Preview Gothic 3 preview at 1UP

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Gothic III; Piranha Bytes

<a href=http://www.1up.com>1UP</a> has posted a <a href=http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3148261>preview</a> of <a href=http://www.gothic3.com/>Gothic 3</a>, spiced up with <b>Kai Rosenkranz</b> commentaries.
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<blockquote>Like the earlier games, Gothic 3 gives you concrete antiplot options. Want to save humanity's sorry selfish butt? Go for it. But you can also side with the orcs or just tell both sides to get bent. In fact, even the alternate paths are now decidedly skewed. "In contrast to the previous Gothic games, we're not nailing you down in terms of how you achieve your goals," says Rosenkranz, highlighting new extensions to the series' already open-ended story system. "Once a quest is accepted, you can freely decide the best way to solve it. So, for example, the game continuously checks if you've done something related to a certain quest, i.e., finding an item, talking to a character about something, and so on. If a number of abstract conditions are fulfilled, the quest is considered finished." According to Rosenkranz, completing certain quests will synergistically activate further plot points and spin the story out in a very nonlinear way. "We've taken care to ensure you never feel overwhelmed by too many options, like dispatching someone who reminds you of the overall goal," explains Rosenkranz. "But the question then becomes, whom will you trust?"</blockquote>I'm getting more and more excited with every interview. Actually, I can't wait.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Micmu]

IMHO, that's a good preview for an RPG. Graphics & gimmicks aren't even really mentioned.

 

[Elwro]

Kai sounds as if he has never played a Gothic game before, which is mysterious since he developed them.

" Like the earlier games, Gothic 3 gives you concrete antiplot options. Want to save humanity's sorry selfish butt? Go for it. But you can also side with the orcs or just tell both sides to get bent."

None of the previous games featured anything like that. Slay the Sleeper! Destroy the dragons!

In contrast to the previous Gothic games, we're not nailing you down in terms of how you achieve your goals," says Rosenkranz, highlighting new extensions to the series' already open-ended story system. "Once a quest is accepted, you can freely decide the best way to solve it."

My Gothic 2 manual says: "Almost all puzzles in the game can be solved in more than one way. Any way is good if it works". Everything described in this section of the preview is already present in Gothic 2 and it seems that the difference would be in quantity, not quality. I'm not saying the prospects are bad, but just that the guy seems to have caught the "Bullshit PR" virus.

I really like the series and also can't wait for the third installment.

 

[Jora]

completing certain quests will synergistically activate further plot points

That's what I call innovation.

Everything about the game sounds good, though. Especially tyrannosaurs.

 

[FrancoTAU]

The only thing i'm concerned about with Gothic 3 is the combat. Everything else sounds really good

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

I am so proud of my countrymen... *sniff!*
Seriously, the nonlinearity thing sounds great, and a lot more daring than what Oblivon does with its main plot.

 

[Jora]

What do you mean by "sounding great"? I mean, look at what he says:

"Once a quest is accepted, you can freely decide the best way to solve it. So, for example, the game continuously checks if you've done something related to a certain quest, ... If a number of abstract conditions are fulfilled, the quest is considered finished ... completing certain quests will synergistically activate further plot points"

Isn't that just a complicated way of saying that there will be more than one way to complete quests and that after a quest is completed, a new one will be activated?

 

[Claw]

Kai sounds as if he has never played a Gothic game before, which is mysterious since he developed them.

" Like the earlier games, Gothic 3 gives you concrete antiplot options. Want to save humanity's sorry selfish butt? Go for it. But you can also side with the orcs or just tell both sides to get bent."

None of the previous games featured anything like that. Slay the Sleeper! Destroy the dragons!

He didn't say that, though. The retarded reviewer did.

pre-Oblivion (multiform, evolving) A.I.

 

[Elwro]

He didn't say that, though. The retarded reviewer did.

Whoa, you're right. I didn't notice the quote ended a few words earlier.

 

[Volourn]

"That's what I call innovation."

No, it isn't.

 

[Elwro]

That's what I call irony.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

What do you mean by "sounding great"? I mean, look at what he says:

"Once a quest is accepted, you can freely decide the best way to solve it. So, for example, the game continuously checks if you've done something related to a certain quest, ... If a number of abstract conditions are fulfilled, the quest is considered finished ... completing certain quests will synergistically activate further plot points"

Isn't that just a complicated way of saying that there will be more than one way to complete quests and that after a quest is completed, a new one will be activated?

