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 Post subject: Should I get this game?
PostPosted: 07 Jan 2010, 18:31 
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First of all: I recognize that anyone on this forum is likely to be very biased in favor of Pathologic, but I'm figuring that the greater knowledge of the game everyone here is likely to have will hopefully outweigh that. :)

I just got The Void from Steam a couple weeks ago, and while I haven't played it a whole lot yet (maybe about 10 hours) I'm finding it very interesting, and Pathologic sounds interesting as well, from what I've heard. At first I thought it wasn't going to be readily available to me in the USA, but then I found out that it's on Direct2Drive at a pretty decent price.

So a few questions: just how terrible IS the English translation? I've heard very mixed things. Is it bad in a way that will just make the dialogue seem strange and goofy, or is it bad in a way that will actually hamper understanding of the story and events?

How "scary" is it? I get pretty immersed in games, especially games with a first-person view and this has pretty much made it impossible for me to play a lot of horror games. No Resident Evil or Silent Hill for me, and something like F.E.A.R. is right out as is, sadly, Bioshock. The Void isn't too bad in this respect (at least so far) due to the surreality of the setting.

How does it run on newer machines? I saw a thread in here about problems on dual-cores. I have a quad-core machine. Is that going to be problematic?

Annnd... I think that's all the questions I have for now. I appreciate any feedback anyone can give me. Thanks!


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PostPosted: 07 Jan 2010, 20:26 
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First of all, there exists wonderful Pathologic's "Let's Play" thread on SomethingAwful: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... genumber=1
Have fun:)

Translation varies in quality. The important thing one should understand is that there are several distinct levels of translation in the game. Artemiy Burakh (the second character) was done by a translator we know. I heard he lives in English-speaking country, so his work was probably quite good. He did a few days of Dankovsky (the 1st charcter) and some jornal entries too. I am sure that the fifth day is his work.
The rest was passed on to two agencies. As you probably understand, the agencies that translate things like washing machine manuals and legal documents may or may not be able to translate literature properly. One of the agencies did a job of average quality for Dankovsky's scenario. Nothing especially impressive, and besides there were some funny features like "salvage" instead of "salvation", but all in all, text was understandable (if you read carefully).
However, what another agency did on Klara's scenario was often unintelligible. Play at your own risk.

One more disadvantage of such cheap translation turned out to be the difference in names. Many people and places in game have names with an obvious meaning: "Seine", "Mark Immortal", "Abbatoirs", "Tanner's District". They got several different translations (foreman/elder, Abbatoirs/slaughterhouses, Apiary/Termitary, Tanners/Leather). Names that were not translated got several different transliterations (Catherina - Katerina - Catherine; George - Georgiy). Now, I tried to fix this as much as I could during the testing, but the mistakes were far too numerous. The best I could do was making a glossary for German translators, who were very confused by our English translation and couldn't understand many things.

Sample translations:
Dankovsky, day 2:
Quote:
A: Disturbing rumours have been coming from different districts all night. Most of them were caused by the fear of the cannibaless and the indignation at the outrage of the avengers. A lot of chit-chat... A lot of stupidity. However, some of these rumours worry me.
D: Which ones?
A: These news were brought to me by the second-hand dealers. I started saving up medicines... well, never mind. Anyway, everyone noticed an unusual silence, strange behaviour of the animals in some places, dogs especially. They saw large masses of rats in some places. The Hump said: "Such things are lost in the general panic."
D: Yes, looks like the first signs of an epidemic; but the silence could be caused by fear, and the dogs always feel nervous along with the people. The rats... well, there are slaughterhouses not far from here, right?
day 7:
Quote:
K: Do you like my sister?
D: Yes. Very much.
K: You live with us just one week and saw only a small part of her talents. My sister is a born queen. She is one of those rare people to which others obey without a slightest hesitation.
D: Probably.
K: She is noble-minded. It's her main advantage. Huge personal richness which the nature gave her, she wastes with really imperial generosity.
Burakh, day 4:
Quote:
D: That is something I cannot tell you. I gave my word.
B: What nonsense?
D: Rubin's trust is very precious to me. It is fragile. If he realizes that it was I, who told you, where his lair is, which, by the way, is being hunted for by numerous armed robbers, I will lose a very important ally. No, you look for Rubin yourself.
B: What's your advice?
D: I was introduced to him by a nice lady Lara Ravel. She is a very kind, compassionate creature. I think it would be very hard to get in her house with bad reputation, but you will probably be able to fight your way there.
Klara, day 1:
Quote:
C: Now, look here. As you hold threads of life in your wonderful hands, I am going to charge you with several men. They all are evil. Their souls are as black as soot. Each of them is either an evident criminal or the one who conceals an ominous secret. You should take care of them.
K: How shall I understand you then? Shall I take care of evildoers?
C: If you are a kind angel, saint wonder monger, sent to us from heaven, who but you can see virtue in their dead souls, convert them, forgive or acquit? But that's not the reason why I asked you to take care of them. There are a lot of those in our town who needs cleanup as well as criminals who are even worse than these one. But these ones are unusual. For you, Klara...
Quote:
W: How small and fragile you are... Will you be able to survive in this terrible world?
K: You are speaking, as if I were a newly born child.
W: Isn't it so? You will have to be taught to eat, drink, sleep, move, treat and even breathe. Health weakens too fast here, even an experienced person has to look after oneself. Not everyone copes with it.
K: I don't need your advice. I can eat myself. Open the mouth and - am-am!
day 3:
Quote:
L: No, you cannot... Harpist prohibited me. I have a rule - this house is hospitable to everyone whoever asked about it if he is a worthy and honest man. But Harpist said that it will have to be ignored during the epidemic otherwise the idea will lose any sense...
K: Why?
L: My house is too small... and then, you know, it is still my father's house. We have found an empty house to this end and even started preparing it to a protracted siege, but it is strange that we have recently learnt that it was infected! Perhaps, somebody has carried it with provisions, but who and where from? Nobody knows...


