Just got Gothic 3...

[Ummi]

Nope, I want to make sure the game is in such a state that the Piranha Bytes team feel it is as it was intended to be before I play it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good decision. I now recommend anyone who hasn't played it yet to do the same. I recently shelved the game myself and perhaps will return to it sometime next year when all pacthes have been released. I fear i went deep enough into the game to probably ruin it for myself forever though.

 

I really tried so hard to like Gothic 3 and i sort of do, but it's too frustrating in so many wrong ways. It's not the difficulty, it's just that the difficulties you face are clearly not the difficulties the devs intended to throw at you.

[LadyCrimson]

Again, not that I've played the game, but this reminds me a bit of Ultima9...where there were actually many things I liked about the game, and I kept playing for a while, but in the end, the bad things (some of them really really bad) made me shelve it and eventually riddicule it mercilessly.

 

I sincerely hope Gothic3 is patched etc. It does sound like if it was done properly, it'd be a fun game. If not...well, like mentioned...Gothic4...

[Slowtrain]

Anyhow, the next patch is due out in less than 5-6 weeks. A long wait, considering the state the game is in. I haven't played it yet myself, but the official forums are storming over the savegame crashes and corrupted savefiles.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

So basically, the upshot is that they released a game that wasn't even close to finished and are now putting in another few months of dev work with the gamer footing the bill AND playing beta tester. Nice. And of course there's no assurance that the game will EVER really get to a playable state. But lots of people have already spent their money. Even better.

 

I will never understand why people either a) preorder games or b) buy a game before its bug state is known. I guess gamers have a lot of disposable income and don't mind wasting their money. But as they say there's a sucker born every minute....

 

Good luck on the game industry ever changing its ways and releasing games that are bugfree BEFORE they hit the shelves if gamers keep being so stupid.

[Ummi]

I will never understand why people either a) preorder games or b) buy a game before its bug state is known.  I guess gamers have a lot of disposable income and don't mind wasting their money.  But as they say there's a sucker born every minute....

 

Good luck on the game industry ever changing its ways and releasing games that are bugfree BEFORE they hit the shelves if gamers keep being so stupid.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually several gaming sites reviewed it before i bought it and said it had bugs but nothing too bad, giving it pretty high scores. It was kinda hard to expect such annoying combat bugs after that.

[mkreku]

I've played Gothic, Gothic 2 and the expansion Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. I loved them all and they're all in my top ten games of all time. I know that Piranha Bytes makes the games I love. To me, it doesn't matter if they **** up once. They have that to their credit (in my book). I am glad to be able to pay their wages (and solid gold Humvee's), as long as they keep producing the rare games that I love. I do, however, have a strong reluctancy to play the beta-tester. Quite a dilemma, eh? I solved it by preordering the game (hence offering my unconditional support for the team) and I am now patiently waiting for the patches (hence avoiding the inevitable beta-testing period).

 

I hate buggy games as much as the next man, but I will also do anything in my power to make sure Piranha Bytes survives another few years and can continue to develop the games that I want. Boycotting them because of their buggy games would not teach them a lesson, it would drive them out of business. One word: Troika.

[Musopticon?]

Well, Troika is perhaps not the best example, since they had enough time to do whatever in the world and used that time to sit on their asses instead of finishing and polishing, which resulted in a flawed game and downfall.

Edited October 24, 2006 by Musopticon?

[Kaftan Barlast]

Pre-ordering is my way to support developers aswell. Although in the case of OE, you dont need to worry about bugs. All I experienced from K2 was a few repeating dialogues but thats all

 

 

Nope, I want to make sure the game is in such a state that the Piranha Bytes team feel it is as it was intended to be before I play it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good decision. I now recommend anyone who hasn't played it yet to do the same.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Nah, I prefer to get version 1.0 so I have more argumentation material for our next "jerry RPG's suck" debate

Edited October 24, 2006 by Kaftan Barlast

[Volourn]

Purchasing shouldn't be a form of support group. You should preorde rgames for yourself not to help a company. That's NUTS.

 

Thankfully, I have no plans to buy G3 'til next year so heh, I win again.

[Dark_Raven]

Purchasing shouldn't be a form of support group. You should preorde rgames for yourself not to help a company. That's NUTS.

 

Thankfully, I have no plans to buy G3 'til next year so heh, I win again.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Eh? Some of us are fans of companies as well as their product. What better wat to show support than buy their products?

[Volourn]

Being a fan of a company is useless. You shoudl only buy a game if you want to play it not just because x company made it.

 

For example: I like BIO; but if they were to make a Barbie game, NO THANKS!!!!

[Pidesco]

What if you got to cast Horrid Wilting on Barbie?

[Kaftan Barlast]

Some companies, like OE makes games exatly like I want them. Thus, I would love any game theyd make. If they did a barbie-RPG Id definently buy it.

 

 

and developers are not huge corporations, they need every penny they can get

[Dark_Raven]

Some companies, like OE makes games exatly like I want them. Thus, I would love any game theyd make. If they did a barbie-RPG Id definently buy it.

 

 

and developers are not huge corporations, they need every penny they can get

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Kafty has it right.

[Volourn]

I didn't say Barbie RPG. What if they made a Barbie racing game? Buying it just because x company made it is silly. Plain, and simple.

 

 

"Flawed logic Bio boy don't deny it. You would buy anything Bio shoved in your face."

 

What's hialrious is that I ahven't bought every BIO game nor do I intend to. So, once again, you spread rumours, myths, and innuendo.

