Game News Gothic 3 demo is coming on Nov 10

[Thrawn05]

I've been playing the demo since it was released friday. I have to say I'm very happy. Performance wise, once I load my game I let the namelss hero stand there for awhile until the HD stops reading (about a minute). Otherwise the game stutters alot. This dispite my PentD 3GHz with 2GB of RAM and a 256MB video card.

The UI is good and combat is okay. I'm having trouble getting the nameless hero to give the Orcs the fatel stab. I have to knock them out a couple of times before I can kill them. That's my only big complaint at the moment.

Oh and a word of advice, don't go too far beyond the signs that label the demo limit... bad things happen to your computer.... very very bad things.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

I killed two "shy deer" but the quest is still hanging there. Are there other "shy deer" or did I screw things up by accidentally cooking the meat?

I didn't do this quest, but the usual number of marked creatures is 3+, so I assume you missed at least one.

The magic number is five. They can be hard to find depending on how things spawned in the game world. But if you find none along the coast return to the area in a couple days (game-time) and there should be some there along the coast again.

 

[The Internets]

If you turn down the distance draw most of the shuddering goes away. It's almost like you need a 512meg or higher beast to use that feature properly.

 

[Jasede]

Yes. It works fine on medium details on my ancient machine with the poor old Ati Radeo 9600 SE and the 1024 RAM and the AMD Athlon 3400+. Just fiddle with the detail options, and if that doesn't work, manipulate the .ini. I am getting a solid 20 FPS, enough for me.

Also, the demo is awesome. Never have I seen such realistic settlements in a game before! The way the buildings were furnished, it made me instantly think of Ultima 7, a good thing. I only wish the towns were a wee bit bigger.

VD, did you finish that review yet?

 

[Elwro]

OK, I fell in love with the game as VD predicted and as I hoped. If I wasn't leaving for Germany in two days I'd have already rushed to a store and bought my copy.
As for technical stuff, this demo seems to be patched up. Save for long loading times and occasional stuttering, it runs perfectly well on my 1 GB machine on custom settings. (They're "Medium" with both distance sliders, "vegetation quality" and "resource cache" on "high".)

What I don't understand is:

- which setting should I change not to have enemies disappear 10 metres from me. All distance options are set on "high". Do I have to edit the INI for that? Would be weird.
- how do I reenable mouselook in X-axis. I fiddled with the controls and now I cannot rotate the camera with my mouse, and I want to try playing as an archer.

It seems it'll be a fantastic game for me.

And, it seems the English voice acting sucks ass.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Also, the demo is awesome. Never have I seen such realistic settlements in a game before!

Wait till you see the rest.

VD, did you finish that review yet?

No time. I've been playing G3 non-stop ever since I got it. I'll try to have it ready by the end of the month.

It seems it'll be a fantastic game for me.

It is.

which setting should I change not to have enemies disappear 10 metres from me.

How is the weather? Fog or clear? If there is a fog, then it's normal. Just sleep till it clears.

 

[SpFiota]

Reviewers griped that this game was too HARD!? What the hell, did they play it for five minutes? I load it up last night, take out the orcs, then I head over to the Rebel Base by myself. Gorn and the rest sort of just poofed at random. Anyway, I got bored, so I decided to attack the base and die spectacularly. I pull out my wimpy little sword, and at level one (or whatever level you start out at), I proceed to slice and dice all the above-ground guards. All you have to do is continuously tap the mousebutton and you'll slash fast enough that they never get an attack in. Plus if you're surrounded it doesn't matter because only one guy will attack at a time.

So I kill about half a dozen guys, then I begin working my way down, slaughtering more guards, a wizard, and finally two big dudes in full armor. After that the remaining survivors try to flee. I managed to kill a few more and chase the rest into a tunnel full of goblins and Minecrawlers. Okay.... that was stupidly easy. So I wander over to the orc town and repeat the whole process, driving the orcs out. Then I head over to the original town which is now occupied by rebels. Again, I wipe them out.

