Yeah, I know. Just letting of a little steam (no pun intented).
However, even though it definately looks like a video driver comptibility problem, I don't believe it's nVidia's fault in this case. Most of my other older (DX9 and below) games workd just fine on my new system.
These sorts of problems arise when the game developers decide to do something "tricky" and bypass or violate the rules set out in the DX (or other) API's. It may be ok for that version and/or even a few subsequent versions of the API's, but somewhere down the track it will break. Game developers are notorious for this kind of thing.

A little heads up here. It should come as no surprise by now that Gothic 1 and 2 still aren't working with the newest Nvidia drivers. I think I've just about come to realize that I'll never be playing two of my favorite games in Windows 7 unless I decide to go with an ATI card on my next upgrade.
On the plus side, after alot of pains in the asses, a couple of hard crashes, and a bit of blood, sweat, and tears, I got them both working perfectly in Ubuntu under Wine (sans music). So at least I finally get to play them in a modern OS. It would've been easier to run them on XP, sure...but hey, I occasionally like a challenge.

Same here.
Wanna to play G2 before Risen.
Never played G2, but finished G1.
But Win 7 RTM x64... No luck. Same crap when trying to see the world (outside Xardos tower).
42 minutes later:
Ok. Did try the XP Virtualisation mode. Movies are passing ok, o problems. Then black screen, music from menu, but nothing.
So if you do have win7 then DO NO BUY THIS GAME!!!

The problem is not with Windows 7 but with Nvidia's drivers. I have successfully completed both Gothic games on Windows 7 with my ATI video card.

Which serie of ATI card do you have: 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X ?

It's a 3850. The driver revision doesn't matter; I typically use the latest drivers and it has caused no problems so far.

If you are using a Nvidia notebook driver, you could report the bug to Nvidia here:
http://surveys.nvidia.com/index.jsp?pi=50aa59cdf782d18a4d043cdd3baa920a
I just did that, and also included a link to this forum topic. I hope Nvidia will recognize the problem and provide a working driver soon. I know its not the newest game, but seeing as the graphics in Gothic broke with Nvidias Windows 7 drivers, I imagine maybe other older 3D games dont work as they should as well.

It's a Windows 7 + Nvidia issue. With the same Nvidia drivers the game crashes in Windows 7 whereas it works in Vista. I installed Vista x64 as a dual boot OS this weekend and I am able to play Gothic I & II fine there whereas in Windows 7 x64 the graphics corruption and eventual crashes are show stoppers.
At the end of the day you are better off trying to get Nvidia to fix this. Whatever Microsoft changed between Vista and Windows 7 here isn't likely to be changed back.
As for ATI cards, don't ATI cards still have the problem where one cannot see the Inventory icons? I had that problem on my old Macbook Pro and it had an ATI x1600. My understanding is that ATI has never addressed that issue. Still even with that issue, the game is still playable with an ATI card....

Is there a chance to fix this problem with nvidia drivers and WIndows 7? I mean GOG.com staff could have some "bargaining power" with nvidia people and they could listen to them :) Well at least more than to average nvidia user :)

This problem only applies to the old-style cards. The newer "HD" series cards are not affected by this issue.

Does anybody have a link to a nvidia driver that works with Windows 7? I'm quite keen to play Gothic 1 (I did just buy it afterall). Would rather not have to use trial and error with drivers though!

:(
Wonder if gog will give me a refund? (I know it's not their fault!). bought Gothic1+2 for some winter RPG goodness - a lot cheaper than buying Dragon Age Origin! (which I will be getting sometime in the future).
Ashame, I was quite looking forward to playing...

i'm pretty upset...
also problem with this
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/gothic_series/gothic_2_won_amp_039_t_start_on_vista_64/_/last

I'm crossing my fingers that Nvidia will fix this bug in a future driver, even tho its an old game. For all we know, maybe GOG.com are in contact with Piranha Bytes to patch the game up. I'm guessing there might be some legal issue between Piranha Bytes and JoWood stopping that from happening, I hope thats not the case.