I finally got it. Enjoying it so far. Just a few things
1. This game is really heavy on resources , even on lower settings and it doesn't look as good as Oblivion. [Oblivion runs much better for sure] . Loading times are VERY slow, but once you get past that there doesn't seem to be much loading times and games runs smoothly with a few hiccups when in highly populated areas. Loading times i assume goes with the fact that it loads almost an entire map in one go....i traveled quite a bit to different cities and didn't even have loading times entering them...
2. I played Gothic 1 and 2, this is pretty much all that but with a much larger [and different] world and they expanded on the faction/reputation thing quite a bit to an extend that each city [and theres a whole bunch on my map] you now actually get a reputation value.
3. Combat seems like always to me, slightly better in fact. I don't know what people complain about the combat, the MAIN difference [and vitally important] is you can NOT stand still and just swing and block [like in oblivion]. You actually have to MOVE out of the way [i.e if that wolf lunge you need to strafe and hit it as it jumps past you....this was similar in previous Gothics , you were required to do a bit of manouvering ]
4. I am playing with the 1.08 patch [60MB download]. So didn't notice any bugs yet.
My rig
P4 2.8 ghz
1 GB ram
Nvidia 6600GT
And i am playing on 800x600 and most settings between medium-high. [1024x768 and my machine grinds to a halt].
I had PC's with the following:
2.0ghz P4
512mb RAM
128mb GeForce FX5200
Just btw, my box on the back says MIN requirement is 1GB ram....that gfx card is probably not the best to try Gothic with either. But yea you need one heck of a machine for Gothic3