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Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #piranhabytes, aggregated by home.social.

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  1. Ich habe echt Null Ahnung von den #Gothic-Spielen und habe nicht eine Frage verstanden.

    Jetzt weiß ich wie die Jungs sich bei Allgemeinwissensfragen fühlen. (b m) #PietSmiet #50Fragen #PiranhaBytes

  2. #Cralon ist mit 66 Punkten laut #GameStar ein "überdurchdchnittliches Spiel". Ja sichi! 😂 :ugly:
    gamestar.de/artikel/cralon-tes

    Kauft lieber für 5€ #ArxFatalis (mit dem super Source-Port #ArxLibertatis) oder wartet auf das vielversprechende #Gothic-Remake.

    #Gaming #PiranhaBytes #Pankratz

  3. #Cralon ist mit 66 Punkten laut #GameStar ein "überdurchdchnittliches Spiel". Ja sichi! 😂 :ugly:
    gamestar.de/artikel/cralon-tes

    Kauft lieber für 5€ #ArxFatalis (mit dem super Source-Port #ArxLibertatis) oder wartet auf das vielversprechende #Gothic-Remake.

    #Gaming #PiranhaBytes #Pankratz

  4. #Cralon ist mit 66 Punkten laut #GameStar ein "überdurchdchnittliches Spiel". Ja sichi! 😂 :ugly:
    gamestar.de/artikel/cralon-tes

    Kauft lieber für 5€ #ArxFatalis (mit dem super Source-Port #ArxLibertatis) oder wartet auf das vielversprechende #Gothic-Remake.

    #Gaming #PiranhaBytes #Pankratz

  5. #Cralon ist mit 66 Punkten laut #GameStar ein "überdurchdchnittliches Spiel". Ja sichi! 😂 :ugly:
    gamestar.de/artikel/cralon-tes

    Kauft lieber für 5€ #ArxFatalis (mit dem super Source-Port #ArxLibertatis) oder wartet auf das vielversprechende #Gothic-Remake.

    #Gaming #PiranhaBytes #Pankratz

  6. stadt-bremerhaven.de/25-jahre-

    #Gothic von #PiranhaBytes kommt auf #iOS. Schade. Würde ich gerne spielen (#TitanQuest auf dem #Fairphone5 mit #8Bitdo #Controller ist ein verdammtes Fest) aber NUR dafür ein Apple Gerät zu kaufen kann und will ich mir nicht leisten. Hoffe da kommt noch eine Version für #Android Geräte.

  7. stadt-bremerhaven.de/25-jahre-

    #Gothic von #PiranhaBytes kommt auf #iOS. Schade. Würde ich gerne spielen (#TitanQuest auf dem #Fairphone5 mit #8Bitdo #Controller ist ein verdammtes Fest) aber NUR dafür ein Apple Gerät zu kaufen kann und will ich mir nicht leisten. Hoffe da kommt noch eine Version für #Android Geräte.

  8. I'm still not over the end of PiranhaBytes, I think it was one of the most tragic losses of recent video game business craziness over the last few years. A studio who refused to accept that "better graphics" was an acceptable compromise to actual gaming and went their own way and made three memorable gaming franchises that, even with their issues, interest me more than anything a AAA studio has ever put out.

    youtube.com/watch?v=681DlKcYWuo

    #gothic #gaming #piranhabytes #risen #elex #rpg

  9. I'm still not over the end of PiranhaBytes, I think it was one of the most tragic losses of recent video game business craziness over the last few years. A studio who refused to accept that "better graphics" was an acceptable compromise to actual gaming and went their own way and made three memorable gaming franchises that, even with their issues, interest me more than anything a AAA studio has ever put out.

    youtube.com/watch?v=681DlKcYWuo

    #gothic #gaming #piranhabytes #risen #elex #rpg

  10. I'm still not over the end of PiranhaBytes, I think it was one of the most tragic losses of recent video game business craziness over the last few years. A studio who refused to accept that "better graphics" was an acceptable compromise to actual gaming and went their own way and made three memorable gaming franchises that, even with their issues, interest me more than anything a AAA studio has ever put out.

