gothic-4 posts

The Steam PC game download site continues its annual and massive holiday sale into its second day today. While there are a ton of price breaks for individual games, publisher bundles and other game collections, the following games are on sale for just one day only, until 1 pm Eastern time on Wednesday.

Defense Grid: The Awakening - $2
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - $5.10 or $3.60 if you own any Tomb Raider game
Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box - $5
Gothic Bundle (all games in the Gothic series) - $34.99
Disciples III Renaissance - $7.50
Men of War Gold Edition - $8.75
The Witcher - $5
Resident Evil 5 - $10.50
BioShock 2 - $9.99
Aion - $10
Puzzle Quest - $1.50
The Polynomial - $2.50

A few days before the game shows up in retail stores here in the US, the downloadable version of Arcania: Gothic 4 is now available to purchase and download for those living in this part of the world. You can get the open world fantasy RPG sequel from Steam. Presumably other download sites will make the game available to purchase soon.

Just a reminder; the retail version of the game from developer Spellbound and publisher Jowood/Dreamcatcher Games shipped in other parts of the world earlier this week and will ship to stores in the US on October 19.

This is the playable demo for ArcaniA: Gothic 4, an action fantasy role-playing game based in the Gothic universe.

"War covers the southern islands until it finally reaches the idyllic isle of Feshyr. You take on the role as the new nameless hero after your village has been pillaged and destroyed by paladins of the king. Seeking revenge, you soon realize that this cowardly attack did not just happen on a reckless mercenary`s whim. A mysterious evil power lies in waiting and fortunately you're not alone to unravel the ancient secrets: your fate is linked to a beautiful lady wearing a powerful artifact from the long-forgotten past..."

Download ArcaniA: Gothic 4 Demo (1.7 GB)
Check out all ArcaniA: Gothic 4 downloads

The subject of DRM set ups for PC games has become more and more important for consumers, as evident by the massive backlash against Ubisoft's "Always On" set up for most of its recent PC games. Today publisher JoWood decided to be pro-active by admitting its upcoming fantasy RPG Arcania: Gothic 4 will be using the SecuROM DRM set-up for the PC version.

Admitting that DRM set-ups for PC games have in the past " had to find a balance "between user friendliness and security of the product" Arcania Gothic 4 will allow gamers to install it on an unlimited number of PCs. The game will only need to be activated once via an internet connection in order to be played on a PC with no constant net connection needed to continue playing. Each license will also allow the game to be played on up to three PCs at any one time. It will also have an auto-update feature and a pre-load feature to let players download the game before its officially launched in October.

Gallery: Arcania: Gothic 4 Screenshots

The Gothic series is known for its methodical, almost plodding pace of gameplay and story. While the developer did launch an offshoot with Risen, the series as a whole has remained untouched since Gothic 3. ArcaniA, despite the name change, is the newest entry in the series, and the newest trailer came out very recently. The first part is not that impressive, thanks to dated cutscene material, but the subsequent gameplay shots sure are juicy! We do love ponderous combat, as long as it feels weighty, so if Gothic 4 can pull it off, we'll be ecstatic.

Download HD ArcaniA - Gothic 4 Gamescom 2010 Trailer (821 MB)
Check out all ArcaniA - Gothic 4 downloads

It's taken a while but today publisher JoWood and its US subsidiary Dreamcatcher Games have announced that the fantasy RPG sequel Arcania: Gothic 4 from developer Spellbound will finally be released for the PC on October 12. An Xbox 360 version will be released on the same date but the PS3 version has been pushed back to the first quarter of 2011.

The game was announced well over two years ago by JoWood after the previous game in the series, Gothic 3, got a cool reception from critics, due in part to show stopping bugs that took months to fix via patches. JoWood dumped Gothic 3's developer Piranha Bytes in favor of Spellbound. Piranha Bytes went on to make the original RPG game Risen that was released in the fall of 2009.

Fans of action fantasy role-playing games might be interested in checking out these video for ArcaniA: Gothic 4, which reveal first looks at some of the gameplay. The video above gives a glimpse of the some of the stunning environments players will experience and a video featuring the combat system is shown after the jump. The game is expected to release in the fall.

Download HD World of Arcania 'Ambiance' Trailer (68 MB)
Download HD World of Arcania 'Combat' Trailer (31 MB)
Check out all ArcaniA: Gothic 4 downloads

It seems like today has been a day to change your game or company name. The latest switch involves the long-in-development fantasy RPG that was first known as Gothic 4. The title from developer Spellbound and publisher JoWood was renamed early in its life to Arcania: A Gothic Tale. At the time the name change was to make the game more presentable to a US audience which had not embraced the first three games in the series.

Today JoWood revealed, without any real explanation, that the title of the game had changed once again to Arcania: Gothic 4. Perhaps this new name represents a compromise for the long time fans of the franchise while keeping the Arcania title to bring in new players. In any case the game is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2010.

Essentially Gothic 4, Arcania: A Gothic Tale will take place 10 years after Gothic 3 and the player will explore various southern islands, each having different climate zones and its own flora and fauna. The player will have again the ability to climb as well as to ride beasts. The RPG is currently being developed for the PC and Xbox 360.

Download the HD Arcania: A Gothic Tale Teaser Trailer (54 MB)

Jowood is busy working with developer Spellbound on the next full game in the Gothic fantasy RPG series (which recently got renamed from Gothic 4 to Arcania: A Gothic Tale) but we won't see that title for quite a while (it's currently due out in late 2009. But fans of the previous game in the series (the one who could get the bug ridden title to work that is) will soon get an expansion pack and Jowood has just released the first screenshots for the title.

The expansion, titled Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods, is being designed as a story bridge between Gothic 3 and Arcania and will supposedly have between 15 and 20 hours of gameplay with new quests, monsters, an improved combat system and more. The expansion is due for release this fall.