LOVED G1, Just started 2 and loving it, and now I'm confused.

Is Forsaken Gods an expansion or more? The dates confuse the hell out of me. I "might" be able to play G3 on my pc (I'm going to snag the demo tonight and see if it runs because I can't afford to push $10 on a game that may be too spec heavy) and if it DOES work do I get it AND then FG? Or is FG actually G3+ ? Are the two a huge difference in spec requirements because FG doesn't actually have a demo I can check.

Confused yet?

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop!?

Also I'd appreciate someone telling me that since I totally adored G1 and G2 that I'd actually hate G3 and thus save me the money and time. Thanks!

Forsaken Gods is a standalone expansion to Gothic 3. It uses the same engine and a fraction of the world of Gothic 3. But it is a standalone game, not an Add-On. It is a sequel to Gothic 3.

I have played G1 and G2 many times and like them a lot. I did not enjoy G3. Exploring the beautiful world was fun for some time, but it got boring very soon. You just move on and from place to place and earn reputation points. There are no memorable characters. Because of the sandbox concept it only has homeopathic ammounts of a story. I forced myself through the second half, because I wanted to see the end. But it was not worth it.

I an sorry... I cannot answer your Tootsie Pop question. They do not sell them around here...

Thanks. :) I'd heard so so things about G3 and what it sounds like is that it is missing everything I really loved about the 1st 2.

Gothic 3 is a decent enough game once the fan patches are applied, but it is quite different from the first two Gothic games. It is much less structured and more similar to the Elder Scrolls games in that for the most part you're left to do your own thing in the world rather than having a more structured story to take you through the world. Some people like it, some people don't. However, avoid Forsaken Gods like the plague- it was a standalone expansion rushed out by a completely different developer after Piranha Bytes and JoWood had a falling out, and is just generally terrible.

If you're after more Gothic goodness then you should check out Risen, which is pretty much Gothic 4 in all but name (it was made by Piranha Bytes and is very similar in structure to Gothic 1&2).

I agree more with this one. I enjoyed I and II and am now playing and enjoying G-III. However, it does have a different feel that many have not liked. Basically, I see no way for you to truly know without trying it. I didn't like it the first time through but then I decided to force structure on it via my choices and voila', it grew on me quickly.

Gothic 3 is divisive. There are some people who say that after the Community Patches, Quest Pack and Content Mod (don't know if the last two are available in English) it's a decent enough game, some say the whole game mechanics are so utterly broken that nothing can save it (it definitely has a horrible fighting system that can never be fixed).
But of course, there are some people who love it, and I even know of a guy who thinks G3 is the best Gothic.

There is also the Community Story Project. That attempts to do to the story what the Community Patches did for the tech - add chapters, a deeper story with more quests and dialogues (no dubbing obviously) a changing world, a faction system etc.
But it won't be released anytime soon, and an English translation will probably take even more time.

Forsaken Gods wasn't developed by Piranha Bytes, but by an Indian team that probably never played a Gothic game in their life, and was just created as a transition for Arcania, which was also not very well received. PB themselves said they only count their own games as canon.
The first release was completely and utterly broken, but there is also a Community Patch for Forsaken Gods, but it also only fixes the technical side of things, and leaves the content untouched.

Also keep in mind that Gothic 3 is still very hardware hungry, because the Piranhas were never very good at optimizing their engines, but also because it can't use multiple cores, which means you need either a single-core CPU (which I doubt), or a multi-core CPU where every core is very powerful. But if you can run Gothic 3, Forsaken Gods shouldn't be a problem, it's pretty much the same game.

In my opinion, if you want more Gothic, you should be better off playing mods.
Sadly not all of them are available in English but I tried to find some of the better ones:

Diccuric (for Gothic I) was pretty much the first mod that was a complete conversion and had a larger scale. It has it's own world and story and is still regarded as one of the best mods. The modification is only the first part, and it was intended to become a complete stand-alone game, but I don't know if that's still going to happen.

Dark Mysteries is a Polish (website here) mod that acts as an add-on for Gothic I. Haven't played it myself, but as long as "Welt der Verurteilten" isn't available in English, that's probably the best way to expand Gothic I.

