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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


What is this series about?

Broken Sword is a series of five adventure games and, apart from the third game in the series, they're played with a point and click interface. The main protagonists of the series are George Stobbart, an American patent lawyer currently touring Europe, and Nicole "Nico" Collard, a French freelance journalist and resident of Paris. Nicole is investigating a series of terrorist attacks that have been happening throughout the city while George is in Paris and enjoying his vacation until he becomes a first-hand witness to another attack.

LP Details

This will be a VLP and I will be providing commentary as I record. I will aim to record and upload a video at least once a week, there will be no set schedule as my work schedule changes weekly and I also have child care to consider as well. I may record some extra content for each game as there are occasions where we can make different dialogue choices and it is possible to die in this game so there may be death reels too.

I'll be playing through all five games in the series:

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Directors Cut & Original)
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
Broken Sword: The Angel of Death
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse

I'm also considering playing through the fan-made game, Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars, which is set between The Smoking Mirror and The Sleeping Dragon. It's completely unofficial and is in no way part of the lore, but it's extremely well made and was released for free.

Let's Play: Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse

Paris in the spring. Shots ring out from a gallery… A robbery… a murder… and the beginning of another epic, original Broken Sword adventure.






















End Credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMdU9CIS5hE

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 23:38 on May 1, 2023

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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original

Paris in the Fall... a brutal murder at the Palais Royale by a mime, an explosive device detonated inside of the Café de la Chandelle Verte by a clown... George and Nicole meet outside of the cafe ruins and become embroiled in unravelling a conspiracy that takes them all over the world.












Bonus Videos

Additional Dialogue - Part 1
Additional Dialogue - Part 2
Additional Dialogue - Part 3
Additional Dialogue - Part 4
Additional Dialogue - Part 5
Death Reel
Nuisance Caller

Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut












Bonus Content

The Director's Cut Bonus Content - Prologue

Let's Play: Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror

While investigating a ruthless drug gang, journalist Nico Collard unexpectedly comes across an ancient artifact. Little can she know that the ornately carved obsidian stone will lead her, and her adventuring companion George Stobbart, into a mysterious escapade of intrigue and deceit, in which they must overcome powerful forces and antagonists who will stop at nothing to fulfil their evil ambitions.








Bonus Videos

Additional Dialogue - Part 1
Additional Dialogue - Part 2
Additional Dialogue - Part 3
Additional Dialogue - Part 4
Death Reel

Let's Play: Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars

After a period of hardship, George Stobbart returns to Paris after receiving some horrifying news about Nico. While returning to Café de la Chandelle Verte he receives a visit from an old... friend... who provides George with some very unsettling news about Nicole's activities while he has been away and the possibility that the Templars may still exist.






Bonus video: Death Reel

Let's Play: Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon

Powerful seismic events are shaking the world. Something sinister is emerging. An Ancient Conspiracy, the Secret of the Templars, and a fiendish source of pure Evil are responsible. The death of a back bedroom computer hacker in Paris is just the beginning of another extraordinary adventure for George Stobbart and Nico Collard.










Bonus videos

Death Reel
Nico Distracting The Guard

Let's Play: Broken Sword - The Angel Of Death

When a mysterious and beautiful woman rushes into George Stobbart’s office, pleading for help, he cannot know that he will be inextricably drawn into terrifying conspiracy, and a desperate search for a nefarious artifact of great and terrible power. For George, it looks like the world needs saving. Again.










Bonus videos

Death Reel

Let's Play: Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse

Paris in the spring. Shots ring out from a gallery… A robbery… a murder… and the beginning of another epic, original Broken Sword adventure.












End Credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMdU9CIS5hE

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 23:38 on May 1, 2023

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



(I've just noticed there's a small skip in the video at the 17:18 mark.)

I've decided to play the original (somewhat) alongside the Director's Cut for a number of reasons. As much as the newer version has added a brand new story arc, the developer's have cut a lot more than they actually added to the game as it was originally made for the Nintendo DS and Wii U. A lot of dialogue has been cut, hotspots have been removed, puzzles have either been cut or replaced with mini-games, death scenes have been removed and all signs of blood has been edited out. As much as Nicole's extra scenes are a nice addition, they chopped other content out of the game in an effort to trim the game size down to fit Nintendo's size specifications.

anilEhilated posted:

Oh, this is neat! I've only played the first two, somehow didn't even know there were sequels. I can only assume they get increasingly terrible?