For those of you that haven't played the game before, each town has probably about thirty or so guards protecting it. Many of these guards are wearing plate armor. Some have shields, and they all brandish wicked weaponry. I wasn't wearing any armor. My character had precious few skills. I had the sword you start the game out with. I managed to kill around 90 or so guards with ease.

If at any time the dozens of guards who were attacking me simultaneously actually managed to hurt me all I had to do was run into a building, climb into a bed, and rest eight hours. I'd spring out fully healed, and the guards were kind enough not to disturb me. What the fuck?

I'm hoping against all hope that the game's difficulty ramps up, or maybe the demo's just shitty. Please tell me it isn't THAT easy.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

- which setting should I change not to have enemies disappear 10 metres from me. All distance options are set on "high". Do I have to edit the INI for that?

Yes, unfortunately it is an INI tweak and I read it here on the Codex, possibly RPGDot, or the Official Forums. I would look it up for you but I only have an hour before I have to leave for work and I wanted to play some of G3 for a bit. Sorry.

Take a look around and if you still haven't found it I'll try to find it myself. I should have saved it to hard drive.

Reread this tread it may even be in this one or a link to the INI tweaks. I know we talked about it here.

 

[The Vanished One]

Reviewers griped that this game was too HARD!? ...

You're right, maybe the reviewers haven't played Gothic 2. I have the full game, my level is 24, and still I can find only rare monsters that are quite hard to kill. Slaining orcs or humans is easy everywhere. I found difficult only the battle in the capital city (Vengard), but just because you're in constant danger to attack your own allies.

 

[sheek]

At the outset, the game looks like any other generic action rpg, but it reveals its depth as one begins to venture out and discover various flora one can collect, wildlife that one can hunt, among other things like day cycle and environmental effects that soon become apparent. I get the feeling that any character would have varying amount of skills in everything, certainly not maxed across the board. I find how the wildlife interact rather neat, such as when hungry wolves attacked a scavenger in droves.

You want to collect herbs and weather watch, I hear Oblivion's pretty good at that.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

So you all several-gig RAM spoiled brats say that there's no chance of Gothic 3 ever putting in a playable performance on a 512 MB RAM, 256 MB Radeon graphics setup? Or is there a slight chance that it might actually RUN on lowest details? I just finished playing Gothic 2 and want more, although I'll probably wait 'till there are more patches or an add-on comes out.

By the way, is combat very different from what I experienced in Gothic 1 and 2? (I know it's pretty awful in the beginning, but somehow along the way I got really used to it). Oh, and the same goes for the magic system (played a fire mage in the second part, got awfully overpowered in the last chapters, but hey).

 

[SpFiota]

I hope they patch the game, because I think this is an easy fix. Enemies just need some way to break repeated swings. If they could do that, or if those wimpy swings did very little damage, it would force me to actually use my skills and abilities to win a battle. As is a level one character can kill just about anything in sight with a toothpick. For shame. Gothic was one of the few challenging games out there. Ugh.

 

[Monica21]

So you all several-gig RAM spoiled brats say that there's no chance of Gothic 3 ever putting in a playable performance on a 512 MB RAM, 256 MB Radeon graphics setup? Or is there a slight chance that it might actually RUN on lowest details?

Dunno. Try the demo and find out.

I've got 1GB ram and a 512 ATI, and I get some minor hiccups, mostly during combat. If you can't get more ram and a higher end card right now, I'd at least try the demo.

 

[Keender_surprise]

Does anybody know how to change between different types of arrows for the demo?

 

[flabbyjack]

Does anybody know how to change between different types of arrows for the demo?

Yes.

Demo runs almost-acceptable on my 1.7 GHz AMD, 512 RAM, 512 MB Radeon x850. Runs much better than Vampire : Bloodlines does. Not choppy at all unless Nameless is travelling.

