Lucky
Arcane
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- Apr 28, 2015
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Eh, why didn't you just post it here? It's a pretty old thread and the Russian/Polish titles are less well known, plus it's not an adventure game (more of a survival game). I'll quote it and the necro prior to that because the Tension/Turgor/Void distinction is pretty interesting.
The annoying part of the differences between these versions is that you can only get the German/English (The Void) on GoG and Gamergate (English only on Gamergate), so it's a hassle to get the full picture of what Ice-Pick Lodge was trying to do. Myself, I've still yet to get my hands on either the Russian or Polish version, though I'd really like to get a look at either or both.
Seeing that this thread had mainly been concerned with the original version of Turgor/Tension/The_Void, I gathered it to be a more appropriate place for the information below, than "The Random Adventure Game News Thread" in which that information had originally been posted in. Some of the information repeats a lot of the points already stated in this thread, and some of it is entirely new (in the context of this thread's discussion). I hope that all the new bits will be of at least some use to the visitors of this sub-forum and to the admirers of the Ice-Pick_Lodge's games.
I will start with the general information. Both because it repeats some of the points from this thread's discussion and because it was exactly that way in the original thread, I will use spoiler tags for the whole tl;dr. So, here goes:
Many of you, I gather, are aware of a Russian videogame developing company, named Ice-Pick Lodge. They made Pathologic, The Void, Cargo, Knock-Knock - and are now kickstarting Pathologic remake (which they hope to finish by November 2016). Some of you may also remember that the game called The Void also has a couple of variations to its name. What I mean, is that in different places it gets called Turgor, Tension or, well, The Void.
Now this is where it gets tricky. In fact, there are not three titles, but four (2*2): Тургор (Turgor), Тургор: Голос Цвета (Turgor: The Voice of Colour), Tension and The Void. There is a reason for that discrepancy in naming. The reason is that:Thus, we get to the main point of this message. Which is that the English subtitle/interface translation patch for the original version of the game, that has already been mentioned in this thread, is freely available for download in THIS THREAD ( DIRECT LINK | MIRROR LINK ) - and yes, naturally, it will allow you to play the original version of the game even if you don't happen to know either Russian or Polish.1) In Russian-speaking countries, the game was called differently than in Western ones.Actually, about the titles of the game. Of these four:
2) There are two very different versions of the game itself.
1) Тургор (Turgor) and Tension correspond to the initial version of the game. Тургор (Turgor) is the title by which the game was known in Russian-speaking countries - and Tension is the title for the sort of "international release" that game saw (it only was published in Poland by Techland and, if mobygames is to be believed, was also published in Brazil - it was also translated to English in-house, although that translation was never officially released). This initial version was released on April 17, 2008, and was developed using the funding from a Russian publishing/distributing house, called "Noviy Disk" ("New Disc/CD").From what I know (I've only played the original version of the game, Tension) - these versions of the game differ heavily. The engine got reworked, the gameplay got heavily reworked, the storyline was completely torn down, and a different, much less ambiguous and much more scripted and directed storyline, was made instead. The differences were apparently so fundamental that:
2) Тургор: Голос Цвета (Turgor: The Voice of Colour) and The Void correspond to the heavily reworked/remixed version of the game. Again, Тургор: Голос Цвета (Turgor: The Voice of Colour) is the name, by which the game was known in Russian-speaking countries - and The Void is the title of the international release (now proper). Actually, the international release was the whole point for this version, as it was developed for Atari and using the funding from Atari, and this version is exactly why the first version of the game, Tension, has never seen its proper worldwide release. This version was released on May 28, 2009 (more than a year after the first version of the game!) in Russian-speaking countries, and in October, 2009 - internationally.
1) They facilitated the second release of the game in Russia, as a new standalone title only a year after the release of the original one (which in itself created a sort of violent backlash from the audience towards IPL), as it was impossible to make a patch from Tension to The Void, and keep it under 2Gb (compared to the 4Gb data of the games themselves). The saves, naturally, were incompatible as well.Anyways, the point is, if you've played The Void only (which you probably did, considering where I'm writing this), you've only played a redacted and gamified version of Turgor (as a concept with two different implementations, that is, Tension and The Void), which has a sizeable controversy concerning it in Russian-speaking countries. The original version, Tension, is very different, and is arguably closer to what Turgor (as, again, a concept) was originally meant to be.
2) Almost nobody in the Russian fan community of the game considers "The Void" a purely incremental or even clearly superior (or inferior at that) version of the game. Overall, it is widely considered, that the original version of the game is more artistic, atmospheric and, while The Void constitutes a better game. Moreover, it is still customary for Russian-speaking fans of the game to direct newbs towards playing Tension first, since it is widely considered that IPL games were always kinda of 'eh' gameplay-wise (although not in the "interactive movie" or even "walking simulator" sorts of ways, since for their games interactivity and gameplay mechanics, however shit one might consider them, are absolutely crucial), so if you want to play one, you probably want to do that because of artistry and Teh Experience. Even Nikolay Dybowski (the guy who "invented" and wrote both Tension and The Void) got conflicting statements. As in first claiming that The Void was not expanded, but actually reduced version of the game content/script-wise, and that he wasn't happy with it at all (in contrast to the programming guys from IPL, who almost unanimously considered The Void a "Developer's Cut" version of the game, and were happy with it much more with the original one), and that he only did it because it was necessary for his company. On the other hand, while answering a question recently, as to why The Void has such a different and much more explicit storyline, he told that the themes from the original game continued to develop in his head even after the release of the the original game, and what we see in The Void is the result of that. Of course he also stated, that Turgor (he actually meant both version viewed together) is a bonkers and WTF game, about which nobody in the studio (including him) still fully understands just what exactly the fuck it even is. As well as that he considers both versions his personal creative failure, as the game was supposed to be purely non-verbal (as a gameplay-centered interactive painting) - and that the Sisters shouldn't have been allowed to talk at all - but they just didn't manage to pull it off, at all (and no, he says that Turgor remake - as in Pathologic Remake - is out of the question, since he is sooo done with Turgor, and since two versions of the game are more than enough already).