    youtube.com/watch?v=681DlKcYWuo

    #gothic #gaming #piranhabytes #risen #elex #rpg

  11. I'm still not over the end of PiranhaBytes, I think it was one of the most tragic losses of recent video game business craziness over the last few years. A studio who refused to accept that "better graphics" was an acceptable compromise to actual gaming and went their own way and made three memorable gaming franchises that, even with their issues, interest me more than anything a AAA studio has ever put out.

    youtube.com/watch?v=681DlKcYWuo

    #gothic #gaming #piranhabytes #risen #elex #rpg

  12. My Thoughts on: Gothic; a review

    For those that haven’t heard about it, Gothic is an action-adventure cRPG developed by Piranha Bytes and published by Egmont Interactive in Europe and Xicat Interactive in North America in 2001. At least those were the publishers at release, currently it’s published by THQ Nordic.

    I’m ashamed to say I’ve never played the game before. But, I’m catching up now and, while I’m at it might as well see if it’s really as good as they say.

    The review is for  the GOG version from before it got added to Preservation Program. Oh, I’ve been playing in Polish. From what I’ve heard it (alongside German) is orders of magnitude better than English… So know that mi~ight have some impact.

    Story

    There is a mining colony that produces extremely valuable magic ore. Since the kingdom is at war, they’ve been forcing criminals to mine it. To make sure the convicts don’t get any funny ideas about bailing, the whole area was covered with a magical barrier that would fry anyone that tried to leave. Unfortunately, something went wrong and the barrier covered much wider area, trapping everyone within… And the convicts managed to stage a rebellion and take over the mines.

    The game pretty much sets the tone from the start: yes there’s big stuff happening… But you as a character don’t really care. You’re a convict, sentenced to work in the mines. As is almost everyone you’ll meet in the Colony. Furthermore, nobody cares who you are, or even what is your name. To the point of the Player Character being known as the Nameless by the community.

    Most of the game is pretty down to earth. It’s about trying to join one of the factions, gaining some semblance of status and surviving in general.

    The plot is pretty solid, with believable flow  of events. About halfway through the game it transitions to a “breakout plan” to finally transition into almost a “save the world” type of scenario… Or well, still a breakout plan, but with a “save yourself and everyone in the Colony from doom” as one of the steps.

    Unfortunately, the latter half of the game feels increasingly rushed and, according to information that can be found online, apparently was. There’s pretty much no side quests

    While the story is essentially the same regardless of what you do, the details and little things that differentiate each camp playthrough  from the others are a very nice bonus that adds to the overall atmosphere. Things like how people greet you when you talk to them, whether they let you walk into certain areas and the like.

    Aesthetics

    There’s no escaping it: the graphics are quarter century old (at the time of writing), but despite that the game is still pleasing  enough… Although the textures and flat foliage do “sting” when you see them. It looks old, dated, but I wouldn’t say it looks bad… Well maybe aside from water… And sometimes things just don’t render at all, but it’s a different issue altogether.

    Each faction has distinct armours that clearly let you see who is from which camp. And as an added bonus they are all reasonable, or if you prefer, believable.

    The armours, weapons and enemies all are down-to-earth in their design. They aren’t “our world” designs, but they all look like they could exist in our world.

    Sure, the game is very visibly a fantasy one and it does have the obviously magical enemies in the form of the undead and a few demons… And maybe the harpies. But most of the events are fantastical-but-mundane wildlife: giant insects, reptiles and a few mammals. All rather distinct and fitting.

    There’s a reasonable variety in environments: there’s the underground mines, forests, and a swamp. Sure it’s all a bit packed together, but it doesn’t clash. It all feels coherent and reasonable. I haven’t seen anything that would look painfully out of place or tossed for no reason.

    One of the nice touches is the flashing of the barrier, preceded by loud thunder. It does look pretty neat.

