The Gothic Series

[Pride]

Anyone heard of these games?
They were a set of RPGs released by a German company and despite the flaws in the series, they were IMO pretty good. The combat is restricted to one button like Oblivion, but flows much smoother and has the option to jump back from attacks. Other than that there are swords wreathed in fire, interesting magic and a few other things that other games of the genre haven't touched.
In particular I noticed they have a spell for shapechanging into animals you target and a set of portable teleport stones hidden around the map in place of fast travel (both something Oblivion could have done with). I haven't managed to get the latest one yet (Gothic 4), but I'm curious to see what the developers have done with it.

[Koniption]

OMG! I love the Gothic series!

I've beaten Gothic I and Gothic II. Of course, there were bug-fixing patches out for them by the time I found out about that game series, so my initial experience with them went much smoother the first time around, than folks who played the games when they first came out.

There's just something about that series, that is addictive and fun.

I'm currently playing Gothic 3, and still haven't gotten very far with it. I bought Gothic 3 when it first came out...but then ended up holding onto it for over a year without playing it, because I read how there were some gamebreaking bugs. So a year or more later, the modders for Gothic 3, working along with the Gothic game makers, released a Community Patch that fixes the game: Community Patch 1.74 is the latest patch, I think. With that patch, it's a golden gaming experience.

I like how the game does not "hold your hand", as you fight. If you go into certain areas, even areas close by the village you begin in, you can end up having your rear handed to you by even just a single creature that is currently too hard for you. Yet, even so, the way the game is, it is still possible to kill such creature, even at such a low level, if you keep your wits about you & use your head. I like that.

And I love the fact that you can cook and craft stuff! I'm in Montera area of Gothic 3, and I still need to kill creatures for food, so that I can cook it and eat it to restore health and other stats. You can fry meat over a campfire, make stew in a boiling cauldron, do alchemy, and various other things. It's just something I really like to do in a game. And the way the game was made, these actions are often necessary, and not just there for the heck of it.

I have not gotten Arcania: Gothic 4, yet. I think I will wait a bit, to see if patches need to come out for it.

Koniption

[jucklesjenk]

Never played them, myself. I've heard of them, though.

I'll have to go and check them out...