Gothic 3 - Review @ Yahoo Games

Gothic 3 is the subject of Yahoo Games review today. Handing it a 3/5 star rating, the review says:

Gothic's also a gorgeous game, bringing this living world to your monitor with real class. Much of the landscape is wilderness, sure, but for wilderness it's packed with involving details. Picking out specific high points isn't easy, as the quality of Gothic's models and textures is consistently strong, but the hulking Orc models and the dense, detailed trees stand out.

Sad, then, that it's hamstrung by its poor performance. Having a wide-open world with no loading screens doesn't exactly count for much when the game freezes for seconds at a time as it loads in whatever beastie you're about to encounter. It's not shy about doing this during combat either. The cheesy lens-flare is out of place and unnecessary, and rather spoils the appeal of the game's pretty dawn scenes.