Gothic III E3 Previews

JoWood and Pirahna Bytes’ next Gothic installment is the subject of four new E3 previews around the web. The first is at GameSpot:

Gothic 3 promises to be three times larger than its predecessor, and it promises a richly rendered world full of castles, forests, quaint towns, villages, and more. The game has all the eye candy that you’d expect, from high-dynamic range lighting to cool monsters. Everything was hand-crafted in the game, so there’s very much an organic and realistic look to it all. Flies circle bodies on the ground; monsters work out by lifting big stones; and you can even whip out a chicken, put it on a stick, and barbeque it.

The second is at LoadedInc:

Maybe one of the biggest differences from the previous two Gothic titles is the change in your environment. No longer are you confined to the prison island of Khorinis, your Nameless Hero now makes his way to the mainland where the orcs have managed to defeat the King’s army and enslave the humans. Three different areas of the mainland each have their own distinct themes with the harsh, cold Nord lands, lush, green Middle Realm and the unforgiving desert realm. Each promise to have their own cultures and customs, but still link together in some way so that they do not seem completely disjointed. So a pretty nice change in scenery then?

The third is at Gamers With Jobs:

As a fan of Gothic 2, my questions mainly centered around making sure all of the annoying things were out and the good aspects were enhanced. The inventory is now mouse driven with different sections for item types, even in placeholder form it’s vastly improved. Combat is handled with the mouse while the keyboard handles movement and spell selection, I’m not sure if people who liked the pure keyboard approach will be accommodated. Currently the left mouse button is one type of swing and right mouse button is another, you can combine them to do different moves and combos. Timing is still a factor when in combat, which is good.

And the fourth is at IGN PC:

The game doesn’t keep the fighting to melee however. We got to see a bit of magic today along with some of the new particle effects. The main character ran up to the top of a tower and cast down the Rain of Fire spell which not only shot flame up and out of the character’s body, but also changed the color of the sky to red right before bolts of flame started falling from the sky. Hopefully a lot of the spells will be as impressive as that one so that magic users can feel as powerful as they should.