    The dialogues (like much of the game) feel really down to earth. The voice actors delivering their lines with a certain sense of humour that adds to the charm and contributes to building the great overall atmosphere of the game. Well at least in Polish (which supposedly is much better than English).

    The NPCs chat with each other, which is a very nice touch… But there’s like six “generic chatter” lines at most, and everyone uses those clips. Those clips also tend to cut off in a bit jarring manner and feel disjointed.

    The music is… There. It’s nice, fitting to the areas. Yeah, taking about music in games is pretty mutch not what I am remotely passable at.

    Gameplay — overview

    Have I mentioned that Gothic is somewhat old? It comes from the times when games came with a manual that explained the controls, menus, often having lore and sometimes even some tips. And this game happens to also expect that you have RTFM.

    Well, as a baseline the game essentially doesn’t use mouse at all… ok, there is the option to use it, but I found it much more comfortable to play only on keyboard. The game also uses uses “tank controls” – left and right turn you around.

    But the aspect that will require some getting used to is how interacting with anything works. I think there are mods that change it… But after the initial adaptation period I’ve found it extremely logical and intuitive.

    Here’s how it works. The “action” button does almost nothing by itself… well it makes you enter a “ready to intact with object” state in case of interactive objects. You’re supposed to press a direction alongside it. Usually it’s “forwards” to actually interact with something. Note that it includes pretty much everything: taking to people, picking up items, opening doors & chests, using items from inventory and all that.

    Picking locks and inventory management (looting and trading) use left&right instead. As does combat, which also includes backwards.

    Gameplay — combat

    Speaking of, the game essentially has a tab-target action combat system. You focus on a single enemy (I don’t think you can hit multiple enemies, maybe with some spells). Your attacks will only affect that one enemy, reach and positioning still matters, bit it’s not about hitboxes.

    What does matter a lot is your timing, as it’s the difference between fluid attacks and awkward overcommited attacks that get you killed. That or you just spam first attack because it’s often better than full combination. There is blocking, strafing and a backstep that supposedly has invincibility frames… but I never could time it right, so I’ll assume it was a skill issue on my part.

    If you happen to want to play a mage… They are rather underwhelming for much of the game. Sure the occasional spell you can find is good on a warrior build, and there are some really nice spells here and there… But a straight mage is not really a good experience.

    Gameplay — exploration & progression

    Gothic is an open world game. Yes, an open world game from 2001. It lets you explore everything, aside from a few story-locked areas; or well, lets you attempt to explore everywhere.

    This ties in pretty strongly to progression, hence why I’ve put them together. You see, at the start Nameless is pathetic; the only creature that isn’t a mortal threat is a tiny, harmless meatbug. Everything else is a serious threat.

    On top of that he doesn’t really know how to use weapons and all that. And it shows, the crude flint clumsy weapon swings aren’t that effective.

    Here enters the first very nice detail: learning to use a weapon changes the animations and how Nameless swings it around (or how he takes aim in case of ranged weapons).

    The other one is that by leveling up and getting new gear enemies that were untouchable reapers in the early parts of the game become tough, then challenging and then a threat only in groups. To the point that what was “run away ad hope it doesn’t notice you” deadly threats early in the game later on cant even scratch you and can be moved down like you were. It’s a really good feeling.

    Exploration plays a twofold role here: first it lets you gather that extra power by finding spell scrolls (that anyone can use) that are often very useful or let you get to a useful item much earlier than “natural” progression would allow; and by letting you find those walls that you can break through later.

    There’s a lot of useful items scattered in less frequented places of the Colony, so exploration is rewarded pretty consistently. Even if the weapon you find is worse than what you already have, you always can sell it to a trader and get an upgrade you couldn’t afford (unless you cheesed the money issue in one of dozens of ways).

    Oh, and the fact that you can climb up several ledges does add to the verticality of the world.

    Though, as I mentioned in the combat section… being a mage, even if gives coolest outfits is a bad proposition, as spells don’t scale like weapons do.

