| 30 DEC 2010 at 12:33pm |
FrontierCybrarianCommander
Posts : 1288
Joined: 4 DEC 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Rayfer, I agree to play on easy. It takes long enough on easy to build up strength, endurance, and skills sufficient to start whipping the bigger beasts and meaner enemies. Gothic 3 has also become my favorite action rpg and hitting most all of the sweet spots. Since you've successfully played the game feel free to add any tips or ideas to the thread that we've left out. I always enjoy your insightful comments and posts.
Yskonyn. appreciate your post and from another Netherlands member and Gothic 3 player. Also, your signature (computer specs) indicate you have a powerful rig and perfect for playing Gothic 3 on high settings for all.
Yes, initially Gothic 3 was murder to play and want to get through. I cast it aside and never played again until this year. Played abouth half-way through Gothic 2 and it was enjoyable but seemed a bit darker, harder, and less colorful of course.
I didn't care for the Divinity 2 characters either.
Arcania: Gothic 4 was developed by a different group and hasn't faired well at all. Heard it was only 16 hours long...not much for an rpg.
Absolutely you should restart Gothic 3 and use the latest appropriate patches. I have no experience with buying the game from Steam or other dlc places. Other readers please help us out here about STEAM having Gothic 3 with Forsaken Gods expansion all in one package.
Whoever claimed bad actions have no consequences in Gothic 3 is absolutely not correct. It does, right down to dialogue choices, allied allignment, thievery, killing certain beasts. If you kill a buffalo from a herd with the sword the rest will attack. If you let them all pass they won't attack. Wiping out the first ORC town will result in the ORCS in other towns attacking you on sight. Also in the heat of battling enemies, sometimes and allied character gets in the way and you accidently kill him. This can change the course of things and other characters may attack you as a result.
By the way, an orange text colored chest means it can be easily opened. A red texted one means maybe not except with correct lockpick or appropriate scroll magic. A white-text chest means you've already opened it so don't waste time and try again. Make note of red texted chests you can't open because later you may be able to. I have nearly 300 lockpicks so I can open most all chests now. Yeah!
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 12:46pm |
meadbellyCenturion
Posts : 243
Joined: 23 JAN 2010
Status : Offline | Gothic 3 on Stream is patched to 1.6. I'm not sure if that includes the community patch or the forgotten gods content, but would like to know. The Steam version is stable, at the very least. I've never had a crash.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 1:19pm |
WallysWorldCenturion
Posts : 464
Joined: 30 MAR 2005
Location: CA
Status : Offline | This thread has definitely peaked my interest in this game. Looking at Gothic III: Gold Edition (with the expansion Forsaken Gods) on Gamergate for 50% off, is that the same as the Collector's Edition? Does it need patching after I install it?
Or should I specifically look for "The Collector's Edition" with all of the patches already included?
Many thanks for this interesting thread!
Abe Simpson: "I used to be 'with it', but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it', and what's 'it' seems weird and scary."
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 1:26pm |
rossntuCommander
Posts : 1272
Joined: 24 DEC 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Wish I'd seen it was on sale at Gamersgate with expansion- although the Steam version could possibly contain it - there is no way to know!
I played the Gothic 4 demo.... and was distinctly underwhelmed. Obviously it was a tutorial area, but it immediately lost any value for me as a game when I shot one of the characters in the head with my arrows and he stood there without batting an eyelid. Strangely, the arrows stood there until I got close enough to him to instigate a conversation, at which point they could be seen actually falling out of his body. Not impressed.
I have heard really good things about Divinity 2 Dragon Knight Saga- about the gameplay, the quality of the writing and characters. What did you guys not like about it?
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 1:38pm |
meadbellyCenturion
Posts : 243
Joined: 23 JAN 2010
Status : Offline | I am pretty sure the Steam version does not include Forgotten Gods content; that appears to be a completely different product. If I can find it cheap, it will be interesting to see if I can get the two to work together.
Steam's version of Gothic 3 does not include what I think everyone is referring as the community patch, which is 1.73 (but listed as 1.72 on the jowood site). 1.73 is beefy -- 913mb.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 1:59pm |
rossntuCommander
Posts : 1272
Joined: 24 DEC 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | No it doesn't - but it does include an earlier version (1.60 I think?)
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 2:18pm |
YskonynCommander
Posts : 1118
Joined: 15 NOV 2004
Location: NL
Status : Offline | I went ahead and purchased the GG version. The Gold pack that comes with the expansion.
It's the 1.6 version of the main game, meaning you will have to do 'the dance' concerning patching.
