Okay, so I picked up Gothic 3 in Direct2Drive's sale, mostly out of boredom and a half-forgotten memory of a really incredibly looking gamebox I saw a couple of years ago.
Simply put, with the community patch installed, it blows ES4: Oblivion out of the water. This...is a thinking man's game. Great combat, fascinating gameplay, the feeling of really affecting the world through roleplaying decisions, and a limitless inventory (I'm a packrat). In short, despite the updated graphics, this really felt like a classic indepth game, before games got dumbed down for heaven knows what reason.
Now, my question here is twofold - first off, if I love Gothic 3 this much, is the first Gothic worth playing? And is it worth -double- what I paid for the third installment? And secondly, do you have to play all three parts to get the story?

Gothic 1 can seem a bit rough around the edges, but if you can look past the old graphics and stiff combat, the story and the atmosphere definitely make it worth it, i loved the first game in the series, especially the dialogue and characters... great game

Hmm...I can definitely look around old graphics and stiff combat, I'm a GOG devotee (as far as graphics go) and I played Morrowind (for combat :P)
Also...
GOO GOO GAJOOB.

also, the game world is just perfectly rough, when characters say "stay out of the dark forest" it's not to make you curious and go exploring, it's because you'll get your ass kicked :p plus there are several ways to make it through the game and lots of side quests
i was actually thinking about The Big Lebowski with that :p

That's another thing I'm loving about Gothic 3 - Oblivion's a yawner, I'm like a god after ten hours of playing or so, and in Gothic 3 I still find myself running for my life at the oddest times (example: if a never-before-seen creature has an ominous name like 'shadowbeast', shooting it in the arse is not the best way of seeing how strong it is. Not when it has -friends-)
And...who?
EDIT: Just looked it up. It's like an acid trip in movie form, I take it? o.O

but the combat in the games is actually really interesting, because you'll find that enemies that should be way above can be beaten if you try different tactics, especially when swordfighting with human NPCs
the "i am the walrus?" line really makes no sense at all.. really random

Again, sounds excellent - in G3, as soon as I swapped from AAAAAAH *clickclickclick* to *block, circle, stab, parry, swing* the game became infinitely more fun. And...less y'know, body crashing to the ground twitching spasmodically-ish.

yeah the death scream in gothic 3 is just... intense.. i get shocked everytime i hear it

It's terrifying. Just...I mean, I think they killed a sound tech and recorded HIS scream to get it.

You might want to check out Risen, also made by Piranha Bytes. Quite a few folks (myself included) regard it as what Gothic 3 should have been (in a good way).

I havent played Gothic 3 but I'd guess even with the patch it's the weakest of the series (there's a whole story behind it you can find perusing the Gothic forum here). Gothic 1, 2 and Risen are masterpieces. Buy them. Simple as that.

The combat system sucks. Risen is much better.

I strongly disagree! It is bloody hard to master, but then... it's fun.

I LOVED Gothic 1 and 2 but 3 even with the patch is abyssmal. Bad story, no interesting characters and repetitive gameplay.
That said, if you like 3 you will probably like 1 and 2 much more. Especially 2.