Gothic 3 - Review @ RPG Codex

I usually pre-order every game I'm interested in!! Games are my relaxation and entertainment, so I don't mind paying full price.
 
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This is my main "hobby", so a difference of a few dollars to play something when I want to and support the developers is pretty trivial.

Very true - and just the way I support local and small businesses, so do I like to support devs and pubs who strive to produce stuff of interest to me. That makes it worth buying 'local' and paying day-of-release prices.
 
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Some further explanations re: review quote - - ->

[Once the overall disposition hits 75%, which would mean that you've almost eliminated the rebels and effectively closed the alternative career path, you are allowed to meet the orcish war leader.]

After reaching the the 75% reputation of the locale' and are allowed into the upper quarter of the town - from then onward there is a further 25% possible gain up to 100%. Some of the tasks associated with this 25% can further contribute to the overall G3 world disposition percentage. So reaching the 100% in all possible towns quests could actually tip the 75% in the G3 world without having joined any faction.

Despite the repeated "you must join a faction" call within this review, joining a faction is NOT a pre-requesite of G3. in fact it is officially stated by PB - - "you can choose to join one of several factions or go it alone"

So please! - pay more attention to the not-so apparent storyline that is hinted through the books and dialogues of the Gothic-3 game.

"In the beginning the nomads roamed the land and the eternal wanderer led the way" (book-1) - - it could not be more obvious.
 
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Yep, you can kill every single NPC in the game, not pick up any quests, and still complete it.
 
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Very good review VD ! Keep on reviewing. I heard the guys at RPGcodex are waiting for a NWN2 review.

Currently i'm playing the G3 demo with a Radeon 8500 and it's playable with low settings. But i will have to buy another GFX card before i will buy the full game.
But i'm still enjoying the demo a lot. The battles are much too easy compared to the previous gothics. I hope PB will patch the balancing issues.
 
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You understand that the most revenue from a single player game is made on the sales in the first several weeks? So if a game deserves it, is good, you like and would like to support the publisher as to continue making games you like, you should buy on day one?

So I should buy a buggy, rushed product so I can encourage the developer to program more buggy rushed products & the publisher to actually put it on shelves?

I'm tired of products that have patches for them before they're even on the shelves. I want value for my dollar. Instead of giving crack addicts clean needles so that they can stick themselves that much more, I'm sending them to rehab.

Game reviewers have gotten PWNED when it comes to reviewing buggy games. It's gotten to the point where the attitude is, "It's buggy but, besides the bugs, it's OK." No - It was buggy. Note to developers - Fix the bugs. That's your JOB. It's not my job to be paying you to be a beta tester, bring home v1.0 & discover that the devs have another 2 months of bug-squashing & game-tweaking on their hands.

Send the publishers a message - Don't deliver the goods until you've got good product. Buying it zero-day retail does nothing but reward them for rushing product out the door to satisfy the bean counters & stock holders.
 
Sending a message is a bit different to what you originally said.

Never will I understand the logic of getting any software zero-day for full retail price.

If I am a software producer and I get it 100% right -- polished and bug free -- what message am I getting from you? You're still waiting 6 months for the price to drop, right?
 
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It's pretty unfair to blame only PB about releasing unfinished games, way i see it, it's more like a trend nowday's, i haven't played (m)any bug free games for ages.
 
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And now consoles are picking up the bad habit ... while the 'I told you so' may seem nice, it is the wrong direction - console quality should have shamed PC makers into releasing stable game, not the other way around ...
 
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The only thing I do not like about Gothic 3 is the progression of the game. Once you've liberated a town, you're pretty much done there and you just move on. The towns are also a lot smaller and the NPCs (at least so far) just aren't that interesting at points.

That said, it's still a goddamn amazing game in it's scope and the sheer amount of things you can do is astounding and yet will still be overshadowed by Oblivion, which is a shame really. Gothic 3 is truly a next-gen game in the sense where it matters: gameplay.
 
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Yep, that's why I hop around from place to place, doing a quest here and one there. I never complete everything for one place, so I prolong all 'real' choices!! That, is a play style which works with this game!!
 
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I love seeing what a town looks like after I'm done ... some people say 'we owe you so much' ... it is nice :)
 
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I must agree Corwin that this 'prolonging' of the quests appears a good strategy (tactically speaking) - i always use this approach.
Piranha Bytes dialogue writers seem to imply this is having a "general overview" - having all relative quest options (apparent and not-so apparent) in an open queued state so that they can be chewed upon and digested before making the next move. Just how long one can go in this state seems varied and subjective and relies on individual players own methodology, and of course is wisdom based.
 
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The only thing I do not like about Gothic 3 is the progression of the game. Once you've liberated a town, you're pretty much done there and you just move on. The towns are also a lot smaller and the NPCs (at least so far) just aren't that interesting at points.

These two topics were mentioned in the developer Q&A at WoG. Both were conscious decisions by the developers - and nobody likes them. ;)
 
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Yep, that's why I hop around from place to place, doing a quest here and one there. I never complete everything for one place, so I prolong all 'real' choices!! That, is a play style which works with this game!!

Just like i do and did with previous Gothics! ;)
 
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Yes, it's nice not to have to follow some linear plot line!!
 
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Indeed. Gothic 3 shines in this department as it is truly non-linear, not just as in "take this quest now or take it later while you do some fed-ex guild quests" but in "do whatever you want whenever you want, but face the consequences." It's fantastic, it really is. I haven't seen anything like it since Ultima VII or perhaps to be a bit more obscure, Prelude to Darkness though that was rather flawed as you sitll had to follow threads of plot, just different ones with different consquences.

Gothic 3 is the epitome of a sandbox RPG.
 
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Yes, I knew we would have a true and honest review of G3 by a true rpger not from an FPSboy (almost wrote Action Boy but Fallout is sacred) thinking that after Oblivion any of them has any basis to review an RPG :D
That's right.
Love you VaultDweller.
 
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The style of presentation of this review is clear and well layed-out, well co-ordinated sections that progress into the next that lead to a great read. This is supplimented with some great screenshots that are coherently placed within the review flow details. The final touch of some light-hearted words suggests with no doubt VD as a likeable guy with a professional viewpoint.

Yet, as an rpg player portraying to others the game details for demonstative purposes, as to why the player has travelled from town to town with a greyed-out endurance bar indicating nameless's afliction/illness that does not get corrected seems somehow ignorant and out-of-place as far as quality reviews are concerned.
This, coupled with leaving out details of the magic system overview and and failure to emphasise the freedom not to join a faction path, makes me give this review a score of 7 out of 10, were it not for these detailed ommisions, who knows? a 9 or even 10 could perhaps have been achieved. :)
 
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