I went ahead and fetched all patches from here: http://wiki.worldofgothic.com/
I don't find it very clear if you can get away with just downloading the latest community patch 1.74 (IS that the latest by the way, or is this site out of date?). The explanation does say it compatible with ANY G3 version. Just to be sure though I downloaded all official patches first and applied them. After that installed community patch 1.74. Game runs fluidly on highest detail. It still looks very sharp, even now! The only thing bothering me as far as the graphics go is the rather close by line where the game decides things are 'in the distance from here onwards'. I don't like the blurry effect and the pale textures, especially since its so close by.
Maybe I am missing something here, a setting or something. If anyone knows how to get rid of this I would be glad to be informed!
FrontierCybrarian: Thanks for explaining the colored labels. Apparently it does not indicate it will be a bad act if they are red. [:S] Anyway, the rightful owner got peed off immediately right away. And he should be. []
Characters also seem to have ears, cause this happened out of view of the guard but he reacted to the screaming of the mage. Very cool.
The things you describe about the reaction of animals and characters really sound very cool! I'll be sure to explore that aspect of the game.
Overall I am glad I found this thread and even more so that G3 actually runs on my machine now. []
On a sidenote. Forgotten Gods seems to be a stand alone game? This does not start, though. I get to the intro movies, but unfortunately it exists right after...? Any ideas why this might happen? I have downloaded all official patches for that one too. There is no community patch, according to the wiki?
ross_ntu: I must admit that I am not very far into Divinity 2 yet, but I got it upon release. Then I started playing, but the animations were quite crude and the game had some annoying graphics anomalies on my machine. That combined with the most cliche start I have ever come across made me quit.
Then came Dragon Knight Saga with updated graphics and a whole host of improvements. I know Larian Studios is quite a small time developer and I have a weak spot for those. So I bought it upon release again.
The graphics have been improved indeed and controls seem more fluid as well, but still the characters are 'soulless'. I don't care what happens to the main character eventhough you're supposed to be able to do very cool stuff in this game. You can even build a keep/city I am told. The storytelling is just so familiar and generic that I just can't seem to be bothered to get through all the dull stuff to get to the nice parts of the story...
I might be missing out here, because, like I told earlier, I am not far in yet, but my initial impressions are that the game is too generic in its presentation and storytelling.
I will continue playing though, albeit on a slow pace.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 3:04pm |
WallysWorldCenturion
Posts : 464
Joined: 30 MAR 2005
Location: CA
Status : Offline | Thanks for the GG info, Yskonyn.
Abe Simpson: "I used to be 'with it', but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it', and what's 'it' seems weird and scary."
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 4:10pm |
rossntuCommander
Posts : 1272
Joined: 24 DEC 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | FC- any performance tips with the community patch? The ones I found were all for vanilla. I have tried dropping down to medium but am stll getting some annoying moments when I turn or transition to another area where the game stutters badly. Any ideas? I have a E8400 processor, Geforce 275 GTX, 4GB of DDR2 RAM and am running Windows 7. The fact that it is still stuttering on medium makes me think it's not just that my computer can't handle it.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 5:34pm |
FrontierCybrarianCommander
Posts : 1288
Joined: 4 DEC 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | AH HAH, Gothic 3 has more followers and interested readers than I thought. Mentioning you were playing it even with patches a couple of years ago would get you frowned upon and criticized, BUT NOW look. Some closet Gothic 3 believers are now coming out. The repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" is the reason I'm sure.
meadbelly, thanks for providing the patch version of the Steam game and it's contents.
My tin canned Collector's Edition has the following designation & I don't know what all of it means:
Gothic 3 pb/cpt/sb rvc 1.6iv1.60.29 back of box statement, "Fully updated version of Gothic 3"
Forsaken Gods couldn't find version numbers)
I don't know if "fully updated" refers to only the utilization of company patches or includes the community patch.
As mentioned, the CE contains original game dvd , Forsaken Gods dvd, Soundtrack cd, Maiking of Gothic 3 dvd, large colorful map. If you haven't made a purchase I'd recommend the CE in nice burgandy tin, if you can pay a little more & want to wait for shipping.
But Guys, the bottom line is as meadbelly suggested. IF IT'S STABLE THEN YOU MAY NOT NEED TO PATCH. Now, as far as which dlc service provides Forsaken Gods that is another question. To me, purchase what seems like a good deal. If it plays well then you're in good shape. It's my feeling that the game more than likely was patched and cleaned up before the dlc services offered it. I could be wrong. If you don't have Forsaken Gods get it later because, even though a stand-alone, it's story and characters follow Gothic 3 and will make more sense. After all, GoGamer, several times, has had Forsaken Gods on sale for .90. You'll be playing Gothic 3 a long time before you get to Forsaken Gods.
