"I believe Charles Cecil clearly said at least for one of the upcoming changes that he was uncomfortable with that story element from the very beginning" - and that´s exactly where I see just sugarcoated words meaning "we are afraid it would be seen today as politically incorrect, therefore we´d like to change it" - do you honestly believe if he would be that uncomfortable with that particular story element, that they wouldn´t remove it via patch in the original or DC edition?

I understand what you´re trying to say with your own artistic endeavors, and what you experienced is normal for anybody who tried to do any kind of art over a course of time - it´s good if you see flaws in your previous work, because that means you moved forward.

But for games, book and movies alike there´s one important factor as well: community. It´s no longer just you and once released, your own work is no longer just "yours" - it´s out in the wild, left to be interpreted and experienced by others. And the reason why any kind of community is formed around a book, movie, game, is because it resonates with people.
And from that moment on, any significant change to that might be seen as problematic (you might not thing this is significant, but community might - hence the lukewarm reaction to DC edition) - because you might accidentally (thinking, you´re just removing insignificant line) remove something, which resonates with community - and they will let you know.

I remember precisely all the things and moments he mentions in that interview (even though it has been years since I played that game - I guess they´re not so insignificant after all), and I can tell you already that changing one NPC´s character (no matter how clichéd or stereotypical he might perceive him) is not insignificant.

What I would rather see is the warning message - all the points he brought up could be taken care of via the warning message at the beginning of the game, just like in Tomb Raider remasters.

It´s different if they would be restoring some unused lines or new areas, which they wanted to include but did not had time - fans are usually thankful for these kind of changes (seen for example in Blade Runner in SCUMMVM or Extended Edition).

Hello everyone!

There is almost nothing I could add to the well articulated arguments by my fellow gog users (including MarkoH01 and Tarhiel among others).

I regretted my purchase of the Director's Cut Edition, because it demonstrated to me, that the creator himself (Mr. Charles Cecil in this case, but like others before and alongside him) did not understood, why the fans loved the original game so much in the first place. And this catering to this imaginative "modern audience" and a seemingly "political correctness" shows that they still have no clue at all.

If he really feels so "uncomfortable" about such stereotypes and provocative scenes, why has he not changed them in his earlier attempt(s). And let us not forget, those words come from the same developer who was (and seemingly still is) ok with naming is former adventure game "Lure of the Temptress" just to cash in on the unknowing customer!
Why not be honest and consistent and rectify this, as well?

Unfortunately, I do not trust this developer and his partners anymore.
And last time (with the release of the Director's Cut) they already quickly removed the originals from the stores, only later allowing them to be added as bonus, but with all the non-english language versions and content (including the French and German) missing from distribution!

Who knows, maybe he is going to remove Director's Cut on release of the Reforged edition, too.
Then, there won't be any legal access to the original game anymore.

(I am only glad and grateful for other company's recent good example to NOT remove the original versions upon release of their remaster or remake.)

Kind regards,
foxgog

[Edit: removed 'original french' and rephrased that part, because it was based on assumptions of earliest media coverage in French at the time]

Don't give them ideas…

Was it the original language?
The whole team was British and it was developed there, I thought it was English?

Well how can you? You might have played the original, but you haven't played the Reforged version, it's not out yet. We all rely on some interviews, but we don't know yet how these changes will manifest, or perhaps even worse, if some actual major changes will be in the game as well that Charles sneakily didn't even mention.

I like to at least skim through some reviews before I buy/play a game. This is exactly why I mentioned the reviewers, because it's certain that quite a few of them will be veterans who played the original game and who will most probably have an opinion about the differences and whether they change the plot or general feel of the story significantly. I certainly can't rely on you, because it's clear by now that you already rejected the game.


