Since some people here obviously are playing a pirated version of Gray Matter, could someone clarify if the downloadable version available from Gamer Unlilited:

http://gamerunlimited.gamesplanet.co...r-2194-14.html

is a complete English version of Gray Matter? Or is it the German version with english subtitles, or something else?

That is the whole point of reviews, to be critical of negatives. If a game has easy puzzles, That is the sole reason to play for many adventure gamers. Good for them for pointing out the flaws.

I mean, if no one can answer my question above, that means every single person in this thread is playing the pirated version! That's pretty f**ked up.

Or you could just read the thread, which already answered it multiple times. Start at the beginning.

From were i come from a review or critic, of every kind of entertaining and/or art form, has to have the good and bad points. Just focusing on one of them is an incompetent work fueled by hatred or fanatism. And as a matter of fact the review Kuze mentioned did have positive points listed.

You posted your question 15 minutes ago, give a little time.

I've read it. But as far as I can see, nobody explicitly say they're playing the version downloaded from Gamer Unlimited. Are you?

Sweetheart, I'm sure I'm not the only one playing the boxed retail version. Delivered to the Netherlands, only two days after the German release, by reliable amazon.de. If the German/English download version is the same as the retail version, and why shouldn't it be, you get everything in English - voices, subtitles, menu.

"I'm sure", "If, if ..." .. you are only giving me conjectures. I would just like to have it clearified from someone who has actually downloaded the version from Gamer Unlimited if this version is a full english version. Why is that so difficult?

But anyway thanks for the answer ... Sweetheart.

Dearie, I don't enjoy being accused of pircacy just because the people who can answer your question are not on-line right now. Go **** yourself.

Well "deary", touchy, are we? Chill down. I'm not accusing anyone here; just stating the obvious. I don't really care where you or anyone else on this forum have acquired GM. But it would be really satisfying if someone could answer my question.

Heh. Bloody impatient adolescents. They come in here and demand to be served. NOW!
It would be really satisfying if nobody answered your question.

EDIT: Terabin, that link is not an illegal download.

What are you talking about? Is it me you are referring to? In that case what do you mean by "talk the specifics about downloading the game illegally"? Elaborate, please?

Borgar, my mistake. I thought the link you were posting was to a pirated version.

Well, I bought my lap only this year, and it was pretty modern at that time. It must be my karma. I'll keep experimenting.
And btw I'm not the one blaming the graphics. It's the potential players who will reject to play GM because "it looks dated". I don't like them either.

The game gets better and better :) Thank you for the hint.

OK. Everyone needs to calm down a bit.

@Borgar, if you really want to know the answer to your question then why are you not contacting the shop? They are much more likely to be able to answer your question than people on this forum. In any case you need to can the attitude now. If you've read the forum rules you'll note that "Respect each other" is included in there. You are showing a fundamental lack of respect for other members and this will not be tolerated. Further outbursts are likely to result in a temporary loss of posting privileges at least. If you look through the thread properly as suggested you will see another legitimate download link has been posted already.

@Fien. Even with provocation you know better than to post abuse, even asterisked out. I'm going to make an exception this time but don't do it again.

Thanks for that stepurhan. I must admit my mistake too in reacting strongly to borgar, as I had false assumptions about the kind of game download he was referring to.

It would be nice if these issues concerning where/how to get this game and information about those sources had their own thread. They don't seem to fit in the game reaction thread.

NIce in theory, but, as well as having multiple threads on the same game, I suspect you'd end up with posts regularly ending up in the wrong thread anyway.

I apologise to everyone for any provocative statement coming from me.

One additional question: Maybe I'm blind or something, but seriously I can't find the alternative download link stepurhan is mentioning above. Could someone help me out on this?

I've looked back and the link was actually the same as the one you posted. I know the person posting got the boxed version and so will be unable to answer your question. Later posts indicate others have used that link but they haven't been on since you posted your query. Hopefully someone able to answer your question will be on soon.

Meanwhile, a disc version can be purchased from German Amazon which is also playable in English

Gray Matter on German Amazon
Confirmation on DTP forums that this version is playable in English(fourth post in the linked thread)

doesn't look like anyone has answered this yet so i can say 100% it is fully in english, voices and subtitles, just select english language at the start of the installer and then the whole thing is in english, no need to select a menu option in game or anything.