Velaya (for Gothic II) is pretty much my favorite modification ever. It tells the story of the Gomez' babe after the barrier fell, has extremely good and funny writing and is very imaginative, without being reliant on new features like many other mods.
The German version even had extraordinary voice acting, partly done by professionals.

There are of course others, probably even some in original English I don't even know, but your best bet at discovering those is - as always - World of Gothic

So, those are all free and I think they will offer you more value than Gothic 3. ;)

There's that combat thing again! Rubbish! G-IIIs is superior to I or II. In I and II, I could win simply by clicking as fast as I could. I get murdered in G-III unless I time my blows for the particular attack. Never understood why people like the old ones better other then change is hard to accept sometimes. Having said that, G-II is a better game overall then G-III, though.

Maybe if you mean barely surviving while having a high level and armor by winning. No offence meant but i really can't harmonize what your saying with my whatever years of playing those games. Besides if you try to attack too fast in g1&2 you end up canceling your combo.
What i liked about combat especially in G2 was that by smart manouvering and attacking you could avoid being hit. I had no similar feeling in G3 i tried everything i could think of and i still got hit. Maybe i should just try the weapon with the longest range but really if thats the only option you know the combat sucks ass.

On the whole G3 thing i am with 19Uhr30. I've only played it once after patch 1.73 or something like that... 200h of my life... most of the things i liked about g1&2 were gone. It was boring, it was annoying. I'll give it a second chance as soon as the csp is released though combat will still be a torture.

Thank you everyone SO MUCH. Looks like G3 might be a little spec high at this point especially since I like my RPGs with a lot of detail and high FPS. I actually quit Oblivion because while it ran, I had to turn it down SO much that it really wasn't worth it so I switched to Morrowind which runs like a charm maxed out.

As for the combat in Gothic 1 & 2, I'd say it took me a good hour or so to get used to it, and even after that I was still learning tricks on when and how to use certain swings; it was when I got used to that however that I REALLY came to love it. I can certainly see why a lot of people don't like it, but as someone who was able to get a hold of the control mess of DBTS (given to me as a promo before it was released years ago) G1&2 really aren't a problem. Like any learning curve it takes practice, but then gaming is supposed to be laid back and fun leisure so I would never fault anyone for giving it a pass because of a steep learning curve.

PS Thanks everyone for the mods too. Those should keep me busy for years to come as is.

My attitude is that I'd rather have fun playing a game then studying it to learn how to master a clunky combat system. I became is speed clicker in I and II because I would die otherwise. Yes, I took a lot of damage as I do in III but I survived. In III, I simply cannot do that. A small delay or a right click rather then a left click or a both click (to stab) with the proper timing lands a blow; keep timing it and choose the correct hit and the enemy doesn't even hit you. One small timing error or a wrong choice and they do. I just prefer that to having to remember 500 miniscule items and have to find the proper keys in the middle of combat. Turn run strike/repeat is great for multiple enemies - the only maneuver needed. I believe PB realized how clunky the old key-board based system was and simplified it to a truly mouse-based system.

A bit late with reply, but I agree.

1. Ranged fight is more or less static, but you still have to calculate how high / low you have to aim to hit a target.
2. Spell casting is your standard fight, with maybe the exception of high level spells, which require good timing before getting hit. But then again, you don't need to learn kung fu to cast spells.
3. Melee fight is where the true beauty lies, imo. It differs with your SnB, dual wield and two-handed weapons accordingly. Various combos (keyboard + mouse) make it so beautiful to me.

Of course, I am talking about Hard Difficulty, with AB / AI on. One major drawback of AB (and I had a discussion with a CPT member) concerning Large Weapons fighting, is that animations of spin-attack get stuck while attack is being parried, when normally it should stop, and you should start the move again, but you also take damage from an unseen attack form opponents which you are not always able to grasp due to fact that you're still stuck in that bugged animation.

It doesn't happen with AB turned off, but then again, without AB, even on hard difficulty G3 is a faceroll.

My 2 cents.

Which reminds me; I should have said I'm using 1.75 with balancing, etc.

Turns out I'm going to need a tad more muscle in my pc to make it run as high as I want BUT if that ever happens your input changes my whole take on it so now I;m actuallt more interested than ever. If I ever can I absolutely will, thanks!