Community Patch 1.7 makes this old-school RPG enjoyable. No CTDs, runs well under XP SP3.
The cinematics display well-rendered graphics; however, I found myself wishing for a bit more polish with the in-game graphics and animation. Nevertheless, the graphics coding is GPU-specific for nVidia GeForce users, and Gothic 3 has the nVidia Logo prominently displayed during the opening credits, along with nVidia's "TWIMTBP" (The Way It's Meant to Be Played) rating.
The fact that the developers of Gothic 3 took the time to crack open the books and write GPU-specific coding speaks volumes about the game and the people behind it.
Gothic 3's executable has shown a marked improvement in performance with the issuance of Community Patch 1.7. I put the game to the test, and the program responded flawlessly - nary a CTD to be found. Gothic 3 joins Drakensang: The Dark Eye in the list of RPGs that won't crash a PC running XP SP3.
It's also nice to be have selectable Anisopteric Filtering and Anti-aliasing. I like the World Map, but the Quest Log seems to be a bit bland, in my opinion. The Inventory layout is very workable and well thought-out. I was annoyed at having to do extra clicks to access functions such as displaying the screen showing the keyboard assignments: aside from the standard WSAD movement keys, not too many others are where you would expect them to be in a RPG, which means a slightly steeper learning curve for the game.
.
This game has a few nice touches of realism added-in, such as clicking on a campfire, and you find your character roasting a chunk of meat over the flames. It's the little things like that which can make or break a RPG, and it's a welcome change to see these touches of creativity within the genre.
Gothic 3 is a good deal overall - well worth your time, effort, and your cash.