Go to the official Gothic 3 forums to determine if the community patch is for you. It's best to patch after installing the original game. Some patches can effect save games. I haven't explored the forum for a long time so don't know the full scoop on updates.
WallysWorld, definitely do make a purchase. You'll be in for some long enjoyable play. I'm guessing the Gold Edition would be similar to the CE excluding the tin, map, cd, and dvds of course. Game play and content should be the same It's likely patched the same as CE. Go ahead and purchase the Gold Edition if it's a fantastic deal. Nice to have Forsaken Gods there, too.
Another thing this thread points out is that:
1. Many readers like using a dlc service
2. They like getting their games rapidly
3. The prices seem very nice
4. Games that are basically "fixed" now have appeal
5. There is still interest in rpg's
6. There aren't a ton of good/great rpg's
Rayfer, companies do themselves and the customers a dis-service by having lousy demos. It's laziness. You'd think their demos should be the "cream of the crop" to make a great initial impression. However, I've heard Gothic 4 is not really a very good game. So, in this case, you can't make a very good demo from a less than average game.
There's probably nothing broke or wrong with Divinity 2 in my opinion. It's just a matter of preference, how you like the graphics, music, play, characters, etc. Maybe after I beat Gothic 3/Forsaken Gods I'll re-visit Divinity 2. According to initial game and player reviews, Risen scores higher than Divinity 2 or Gothic 3. Gothic's score was for the un-patched and un-polished game. Divinity 2 with the expansion together has been updated and refined. I played the earlier edition. Maybe things are greatly improved. I liked Risen less than I did for Divinity 2.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 5:51pm |
FrontierCybrarianCommander
Posts : 1288
Joined: 4 DEC 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By ross_ntu
FC- any performance tips with the community patch? The ones I found were all for vanilla. I have tried dropping down to medium but am stll getting some annoying moments when I turn or transition to another area where the game stutters badly. Any ideas? I have a E8400 processor, Geforce 275 GTX, 4GB of DDR2 RAM and am running Windows 7. The fact that it is still stuttering on medium makes me think it's not just that my computer can't handle it.
ross_ntu, I'm sure sorry about the performance problems you're having. Your computer seems more than enough to handle the game. I should have clarified this. I haven't loaded any patches for my collectors' edition game. I don't know if it contains the community patch. My game plays great but due to the intense graphic nature of the game there is hesitation sometimes when new geographical areas load. It should be smoother there but it isn't a game killer for me. My game computer is similar to yours:
-CPU dual core 3.0, Windows 7 (64 bit), GeForce 280, 8gb ram, SoundBlaster Xfi, Klipsch 5.1 Speakers Orc voices rock the house). I'm running at the max graphical settings. Be sure to disable your anti-virus and firewall and don't be connected to the Internet when playing (if possible). My game computer isn't directly connected to the Internet. I want it "clean" when playing games. Also, make sure alot of unnecessary programs aren't loaded. Be as lean as possible. I disable my ActiveWords, PC TuneUp, and HP printer monitoring programs. They will load again on a restart so it's no big deal to disable them to play the game.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 6:20pm |
meadbellyCenturion
Posts : 243
Joined: 23 JAN 2010
Status : Offline | Hmm, this makes me wonder if I should install the 1.73 or 1.74 patch. I am on vanilla Gothic 3, 1.60 patch (community). Intel core duo, gtx 260m, 4mb ram, windows 7. I am running on high settings and no perceptible performance lags. I'm curious if Ross experienced performance issues prior to the community patch install.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 6:24pm |
meadbellyCenturion
Posts : 243
Joined: 23 JAN 2010
Status : Offline | Btw, I'm depending on you good people to keep this thread on the mainpage the next time GoGamer has Forgotten Gods for 90 cents!
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 6:24pm |
rossntuCommander
Posts : 1272
Joined: 24 DEC 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | It's not a game killer as you say FC, but odd that it has such marked stutters even with medium settings. I remembered that I had a similar feeling when playing the Nehrim mod for Oblivion recently- generally high frame rates but stutters. I am sure some of it is geographical changes, but not all of it. I recently had a forced upgrade to Win 7, and whereas before I had overclocked memory it is now standard DDR2. I also have a new 1TB drive. I hope it's not that causing the slowdown.