My biggest concerns with this rant in a paragraph are these two parts:
- "I personally hate it with a passion"
- "I absolutely WILL hate it for that alone and I will hope that it won't sell along with not supporting the game"

Regardless of the subject, disagreeing with something and demonstrating that disagreement for example by not opening your wallet, is fair game. But showing hostility at this level, and actually hoping for commercial failure (financial harm) for a quite small studio is malicious.


Of course it's possible that he's doing it because of purely PR. But I can't see into his head, and so I can only rely on my own XP, because (and without going into the details), this personally happened to me as well. I also stereotyped people from various nations in some of my past writings, and when I read them recently, I was shocked how wrong I was. Yet I can assure you my example has nothing to do with PC, even though many people would probably assume.


And that's absolutely fine, as long as it's polite. But why do I sense that more and more people are ready to go full "Misery" with a sledgehammer (or God forbid with an axe)? (Although may I just read between the lines, and "maybe" assume that you also reject the sledgehammer, it wasn't the original choice of weapon after all, right? ;) ). But back to the subject, things are getting worse year after year, and this latest thing with the w-word and PC (both sides of the debate, let's be honest), and automatically rejecting/cancelling based on certain traits, is just something I don't understand.


And hopefully it's clear by now that I have no preference:
- no changes whatsoever, like the original -> fine
- no changes except a warning message -> fine
- minor changes -> fine
- major changes -> we'll see

And just some closing remarks, I was expecting a bigger outrage related to the usage of AI in this game, which was also mentioned during the interview, and yet almost no one seemed to care that much. So from this aspect, my assumption was wrong (you see? Assumptions can be wrong.)

Hello 金黒!
Maybe, I mixed something up, but I thought, Mr. Charles Cecil was not born in the UK. And I remember having heard and read interviews with him about the then upcoming "Broken Sword" first in french media magazines. I assumed it was the original language of the game.
My initial contact with the actual game was later on the Playstation in the German language version.

(I'll go and edit the corresponding phrase in my former post.)

Kind regards,
foxgog

I prefer 2024 western political sensibilities than 1930 wannabe minds

Love all the Broken Sword games, especially in their original format. Looking forward to Parzival's Stone.
Noticed they all work on Windows 11, nice work GOG:)

Yeah i mean political correctness is never malicious is it? I mean they never get people fired for saying something that they don't like, do they? Oh wait a minute they actually do.

Why the snarky message?
If there's a conflict/debate of some kind, and if the two sides are not willing to see reason, it's not gonna end well.

Regarding the 3D parts of the series:
For me, Angel of Darkness is not a good game, 3D or not. :-(
But I really do like, and enjoyed several times, The Sleeping Dragon. It has some clunkieness because of the 3D, but it's very good IMHO! I even liked the crate pushing/pulling puzzles! ;-D

Following are two quotes taken from an interview Mr. Cecil gave with The Gamer during Gamescom last fall.

This sounds wildly different to Polygon's partial quotes, which can be traced back to other web sources, which seem to have been paraphrased to put their own spin on the narrative for their piece. remarks to suit their narrative of their piece. That being said, I suspect that all they are going to change in regards to the carpet seller, is going to be textual. Even though one might ask why this is necessary, considering his role being a bouncer, which only makes it natural for him not to be inviting and affable, to avoid attracting unnecessary attention to the place he is guarding. Especially when word goes around that an American tourist is snooping about, it can't be expected that he's looking inviting and friendly.

If anything, Mr. Cecil is afraid that in 2023 it's easy to become victim of witch hunters, going out of their way to put him into cahoots with the devil, when this character isn't conforming to a minorities standards and sensibilities who otherwise don't care about games and gaming at all.

My opinion is that once they start to make changes to remove stereotypes, something almost all Broken Sword games are living off and feeding on—like the fat American tourist, also known as the secret agent, the tourist crowd in Paris, Sergeant Moue, the Irish fiddle player, the teenage would-be gangster in front of the pub, the drunk old guy inside, the wine-drinking French, Rio, the dictator and his mother in 2, the fortune teller in 3, and Medovsky in 5 - it would never end. With each change comes a risk to ruin the totality of the experience, for players familiar with the originals, that's what they have to be mindful of, instead of what some random people could now consider to be inappropriate, and has no place and must be changed or removed, so others who they believe must be infantilized are protected from any harm.

