Didn't Jowood (and PB?) want to market G3 more to the American market than the European market ? This could maybe explain why G3 is a free roaming game, since it was meant (mainly?) to compete against Oblivion in the US. Sadly
--- for Jowood and PB, G3 didn't sell as much in the US as in Europe.
My guess (and it's only a guess) is that Jowood told PB to use this or that engine, (and speedtree), simply to cater much more to the American market than Gothic 1+2did. This solution didn't work, though, as G3 still is a much more complex game than say Oblivion. You can either side with the orcs or the humans, and then the dialoques are also rather lengthy...
I would have wished that PB just had used their 'old' engine to make Gothic 3, and then for G4 used the 'new' engine. Graphics & visuals aren't everything, and I'm convinced that the 'old' engine from G1+G2 could have been tweaked a little more.
(and g2 look absolutely beautifull, still, I think).
I would also wish that PB had not put three huge areas into the game, but instead did have (had?) the guts to cut the Hashishin area from the game. And then developed the two other areas of the game, untill they were (near) perfection.
And then, in about ½-1 year had made the Hashishin area available as add-on to the game.
There is, afterall, only so much a team of 20-30 developers can do...
ETA:
As for the codex, I kind of like it there. It is fun sometimes. However, my main reason for being a member of the codex is not that it is fun, but that it is the only place on the (apart from this site) where you can discuss freely the state of the rpgs today. And where I can say that I like Oblivion, but also can critize its features rather harshly, and where I can discuss why Kotor has so much love. And where my rather lengthy intellectual points and posts are read, and taken seriously (other than this site, of course
). I remember a rather interesting discussion about dialoque etc. we've had on the codex, sprung from Bioware's dialoque system in Mass Effect. I can also say on the Codex (as well as here) somethings about Fallout 3 that I would never say on Bethsoft's forum. And if I did say them --- I would tone it down - rather extensively, simply because I recognize that the codex is a different site than say Bethsoft's game forums. And the other reason, I like the Codex is simply because Vault Dweller does some rather intriguing things. Only on the Codex could there have four developers talking about dialoque and story telling in rpgs. (in very in depth and informative way).
And the Codex review of Gothic 3 was also great, but VD's review got scrutinized and critisized a lot. And VD defended his position on G3, instead of handing out warnings and bans --- as other sites might have done (not this one...but a certain other site ---- )