Hi,

I'm thinking of getting Gothic 3 in the summer sale, just wondering, are there many sidequests in it? I've heard that the world is massive but I like some good non-story quests, like in Morrowind/Oblivion. Are there a good amount of them in this / are they any good?

Thanks

There are a lot of side-quests in Gothic 3.
Some of them are interesting, some of them are less interesting (kill wolves, kill bandits, etc).

You can definitely have a good time exploring, taking your time in the beautiful world of Myrtana.

Excellent! What about 2? Does that have many sidequests? I'm torn between 2 and 3, they both look really good...

Gothic 2 has less "go kill 30 wolves" type of quests, but if someone sends you to find, say, a missing paladin, you have to fight your way through the ranks of the orcs, for example.

If you're playing Gold edition (aka with NotR included), be ready for some challenging experience.
I'd recommend you reading a few tips first, just to get you on the right or desired path.

Good luck.

Out of the Gothic games available Gothic 2 Gold is my favourite. It's a hard game but the main quest-line is solid and the side quests involving. There are choices to be made and different paths to take through both Gothic 2 and 3, so each has replay value.

Although you can play either game without knowing the previous game/s I would suggest playing Gothic 2 before 3 for a more complete experience. Gothic 1 is also well worth playing if you fancy beginning at the start of the hero's adventures.

Gothic 3 is a bigger world than Gothic 2 but you can't explore it in the same way. In Gothic 2 you can literally climb to the top of the mountains, go right to the edge of the game-world. I found the limitations on my characters ability to climb frustrating in Gothic 3.

The open world in Gothic 3 is similar to that of Bethesda's games and yes, it is huge and beautiful. In Gothic 2 Gold you have a large world but I felt it was a more involving environment.

My recommendation would be to play both games - they are good enough and different enough to warrant this. However, if you wish to follow the narrative developments that occur, play them in order.

I'm not really worried about the story, I get much more interested in the setting, the history etc. which is probably why I like Bethesda's games so much.
Also I don't mind a hard game, I like it when it actually feels as if you are becoming a hero rather than being almost invincible from the start.
So Gothic 2 sounds good, I'll give it a go!