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| 30 DEC 2010 at 6:54pm |
FrontierCybrarianCommander
Posts : 1288
Joined: 4 DEC 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By meadbelly
Btw, I'm depending on you good people to keep this thread on the mainpage the next time GoGamer has Forgotten Gods for 90 cents!
The game is still inexpensive at $4.90 plus dirt-cheap shipping. Worth it. This is the U.S. release and not the Import. However, I've never had trouble with the Imports.
Amazon has it new for 2.19. I don't know if those copies are the updated releases.
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| 31 DEC 2010 at 8:12am |
YskonynCommander
Posts : 1118
Joined: 15 NOV 2004
Location: NL
Status : Offline | FrontierCybrarian does your 1.6 main menu offer you the options of Alternative Balancing and Advanced AI? Does it show 'Enhanced Edition' anywhere on the main menu?
If not then I think you're running the official 1.6 version.
It's very confusing, because there are official 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 versions, but also Community Patch 1.6 and 1.7 versions...
I presume my GG version is the official 1.6 version, which basically is the unpatched version as far as I can see. Nowhere does the main menu mention the 'Enhanced Version', which would imply the community patch being included.
That's why I patched up, first the official ones, then the latest community patch.
It presents me a totally different main menu graphic now.
It might be worth checking out?
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| 31 DEC 2010 at 8:31am |
FrontierCybrarianCommander
Posts : 1288
Joined: 4 DEC 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Yskonyn, no, my designation has no Enhanced version listed nor options for balancing/advanced AI and it likely doesn't have the community patch. I'm about 5/8th through with the game and hesitate to patch now in the chance it will mess up my saved games and mission accomplishments. Actually I like the way the game plays now. However, when I get to Forsaken Gods I'll certainly look for any updated patching available for it.
You're correct about the patching versions and the confusion. However, for Gothic 3 players just starting out patching to the latest and adding the community patch is probably a nice idea. For others who've advanced in the game I don't know about that. I'd hope the official Gothic 3 forum addressed the dilemma on patching once you've already started.
Since you've patched (it appears fully), keep us informed of the game play, how you like the game and if the load hesitation from area to area is present...or as ross_ntu indicates, a "stutter".
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| 31 DEC 2010 at 10:30am |
YskonynCommander
Posts : 1118
Joined: 15 NOV 2004
Location: NL
Status : Offline | I have not experienced any stutters so far. I do notice popups in the world where items or geographical elements suddenly pop into view. This hasn't resulted in any stuttering so far, though, but I'll keep you guys updated.
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| 31 DEC 2010 at 11:52am |
rossntuCommander
Posts : 1272
Joined: 24 DEC 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Yskonyn - I'm sure I read a comment from one of the Jowood reps on the Steam forum saying it was the 1.6 community patch.
Interestingly, I saw someone else had the same problem as me on the Steam forums- for the most part it runs silky smooth then all of a sudden, five second slideshow. I think I fixed the Oblivion issue by clicking the option "disable desktop compostion" under compatibility. It is possible Gothic 3 has improved as well, but it is still doing the same thing- if anything it is just slightly less.
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| 31 DEC 2010 at 12:58pm |
ghostryderColonel
Posts : 6951
Joined: 4 MAY 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | Quirks like this could be any number of things- you could play with your pagefile for example- or make sure that in your GPU utility you have things like AA set to let the application decide- or it could be something really out there- like replacing the game's font with another truetype font-
One thing i'd try with the Steam version is upgrade the game to the latest community patch- which I believe is 1.73 or thereabouts- some substantial things happened in that upgrade and it may help.
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| 1 JAN 2011 at 7:28am |
FrontierCybrarianCommander
Posts : 1288
Joined: 4 DEC 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Yskonyn, thanks for informing us of your play with the community patch. Gothic 3 isn't devoid of glitches and bugs. I've never seen a perfect pc title. There are too many individual pc components that can alter some things.
A couple of glitches I didn't like were when my hero was in a cave and a Goblin Shaman outside was blasting me through the walls and another where Orcs were falling from the solid ceiling cave walls to battle me. I like to combat my enemies face to face. Quit cheating AI!
ross_ntu, I wish you weren't experiencing the stutter problems. From your description is more than just loading from one geographical area to another because that isn't a 5 second delay. Something else is going on.
Ghostryder, I was going to call upon you to make suggestions for ross but you are "Johnny on the Spot" and came to the rescue. Thanks for the suggestions and recommendations I hope these alleviate the problem.
There is still confusion over the patch designations. Some say 1.60 & 1.73 are the community patches. Are they the same? Is the 1.73 the newest? Is 1.60 the newest retail included patch, whereas the 1.73 patch is only for older Gothic 3's?
