Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods - Review @ 1UP

Since I was one of the people who actually enjoyed playing the original G3 (despite all its problems, and despite the fact that I like G1 and G2 even better) I found this paragraph to be somewhat annoying, unprofessional and unnessecary:

"If you liked the original Gothic 3, you'll probably dig this expansion. But let's be honest: Nobody intelligent enough to read this far into my review would have enjoyed Gothic 3. I'm just keeping it real, people."

Partly my own fault though. Should have read "Nobody *stupid* enough to read this far into my review can have enjoyed playing Gothic 3" :)
 
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"If you liked the original Gothic 3, you'll probably dig this expansion. But let's be honest: Nobody intelligent enough to read this far into my review would have enjoyed Gothic 3. I'm just keeping it real, people."

Well, since G3 is a better, deeper and more complex RPG than Oblivion, what does that make the millions of fans of THAT game? :D
 
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What's wrong with that, if the game really is that bad?

I guess in the MTV-ization age of computer and videogame playing there is a sizeable demographic out there where a review like this doesn't really stick out as anything but just another review.

I've read four other reviews now on Gothic 3: Foresaken Gods plus the 1up review for a total of 5. All 5 reviews gave the game a horrible commentary and low score. But the 1up review, to me as the old fart that I am, clearly stands out as the 'Jerry Springer' review of the group.
 
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Well, since G3 is a better, deeper and more complex RPG than Oblivion, what does that make the millions of fans of THAT game? :D

Yeah I sighed a nice little 'doh' when I got to that part of the 1up review. Only now, after being alive for so many years do I finally understand. All this time I've just been so unintelligent. It's all clicking into place for me now... if only this review had been written years earlier maybe my life would have been better... or less stoopid...
 
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I enjoyed the part of G3 I was able to play. It had problems (ally AI was even worse than in NWN) but it was fun enough. Then I got a new PC with Vista 64 on it. Game over.
 
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I hold a very soft spot for what they were attempting with G3.

But I really didn't think much of what they actually *achieved.* As some of you may remember, I gave it a honest shot -- I even wrote a piece here titled something like "how to play Gothic 3 without tearing all your hair out in frustration."

The bottom line is that it reached for the sky and fell flat on its face. No matter how great its predecessors were -- and they were; I don't think any game has succeeded quite as well at what they set out to do, before or since -- this doesn't change the fact that G3 built up a huge head of hype and then produced an enormous letdown.

I'm sure they tried their best, and from what they're saying about Risen it sounds like they've learned some very hard lessons from it. But any way you look at it, they failed. The only way to enjoy G3 is to paper over all of its flaws with a huge bucket of nostalgia and imagination -- not unlike what it takes to enjoy Oblivion. Sorry, but there it is. Just my opinion, yadda yadda yadda, usual disclaimers apply.

(Oh, and -- surely you can't *seriously* take umbrage at something as obviously tongue-in-cheek as that "if you enjoyed G3 you can't possibly be smart enough to read this far" jab.)
 
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I actually enjoyed G3 greatly. In fact, I still replay it once every six months or so. I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones that didn't have tons of bugs/technical issues.

What do I enjoy about it? Several things:
- The music is the among the best I've encountered in any game.
- Character development.
- Combat (except 1H combat, which is horrible. It also happens to be what most people try before calling it crap. Magic, especially, is a lot of fun when used right).
- The scenery (settings: High) is simply the most stunning I've ever seen in an RPG.

I haven't tried FG yet (it's not for sale in Norway), but I'll get my hands on it some day (buying it online I think).
 
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(Oh, and -- surely you can't *seriously* take umbrage at something as obviously tongue-in-cheek as that "if you enjoyed G3 you can't possibly be smart enough to read this far" jab.)

Of course not :) To be honest I don't really care what some random game reviewer happens to think - I just thought it was a wierd thing to write in a review. But we've been around that already...
 
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1Up is dead. UGO bought them. They only want the traffic. Most of the staff got the ax.
 
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I actually enjoyed G3 greatly. In fact, I still replay it once every six months or so. I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones that didn't have tons of bugs/technical issues.

What do I enjoy about it? Several things:
- The music is the among the best I've encountered in any game.
- Character development.
- Combat (except 1H combat, which is horrible. It also happens to be what most people try before calling it crap. Magic, especially, is a lot of fun when used right).
- The scenery (settings: High) is simply the most stunning I've ever seen in an RPG.

I haven't tried FG yet (it's not for sale in Norway), but I'll get my hands on it some day (buying it online I think).

I fairly well agree ... I actually gave it a 8/10 in my review here. I don't find it as a 'failure' so much as it failed to reach greatness it aspired to ...

As for the review, re-reading it reminded me that it wasn't worthy of getting excited about one way or other. I enjoy writing 'slam' reviews, but at least take the time to get my story straight ... this person basically played the intro, got confused quit and read other reviews saying it was no good and used that as his basis.
 
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- The music is the among the best I've encountered in any game.
Yup, the music is good. It also can be annoying as the "battle" music will kick in at odd times.
- Character development.
Too vague for me. It isn't clear what increasing some things really does.
- Combat (except 1H combat, which is horrible. It also happens to be what most people try before calling it crap. Magic, especially, is a lot of fun when used right).
Actually, I think all the combat is broken. If you fight melee only whatever foe you are fighting fights back. If you accidentally nick another foe standing around waiting for you to finish off the first one then that foes starts attacking you. It's really weird.

If you meet a group of archers they all shoot at you at once.

The AI for fighting is also really bad and leads you to luring off foes one at a time. The spells are badly balanced and once you get certain ones that's all you will ever use. I played this twice and as a mage once I got the spell that rained fire from the sky that's all I ever used. Walk towards a group, they start charging you, cast spell and run away, repeat if necessary.
- The scenery (settings: High) is simply the most stunning I've ever seen in an RPG.
The scenery was flaky. In spots it looked really good but if you good see a long distance it went wacky. Looking out over the ocean showed this especially badly as weird shapes would appear beyond the fadeout point. I saw this on two different brands of video cards on two different systems using a variety of drivers. You could see waterfalls completely across the world for some reason.
 
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I fairly well agree ... I actually gave it a 8/10 in my review here. I don't find it as a 'failure' so much as it failed to reach greatness it aspired to ....

I think that is the highest score I've ever seen for Gothic 3. I agree with it though. Once the game is fully patched, it's certainly deserving of a 80-90% rating.


- The scenery (settings: High) is simply the most stunning I've ever seen in an RPG.

I agree with that 100%. Some extra tweaking is required, but the scenery is the best I've seen so far in a crpg.
 
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