I think it reflects a different design philosophy. You don't plan the steps to complete each quest one by one, but only define the goals. It's up to the player to figure out how he can use the game mechanics to achieve said goals. If done right it should result in much greater freedom for th player. Especially if the "goals" are kind of fuzzy. E.g. "convince 30% of the water mages that you are a cool guy" OR " kill the three water mages that hate you most" OR find the MAgIcWATerFoozle.

 

[Abernathy]

I'm hanging my 'cynic' hat up for this one - it's about the ONLY thing gaming-wise I'm looking forward to this year.

Loved the first two to death, and, please note, THIS number three is being produced by the same developers who did the previous rock-yer-socks-off games, so no ghosts of Fallout or XCom here, folks.

Woot!

 

[Fresh]

Packs of stampeding rhinos. I CAN'T WAIT, ARGH FINISH THE GAME ALREADY.

Man I will just love the desert parts of the game. That's one type of setting that been so long overdue in RPG gaming.

http://worldofgothic.de/screenshots/got ... CF1117.jpg
http://worldofgothic.de/screenshots/got ... rieger.jpg
http://worldofgothic.de/screenshots/got ... erview.jpg
http://worldofgothic.de/screenshots/got ... inen01.jpg
http://worldofgothic.de/screenshots/got ... _szene.jpg

THe only things that worries me is that even old Gothic 2 runs like shit on my fairly powerful computer.

 

[Micmu]

THe only things that worries me is that even old Gothic 2 runs like shit on my fairly powerful computer.

Yep, me too. I guess it's about time to get that 7800.

I liked how you could easily change view distance in G2 using F1-F4 keys, that really came in handy.

 

[Elwro]

THe only things that worries me is that even old Gothic 2 runs like shit on my fairly powerful computer.

What? It runs perfectly in 1024x768 (32bit), 300% viewing distance, on my Athlon 1400 Mhz with 768 MB RAM and Radeon 9600Pro, which I guess isn't even a "fairly" powerful machine these days. I only get slowdowns in the harbour area.

edit: hey, this one look like AoD concept art. :shock:

 

[Fresh]

THe only things that worries me is that even old Gothic 2 runs like shit on my fairly powerful computer.

What? It runs perfectly in 1024x768 (32bit), 300% viewing distance, on my Athlon 1400 Mhz with 768 MB RAM and Radeon 9600Pro, which I guess isn't even a "fairly" powerful machine these days. I only get slowdowns in the harbour area.

Gothic 2? Are you joking? I thought G2 was notoríous for being quite sluggish.

Sure "runs like shit" was overly harsh and the slowdowns are mainly in the city area, but still I'd expect it to run smoother (A64 3200, 1024 RAM, x800GTO, new drivers etc).

 

[Elwro]

Gothic 2? Are you joking? I thought G2 was notoríous for being quite sluggish.

I don't know, it works great for me and looks very fine. We both have ATI cards, so it's not the nVidia/ATI struggle. Maybe I was just lucky with the Catalyst/card combination; sometimes new drivers make the games run slower.

 

[LlamaGod]

On strong systems, you have to do .ini editing to make Gothic 2 take the most of your system.

You can tweak it pretty well and make it quite a pretty game and pretty smooth too, if your system is capable.

 

[Antagonist]

Gothic 2 is a strange beast. The original used to run totally smooth on my Athlon XP 2000+, 512 MB RAM and Radeon 9700 with full details and viewing distance. When the expansion pack came out it was quite the contrary and the game suffered from horrible framerates even with reduced details and viewing distance although I didn't change anything on the hardware side. I even tried to run Gothic without the expansion but sadly it didn't change the slow framerates so I suspect something on the driver or OS side must have changed drastically in the meanwhile.

 

[Claw]

I think the problem are drivers. Having the newest one doesn't guarantee best performance at all.
For the longest time, I consciously used older drivers after trying several releases, because the game suffered from horrible "tearing" with most drivers, before switching to my current drivers. I guess they aren't the newest anymore either, but they run Gothic 2 virtually flawlessly, so I don't want to change.