Arcania - Interview @ Hooked Gamers

Hmm, no it didn't? The fact that all of Chapter 2 and 4 is completed in the Valley of Mines does not mean you can't travel to Khorinis whenever you want to. The Valley of Mines itself is locked untill you unlock it by entering Chapter 2, but that's the only locked area other than the final temple as far as I recall.

Hehe, to be frank, I never completed Gothic 2. I always get to the Gothic 1 area and then I get sick of it. Sort of feels like going back to stuff I've already done.

I always assumed it would exclude content based on the chapter structure, as that's what I've heard from people playing it.

If not, then maybe it's time for a replay.

JDR13 said:

I'm curious, which Gothic 3 ending do you think they're going to acknowledge as being storyline canon?

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Forsaken Gods answered that question actually - they followed the one where Xardas and the Nameless Hero went into the "unknown lands" except that the Hero eventually decide tu return to unite Myrtana under his rule and become Rhobar III in the end (which was possible in Gothic 3 as well IIRC correctly, except that I think they wanted him as the king WITH the Gods banished).

Regarding the closed off areas - from what I gather the game consist of two big isles, and a tutorial island. It's possible the whole thing about areas being closed off after you've visted was actually just refering to the tutorial island and was just blown out of proportion by the Internet - but I guess I could live with having the two isles separated as well as long as they're big enough.

Gothic's main strength is really about having a living and breathing world - that's why I love this series, because for me it really is a spîritual succesor to the Ultima series. A seamless world help, but for me it's more about having lot of interactivity and full blown character schedules. Gothic 3 took a step back in that aspect (probably because of the sheer size of the world and the numbers of NPCs) but I really hope Gothic 4 will offer Gothic I&II quality like Risen pretty much did.

-Sergorn

Sergorn said:

Forsaken Gods answered that question actually - they followed the one where Xardas and the Nameless Hero went into the "unknown lands" except that the Hero eventually decide tu return to unite Myrtana under his rule and become Rhobar III in the end (which was possible in Gothic 3 as well IIRC correctly, except that I think they wanted him as the king WITH the Gods banished).

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Ah I see... I only played a few hours of Forsaken gods. That game is a total abomination to the Gothic universe, I was hoping that Spellbound would just completely ignore those events.

I thought the plotline of Forsaken Gods was decent really - nothing to write home about, but enjoyable. FG's problem is more the fact that it's the buggiest piece of crap ever released (which considering G3's state upon release says a lot) than its content per se IMO. Taken for what it is, I felt it was a decent add-on or rather it would be it ever gets patched to a more playable state.

To be honest I think I actually enjoyed FG's plotline more than Gothic 3's, firstly because it had an actualy plotline to follow, and also because what little plotline there was in Gothic 3 felt like a total cop out in regard to Gothic II's ending to me.

-Sergorn

Yes, I read that various Gothic fans want to gain access to the code of FG so they can patch it up and make it a decent game. If they ever do, I will buy and play through FG as soon as they're done.

If it's true that the closed off area thing is not actually accurate, this might turn out to be a good game after all.

From I gather, Ironkeep Studios, the guys who are doing the community patches for Gothic I&II are also planning a community patch for Forsaken Gods but since they don't have access to the source god this will limit a bit what they can do.

-Sergorn

Indeed, a real shame! Let's hope for the best though.

Sergorn said:

From I gather, Ironkeep Studios, the guys who are doing the community patches for Gothic I&II are also planning a community patch for Forsaken Gods but since they don't have access to the source god this will limit a bit what they can do.

-Sergorn

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Official patch and mod kit were both canceled.

I know, I'm talking about at fanmade Community Patch. These guys just release some pretty cool patch for both Gothic I&II and are planning to do one for Forsaken Gods to the best of their ability.

-Sergorn

TBH, I hope they don't waste their time on this POS game. Sometimes it's better not to repair a broken game.

Heh to each his own I guess.

Some could have argued the same thing about Gothic 3 really, but I'm glad there have been community patches to fix many of the game issues (altough as far as I'm concerned no amount of patching could really "fix" Gothic 3 - as its major issues to me is more the core design philosophy of the game than the "bugs").

But I honestly believe that Forsaken Gods is a good add on at its core, so a community patch that would fix all the remaining issues and perhaps rebalancing a bit would be perfect for me and I think a lot of people would have appreciated it more had it not been released in such a terrible state.

It's just a shame that Jowood won't release the source code to the community like they did with G3 as it prevents the same degree of enhancement and overhaul that G3 got for its patches - but who knows fans can sometime do marvels even without the source code.

-Sergorn