames.com/tvglounge/Gothic_III_5204_0_0.htm

However they are all pretty old shots. Personally I like this one which is absolutely gargantuous. A very big 56k warning:
http://jowood.inode.at/gothic3/communityshot2.jpg
There are obvious problems with that shot with tree placement being one issue but the shot still gives you an idea of what this game will look like once its finished.

 

[JNightshade]

damn! looks/sounds sweet!

 

[Lemonking]

me getting both

 

[WhiteZero]

Theres always a bigger fish...

 

[Absinthe]

Both games have hugely ambitious plans for the AI. Who will better realize their ideas remains to be seen...

 

[Krynn72]

Im betting on gothic 3. They have always been strides past other games in AI. Ill be getting both though. I love both series.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Sounds neat... I'll wait for more info

I never played any of the Gothic games, so I'm not expecting anything yet.

 

[ivisak]

100% getting Gothic 3. Have played both previous games also and they were realy impressive.

 

[Que-Ever]

Holy hell! This is no game, this is one of those animal planet dinosaur documentaries, isn't it?!

 

[CptStern]

looks great ....anyone know when it's supposed to be released? I've seen q2 2006 but anyone have a concrete date?

 

[Icarusintel]

is it very open-ended like the Elder Scrolls series?

 

[Gargantou]

Do you get to -create- your own character like in the Elder Scrolls series?

 

[ivisak]

well you had a possibility to choose your guild. For example if you choose monastery (talking about gothic 2) then it is quite natural that you will train yourself to be a magician. You also rank yourself up.. starting from a novice and finishing of as a grand mage. This is only 1 of the guilds. There was total of 4 of them. I think that all of you, who are interested of gothic 3 should first play atleast the second game. You will enjoy every minute of it.

 

[Krynn72]

You dont get to create his look, but you do get to pick his skills, armor, clothing etc. And it is very open-ended, although they didnt have as many side quests as morrowind did. Who knows how many quests will be in G3.

 

[The Mullinator]

Do you get to -create- your own character like in the Elder Scrolls series?

Its a bit different in terms of how your character gets created and how open ended the game is. Guilds and the kind of character you decide to level up will completely change the way the game is played. You don't create the look of your character at the start but instead you decide what kind of character to play as you level up.

In Gothic 1 and 2 you put your skill points into whatever you wanted and then joined one of the guilds based on what kind of character you wanted to be. Joining a different guild resulted in a very different kind of game usually. Unlike in Morrowind where being in a guild was just a neat set of side quests that would have a few neat rewards the Gothic guilds were really very major players in the way you played the game.

I still love occasionally going back and playing as a member of the Sect in Gothic 1, you actually felt like you had joined a powerful cult and were actually following some powerful god, plus the idea of smoking swamp weed was always funny. In Gothic 2 playing as a Fire Mage or a Paladin for the king was always really fun.