Gothic, R.I.P

Q: Would you like to go back to developing a new Gothic game?
A: Oh, ok, the following only represents my own opinion:

To be honest: not really. The one who develops a new Gothic, will get his fingers burned. He will be slashed by magazines and burned alive by die hard fans.

The expectations for this game would be so high, we couldn’t meet them.

The times have changed, the Gothic games lived up by a different mood, we were much more experimental back in the day. Something that was very exciting and the player could feel this loose and playful approach, but this also led to exorbitant developing times and many many bugs. We fixed this, but we also parted from this sand box developing approach.

What is this desperate need for a new Gothic game? What is expected? Well, a Gothic 1 extension is expected. Basically the same game, but more of it and in a fresh looking environment. Despite the fact, that our company is no more the same like back in the day and we would have a hard time, getting back that “feel”, chances are, we would be accused of plagiarism and lack of innovation. Like “copy-pasting” our selves. These are accusations, we actually have to face very often; nearly after every new project. But in combination with a new Gothic, this would be terrible for the Gothic world.

When we do this, this one has to be nailed. It has to be fabulous in every aspect and there should be a huge and long planning phase. I believe it to be developed some day. But not now.

http://www.worldofgames.ro/sascha-henrichs-interview/

PB@FB
 
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Ok, positive thing out of this is, now my mate will eventually be able to catch up with the series. He's still on Gothic 2, trying to finish it perfectly. And yeah, he's played G3, but the game was too hardware intensive for his current rig on max settings, so he stopped and went back to the previous game.
 
From what I know, the Gothic's biggest problem is the unavoidable comparison to the Elder Scrolls series.

Many, many game reviewers seem to be terribly single-minded about comparing games to the top-rated game in the "genre" and not trying to appreciate that game for what it is.
That said, any FPS that is not Call of Duty, will not be Call of Duty enough. Any 3rd person shooter that is not Gears of War, will not be GoW enough.
Any open-world-driven RPG that is not Skyrim, will not be Skyrim enough.


The thing he's complaining about (copying themselves, etc).. I wonder if they are genuine opinions from reviewers or something they just splurted out to justify a low score. Probably because they were in a rush to finish typing the review so they could go back to killing dragons with shouts.
 
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I think it's a good thing. Sequels for niche type of games should be exception and not a rule. Spiritual sequels... well, they should be made like no tomorrow (like recent kickstarters for Torment, Project Eternity).
 
And yeah, he's played G3, but the game was too hardware intensive for his current rig on max settings, so he stopped and went back to the previous game.
Tell him to try Risen 1. It's a G2 clone. The engine seems to be much more scalable then G3. On low settings, it's actually less demanding then G3 despite being newer game. High settings can be manually tweaked to eat spare power. (I'm actually replaying R1 as a mage now...)
 
From what I know, the Gothic's biggest problem is the unavoidable comparison to the Elder Scrolls series.
Well, I can compare G to Elder Scrolls all day :)
ES are mediocre games on AAA budget. Mostly spent on graphics assets. And maybe marketing.

Comparison per se is not a problem. How it's performed is. What particularly pissed me off, was how for the same flaws (controls, stablity, fight system) G received merciless bashing, and Oblivion got free pass & kisses. In reality, Oblivion crashed me to desktop 10 more often then I ever got stuck with "funny" bug in all G games combined. And Oblivion's fighting system was spectacularly broken.
Many, many game reviewers seem to be terribly single-minded about comparing games to the top-rated game in the "genre" and not trying to appreciate that game for what it is.
That said, any FPS that is not Call of Duty, will not be Call of Duty enough. Any 3rd person shooter that is not Gears of War, will not be GoW enough.
Any open-world-driven RPG that is not Skyrim, will not be Skyrim enough.
I haven't played Skyrim yet, but after my experience with Morrowind and Oblivion I'm genuinely reluctant to spend $ on it. Graphics look superb, sure.

BTW, the "arrow in the knee" meme is actually an unintended examplification of a problem: in ES, the NPC lines are written by a team of 7-year olds. After the game is shipped, the team is considered "too mature for the next ES iteration", gets fired, and replaced by fresh one.

The thing he's complaining about (copying themselves, etc).. I wonder if they are genuine opinions from reviewers or something they just splurted out to justify a low score. Probably because they were in a rush to finish typing the review so they could go back to killing dragons with shouts.
To be honest, there were some recurring patterns in G games. Like "get to the inner circle of a faction" quests. And then "get to the inner circle within the inner circle". In Night of the Raven developers even included auto parody of this: Thorus.