Thanks a bunch for the helpful response, jamiehavok.

EDIT: Just learned on google that "thanks a bunch" could be interpreted as sarcasm. That was not my intention! Thanks a lot!

I can confirm: it is completely in English and you would not even notice that there is also a german option. Manual and box are German, but I prefer a German collector's edition to an English low budget dvd release. Box is very stylish, much better than the limited edition of Dreamfall for instance.

Exerpts from a couple of nicely written player reviews I found to be interesting:

"This game makes a lousy first impression. In the tutorial section, I found the animations for the first character you control, Samantha, to be horribly overdone. The voice acting for Sam in that tutorial is pretty bad, too, and the fact that they insist on showing a close-up of her face on the side panel (hard to describe...remember how in the first Gabriel Knight game they'd show a close up of Gabe's face and the face of the person he was talking to? They do something similar here) heightens the bad impression, because at least in English the lip movement doesn't match well at all with the dialogue.
That was on Saturday. I was bitterly disappointed at having pissed away $55 on a game that I wasn't sure I wanted to ever boot up again...but I decided to give it a go again on Sunday night. As I wound my way through the first chapter, damned if Jane Jensen didn't start weaving some of that magic spell she's got over me, and damned if this game didn't start to get really good."

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=62204


"The most glaring criticisms are the game’s graphics and animations. (Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way, shall we?) If you are expecting an adventure game with cutting edge graphics and animation, you will not find it here. What you can expect, however, is a game that is rich in story, mystery, and the supernatural. In other words, it’s all the things that fans of Jane Jensen’s games have come to expect. Gray Matter tells a beautifully crafted story with interwoven themes of science vs. magic, love and obsession, death and forgiveness. Set in Oxford, the game is steeped in history and atmosphere, and features real locations from around England rendered into beautiful, softly lit backdrops."

http://shezcrafti.com/review-gray-ma...orth-the-wait/

Yeah, I agree. The magic system is great idea for this kind of game. Magic tricks were also a good way to put some logical item collecting to the game. Preparing tricks could have been more challenging, and performing the trick after preparation is very anti-climatic.

Ha! I came here to share my Gray Matter review, and you already beat me to it. :)

Just complete first chapter, it's not bad :)

Since the original thread is closed, it looks like I might as well shove this here:

Now, I've no idea if there's an actual CD available, but for anyone who wants it, you can download the soundtrack from amazon.co.uk.

i recently completed the game and its quite excellent. It gets a 9/10 from me and itd be 10 if the story was less rushed at the end. Id say its the best new adventure game of the last 10 years. And i like it better than both GK2 and GK3 (but nothing trumps GK1).

Pros:
* intriguing story
* absolutely beautiful backgrounds and atmosphere
* fantastic soundtrack
* That classic adventure feel of exploring
* the interface ideas are very cool and helpful

cons:
* the cutscene animations are poor
* the story is intriguing but never realizes its full potential
* its not very hard, but still hard enough to make you feel clever once in a while.
* it ends, i was hoping it would just go on and on.

All in all, i think this game was worth the wait and lives up to the hype, and iv got my fingers crossed that it sells well enough to encourage more games like this.

i'm am about midway through the second chapter and am really enjoying it so far, i agree with most of the complaints, the animation is horrible, the loading times allthough only 2-5 seconds between each screen still annoy me as it really shouldn't take that long on my machine! but the graphics are very atmospheric and the story grabed me from the start.

I didn't like the cut scenes at first but after the chapter 1 end sequence they're growing on me.

The puzzles are maybe a bit too easy. i dont know why the map has the locations marked where there are still tasks to do in the chapter from the start, you should have to click a hint icon on the map like gabriel knight 2.
plus yeah the magic trick puzzles are a bit pointless since it tells you exactly what to do, maybe they could have had an easy and hard version of the trick book you could switch between at will. Otherwise my patients with adventure games isn't what it used to be so the puzzles for the most part are just right.

I've just finished it as well.

