Gothic III has been pushed back

[Everlost_MI]

JoWooD (http://www.jowood.com/) has posted a press release (http://press.jowood.com/html/News/news_details.php?id=489&title=NEWS&bereich=61) on their website states that Gothic III has been pushed back from a spring release to September 2006.

Thanks to Gamecloud (http://www.gamecloud.com/) for the tip. (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3818)

My first instinct is to yell "NO!" especially if this has anything to do with the alleged Xbox port.

[AntB]

Maybe they just don't want to get sucked into Oblivion?

[Returner]

Not a big deal with Oblivion here. Just play Oblivion till GIII comes out.

[Deadend]

This is a good thing for me, now Gothic 3 and Oblivion will both get the attention they deserve.

[Mason]

Well the Gothic 3 demo was supposed to come out at the end of last year, so this isn't a large surprise.

Will the controls on this one be less amateurish? Or are we still not allowed to talk about that?

[RevGored]

I sincerely hope that this is specifically because of the alleged Xbox port, so that, like many other games that get 'delayed because of the console port', but really get delayed because of bad coding and sloppy net code or something, this gets turned into a pariah for PC evangelists once again.

Then again, this is just because I like seeing whiny nerds high-five each other over imagined difficulties, and can blame something as innocuous as a home video gaming console.

[ChumLord]

...
My first instinct is to yell "NO!" especially if this has anything to do with the alleged Xbox port.
Yeah, coincidence, perhaps? We'll see and I sincerely hope not. They could just as easily release the PC game first and the Xbox game later. Then again, what did Bungie do... No need to jump to conclusions just yet. Time will tell and I hope we're wrong.

[Phades]

Is the story in these games linked or is it fine to start at a later game in the series? I'm debating whether or not I want to go back and play through them. I read a bit about Gothic 3 and it intrigues me. I owned the first but never played it.

[Zurik]

The stories linked, like the first two, but you really don't need the plot, at least it seemed pretty weak to me.

[Echani]

From the bottom of my thesis and degree, I thank you JoWood

[Cyotik]

I've never played any of the Gothic games. I'll have to give them a try one day.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

You don't need to play all of the games to enjoy one in the series. I loved 2 but never played 1. I don't feel like I missed much. Obviously I missed some of the connections, but I fully understood what was going on.

This delay is probably for the best, but if I ever find out that it was so they could put it on 360 I'll be very annoyed. Possibly annoyed enough to avoid the title. I'm really tired of losing all of my favorite developers and series to MS' black box of PC destruction.

[HonestIago]

This news it not totally correct because JoWood never gave out a real release date - it was said the game should be out in the summer months and was targeted for early August to end of September. So they are actually right on track and believe me, every moment they spend on polishing the game will be appreciated when it is out.
And hey, who of you is really thinking of playing in front of the screen with an outside temperature of more than a hundred degrees F anyway???

[Echani]

And hey, who of you is really thinking of playing in front of the screen with an outside temperature of more than a hundred degrees F anyway???
Those of us who've seen snow this week, probably :)

[ezra]

Those of us who've seen snow this week, probably :)


Amen on that.


Also, slightly off topic. Am I reading (on the main page) correctly that EA once had 1359 users on at one time? I'm pretty sure the record used to be something like a hundred!

[Jetherik]

You can start at anytime with Gothic series because they fill you in on the back story as you meet the other characters.

The controls are being changed (though I am disappointed by that - even though you can still use Gothic 1 and 2 controls for three if you want to by changing them from the default).

The delay (they had said they were trying for first quarter last year) is a good thing because it won't run into Oblivion and then people don't know what to buy, they can polish more, and they don't need to rush if they were trying to get it done by first quarter - which ends this month. Usually JoWood is good about not rushing developers until the project is done. I don't think they could make a port of Gothic 3 in just a few months - I think a port would take about 6 months to make (can anyone tell me how long it takes). So, I don't think a port is the reason for the delay.

[Liquidize105]

So it'd be

Oblivion - March
Dark Messiah - Summer
Gothic 3 - Fall

Awesome http://teamliquid.net/mirror/smilies/winkthumbs.gif

[Steele Johnson]

They're both single player games. Play one, then the other. No problem.

[Phades]

So it'd be

Oblivion - March
Dark Messiah - Summer
Gothic 3 - Fall

Awesome http://teamliquid.net/mirror/smilies/winkthumbs.gif

I'd completely forgotten about Dark Messiah!! That game looks quite tasty. Wow, 3 top drawer western style RPG's in one year? I think I might get spoiled.

