JohnJSal: I'm thinking about playing Gothic 3 soon, but I wanted to check if there are any things I should know before starting, like in the first two games.

For example, I recall that you were supposed to wait to eat apples until after you had already increased the related stat (strength?) some other way first, so you didn't waste the extra points. Another thing was to kill as much as you could in the first chapter to maximize XP, since everything respawned in the next chapter.

Mainly, I'm looking for any advice on things I should do or not do so I won't mess up the progression of the character or of certain quests, etc. Also, advice on how to deal with the various factions would be appreciated. Apparently you don't pick a faction to join this time around?

Any beginner tips would be nice too! Thanks!

abbayarra: The game will stutter like crazy as it is constantly loading from the hard drive. I finally manage to fix it by loading it onto an SSD.

lordhoff: The combat system is timing intense. If the enemy gets the advantage, step back before attacking again as there is a delay, a rather severe one, after you are hit where you can't fight back while the enemy can meaning - you already lost the fight. Also, you can't just hit the action key as fast as you can to win like in "2" - it HAS to be timed.