Gothic 3 Gothic 3 - couldn't finish it (spoilers within!)

Well, finally deleted Gothic 3 from my system (in a fit of pique!)

I had decided to follow the "Orcs Path" (Xardas' choice basically)...killed Zuben (and got his staff), killed Rhobar (and got his staff)...but bloody Xardas wouldn't let me proceed to the next step! I'd done everything he asked of me! I suspect it was because I didn't enter Ishtar "properly' i.e. with 75% reputation (I basically just went in and started smacking people about!) I had no major quest items outstanding, none listed as failed...I've checked walkthroughs - once I'd offed the servants of Innos/Beliar I should have been asked to accompay bloody Xardas to the bloody gate... Ah well. I decided that I *had* completed the game, and deleted everything lest I waste more of my precious time trudging about Varant for *absolutely no reason*! This game abounds with poorly resolved quests, endless messing about and anti-climatic revelations/quest completeions
me: "Ooo! Xardas! He must have Great Things To Impart"!
Xardas: "One needs great concentration to brew a powerful potions!"
me: "Eh? I've got both staves...can we leave now? please?"

You need to destroy the five artifacts of Adanos before you can proceed with the Xardas ending. How you get the staves means nothing, you can basically just butcher every NPC in the game, get 0 reputation with everyone, destroy the 5 artifacts of Adanos, collect the two staves, and complete the game.

Edit: In case you were wondering, if you choose to offer the artifacts to either Innos or Beliar, you can't complete it the Xardas way. You then have to kill the opposite leader (Rhobar if you chose Beliar and vice versa), and then go back to the statue of your choosing and end the game.

Now, I assume you chose Innos, so all you have left to do is kill Zuben, get his staff, and go back to the statue of Innos in the Monastery. Game completed.

Next edit:
Oh, and welcome to the forums!

Hi Maylander - thanks for the help and welcome Unfortunately I can't try anything else since I have deleted the installation (I was rather fed *cough*) I did destroy the artifacts of Adanos though, after which Xardas gave me the quest to kill Zuben and Rhobar and get the staves. I did all of this, but something must have gone wrong because he wouldn't give me any new quest after I returned with news of their demise (+ the Staff of Wanderer etc). All the relevant quests also showed as completed. I guess I just did something in an unexpected way...ah well. que sera sera and all that. Still, I mostly enjoyed the game although it was somewhat to long and buggy.

Hmm, sounds odd, are you sure you had both the Scepter and the Staff? I've never actually seen the game break before.

Oh well, you'll probably replay it some day. It's hard to explain it, but even though you get frustrated during the game, it still has some of the strange addictiveness that the previous Gothics had. It's probably the music, excellent soundtrack.