This game has some absolutely dickish puzzles, though. Kid me was stuck at the goat for weeks.

e: Well, that's not the beginning I remember. Nice to see a Director's Cut version that actually shows some effort for once.

The sequels are really good and well worth playing through. Even the third game, which was developed as a 3D adventure game and has box-pushing puzzles, was surprisingly enjoyable.

The goat puzzle was an absolute nightmare and I was stuck on it for a long time. Thankfully when this was released I had access to the internet and found the solution online. There's another goat puzzle in the fifth game.

mateo360 posted:

You would start this while I'm streaming the first game :v:

I apologise, I had no idea.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut



The second and last part of the prologue. I feel like I need to apologise somewhat for my commentary. I'm using a guide to get through this section and to make the mini-games easier but their solution to the second slide puzzle is wrong and after several attempts to solve it I really felt frustrated with the game. I really felt flustered going through this section from then on and aired some displeasure which isn't usually like me as I try not to make playing through a game a negative experience for you or me. This is Broken Sword and they've added slide puzzles to it and I have no idea about the logic behind needing to squash a bullet case to jimmy a stone door mechanism.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Mar 2, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George explores the sewers beneath Paris, encounters a Desert Hyena and makes a half-hearted attempt to buy something half dead. You may notice a slight skip in the music at the start and end of the Rue Jarry scene, there was another random skip in the dialogue so I went back and recorded that part of the game again.

I believe that the concierge that we spoke to is called Albert.

Fun fact: Five different actors have played the role of Nicole, no one has played the role for more than one game.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Mar 2, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

berryjon posted:

The video is currently set to Private, not Public or Unlisted.

:doh:

Thank you for letting me know. I was uploading the original video and had started the update post with the banner and original link done before discovering the skip. I forgot to change the link address after re-recording and uploading the replacement video. I apologise for the inconvenience, the links in the OP and update post has been amended and I'll post it here too:

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

By popular demand posted:

Is George going to show people that crusty tissue for the rest of the game?:barf:

We must leave no soggy tissue stone unturned!

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut



This video is the start of George's storyline. It's at this point where we can compare how much has been cut out of the game compared to the original game. To start with, the intro video that leads up to taking control of George has been condensed and Rolf Saxon has recorded new lines for George's first few sentences. Several of the hotspots have been removed from the original game and, for some reason, they've added a couple of new ones in. Even with the number of differences between both games, I've decided that I'm going to give differing responses where I can. In this video, you will get to see Dr Stobbart and his miracle cure brandy in action who didn't witness a single thing about the terrorist attack that happened right in front of him.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Mar 2, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

By popular demand posted:

Goddamn that laborer's voice acting grates even more the second time I heard the conversation. I hope the voice actor got jailed for it.

I have no idea who did the voice of the labourer, as far as I know there isn't a specific acting credit for the character. Apparently his name is Flobbage and I've not been able to find anything specific apart from character profiles. Even though there are a French voice actors in the game who do "various voices" and there are voice actors who's names sound less French who also do "various voices" too. According to IMDB, there are three people credited as voicing George too.

I'd advise against searching for the voice actor for yourself if you're wanting to avoid any spoilers.

berryjon posted:

The worst part is the two different art styles when they are side by side. Just look at the two mug shots in the newspaper!

That and the VA work is... all over the place.

I have no idea what was going on with the voice acting with the newspaper segments. I didn't think that they'd pay for studio time for Rolf Saxon to record a few extra lines.

It sounds like they gave him some lines to record and not gave him any context behind them. Either there's been miscommunication somewhere along the line, or no one gave a crap as long as they were recorded and slapped in the game as quickly and cheaply as possible and they all got paid for it.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George goes to see a man about a clown, revisits the scene of the crime and then does something naughty with a horny old woman.

It didn't occur to me until now to add what version of the game this video is for, it would probably make things less confusing. I'll go back and add the game title to previous updates.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Tiggum posted:

The dialogue in this game is so good. :haw:

I absolutely love the dialogue in this series, especially in the first two games but I'm only saying that as they're the two that I remember the most.

I learnt recently that a sixth game is in the works, I have no idea when but it has been confirmed by Charles Cecil himself.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut



This video immediately follows George's exit from the sewers and his conversation with Albert, the concierge. I decided to hold off on George's conversation with Todryk for now and concentrate on Nicole's next segment. I decided to check to see who voiced Nicole in her new segments and it was the same person who voiced her in the original, Hazel Ellerby.

