The saddest thing is that my ancient laptop from back when I first played this game could run it just fine, even though it couldn't manage the original Gothic at all.

With my new laptop, as soon as I try to leave the tower, the game begins seizing up to the point of being completely unplayable, and the sky looks... odd. I was searching through this forum and couldn't find anyone else describing anything quite like it.

Does anyone else have this happen?

Interesting. That sounds a lot like the Nvidia problem from a while back which was fixed in later drivers. Have you tried updating your video drivers? Go to your laptop manufacturer's website and search for your model there to see if they have an updated version.

If they don't have a newer one you could try one from the video card manufacturer's site.

If you need more details on how to do this just say so. :)