Again, the designations displayed when I start my Collector's Edition Game are:
Gothic 3 pb/cpt/sb/ rvc 1.6iv 1.60.29
I'm assuming pb is Pirahna Bytes, cpt Community Patch?, no clue on sb or rvc
Back of box says, "Fully updated version of Gothic 3"
The Collector's Edition was released in 2010 but, of course, the box still lists the 2007 copyright date.
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| 1 JAN 2011 at 11:11am |
ghostryderColonel
Posts : 6951
Joined: 4 MAY 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | Yes 1.6 is different than 1.73- and it does have a lot of stuff the older ones don't- like an alternate leveling system- and some other options that make combat more difficult (If memory serves right this is how enemies are cued to attack- be it one at a time or all at once). I believe it also includes a little more eyecandy like shadows, particle effects and so on.
http://www.g3cpt.eu/
Gothic 3 Community Patch v1.73
29.09.2009
XII. Community Patch v1.73
==========================
Framework
- Texture/Shadow/Light flickering eliminated (occured on ATI 4xxx serie cards).
- Bug corrected where audio system always cached out sound even if property said "no".
- Some minor bug fixes and improvements.
+ Added czech manual to installer.
- Modding manuals updated.
Graphics
+ HDR Rendering.
+ Soft particles.
+ Improved bloom effect.
+ Leaf subsurface scattering (only with activated Rim Lighting and Shader 3.0).
+ Heat haze. (At minimum Shader 2.0. Always on, exception: few fire places, because the world has not been recompiled).
- Terrain shadows on faraway trees corrected.
- Some texture/material changes.
Dialogs
- Saturas now also hands out his key when the hero talks to him the first time ever after exploring Al Shedim.
+ Some info file parameters added.
+ "Storyhelper" (sh) has more detailed dialog options to increase or decrease reputation.
- Some speech outputs in russian game version corrected.
- The hero now drinks the bottle of booze he gets from Flint.
- Tippler, Hjalte and Garik now drink booze at adequate points of the conversations, Hjalte also eats some meat.
- If Ugolf tells the hero about Tjalf's chest, there's an additional small piece of dialog available after looting the chest.
- Dialog with Masil after cancellation of the quest "Debt and debility" corrected.
+ Subtitles are available now when the hero reads out what he finds at bookstands and stone tablets.
Quests
+ Some quest file parameters added.
Ingame menus
- Icons of cudgel, heavy branch, Nordmarian sword, recipe for mana potion, recipe for Nordmarian sword, recipe for El Bastardo, Meteor and the perk "Take animal skins" corrected or improved, resp.
Items
- It's not possible anymore to get Lester's, Ilja's and Yussuf's temple key and Masil's promissory notes twice.
NPC behaviour
+ New "political" alignment PAL_Pirate. (Not actually in use yet.)
+ NPCs now can react aggressive on armor of other "political" fractions. (Not actually in use yet.)
Perks and magic
+ New scroll "Group Hypnosis".
+ New function "MagicSummonCompanion" for new kinds of summoned companions. (Not actually in use yet.)
Strings
- Some errors in German texts corrected.
- Some errors in Italian texts correctedPress:
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| 1 JAN 2011 at 12:01pm |
rossntuCommander
Posts : 1272
Joined: 24 DEC 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By ghostryder
Quirks like this could be any number of things- you could play with your pagefile for example- or make sure that in your GPU utility you have things like AA set to let the application decide- or it could be something really out there- like replacing the game's font with another truetype font-
One thing i'd try with the Steam version is upgrade the game to the latest community patch- which I believe is 1.73 or thereabouts- some substantial things happened in that upgrade and it may help.
Yes - that is the problem. I have no idea where this could originate from. It's playable at the moment and maybe 5 seconds is an exageration. I will try that font tip and check the graphics settings (though I'm fairly sure that is how it is currently set). I had seen something about fonts elsewhere, but it slipped my mind. Thanks for the tips anyway Ghostryder- if they don't work I think I'll just have to suck it up as it's not a massive deal.
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| 1 JAN 2011 at 1:45pm |
ghostryderColonel
Posts : 6951
Joined: 4 MAY 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | One thing it could be is Steam itself as well. None steam games- and Gothic 3 would be a non steam game- get an .exe wrap by steam- this wrap frequently borks a game - it also may make using the newer mod impossible. Especially if Steam is installed in C:\program files and you have the UAC in Vista or Windows 7 preventing the mod to install-
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