This is one of the best games ever. I never played any of those acclaimed best RPGs like Fallout (but I am now) so my nostalgia bonus goes to this game. The graphics suck by todays standards (of course) but at least it has a nice, unique design! The character design and story are also very good and entertaining. You should give it a try!
I hope Gothic II will be added to the GOG catalogue, it's even better!

I enjoyed this game, and I was always surprised that it didn't get more attention considering the solid design of the 'world' and the open-ended play. It had a genuinely good story driving it as well. The combat was a bit clunky in my hands, but the story and detail of the world made up for it (at least to me).
I'd also like to see Gothic II on the site. I had trouble running it on my computer, so I never got that far into the game, but it was certainly much improved over the original.

The Gothic series of games is in my top 5 games I have ever played, though I have never played Gothic 3.
The dialogue and writing is superb, and the imagined world is one of the most beautiful and interesting I have ever seen. Even with rather dated graphics, you will be in awe at the very interesting world design. If every famous, popular RPG was Oblivion, Gothic would be Morrowind. The combat is clunkier and the graphics dated, but the game itself is more unique and inspired with many memorable characters and locations.
I am excited to see this for download and Windows XP and Vista compatible. I own both Gothic 1 and Gothic 2 Gold on CD but they are extremely difficult to run properly. I can only hope Gothic 2 and Night of the Raven make it to GOG.

Consider yourself lucky. ;)
It is like they took every memorable character, trait and feeling of the series and poured raw sewage onto it, then proceeded to slaughter it's guts, replacing them with dread.
I hate this game with a passion. It is not even close to the first and second game.

Yes. It's common knowledge that G3 was a major poo-poo despite the sales numbers. It's technically even more flawed then G1 and G2, has no story whatsoever, 2 out of 3 major regions were rushed and unfinished, there's no real ending, it's completely imbalanced and all in all a disgrace to the Gothic series.
For those interested: developer and publisher parted ways after G3 [later on, they published an agreement of sort that they might potentially work together again], there was some sort of legal battle, and the intellectual property rights remain somewhat unclear. Both developer and publisher have reserved some rights on parts of the Gothic legacy. Currently, there's an addon to G3 in development as well as a new title, both by different developers and none by the original developer, who is doing a new project. Let's call it a massacre.

Wow that is sad news. Yes, I bought Gothic 3 and and tried to get into several times, but it just SUCKS IMO. But I'm telling you, Gothic 2 was the best game I've EVER played, on any platform. I was in gaming heaven. And am now playing 1, and am quite happy with that one too, as I'm loving it.
But if the developers are no longer committed to this project, I guess it really has ended. That is too bad, because I would've loved another epic or two in this series. (3 definitely IS NOT it).

The G3 addon seems to have gone gold, I'll be interested to see whether anybody will buy it (probably ... actually, I think they should hand it out to those who actually paid money for G3 for a small fee like $5 ;P)
Not much about G4 so far. There have been some leaks, but nothing worth getting excited about.