Two things should be noted about the whole affair:
Note1: This patch is based upon the in-house translation of the game made by IPL itself, namely, by Alexey Luchin (The LxR). Proof.Now, to the point of what exactly you should do with this information. Here is a sort of mini-guide concerning various patches a fixes to the original version of the game and the order of their application.
Note2: You still need to have the original version of the game in order to patch it and play it. The Void simply won't do. And no, sorry, but (after I was reminded of the rules which you are supposed to stick to onto these forums) it is of no concern of mine just how you would manage to get your hands on the original version of the game. Although any information about the ways using which you could legally acquire the original 2008 version of the game (in any possible form - disc or digital, Russian or Polish) nowadays, would be appreciated (I also want to remind you that discussing or providing the information about the illegal ways of acquiring the game - as I did earlier - is forbidden on these forums altogether. If you happen to know such an information, good for you, but do not post it here).
1. Install the game. IF you happen to be in the possession of a modern GPU with the in-built PhysX acceleration, and IF the installation lets you skip installing Ageia PhysX drivers, skip it. IF you are, again, in the possession of a modern GPU with the in-built PhysX acceleration, and IF the installer forces you to install Ageia PhysX driver, you will need to uninstall it later manually, and to install PhysX Legacy driver instead.That would be all.
2. Patch the game. If you are in the possession of the original Russian DVD version of Тургор/Turgor/Tension, use this 1.01 patch from Tension/The_Void homepage. If you are in the possession of the Russian digital download version of Тургор/Turgor/Tension, use this version of 1.01 patch from NoviyDisk's homepage. If you are in the possession of the Polish version of Tension, published by Techland, then there are no patches for it that I'm aware of. The only thing I can say, is that if you are lucky, it is already patched.
After this step, all the following ones can be applied in any order.
3. There is a hotfix, created by one of the developers of the game, Alexey Luchin(The LxR), which needs to be applied to the already patched version of the game, and which irons out a minor but fairly annoying bug in it. Here is the LINK to the original forum thread about it (in Russian), and here is the DIRECT LINK to the hotfix itself. The contents need to be extracted into the \data\ sub-folder of where you have installed the game, so that the file tree_sister.bin would appear in \data\scripts\.
3a. There is also another unofficial mod, created by the same person (Alexey Luchin= The LxR), that serves as a nude patch for the game, eliminating all the "butterflies" around all the strategic parts. It is known to introduce graphical glitches to the game. I list it here for the completeness' sake only. Here is the LINK to the original thread (again, in Russian), and, since the all the direct links in it are down, here is the MIRROR LINK to the fix itself. Again, it needs to be extracted into the \data\ sub-folder of where you have installed the game, so that the file girl.xml would appear in \data\Properties\World\.
4. Apply the English subtitle patch (created, again, by Alexey Luchin = The LxR). Here is, again, the LINK to one of the IPL forum threads about it, and here are the DIRECT LINK and MIRROR LINK to the patch itself. Once again, it needs to be extracted into the \data\ sub-folder of where you have installed the game, so that all the necessary files would appear in \data\Properties\Strings\lang_russian\.
There is however a little something extra I want to share with you. Some editions of Russian DVD versions of both Turgor/Tension and Turgor:The_Voice_of_Colour/The_Void were bundled with the bonus discs containing music, art, interviews, etc. I do not know, whether the contents of Tension and The Void bonus discs happen to differ (other than in terms of music, since The Void bonus disc contains some remastered musical tracks that were made specifically for The Void) - but what I DO know is that IPL were kind enough to just share the contents of The Void bonus disc with Teh Internetz. Here is the LINK to page from the original Tension/The_Void homepage with the announcement (second newspiece from above), and here is the DIRECT LINK to the torrent file, hosted on the said official homepage. Extra bonus - the English subtitles (created by Halfgild Wynac) which you can use with some of the videos from said bonus disc: LINK to the IPL forum thread with the links and discussion concerning said subtitles.
The game has three titles, the name depends where it was released.
Here's Polish edition:
Bonus DVD official torrent includes artworks, soundtrack, promotional videos etc:
http://forum.ice-pick.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=8918
If the game is too difficult, then here are additional easy modes:
http://forum.ice-pick.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9270
Turns out they did not. The differences between different language versions are not limited to just the language used. English version seems to have much shorter and "down to the point" dialogues, whereas Polish version is written in a more beautiful language. Here's a screenshot of the same thing in Polish and English version (you don't have to know both languages to notice something glaring):
Tension, the Polish edition:
The Void, the English edition:
It's not a rare thing. Actually, all "lines" are much shorter in English!
The colors used in some parts of the game are different too. Here's Uta's grotto:
Polish:
English:
I just begun playing Polish version today, and I have completed English one two months ago. Therefore I probably haven't seen most of the differences between them, but they are apparent right from the start. It's clear the English version is rather half-arsed quickjob than the Polish one. Perhaps The Void is a reworked game, but it seems to be reworked in a bad way. If anybody has played the game in Russian or German it'd be nice if you left the comment!
The annoying part of the differences between these versions is that you can only get the German/English (The Void) on GoG and Gamergate (English only on Gamergate), so it's a hassle to get the full picture of what Ice-Pick Lodge was trying to do. Myself, I've still yet to get my hands on either the Russian or Polish version, though I'd really like to get a look at either or both.
What's your experience with it so far? Would you say that one of them is the superior version, or are they clearly separate games?
Polish version is the original version of the game.
