Gothic 4 - GC Previews @ PC Games, GameStar

Gorath

Gorath

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PC Games and GameStar had a look Spellbound's Gothic 4: Arcania aka Arcania: A Gothic Tale. Short summary:

  • The new graphics engine looks great and is lightning-fast.
  • Detailed weather simulation, for example: rain -> wet or dry areas -> puddles -> sun dries them up slowly
  • "light exposure control" (basically HDR)
  • Much more graphical details on characters. Example: Lester -> tattoos, skin details, skin folds
  • Ranged combat (bow): Zoom over the shoulder, up & down movement (-> breathing), different target zones, aiming costs stamina
  • experience with a weapon category increases its precision and hit percentage; only as a small modifier on top of standard Gothic character development though
More information.
 
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I gotta admit all of those features sound cool to me.
 
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Yes. Especially the second one, which would be a 100% improvement towards G3 (whereas G1+2 had some really nice atmospheric rainstorms). It even sounded so ludicrous to me, I had to chuckle.
 
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Bateman, your avatar and screen name crack me up. I'm also a big fan of that classic flick.

I hope all these features for Gothic 4 end up being as good as they sound.
 
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As I understand it everything on the list which can be practically shown in a 20 minute presentation was indeed shown. Especially the graphics stuff and the bow combat is already implemented.
 
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Jabberwocky said:
I gotta admit all of those features sound cool to me.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Not really a surprise though. Spellbound are no newbies, they´ve hired experienced RPG talent, and the tight budget is certainly the biggest they´ve ever had. Finally, I´ve read that Spellbound was almost a year into early production of their own RPG when they got the Gothic gig. Which would perfectly explain both why they got the contract (German studio, experience, low risk due to head start) and why they already have so much to show. They needed funding, JoWooD needed a Gothic clone.
 
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To be honest, I'd rather see a fresh interpretation of the Gothic universe than Spellbound attempting to out-Piranha Piranha. If they have a year's worth of their own work to evolve into G4 (sorry, "A Gothic Tale,") so much the better.
 
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You have a point. Don´t underestimate how much of a mainstream franchise Gothic is in Germany though. The audience has certain expectations. Maybe Spellbound can bring in 5-10% innovation, but the rest is locked.

If everything works perfectly we might be in a comfortable situation in a few years. Instead of one series we get 3, Risen & Gothic (PB) and Arcania.
 
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