Many thanks DBond and Crane Hunter, I think I'm getting a better picture now.
It seems pretty clear (and the Devs stated as much, IIRC) that they were afraid of doing another "too long" game like W3 with "too much side content" and so from what I gather from a lot of what people write, this is more a "go there and do this" game than the crazy living world from W3.
I'll wait for some 1.07 version to hit GOG and then make the download.