I'm not 100% happy with this recording but it's a quandary of not having time to record these past few days and a little uncertainty of knowing when I'll have time to record again over the next couple of days. I do have a couple of days off but my youngest also has a bad cold so my time off may well be taken up with looking after her. I had a small window to record early today and just rolled with whatever happened, hence almost speaking over George at one point. I also didn't notice until after recording that the speech volume went back to default for some reason so I'm noticeably louder than the voice actors in this video.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George finds a way into Moerlin's room, then finds a way into his pants and then someone gets their hands on his! We're almost at the end of the first chapter, there's a new location that has opened up and visiting the police station is optional at this point in time but there is a lot more fun dialogue that we can have with Sergeant Moue.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut



This video is a little shorter than usual as there is a lot of dialogue in the hotel lobby, so it was a case of cutting it short or going way over the half-hour mark. I'm trying to pace each version slightly differently which isn't too difficult with The Director's Cut with the new segments as well as the rewritten script and altered segments. There are most likely going to be two more videos before the end of the first chapter compared to one more in the original version but they should both be around the same kind of time frame.

As much as I question the developer's need to rewrite the original script and gameplay, I am impressed that they brought back the original voice actors to reprise their roles to record the new lines. I said before that a different voice actor played the role of Nicole in each and every game, Hazel Ellerby voiced Nicole in the original game and returned to record lines for The Directors Cut. Even the flower seller has new lines as they continue on with the new story arc of Nicole's apartment being watched, this video is short but there is some new dialogue to be heard.

Edit:

I should mention now that if you're interested in playing Broken Sword for yourself, the best place to buy it from is GOG as you'll receive a free copy of the original version of the game along with The Directors Cut. If you buy it on Steam then you'll only be able to play The Director's Cut. The situation is different with Broken Sword II but I'll talk about it when we get there, BSII got a remaster which is the only version on Steam but buying it on GOG means you get both versions for the same price.

whitehelm posted:

Actually, you do get the original versions of both on Steam as free DLC, it's just a little tricky to get running. I had to go and manually download it from the DLC menu, then hold Shift while hitting Play from inside Steam to get the launch options popup.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Mar 14, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George continues his tour of Paris with a tour of the police station and with a visit to a nearby museum. This video marks the end of the first chapter and our time in Paris for a short while. I've recorded the Museum segment four times as the first time the main exhibit was bugged and I experienced a dialogue skip and an Xsplit bug with the other two. My commentary during this part of the game is a little sparse as my mood was lost a little the third time that I had to abandon a recording. I'm not sure why I'm experiencing dialogue skips with this version of the game, but I've noticed it happening three times so far.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

whitehelm posted:

Actually, you do get the original versions of both on Steam as free DLC, it's just a little tricky to get running. I had to go and manually download it from the DLC menu, then hold Shift while hitting Play from inside Steam to get the launch options popup.

I apologise, I completely overlooked it as I didn't even think to check the DLC. Thank you for the correction.

Edit: I've amended the original post.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut



This is the Hotel Ubu segment in its entirety. The segment involving Khan getting changed in the hotel room has had a drastic change and it makes the whole thing look off. They've removed the close-ups of George's face and let you witness Khan getting changed in full and they've also made George very noticeable while he's hiding in the cupboard too. They've left his sprite in place but cropped part of it out when the door opens and then stitched him back together afterwards.

This segment does contain some cuts to hotspots but it remains relatively the same compared to the original version. There is one big change, in the original version we are able to walk out of the hotel lobby with the manuscript.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Mar 16, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


In this video, George visits Lochmarne and speaks to many of the locals who all seem to be in the pub. This video is fairly lengthy but there is a lot of people to speak to and they all have a lot to say. The timing of this video was entirely unintentional, but happy belated St. Patrick's day for yesterday and it also happens to be Red Nose Day today.

There is more to be done in the pub but 95% of this video is dialogue so I'll be saving the action for next time.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

anilEhilated posted:

It's coming. Oh god, it's coming. Shub-Niggurath.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



This video is the final part of the first chapter. There are a number of noticeable dialogue differences compared to the original version, not only has new dialogue been added they've also slipped some of them in the middle of old dialogue. A lot of scenery hotspots have been removed as well as removing the inventory dialogue completely when talking to Rosso. I understand that they've redrawn the original graphics but they seem to be removing parts of the scenery in places too for no real reason.

