Arcania - Gothic 4

Gothic 4 developer Spellbound has "emerged from insolvency" as a new company, Black Forest Games.

You can now play demos of Alice: Madness Returns and Arcania: Gothic 4 through your browser, right here on Eurogamer.

Gothic 3 scored only 8/10 because developer JoWooD "forced" the game's release when it was "not ready", developer Piranha Bytes has revealed to Eurogamer.

Nearly bankrupt Austrian publisher JoWooD has had to "indefinitely" delay the release of AcaniA: Gothic 4 expansion Fall of Setarrif because of the add-on's "unclear" legal background.

A confusing statement pointed to "diverse legal positions" with German investor BVT, which once funded Obsidian-developed RPG sequel Neverwinter Nights 2.

JoWooD filed for bankruptcy in January. Fall of Setarrif was supposed to release this Friday, 25th March.

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In the time-honoured RPG tradition, I've been collecting swords.

Not to use, necessarily – Arcania's endless kill-and-loot cycle so rarely throws up compelling gear, it's almost a joke – but to sell. Gold is required to buy crafting blueprints from the smithy, so I can tinker up some interesting magical weapons of my own. These blueprints are astronomically expensive, but I've been collecting for some hours now. Let's see what the shopkeeper thinks of my wares.

32 swords, nine crossbows, 19 bows, 17 shields, a dozen orcish maces, a couple of hundred arrows and a magical warhammer nearly twice my height called Cold Hatred. I wait for the trader's reaction to my titanic haul. Seriously, I'm like Doctor Who, cheerfully jogging an endless string of first-division players out of the Tardis in front of a baffled Fabio Cappello.

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A PC and Xbox 360 demo of fantasy role-playing game Arcania - Gothic 4 is out now.

JoWood plans to release an Arcania - Gothic 4 demo on 24th September.

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Fantasy series hitting 360/PS3 for the first time.

Looks rather pretty, too.

JoWooD has pushed the release of ArcaniA - A Gothic Tale to 2010 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

JoWooD has told Eurogamer that a patch to fix buggy Gothic 3 expansion Forsaken Gods will arrive "within this year", although it has been nearly two weeks since the original and quite severe problems were reported.

Update: JoWooD has explained to Eurogamer that Arcania: A Gothic Tale (Gothic 4) has yet to be given a date, and revoked the "late 2009" line a spokesperson from the publisher had recently given us.

Nice trees.

Developer Spellbound has delivered the first details for Gothic 4.

It will be subtitled Ancaria and take place 10 years after events in the third game. The action takes place on an archipelago where each island has its own climate, look and feel.

According to German PC Games Magazine (read by Tiscali Games), the headline attractions will be the opportunity to control a new day and night cycle with magic, plus the ability to ride all sorts of beasts plodding around the land.

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JoWooD has named Spellbound Entertainment as the new developer for Gothic 4, following its spat with original creator Piranha Bytes.

JoWooD has revealed that it's currently working on Gothic 4 for PC and next-generation consoles.