 

Obsidian, BIO, and other game comapnies are NOT charity cases. Nor should they be treated as such. In fact, I think you insult companies (not that they'd complain as they'd get their money either way) when you treat them as such. You also make fun of their hard work when you do that since they should be rewarded when they make games you wanna play.

 

Size should be irrelevant here. You get big by giving consumers what they want.

Edited October 24, 2006 by Volourn

[Tigranes]

It's about as silly as, oh, that's right, people buying what they want to buy with their money, Volo.

 

I pre-ordered it in my case because it was 60% price of retail, and even if I bought it way later, it'd probably be for that same price. I also want to put my trust in PB, because everything I"ve heard indicates that underneath all the bugs lie a great product, and I want PB to survive and have another go at it. That's an extremely logical perspective of where my money will go and what effect it might have (however miniscule in the macro sense), so it is not 'wrong', whatever you might say.

 

Size should be irrelevant here. You get big by giving consumers what they want.

 

The superimposition of a singular, if correct, dictat onto every situation is extremely unreasonable.

[Volourn]

"It's about as silly as, oh, that's right, people buying what they want to buy with their money, Volo."

 

Neverr said people didn'thave the right to spend their money on they want. It's still silly.

 

If someone was selling poop in a restaurant; people would have the right to buy it. It would still be silly (in fact, it be retarded) to buy it.

 

Period.

[mkreku]

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2002/07/02/ca...crap020702.html

[Volourn]

Like I said. Silly, and retarded. But, they have the right to buy it if they so wish.

Edited October 25, 2006 by Volourn

[Slowtrain]

I hate buggy games as much as the next man, but I will also do anything in my power to make sure Piranha Bytes survives another few years and can continue to develop the games that I want. Boycotting them because of their buggy games would not teach them a lesson, it would drive them out of business. One word: Troika.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I totally agree with your belief in supporting devs whose work you have really enjoyed. I'm the same way, as much as I can be within my income limits.

 

However, I personally think that simply supporting them blindly is sending the wrong message. That message being: You can do whatever you want and I'll still buy your game.

 

A better approach is to simply wait a couple weeks for a game to be released, then do your research. It won't be too hard at that point to get a feel for the state of the game. Then you can buy 2 copis if you want! Now, that's supporting a game developer. I think

 

I don't mean to be so harsh by calling gamers stupid, but its the only word I can really think of. In the sense that they are only bringing all the problems on themselves by not waiting TWO WEEKS. Two weeks.

 

How hard is to wait two weeks. The game will still be there, you know.

 

hmmm. Maybe all gamers some from ADD or something.

[Tigranes]

Fair enough Volo, I walked into that one.

 

Now do that with the actual argument.

[Spider]

I personally don't feel Gothic 3 is as buggy as all that. I've certainly played worse (ToEE comes to mind). The biggest issue with the game is that the code feels very unoptimized and thus performance is pretty bad. I'm running the game on low settings with a setup that could play Oblivion on medium to high and on those settings it's playable but not exactly a feast for the eyes. It still stutters on occasion, especially in the forest, but nothing too bad.

 

It does freeze or crash on occasion, but again not frequently enough for it to be a huge issue. Just quicksave a lot and it's not so bad.

 

There are some strange graphical glitches every now and then (wolves running on cave walls and such) but again nothing major.

 

There are a few other issues though. First, load times are pretty bad. It takes me about 15 seconds to save the game (I have a P4 3.0, 1 GB RAM and the game is installed on a Raptor) which is acceptable, but then it takes 45+ seconds to load a save game, which is far too long. Especially given how often you die in this game.

 

The combat is not great and your opponents are kinda stupid. A lot of the time where there are multiple opponents, most of them will stand by and do nothing while you pummel one of their friends (which in a way is kinda nice since combat is difficult enough as is). The stun effect from being hit is very annoying, and if you ever get caught between an enemy and a piece of terrain, you're dead. But once you get into how it all works, it stops being so bad. I can now dispatch boars and wolves without being panicked in fear for my own life. I do hate the Bloodflies however.

 

So in my opinion, the game is playable and worth checking out. Because the rest of the game is very good (and if you have a machine to run it at medium or higher specs, the visuals are pretty good as well).

[Dark_Raven]

Like I said. Silly, and retarded. But, they have the right to buy it if they so wish.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Broken record? You said this how many times?

 

 

 

 

Back to topic.

 

Is Aspyr known for taking care of their bugs with patches? Or do they release one or two patches and call it good?

Edited October 25, 2006 by Dark_Raven

[mkreku]

Hard to tell. Wish we had more german members on this forum. Whenever a Gothic has been released in english, it has been out in a german version for six months or more. Who knows how many patches the game has gotten before reaching my stores? I think they (Piranha Bytes/Jowood, not Aspyr) support their games pretty well, so far.

[Morgoth]

Yeah, it's always better to release a buggy game and then patch the hell out it so that it seems like a virtue of supporting it instead of shipping a finished product. Jowood and other Middle/Eastern-European publishers should be ashamed of releasing games in such a catastrophical state. Bugs here and there are always present in any release, but Gothic 3 is a catastrophy on it's own (like The Fall). But as long as there're morons who buy it on day 1, those suckers won't get out of business.

[Volourn]

But, game companies are actually charity cases NOT business!

 

If you are moral, upstanding, and good; you would support them NO MATTER WHAT!

 

If you buy less than 3 copies, you are scum!!!