Risen 2 is very fresh in this regard. It's hardcore Gothic in terms of quality (not in the "reviewer industry" meaning of course), but completely detached from Gothic and Risen 1 story patterns. Also with completely new levelling & skill system. Now gold is your limit, for example, you don't end up with a pile of useless cash at the end of game like in many games (balance & testing at work!)

Storywise, it's basically a "Pirates of Caribbean" game. Alternatively, a "Secret of Monkey Island" game, with teenage goofy humor style replaced with F-words and prostitutes.

It's a kind of mystery. The Risen 2 trailer suggested something much different. Like Risen 1++, except with pirate related side quest now becoming the main quest. The final game raises a question: why did they bothered to even call it "Risen"? The connection is vestigal.
 
I haven't played Skyrim yet, but after my experience with Morrowind and Oblivion I'm genuinely reluctant to spend $ on it. Graphics look superb, sure.

BTW, the "arrow in the knee" meme is actually an unintended examplification of a problem: in ES, the NPC lines are written by a team of 7-year olds. After the game is shipped, the team is considered "too mature for the next ES iteration", gets fired, and replaced by fresh one.

Skyrim (and Bethesda games in general) is oddity. Games sucks in just about every single way but does one thing so well that it has open world gamers balls in vice grip. Beautiful, massive world that is MMO without M or the other M or the O. I live in north in RL and it was great to see envirionment that was bit similar in game.

Gamebryo (and it's derivatives) is horrible engine for the Elder Scrolls games. Characters are ugly, their movement is like floating on ice, movements janky, combat (outside shooting arrows) is crappy, collision detection hit and miss (I've fallen several times thru the world), NPCs are boring at best, companions forgetable, quests mostly fedex, dialogue is Bethesda bad (Dark Brotherhood questline was ok), almost all game mechanics from crafting to item modification spells are unbalanced... list goes on and on.

I wouldn't recommend game to anyone except open world maniacs like myself. Skyrim was one of the best games I played this year (bought it from Steam sales earlier this year.. or was it last winter).
 
Well, I can compare G to Elder Scrolls all day :)
ES are mediocre games on AAA budget. Mostly spent on graphics assets. And maybe marketing.

Comparison per se is not a problem. How it's performed is. What particularly pissed me off, was how for the same flaws (controls, stablity, fight system) G received merciless bashing, and Oblivion got free pass & kisses. In reality, Oblivion crashed me to desktop 10 more often then I ever got stuck with "funny" bug in all G games combined. And Oblivion's fighting system was spectacularly broken.

Not to mention at least they know how to do keybind configuration. Something Bethesda obviously forgot how to do with Skyrim (certain actions defaulted to certain keys even if you rebound the keys). Then again, Bethesda aren't the only ones that are totally incompetent when it comes to keybind configuration. Same thing happens in Farcry 3 (hang glider controls defaulted to certain keys even if you rebound keys).

I have no idea how games get a pass for that shite on PC.

Regards,
SB
 
Also guilty
halo 2 (says key already in use when it isnt)
just cause 2 (couldn't rebind the horn "E" key why????)
Battlefield 3 (cant complete the game if you rebind the spacebar "jump key")
 
Talking of keyboard configuration , and seeing as I was inspired by this post to buy Gothic 1,2 and 3 on a steam sale, does anyone know of any way of re-binding the enter key on the gothic games? I'd like to run them on my laptop but the game seems to want num-pad enter rather than the one on the main keyboard. Can get around it for a lot of things, but for saving the game I need to be able to press. Slight problem on a game of this length :)

Thanks.
 
Tell him to try Risen 1. It's a G2 clone. The engine seems to be much more scalable then G3. On low settings, it's actually less demanding then G3 despite being newer game. High settings can be manually tweaked to eat spare power. (I'm actually replaying R1 as a mage now...)

Risen isn't close to the sandbox of Gothic though. Lots of areas closed off until you're through enough storyline, takes place on a small island etc.
 
Talking of keyboard configuration , and seeing as I was inspired by this post to buy Gothic 1,2 and 3 on a steam sale, does anyone know of any way of re-binding the enter key on the gothic games? I'd like to run them on my laptop but the game seems to want num-pad enter rather than the one on the main keyboard. Can get around it for a lot of things, but for saving the game I need to be able to press. Slight problem on a game of this length :)
Thanks.
You could try editing ini files. In G1 I always enabled quicksave/load keys and reduced dialog box animation time to instant. But keyboard codes are opaque hex numbers, I'm afraid.
http://themodders.org/index.php?topic=13709.0
 
Thanks, obviously I have a long way to go with my worship as I hadn't even heard of Ideazon :) Tried mapkeyboard and while it seems to change things as expected in windows it still doesn't seem to play nicely with Gothic. Will keep messing with it.
 
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