    Technical Issues

    This game is old, with a bunch of issues. GOG support article recommends installing (and links) a few patches… And PCGamingWiki recommends a few more. For me the game wouldn’t launch after the first time without those… And was laggy before I installed the Union mod as per the wiki. So GOG added Gothic to their Preservation Program as I was finishing this post, and now it comes with Union by default, but the original “vanilla” (though that really ought to be called “cream” for being the default/plain) build is available in the Extras/Offline Installers.

    Even after that there were some issues: taking screenshots through Adrenalin didn’t always work (I think that saving and losing the game fixed that? I’m not actually sure to this very moment); the game would become somewhat laggy after a while (saving the game did fix that one, for some reason), and the game would sometimes crash to desktop, or freeze, once badly enough to force a hard reset of my PC.

    Atmosphere

    “The Atmosphere” is something that I’ve mentioned a few times. It also crops up often in discussions about Gothic.

    You see, it’s the attention to detail. The little things that don’t actually matter that much for gameplay, like all NPCs having their daily schedules, their homes they sleep in every night, that they will call you out when you enter someone’s house or run around with your weapon drawn… then (try to, quite successfully for good chunk of the game) beat you up if you don’t stop.

    The fact that people don’t kill each other indiscriminately, well, unless you (or they) are using magic or ranged weapons to attack. The fact that people greet you differently if you’re part of their group.

    The fact that wild animals will try to scare you off if you approach to close. Or that some will attack each other (like wolves and shadowbeasts attacking molerats) and then “eat” the kill. That animals also curl up to sleep at night.

    Or how you need to learn how to butcher animals for valuable parts, or how you can fry the raw meat using the frying pans, or how you can just sit down and smoke a pipe at the Swamp Camp.

    That and the things I’ve mentioned in previous sections.

    Suma Summarum

    On their own, the major components of the game are between “okay” to “pretty good”. When put together they would have been enough to consider giving it “good” as a grade…

    Unfortunately the flaws of Gothic are apparent. It could have been phenomenal, but it is merely good… and if the atmosphere and “vibes” of the game don’t click for you, probably not even that.

    However as I do enjoy the overall atmosphere quite a lot, I’m giving Gothic a 4. It’s too good for anything less… but even my personal bias can’t make me stretch the grade beyond that… albeit I did strongly consider adding in a plus there…

    #ActionAdventure #aRPG #cRPG #fantasy #gameReview #games #gaming #GOG #Gothic #PiranhaBytes #VideoGames
  13. Sehr bewegender Artikel im #GameStar 8/2025 über die Schließung von #PiranhaBytes und deren Überlebenskampf in den letzen Monaten.

    RIP. Ich hatte jedes Spiel gekauft, komplett durchgespielt und fast alle geliebt.

  14. Sehr bewegender Artikel im #GameStar 8/2025 über die Schließung von #PiranhaBytes und deren Überlebenskampf in den letzen Monaten.

    RIP. Ich hatte jedes Spiel gekauft, komplett durchgespielt und fast alle geliebt.

  15. Sehr bewegender Artikel im #GameStar 8/2025 über die Schließung von #PiranhaBytes und deren Überlebenskampf in den letzen Monaten.

    RIP. Ich hatte jedes Spiel gekauft, komplett durchgespielt und fast alle geliebt.

  16. Sehr bewegender Artikel im #GameStar 8/2025 über die Schließung von #PiranhaBytes und deren Überlebenskampf in den letzen Monaten.

    RIP. Ich hatte jedes Spiel gekauft, komplett durchgespielt und fast alle geliebt.

  17. One of my decorative glass boxes still was empty, so I decided to buy the Elex game case for PC as I already owned the retail version of the successor. 🧊

    Already played through Elex using the digital version after its release in 2017.
    My playthrough of Elex II is still ongoing as I faced some issues the last time I played it using Proton on #Linux.

