Any of you played Risen yet? I bring this up on the Gothic forums because it feels like a remake of the original Gothic. Heck you collect things, kill thing swith swords in an action oriented way, talk to people, and even have a choice near the beginning to go to a city or a camp.
I believe it is developed by the same game company too.
I just played the demo, but the resemblance to Gothic is astounding. Any of you play it yet?

I know a few people who have finished it already and they all said that Risen was actually more like Gothic 1.5... Which is not really surprising considering that Risen is also a Piranha Bytes game.

Risen is the spiritual successor to Gothic. Gothic players will feel right at home in Risen. If you loved Gothic you really should play Risen.
Risen has a vastly improved combat system and some interesting new ideas. The game is now divided into four chapters, not six, which makes things flow better. There is also a greatly improved faction system involving quests with multiple outcomes as well as an increased emphasis on dungeon puzzles. There are some things I don't like about it, but the improvements and new ideas far outweigh the weaknesses and lay the foundations for a strong sequel.

I loved the demo and plan on getting the full game. It improves on a lot of what I don't like about the original gothic..mainly the combat/pick up/item management of the game. It took me forever (and a post here) to figure out how to do much.
Did PB not develop Gothic 2?
Judging from the Demo, Risen is great and yes, totally has that Gothic feel. Which rocks :D
BTW I don't of any game that is totally perfect, so I always try to emphasis the good and not the bad in games. Unless the game totally inhales profusely then I want to make sure people know.
...and even then people argue heh.

Do anyone know if it will be possible to buy a DRM-free downloadable version of the game?

Not sure about that. I probably won't be getting RIsen until Jan, so I can wait and see...

I probably wont get it unless its a downloadable DRM-free version. After GOG started providing games like that, I kind of dont want games any other way ;)

I have no idea if risen has DRM on it or not, but I've always been able to find ways of removing it so it is not an issue with me.
However:
Looking around google says that Deep Silver, the publisher of RISEN, decided not to use DRM on the DVD version. Just a DVD check.
I do know that direct 2 drive has it for sale in Digital download format. ($40 dollars. After buying new Xbox 360 games, that seems cheap for a new game heh.) I can't find if the digital copy has DRM or not. I assume it is probably just an activation of the Serial Number.

PB made the first three Gothic games (including the Gothic II expansion Night of the Raven), but everything after that is not developed or endorsed by them in any way. Their previous publisher, Jowood, maintains certain undisclosed rights to the Gothic brand, and they have taken advantage of this to make the abysmal Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods as well as the upcoming Arcania: A Gothic Tale (Gothic 4).
The DVD release only uses a simple disc check. This check is powered by Tages and requires a driver to be installed but it's so basic that the pirate releases didn't even need cracks (it will accept a mounted image as the real thing without even needing virtual drive cloaking or the like).
Stay well away from the Steam release. It uses a fuller version of Tages that requires a serial and online activation(!) for some bizarre reason. I'm not sure what is used for the Direct2Drive and Risen Store releases, but beware. If you don't mind mounting your own image the retail version would probably be the closest you could get to a DRM-free, disc-free experience.

Yeah, I started playing it few days ago and I have to say it's absolutely gorgeous. When it comes to gameplay it's very similar to the first instalment of Gothic. You have the same feeling of isolation and despite the game's lost-like setting the island isn't what you call a tropical paradise. It's very unfriendly. Everywhere you go you'll find hostile creatures and hostile NPC's. Nobody's your friend and you have to be very carefull about what you do and who you're dealing with. The quests are well thought out and the game itself feels very well developed. For example in Gothic 1&2 you copuld finish the game with just a sword, high strenght and bashing everything to death. Here you have to use everything you can get your hands on. Scrolls are a must have even for melee characters. You have to utilize skills like thievery, sneaking and all that stuff you wouldn't normaly pick up playing a fighter.
Mind you Oblivion lovers. This game's difficulty is absolutely crazy. I've played through Gothic 2 with the add-on a few times and it never ever felt this hard. I'm level 10 now and two foes are able to kill me in New York minute.
Great game. It IS Gothic 4. Just different setting and hero.

I agree. I looked at a few videos and it looked great (too bad it won't come out in North America before 2010).
And a point made by a review I read: it seems that Piranha Bytes failed at their "buggy" reputation (which isn't a bad thing). In the review I read, they only ran into very minor glitches and they were sparse (this reviewer rated Gothic 2 8/20 mainly due to the amount of bugs).

Only the 360 version is delayed in North America; the PC version is available right now. If you have a capable system the game is much better on the PC (in terms of graphics, controls, loading times... everything). There is a demo for the PC so you can see how things run before buying.

Comparing to Gothic series Risen is practically a bug-free game. And it runs 3 times better then G3
The most annoying thing about gothic 2 were game breaking bugs. Remember the first stonce circle you run into? The one near the farm. When i first started playing with the expansion i decided to check out what those swiches on pillars are for. 15 hours later that decision made my game impossible to finish . I promised myself to never touch another PB game again.

Actually I didn't really play any of the Gothic series until I found them on here. I still haven't bought Gothic 2, though I plan on it.
I played the Gothic 2 demo a long time ago..however at the time I didn't care for it much. Can't remember why? I did buy Gothic on GOG though and love it, so when I played the Risen demo I could tell it was either the same team or the same company that made it. I turned out to be right ;)
It is on my to buy list, but I can't buy it until after Jan. My next "new" game will be Dragon Age. Then I'll get Risen ;)

After a while, I finally managed to download the Risen demo (on my college servers since my bandwidth is quite limited at home) and to try it on my home computer. The game had long loading times, a few lags when you initiate dialog, but runs on my computer better than Oblivion and The Witcher (which leads me that developpers are learning to program in a more optimized fashion are the graphics are still very good. Maybe the system requirements of future games won't be as high as quickly). I'll wait until I get a new computer (around next January).
The game felt a lot easier than Gothic (playing this one, having finished the current quests in the Old camp, but I can't seem to reach the new camp and I really in need of ore to buy better equipment). Definitely a must-buy.