Glad I waited…
 

I never got G3, based on all the miserable feedback it got when it came out. Then there were many other games to play. But this holiday, I finally broke down and bought G3 off steam for about 8€, applied the community patch 1.73… I can only say I am glad I did. Really enjoying the game in this "enhanced" form, and am getting all that Gothic feeling again, only in a much larger and more open world. I guess this really is, more or less, what G3 should have been.
Only issue is the in places stuttering performance (on my admittedly heavily aging rig) and long load times, so I guess I should play with some of the tweaks suggested in this forum, but I have too much fun playing to really bother…
So, if like me you have shunned G3 so far, but loved the other Gothics, I think with the community patches and the current price tag, its well worth checking it out.

Did you also install the quest pack?

No, I haven't heard about it - you would recommend it?

Sure, it's absolutely massive and brings a bit more content and logic into the quite empty G3. Read the docs before you install it. It's possible you have to start over.

Sounds good, just one question: Does it require a restart - I think I am not going to start over again at this point…

I don't remember the details. Read the docs.

You said that before, sorry. OK, I'll check it out, thanks!

Hmmm:
So starting a new game is at least strongly recommended. Too bad really, it sounds like a massive and well made mod.

I finished G3 when it was reasonably new, using a special software someone wrote that backup savegames, and I finished everything in the game, every single city, every single quest. I think that it's severly flawed in it's execution it's definitely the best free-roaming designs I have ever seen. This is really how a free-roaming RPG should be made.

So is the quest pack German only?

The manual states that an english version is in the works, but no ETA is given:
I also think I read in one of the threads that there are (incomplete?) english subtitles already in the mod that can be activated with the corect .ini settings, so maybe its worth checking this out.

can someone provide the url for quest pack's official website?

I sort of envy you… I wish I had waited a lot longer to play Gothic 3…I might have a higher opinion of it had I done so.

And I wish I never played Forsaken Gods for the same reason …

I still haven't played Forsaken Gods, although I have it due to buying the G3 Collector's Edition.

You should be glad,I'm still having some "where is the Guru" nightmares…:p

@GhanBuriGhan: thanks and enjoy your 1st ever playthru'..

I envy you, you actually got it to run. I bought it and across two computers it has yet to run. I just got a new copy with the Gothic Universe set, so maybe that will work. Just haven't had a chance to try this time due to work.

A seriously underrated game. Tons of fun to be had. Good luck with the fog in Nordmar ;)

As I said above, I bought it off steam and had no problems. It does really have severe performance issues (streaming content sometimes makes the game go slideshow), but that is expected on my seriously aging system and since I run fairly high detail and didn't try any tweaks.

I am still playing this, and still enjoying it. A weakness that definitely emerged over time is the poor quest design - way too many Fed-Ex/kill the foozles quests, but at least the "free the city" design provides some motivation for doing them.