Keep in mind that I'm not a Jane Jensen fan, and I didn't quite buy into the hype surrounding the game. Gray Matter is above average, as I've previously mentioned, but it does have serious flaws and technical limitations. Some game logic issues are apparent, like not being able to proceed or pick up an object before visiting a location or talking to someone, which sometimes made sense, sometimes however felt totally arbitrary. From a technical standpoint, the engine is simply not well implemented; compared to the now years old Tunguska engine it fails in every aspect: loading times, path finding, hotspot-display, inventory. The cutscenes I actually liked though, and I have to agree that animations in adventure games have always been horrible, I'm surprised people are just now picking up on this.

The backdrops are beautifully rendered, the soundtrack is nice, yet not intrusive. Voice-acting is a mixed bag - and I preferred playing it in English since the German voices are unbearable - I'm not a fan of Sam's voice, David's however I enjoyed. The game difficulty was fine for me, some might find it too easy; I'm not a hardcore puzzler though, and I get quickly annoyed if I have to consult the walkthrough every ten minutes.

The much appraised story was underwhelming, I didn't feel any attachment to the characters until the very end, which, on the other hand, I really liked. The whole magic/neuroscience aspect did not interest me much, I was just entertained enough to want to keep going. The atmosphere of the game didn't grab me as much as Syberia or Black Mirror, which I found surprising myself given the beautiful locations and imagery.

At the end I'd say it's worth getting if you're a devoted adventure fan or want to be mildly entertained for a few days. This is not groundbreaking though, even though I can see people saying that given the poor quality of some of the recent adventures.

i wouldnt typically complain about cutscenes, but they became a problem when it wasnt perfectly clear what was going on. Also characters looked much different in cutscenes, so it wasnt always immediately apparent who was talking since there was no lips moving. I still play text adventures, so really i wouldnt complain about the graphics not being good enough, but the cutscenes bordered on confusing, and that is bad. But i was still reallly happy with the game as a whole.

Also id be shocked if mamba changes anything for the UK release like iv seen some people saying, because dont forget: mamba is just a publisher. The reason they had to push the date back is most definitely because theyr working on other translations and not changing anything about the game.

Weirdly, you can also get the soundtrack from Amazon.com in the U.S. But the game itself, no mention.
http://www.amazon.com/Gray-Matter-Or...9965280&sr=8-1

Anyone else obsessed with that Scarlet Furies - Safe in Arms song? I can't stop listening to it. The lyrics, about a boy soldier returning home from war, are so incredibly powerful. The lead singer has a really strong vocal presence, and the male harmonies added in the choruses really ground the song in a communal celebration of this return. Anyone want to comment on how the song is used in the game?

if i remember correctly....

Spoiler:

It plays during the scene where david is remembering his time with his dead wife at the lake. I think it also plays during the credits or near the end of the game.

and yeah, the soundtrack is just so good. Im going to have to buy it at some point.

Great game and amazing score! Brought up memories of GK :) I found a store on the official site (AOL Musik) where I bought the soundtrack.

@Borgar: Thanks anyway! ;)

It is Raleigh Holmes, btw, a daughter of Robert Holmes and stepdaughter of Jane Jensen, who sings the song :)

She has a lovely voice. And she's pretty too :blush:

I've just started playing. As everyone else, I'm positively impressed by everything, if slightly peeved by the animations. So basically this is an 1+ to the above opinions, especially those which put great emphasis on the quality of the game and downplay how much the (albeit subpar) animations contribute to spoil it. :)

Also, I have my usual set of pet peeves about certain specific aspects of the game's 3D graphics engine (the 2D backgrounds are flawless). I've actually posted in the DTP forum to ask for help, but none has come yet. Could those of you who have started playing the a look in the thread and see if they're having similar problems? Thanks!

Am I right in assuming we're talking about the song that plays over the game menu? If so, I agree (again). And... pics? :frown:

I've noticed it as well, but it didn't bother me.

Yep. The Scarlet Furies have 3 songs i think. Sam's theme (the one in the menu) David's theme (the one in the trailer) and another one from their album.

A few pics, also for the Robert Holmes fans