Thanks.  I haven't played any of the Gothic series before.  I found a demo of Gothic 3 so downloading now (and hopefully not full of virus') so I'll check it out.

I forgot about the Witcher, another I've never tried.  I'll have to see if there is a demo or not.

Although I am having a lot of fun playing Oblivion again.  I must have at least 2 dozen mods loaded up including OOO which really does change the gameplay quite a bit.  Also, I'm totally ignoring the main quest.  Once you leave the sewers at the beginning if you then ignore the main quest and never go to Kvatch then the stupid Oblivion gates never open up all over and the gameworld is quite different.  Kinda cool.

Anyway, off to check out the Witcher, thanks for the reminder.

Gothic 3 sucks, but gothic 1 and 2 are great. Gothic 3 is still worth playing though, but theres no point if you never played 1 and 2. I don't see gothic 1 on impulse but why not get gothic 2 for the 7$? that's probably the better deal. (YOU PLAY WITH THE KEYBOARD ONLY! YEAH!)

Oblivion fans may not like gothic games., I'm a fan of gothic but I hate all the Bethesda games, and I know a few who play oblivion a lot, but can't stand any of the gothic series.

Played Gothic 2 for a few hours and was impressed, then played Gothic 3 demo. Didnt like Gothic 3. Ran smooth but didnt like it compared to Oblivion.

Played Risen demo and i like that one. Buts its still like $40.

I've got The Witcher demo installed and it's taken me a while to get used to the fighting style I think I may have found my next purchase.  And at 15% off thru the end of the day for any game on Impulse, I may have to do it by midnight. 

Thanks guys for the thoughts.

gothic 2 is superb but the combat can be pretty clunky.

i actually was hoping for a console release of Witcher 1. It was well on its way too. Im sure the combat would of been better on console, but it was canceled like mid-way due to budgets.

I played the PC demo, and....i really dont see what the fuss is about. I know it has ALOT of positive reviews but i didnt like it that much. Wanted to try the enhanced version but no demo for that. So no buy.

It also has naughty bits.

I was going to buy witcher 1 at walmart, but I saw dragon age origins and snagged that. I must say I was not disappointed with what I snagged.

Gothic has always been a little more hardcore, in my opinion.  The Elder Scrolls have moved towards streamlining everything, and in Oblivion it was to such a degree that many called it dumbed down.  Gothic 3 streamlines a little of Gothic series, and just lets the player deal with everything else.  They're similar ideas, executed differently.  I prefer The Elder Scrolls IV, personally, however that's not to say that Gothic 3 is a bad game.

Dragon Age is a *fantastic* game.  I played it all the way thru twice, which is a rarity for me to actually finish and to do it twice.  I plan to play it a 3rd time after I take a break.  It does play different with each of the different origin stories and while the plot is the same the word does react to you differently with each origin.  Plus you can take a different set of companions with you as well which changes gameplay and stuff.  Great game.

Gothic 3 has a few updates and some mods that remove the clunkiness of combat and several of the more annoying bugs. Definitely patch and download an unofficial update or mod if you want to play it. I have to say I've spent much more time in Oblivion than in Gothic but it's not a bad game, just a bit frustrating at times.

Dragon Age was fine, but the complete lack of random took out the replayablity for me.

If you have irl friends(who play computer) I would recommend diablo 2 which is very fun to play coop. There are also half a dozen large mods for it, if you want new enemies.

Actually playing Gothic 3 a bit at the moment thanks to the $2 sale at steam. It's a shame it released so poorly, as it isn't a bad game (with patches etc).

I'm pleasantly surprised by the size of the world so far, and the draw distances too. You can see landmarks at quite a distance, which is a great help in orientation. There is a lot of exploring to do and things to find, the voice acting is fine, graphics aren't dated and it's nice to see an RPG where half the doors aren't just a texture on the wall, never to be opened. I've yet to find a building I can't go into. Granted, this is early on, but it's a good sign.

Not that it is bugless; AI path-finding is a poorly done, with my companion getting caught on a number or trivial things. Orcs that I had knocked out and robbed earlier don't seem to remember the fact after a few minutes. But so far I haven't found anything game-breaking, and nothing terribly distracting.

All-in-all, this could have been a popular game if they hadn't released it before it was finished.

If you are on the fence and want to try something that isn't burdened by all the negative attention, try Risen, it's essentially Gothic 4. (Not that I blame them for dropping the Gothic name!)