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PostPosted: 07 Jan 2010, 21:03 
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First of all, there exists wonderful Pathologic's "Let's Play" thread on SomethingAwful: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... genumber=1
Have fun:)
Well, if I decide I want to play the game, I don't want to spoil it by reading/watching a Let's Play of it. I've already spoiled myself a bit more than I should have on The Void in reading reviews before I bought it and perusing the forums here since then.

Thanks for the samples of text, though. Most of it makes sense, but some of Klara's is definitely... odd, to say the least. Hmm, I'll have to give this more thought. Or maybe I'll just wait until the translation project is complete or it is clear it never will be. It's not as if I don't have many other games, including The Void, to play in the meantime.


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PostPosted: 07 Jan 2010, 23:48 
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Hmm, those Klara translations aren't as bad as I was expecting. In fact, it really makes me want to play Pathologic again - for the third time :)


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PostPosted: 08 Jan 2010, 01:35 
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Sure, the translations are not bad. At times. :)
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PostPosted: 08 Jan 2010, 01:55 
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In Turgor!
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LMAO :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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PostPosted: 08 Jan 2010, 19:32 
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I only played the Bachelor scenario and a bit of the Haruspex's scenario, and while the translation could be tiring. There are various grammatical errors, some sentences lacking sense, inconsistencies, the feeling that something got cut out (I remember there was a day or two in the Bachelor's scenario where instead of the usual quest descriptions there were only simple one-sentence summaries). However, all these did not prevent me from enjoying the game, and I think I managed to understand most of what was going on. (At least what was possible to understand from only one scenario).

I know what you mean about the scariness, and I think you're pretty safe. I played Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of Earth and while I loved the game, for me each session with is was usually a run from one checkpoint to the next, forcing myself to go forward in spite of the urge to turn it immediately off (because it was scary, not bad). In Pathologic, it mostly depends on some surrealistic elements of the setting and some disturbing themes (death, disease, etc.) and the contemplation of aspects human existence. Nothing suddenly jumps out to eat your head, no guts and blood splattered everywhere around, no dynamic movie-like camera tricks to keep you on edge all the time. Some locations are more eerie than others, some moments more dynamic, but you should have enough time to get used to the game, know how it works and what to expect.

My machine is far from new (four or five years now, and it wasn't any high-end thing back then); the only technical thing was some bug with I think nVidia drivers involving the lighting - I had to turn of the grass in outside-game settings before attempting to shoot a gun or light a lamp outdoors lest the game should crash. That didn't happen too often, so while a nuisance, it was not a major one.

I recommend trying it out just because it is something very different from the usual stuff, so it has some merit even if you don't enjoy it. I myself had a hard time getting into it - it was lying on my shelf for two years and over that time I made several tries just get through the first day, ultimately only playing the first scenario just recently, and finding it very rewarding and interesting after all.

And that Klara impression is priceless. :lol:


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