I still have very little experience with this popular European RPG series, but since picking up a cheap downloadable version of Gothic III from Direct2Drive I can at least say that I own all three titles released so far (unless you count the spiritual successor Risen as well, which perhaps you should). The third game was apparently criticized for being unfinished and having lots of bugs but luckily a Community Patch has been put together to solve the worst problems as well as improve overall game balance. I've only played a few hours so far but I'm having a lot of fun, and this might actually be the game that gets me into the Gothic series. The controls are more up to modern standards, the pacing doesn't seem quite as slow and the graphics still look really nice and run relatively well on a mid-range system.

The start of the game offers some endearingly traditional Western RPG gaming; after a quick showdown with a few orcs in a village the player is given what appears to be complete freedom to explore the huge game world. And unlike in, say, Morrowind or Oblivion, exploration in Gothic III is actually a lot of fun and gives you that great sense of being in a real, living world.

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