That camera is damn smart. Pathway AI sucks tho, regular AI is better than Radiant AI(For all I can tell).

Btw the 'G3 is hard' stuff was pre-patch, when the boars would stunlock you.

 

[Keender_surprise]

Gee thanks for answering the question.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Does anybody know how to change between different types of arrows for the demo?

The same way you change weapons.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

Assign what you will to the quick slots at the bottom of the screen (if there are none you must have hit F1). Just drag and drop the fire arrows (or whichever you like) to the quick slot. Hit your quick slot number to equip your bow (or use the inventory to equip it) then after the bow is equipped hit the type of arrow you want to use. One thing I have yet to try to change is the amount of quick slots available. I assume you can have several rows but I am not sure of this.

 

[amurath]

Has anyone tried playing the demo, or the game itself with an ATI Radeon X1300 Pro (256MB) graphics card? I'm thinking of upgrading and was wondering whether this low-end card will be able to handle the game.

 

[Keender_surprise]

Ah yep, got it now. Thanks.

And I should say that it was a good idea for them to release a patched demo. I went and bought it afterwards, something I wouldn't have done before from all the alleged bugs and performance problems.

 

[HardCode]

I downloaded them demo. I didn't expect my old PC to run it well at all, so I can accept that. It was a chug-fest. Even with .INI tweaks and medium settings, it was bad. But I accept that for my current PC. It's only an Athlon XP 2400 with 1GB RAM and an ATI 9800 Pro at 128MB. The fact that it ran at all on my PC at 1280x1024 was a feat. I am sure if I lower the res it would run better, but it's just the demo. However, hitting ESC to save the game, and at other random times, my ATI card was reporting VPU errors. I'm getting a 1337 PC for myself for Christmas. Mainly because I like this game so far with the demo.

Good things are the new inventory and control systems. Much, much better than G2. I think the North American voice acting is decent enough. The skills system is pretty good, but I don't like the automatic success or failure of lockpicking. There should be a percent chance to succeed or fail based on ability. I like how you can choose your own path between the rebels and orcs, and I am sure that will be a lot more fun in the full version.

Some things I didn't like are the fact that you can steal everything in Reddock without the Rebels giving a damn. Only when I stole the goblets or whatever from that orc in the Cape Dun warehouse did anyone react to my theiving. I kicked his ass, he didn't die only went unconscious (Oblivion, anyone?), and didn't pursue me when I ran out of the warehouse with his goods.

The dialogue is plain and simple. A little weird at times. Like, as a complete human stranger in an orc towm, asking a mercenary, "What is your job here?" or "Why are you here?" The writing could have been better.

However, it is fun to play, and I am sure when I get my new PC soon it's going to be much more fun to play.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I kicked his ass, he didn't die only went unconscious (Oblivion, anyone?)

The Gothic games always had non-lethal combat with "friendlies". You can finish everyone off by holding the right-button and left-clicking. That would of course make every orc nearby hostile to you. Choices & consequences.

 

[kingcomrade]

Okay I got the demo I will post my super important opinions shortly.

 

[The Internets]

Just a quick note on performance: I just got my Athlon 4000+ and 8800 GTS from the bitches at New Egg. The first thing I loaded up was the Gothic Demo. Incredibly, the demo still chugged along, although considerably less so than my old 6800GT. I'd say I hovered in the mid 30's at Max everything and 1280x1024. That's not bad, but again, The game still 'chuggs' at times.

For comparison I loaded up Oblivion and went with everything maxed out at 1280x1024. Night and Day. I never dropped below 40 fps, and usually hover in the 60's. Too bad Oblivion is gay.

 

[HardCode]

I kicked his ass, he didn't die only went unconscious (Oblivion, anyone?)

The Gothic games always had non-lethal combat with "friendlies". You can finish everyone off by holding the right-button and left-clicking. That would of course make every orc nearby hostile to you. Choices & consequences.

Ahhh. Nice to know. Very cool feature, actually!