No, please, anything but warnings! Warnings about potential triggers, or explaining that something is no longer appropriate because..., instead of offering the game and allowing people to form their own opinion and deciding for themselves if - based on what they've seen, heard, and experienced - it offends them or causes outrage. That's life and it's one of the freedoms we all enjoy, to think, feel and make our own experiences, without constantly being warned!

For people who so easily feel offended and find fault with everything, a warning sign should be created that they can put next to their bed, reading:

DISCLAIMER: If this will be perceived as offensive by a reader, all I can say in reply - and coming from the bottom of my heart, is どういたしまして!

A remaster of a remaster of a game that has been already working perfectly in ScummVM for over a decade.

Charles Cecil should remaster Revolution's non-Broken Sword games if some of his old games should be remastered and not by using lazy AI upscaling art.

I did not say that I can compare the two just yet - I can't ... BUT IF ... and that is all that matters to me ... they decided to change parts of the story or characters for the sake of political correctness I can tell you - even without comparision - that I will dislike it. Like I said, I hate political correctness with a passion and all that I expect this Reforged version to be is a technically superior version of the original game without any adfditional changes.

Reviewers will judge these possible changes as subjectively as everybody else. Like I said, some don't have problems with political correctness, some (inclusing myself) have them. I am biased in that regard and I stand to it. So no, you should not trust me ... but you should also not trust reviewers. Reviewers will be able to tell you WHAT they've changed but it should be up to YOU to decide if YOU have problems with the changes or not.

Not unexpected ... because these are harshh and extreme words and the game is not even out yet. The first line is just me and there's not much anyone can do about it because it is simply like I feel. The second one somehow is also just me hoping that this stupid trend will die and maybe me not supporting the game will help with this. However it is not just about me. So far I don't know of any changes anywhere made because of political correctness that the majority of the customers applauded ... yet it is still done ... why? Where are those hate letters from those people who felt offended because of this old game? They never existed and they probably never will. For me political correctness is blind activism that does not help anybody ... not the customer ... not the so called "offended" not the dev who won't be able to sell the product.

It might sound that way but as I explained above - I strongly believe that the absence of political correctness will make this world better and in case of such products will also help everybody - including the dev - in the end. They need to stop harming their own products and the only way for this to happen (unfortunately) is to lose money when doing it.

Depends. If you SUDDENLY realized that your characters are wrongly stereotypical I'd say yes, that's PC - but if you noticed it right after writing I'd simply say that you reexamined your story. Don't you think that it is a bit strange that so many devs (and filmmakers) just recently "discovered" what bad characters they created years ago? If an artist would be unhappy with his product and was unable to create his vision for financial reasons or time constraints ... that would be a totally different thing for me. I really enjoy TRUE Director's Cuts.

Some political correctness is good, some is just okay and some is bad.

Like so many changes in the last 50 years or so, sometimes they just go too far, with what was a necessary change. I guess you could see that as a re-balancing act, if only it were for a short term, but often it isn't, and therein lies my biggest annoyance with some political correctness, though generally I am not that effected by it ... other than to watch my Ps and Qs in certain company.

Of course, much of it comes from folk trying to change things overnight, which just cannot happen. Most changes will take decades if not a change of generation to truly become the norm. It is very hard to change habits of a lifetime for many folk, even if intellectually you agree with the change. Much of our humor for instance is based on past examples etc, and has become somewhat ingrained.

There are some things in my psyche that I know I will never be able to fully change in my lifetime, despite a desire at some high level to do so. Life is about living after all, and not questioning every thought etc I have, in a Dream Police fashion.

What's that? 0_o