[Red Cloak]

OMG Xboxen

[JazGalaxy]

what's the big deal about gothic?

If this game comes to Xbox, and it's as good as everyone seems to think, then this game +Bioshock +Shadowrun +Mass Effect +Oblivion +Might and Magic means the 360 will be THE system to own.

[jpublic]

I've never played any of the Gothic games. I'll have to give them a try one day.

No, you don't. You'll be disappointed - I know I was. A lot of people have a massive love-on for them, but IMO they're not the best in their genre. They're not even middling.

Hopefully the developers will get a clue as to how to implement intuitive controls and interfaces. If they *do* delay for an XBox port, maybe the trials they have to go through to get it to work with a gamepad will give them the experience they need.

(This tirade brought to you by the guy who spent 2 weeks struggling to get a copy of Gothic II Gold based on all the recommendations and, upon playing it, went 'I went through all that effort for THIS crap?!')

[CrashCart]

what's the big deal about gothic?

If this game comes to Xbox, and it's as good as everyone seems to think, then this game +Bioshock +Shadowrun +Mass Effect +Oblivion +Might and Magic means the 360 will be THE system to own.
Did someone say... Shadowrun? Wha?

You, sir, have piqued my interest. I know Microsoft has been sitting on the rights to the SR video game since FASA folded, but I didn't know there was any rumor about them actually doing something further with it. That could be enough to get me to buy a 360.

After all, even my avatar name comes from that wonderful universe..

[[Jez]]

Its not ment to be an RPG tho... I would kill various people for another Shadowrun RPG, I really dont know why so many people whine about Gothic's controls it took me a whole five mins to get to grips with em and in Gothic II there's an different control config in the options

[JazGalaxy]

Did someone say... Shadowrun? Wha?

You, sir, have piqued my interest. I know Microsoft has been sitting on the rights to the SR video game since FASA folded, but I didn't know there was any rumor about them actually doing something further with it. That could be enough to get me to buy a 360.

After all, even my avatar name comes from that wonderful universe..

yeah. New Shadowrun RPG in development. That's the positve. The negative is that it's also and FPS. :/

[CrashCart]

yeah. New Shadowrun RPG in development. That's the positve. The negative is that it's also and FPS. :/
Well, if it's a FPS RPG in the veins of Dues Ex, I won't complain much. But a straight FPS? Sigh.

[Qoz]

This tirade brought to you by the guy who spent 2 weeks struggling to get a copy of Gothic II Gold based on all the recommendations and, upon playing it, went 'I went through all that effort for THIS crap?!

You are entitled to your opinion, but many RPGamers regard this as one of the best. Including me. I then must question if you truly are a hardcore RPGamer or just the diablo click'n'lvl kinda guy? Gothic2 had atmopshere like no other and it was hard too. I like being given a challenge and not know precisely what I'm supposed to do. I felt Gothic2 really immersed me in the world like no other RPG before it, because of the full speech, brilliant storylines crossing each other and the scale of it all.

On the other hand Gothic2 had some akward combat, where you shoot and run and trick the AI. That felt alright when I played it, but it could perhaps be a little dated now after games like World Of Warcraft. The controls can mess up the experience and the game is a little dated now ofcourse. But please try and play it a bit more - it gets really good when you are in the city and get ready to leave it. :)

[Mason]

I don't know, the Gothic fans are numerous and vicious (saw some poor kid get skewered by half the site for complaining about Gothic 2 controls in an earlier thread), but then they bring up how half of combat is tricking the AI into getting stuck somewhere, and basically discredit their whole point.

Hardcore is a meaningless word. A game is only hardcore when it is poorly designed enough to be largely inaccessible to even dedicated fans of the genre. Plenty of the best CRPGs (Fallout series, BG series, PS:T) aren't even remotely hardcore, as they're designed well enough to draw in even a casual player. I've never known anyone who claims to have played those games for a few minutes before quitting in disgust.

Games, to me, are not a job, where you have to work hard and put up with a lot of nonsense before you get any payoff.

[JazGalaxy]

I don't know, the Gothic fans are numerous and vicious (saw some poor kid get skewered by half the site for complaining about Gothic 2 controls in an earlier thread), but then they bring up how half of combat is tricking the AI into getting stuck somewhere, and basically discredit their whole point.

