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I was not sure where to post this topic, but I thought the GK area might be a good choice...

For anyone who bought a physical copy of Gray Matter from a US store (not as a download), could you tell me if the texts in the game itself were localised for US spelling? That is, did they have "recognize" instead of "recognise" or "color" instead of "colour", etc.?

The German and UK releases used British spelling throughout, but I was wondering if this was changed for the US market or not. Also, as a bonus question, do you remember seeing any typos?

I only have the German Collector's Edition and the UK release and a download version, but no US store-bought version, so have no way of checking myself.

I have the U.S. physical copy and I can't recall any typos or any British spelled words. However my memory is not so good. If I have the time to search for it, I'll re-install and let you know for sure.

I don't know about the actual text in the game, but the title uses American English spelling!

Gray with an "a" is American English, whereas grey with an "e" is British English.

True, DPX, that was the one word that used British spelling in the European releases, too.

dotkel50, did you mean that your recollection is that it did use American spelling instead of UK spelling? Apart from "gray", the European releases didn't use any American spellings, it was all UK style. I'm curious to know how thoroughly the US localisation was done if it was done at all instead of releasing the same version in both America and Europe.

I actually think that not localising for the US would have been good for an authentic touch since it was set in England and was a European production apart from Jane herself being American, of course. Just as the spellings in Sierra games were not localised for the UK or other English-speaking markets - a very good thing from my point of view. I think it is distracting that Region 2 DVDs of American shows use British English for the subtitles and often localise the episode titles on sleeves and booklets, so that "A Matter of Honor" might become "A Matter of Honour". That's not the title shown on screen! And let Captain Kirk use American English! (I know William Shatner is from Canada, but Kirk is from Iowa and the show itself is American. )

One thing that could be checked quickly in Gray Matter is the hotspot label for the watercolours in the dining room at Dread Hill. In the UK version, it reads "Watercolours". If the game was localised for US, then that would be "Watercolors".

It's American.

I believe it used American spelling only because I don't recall any British spelling. I usually notice things like that. I agree that it should have used British spelling since it was set in England. They do that for books too. It always makes me wonder if they think we're stupid.

Okay, thanks a lot, Collector and dotkel50! I had not bought the American version yet. I thought the game itself might be the exact same version as was released in Europe, and when the US version first came out, there were not so many images available on Amazon of the US packaging, which I can now see has many different elements. Amazon would not let me order the US version, but fortunately eBay came to the rescue.

One advantage of the US version is that there is no heavy handed DRM.

I got my US copy today, and I have to say I am shocked... I have only had a look at the packaging so far but it is a mess. It looks like no one proofread it, and the (digital-only) manual is even worse. It even lists the German voice actors instead of the English ones.

Simo Sakari Aaltonen wrote:I got my US copy today, and I have to say I am shocked... I have only had a look at the packaging so far but it is a mess. It looks like no one proofread it, and the (digital-only) manual is even worse. It even lists the German voice actors instead of the English ones.

They did a half-ass job of getting GM to North America in many ways, unfortunately. They didn't even offer it in Canada unless you bought it from the US -- either in-store (like at Walmart) or from Amazon.com, as opposed to Amazon.ca.

Visually the US packaging looks nice, but the text has many problems. Unfortunately the UK packaging and manual had problems, too - but I expected that they would have fixed things in the several months that it took to release in the US. I can't understand it at all.

Without having hunting down my box, what is wrong that you have noticed with the text? I never looked at it too closely.

Simo Sakari Aaltonen wrote:Visually the US packaging looks nice, but the text has many problems. Unfortunately the UK packaging and manual had problems, too - but I expected that they would have fixed things in the several months that it took to release in the US. I can't understand it at all.

Maybe they used translation software. That never really works, unless what you're attempting to translate is a few words here and there. Generally you can get the meaning, but that's about all.

As for the manual itself, I don't recall getting a hard copy version. Maia and I own the disc, too, so it's not like we got it as a digital download (although we probably would've if it was available on Steam, seeing as how their prices are usually lower than elsewhere). I don't have GM installed right now, so I can't look at the PDF manual; Maia may still have it on her hard drive, however.

Here are some quotes:

"...rarely leaving his home, the Dread Hill house." (Should be "...rarely leaving his home, Dread Hill House.")

"...appears at Dr. Style's doorstep..." (Should be "...appears at Dr. Styles's [or: Styles'] doorstep..."

"Samantha's first task is to find six people and form "The Lamb's Club", of human guinea pigs for Dr. Style's test at Oxford University." (Awkward phrasing and "Dr. Style's" again, plus should be "The Lambs' Club" as in the game - at least in the UK version, have not checked the US version for this yet. And the test is not at the university.)

"What is the true aim of this paranormal game?" (Confusing - does this refer to the game itself or the strange incidents occurring? And calling things paranormal removes the ambiguity that is supposed to be there.)

This was just the back cover... The manual is its own story.

But even worse is something I just discovered upon playing the actual game: Apart from the texts being inconsistently localised for US English, some of the texts have many bigger problems that are not present in the European English release. Sam's magic book, for example, is significantly different in the US version. It has typos and other problems (like awkward English). So the differences between the European English and North American English versions go well beyond just US/UK spelling.

(Now I finally understand what people have been talking about when referring to text problems in the game. These people were all from North America, as I recall. Having played only the EU version until now, I could not figure out what they meant. The key factor all along has been which side of the Atlantic one got the game from.)

To illustrate the differences, this is the text of the magic book's first spread from the US version:

Instructions

Several things a professional magician needs to remember.

In the first place, you need to choose the right trick according to the situation. Browse through the whole book to find it.
Once you made your choice, mentally prepare yourself to pull it off. Think of the moves you need to perform, stack the right number of instructions and verify each step of the trick.
For every mistake you do, you have to restart from the last good move you made. So, be careful if you don’t want to lose your concentration !
When you have the right sequence, you’re ready to do the trick.


A professional stage magician acts by simple manipulations.

Basics moves :

LOAD an object from your inventory to a hidden location on your body.

PALM an object from the inventory or a location on your body to the hand.

VANISH an object from the hand to the pocket or the sleeve.

MOVE an object hand to hand.

TAKE an object from the environment in hand.

PLANT an object in hand to the environment.

MANIPULATE an object inside your hand.

MISDIRECT your audience.

Here is the text of this spread as seen in the UK/German version:

Instructions

Several things a professional magician needs to remember:

In the first place, you need to choose the right trick according to your situation. Browse through the book to find it.
Once you have made your choice, mentally prepare yourself to pull it off. Consider the moves you need to make and remember to line up the right amount of steps.
If you make a mistake, you will have to go back to the last correct move. So beware losing your concentration!
When you have the right sequence memorised, you're ready to perform the trick.


A professional stage magician employs simple moves.

Basic moves:

LOAD an object from your inventory to a secret location on your body.

PALM an object from the inventory or from a location on your body.

VANISH an object from a hand to a pocket or a sleeve.

MOVE an object from hand to hand.

TAKE an object from the environment into a hand.

PLANT an object from a hand into the environment.

MANIPULATE an object in your hand.

MISDIRECT your audience.

I only just started to play the US version and I dread to see if the rest of the game features similar rough edges (that are not there in the EU version)...

Or compare these spreads.

From the US version:



From the European English version:



So it appears the US version is simply not as finished a version as the European English release.