Gothic 3 puts the "F" back into Fantasy and the "R" back into Roll Playing and looks like this: F *
It begins with the story line. It's a epic one involving either saving a kindom(s) from the Orc's or joining them to destroy the human race.
.......but the story doesn't really start until you first set off on your first quest which could be anything from collecting wolf skins for the local hunter to hunting down slaves (yes, I said slaves) and then deciding to free them or turn them to the Orc's.
You'll love to just walk around and explore the country side because it's truely amazing with steep mountains, huge forests, endless deserts and so on. The creatures in G3 for the most part are a mixture of many different species you've probably seen in other fantasy RPG titles like Ogers, Blood Flies, etc.... oh, and even dragons which is a amazing site to behold once you find one or two. Combat is lacking for the most part but I discovered that actually need to increase your skills to look good in battle meaning you start out slow and weak as you swing your sword at enemies but as your traits increase you start to move quicker and swing harder. Now I understand and it works perfectly in a game of this type.
Graphics are in some places dull or blocky but in other smooth and glossy. Oblivion I believe looks a little better in this regard but if you really look at the world in general in G3 compared to ES it looks more fasisful than ES world could ever pull off. You will need lots of RAM like at least 1.5 gig worth to run it at the higher settings with most if not all the eye candly in place. I have below par system 2.66 ghz P4 which has come back to huant me lately but I can still turn G3 to medium with shadows to low or off and distance drawl to the lowest the setting (that's the key for good FR's).
Replayability is there and ten fold and the nature of this games makes you want more and more each time you play. ES Oblivion was good in it's own right but I would have to chose this one of that because of what makes any RPG great, immersion into a fantasy world called Gothic 3!