Hardcore is a meaningless word. A game is only hardcore when it is poorly designed enough to be largely inaccessible to even dedicated fans of the genre. Plenty of the best CRPGs (Fallout series, BG series, PS:T) aren't even remotely hardcore, as they're designed well enough to draw in even a casual player. I've never known anyone who claims to have played those games for a few minutes before quitting in disgust.

Games, to me, are not a job, where you have to work hard and put up with a lot of nonsense before you get any payoff.

Not talking about any specific game, I completely disagree with your theory. In some things, it's the challenge that MAKES them fun. Take skateboarding for instance. Getting on a board and flying up into the air to bust a 540 isn't what makes skating fun. Anyone who gets on a board to do that is immediately going to hate it. It takes a LOT of work and a LOT of effort to be able to do anything on a board, and that's where the fun is. It doesn't make sense to people who don't get it, but that doesn't make it any less true. The PS1 game Jet Moto is a favorite of mine. When my brother and I first started playing the game we were slamming into absolutely everything and could barely finish a race let alone finish with a respectable place. We played it over and over and over again though because mastering the controls was the fun of the game. Pretty soon we were doing crazy stunts on command and manipulating the tracks so well we were racing on walls and ceilings. Yet, in lots of reviews, they would claim the game had bad controls and was poorly constructed.

Difficult doesn't always equal bad.

I hear people who play golf will feel the same way...

[Nichols]

Games, to me, are not a job, where you have to work hard and put up with a lot of nonsense before you get any payoff.
The controls in Gothic 2 take maybe, MAYBE 5 minutes to learn. If you can't manage that, you shouldn't be playing games in the first place.

The PC version delayed for the Xbox port is nonsensical, as the entire freakin' fanbase for Gothic is on the PC! Perhaps a port may come later when JoWood is extremely strapped for cash. They've already mentioned the ideas of "spinoffs", such as an MMO (INSTANT SUCK!), and espisodic "mini-expansions" for the series, but nothing affecting Gothic 3 directly.

[JazGalaxy]

The controls in Gothic 2 take maybe, MAYBE 5 minutes to learn. If you can't manage that, you shouldn't be playing games in the first place.

The PC version delayed for the Xbox port is nonsensical, as the entire freakin' fanbase for Gothic is on the PC! Perhaps a port may come later when JoWood is extremely strapped for cash. They've already mentioned the ideas of "spinoffs", such as an MMO (INSTANT SUCK!), and espisodic "mini-expansions" for the series, but nothing affecting Gothic 3 directly.

You do realize that Morrowind, the third version of the Elder Scrolls PC franchise, outsold it's PC version by a near 2-1 ratio on Xbox, right?

[Nichols]

You do realize that Morrowind, the third version of the Elder Scrolls PC franchise, outsold it's PC version by a near 2-1 ratio on Xbox, right?
You do realize that the Elderscrolls was also dumbed down so that it would be adaptable to the XBox, and that it also had a humongous PR and advertising blitz behind it, right? JoWood can barely afford to put the game out the door so I don't see that happening.

Morrowind was basically adapted to be the "Xbox RPG" so to speak, it was dumbed down to hell (Compare it to Daggerfall, it's insane how much they cut and "streamlined") to fit the console and it's "target audience". No to say all console gamers are drooling idiots, it's just those kind of gamers that Bethesda wants to tap. Gothic 3 on the other hand knows its audience, and knows what they want and what type of games they play thus it's safe to assume that Gothic 3 will probably be PC-only unless JoWood gets extremely desperate.

[Mason]

The controls in Gothic 2 take maybe, MAYBE 5 minutes to learn. If you can't manage that, you shouldn't be playing games in the first place.
I never said that learning the controls was the work. From what I've played, the whole design is very poor at introducing the player to the world and overall selling whatever interesting things that might occur. It isn't a personal failing to decide not to keep playing things that bore and irritate you.

You can have a wide-open game with complex controls, like X2, and still make it compelling and informative enough to get people interested. Or you can fail at that, and most people will spend 5 minutes with the demo before uninstalling and moving on.

[Nichols]

I never said that learning the controls was the work. From what I've played, the whole design is very poor at introducing the player to the world and overall selling whatever interesting things that might occur. It isn't a personal failing to decide not to keep playing things that bore and irritate you.
How so? The intro movie brought you back up to speed if you didn't play Gothic 1, and many NPCs will give you plenty of background information about the setting, other characters, current events, et cetera.