    Both great games btw for those who look for the spirit of the #Gothic games and the other #PiranhaBytes titles. 🐟

    #gaming #Proton #Elex #PCgaming

  18. One of my decorative glass boxes still was empty, so I decided to buy the Elex game case for PC as I already owned the retail version of the successor. 🧊

    Already played through Elex using the digital version after its release in 2017.
    My playthrough of Elex II is still ongoing as I faced some issues the last time I played it using Proton on #Linux.

    Both great games btw for those who look for the spirit of the #Gothic games and the other #PiranhaBytes titles. 🐟

    #gaming #Proton #Elex #PCgaming

  19. One of my decorative glass boxes still was empty, so I decided to buy the Elex game case for PC as I already owned the retail version of the successor. 🧊

    Already played through Elex using the digital version after its release in 2017.
    My playthrough of Elex II is still ongoing as I faced some issues the last time I played it using Proton on #Linux.

    Both great games btw for those who look for the spirit of the #Gothic games and the other #PiranhaBytes titles. 🐟

    #gaming #Proton #Elex #PCgaming

  20. One of my decorative glass boxes still was empty, so I decided to buy the Elex game case for PC as I already owned the retail version of the successor. 🧊

    Already played through Elex using the digital version after its release in 2017.
    My playthrough of Elex II is still ongoing as I faced some issues the last time I played it using Proton on #Linux.

    Both great games btw for those who look for the spirit of the #Gothic games and the other #PiranhaBytes titles. 🐟

    #gaming #Proton #Elex #PCgaming

  21. I've been following along with Pithead Studio because I've been a big Piranha Bytes fan since my early teens, and I really *love* how they discussed the Gothic Remake in their video on Monday.

    They were careful, but very positive and encouraging about the content that they'd seen so far, and I do think it takes a lot to accept that your former baby is now in the hands of someone else without being bitter about it. #PitheadStudio #PiranhaBytes #Gothic #GothicRemake

    youtu.be/XDHPYp77b9Y

  22. I've been following along with Pithead Studio because I've been a big Piranha Bytes fan since my early teens, and I really *love* how they discussed the Gothic Remake in their video on Monday.

    They were careful, but very positive and encouraging about the content that they'd seen so far, and I do think it takes a lot to accept that your former baby is now in the hands of someone else without being bitter about it. #PitheadStudio #PiranhaBytes #Gothic #GothicRemake

    youtu.be/XDHPYp77b9Y

  23. I've been following along with Pithead Studio because I've been a big Piranha Bytes fan since my early teens, and I really *love* how they discussed the Gothic Remake in their video on Monday.

    They were careful, but very positive and encouraging about the content that they'd seen so far, and I do think it takes a lot to accept that your former baby is now in the hands of someone else without being bitter about it. #PitheadStudio #PiranhaBytes #Gothic #GothicRemake

    youtu.be/XDHPYp77b9Y

  24. #PiranhaBytes hat es leider scheinbar auch nicht geschafft und wurde geschlossen. Sie hatten noch nach neuen Investoren gesucht, wohl vergeblich. Schade um einen deutschen Traditionsentwickler. Die Rechte für Gothic und Elex dürfte wohl #Embracer behalten. Ich denke nicht, dass damit bald was passiert. Schade.

    Hoffnungsblick: Aus den Reihen hat sich schon ein neues Studio formiert - #PitheadStudios

    gamesindustry.biz/embracer-own

    #Gaming

  25. #PiranhaBytes hat es leider scheinbar auch nicht geschafft und wurde geschlossen. Sie hatten noch nach neuen Investoren gesucht, wohl vergeblich. Schade um einen deutschen Traditionsentwickler. Die Rechte für Gothic und Elex dürfte wohl #Embracer behalten. Ich denke nicht, dass damit bald was passiert. Schade.

    Hoffnungsblick: Aus den Reihen hat sich schon ein neues Studio formiert - #PitheadStudios

    gamesindustry.biz/embracer-own

    #Gaming