It's been a few days since my last recording which has probably helped people catch up as I have been updating a lot in a short amount of time. I was taking care of my youngest over the weekend who has caught the coronavirus and has now passed it on to me. I've been sitting on my tod all day and decided to record something, my commentary probably sounds a little delirious at times though. I'll probably record more tomorrow as I won't be going back in to work for a few days. I discovered that Xsplit has a push to talk function which helped with the coughing.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George explores more of Lochmarne, hears a lot of talk about Leprechauns and then performs an act of criminal negligence just so he can gain access to an old man's pump.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



Welcome to Lochmarne again. There are a lot of noticeable cuts to the dialogue in this segment and I have no idea what their criteria are for making these cuts but it's a strange one. Especially as they kept in most of the dialogue which is just talking bollocks but they've cut out some of the jokes. You'll notice some hotspots missing, minor scenery changes, the removal of a simple puzzle by simply moving the location of an item and the removal of some animations.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George meets an extremely dangerous individual as well as a man we have been hunting for a while now. This video is the final part of our time in Ireland and features a couple of timed puzzles, one of them is very infamous:

quote:

"The puzzle is considered by many gamers and publications to be one of the most challenging and hardest video game puzzles of all time."

If you haven't seen or played this series before, just type the goat puzzle into a search engine and it will know exactly what you mean and will tell you a lot more about it.

I'm right in the middle of the school holidays so my free time has been non-existent and will be for the next week. I recorded this video and another earlier in the week, I've just returned from Scotland so I'm able to post this one now. I'll be going away with my other daughter for a few days so I will post the other at some point next week. Normal service will resume after next week.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Kangra posted:

I played through this for the first time about a year ago and I didn't really think of the goat puzzle as being that bad. I'm surprised that it was so infamous. It's an obvious barrier to passage, so you know you have to do something there. What you do is extremely dumb, but at least you can notice that there's something up with the rope, and that there is a bit of time when you could act. Random clicking to try and get up faster is what did it for me, although I can easily see thinking that you need some item to advance there causing trouble.

I actually found getting the wire to be a much worse puzzle. It's the first timed puzzle that's available, and no indication even by hint that timing is important. Taking it requires you to go at a precise moment (like the goat) but also to presume that a human adult lacks object permanence, basic reasoning skills, or human memory. Not to mention that it's difficult to determine that you actually need that piece of wire in the first place. What is said about it has nothing to do with how it's used, so no guidance there. Finally, it requires you to be a brazen thief.

Lochmarne is where I really turned on the main character. George is the most self-centered, solipsistic, hypocritical jerk protagonist this side of a Tim Schafer game. I think they were going for 'ugly American' and went too far so he often comes off as racist as well. I could not stand playing him after what happens in Lochmarne. Nico at least seems to know she's a hateful person and revels in it, but that does not really make her likable, either. I played the original with the intention of returning to the Director's Cut after, but I absolutely loathed the characters by the end. I'm kind of glad to see this LP with the DC, since there's a lot of good writing on display. I just would never want to be in these terrible peoples' shoes to see it.

The wire is a bit of an anomaly as he doesn't even pull it out of his pocket until you speak to him and it's not eniltirely obvious it's needed unless you take specific notice of it. I thought the time to pick it up was quite generous, I forgot that you could even get caught in the act until you mentioned it.

There aren't many 90s/00s adventure game protagonists who aren't a mix of narcissistic, solipsistic, self-centered, hypocritical and/or more. Especially the more cartoon-like games which don't take themselves more seriously. I don't expect a mid-90s game to be too PC. For an English company writing a game about an American protagonist set primarily in France I feel like they could have been a lot worse. Is there any specifics about Lochmarne? As far as I can see its been mainly ignorant American tourist in Ireland.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Kangra posted:

I think the wire could possibly have been an emulation issue. I played the GoG version on the Mac, which probably uses Boxer. It seemed to be tough to take even after I looked up the solution for it.

Stobbard sticks out even more since many of the people he screws over are relatively innocent and trusting, and he often seems to claim the moral high ground. As for Lochmarne, there's the theft of the wire, but also the impersonation of an electrician who then makes a 'fix' that is likely to start a fire, only for personal benefit. He then gains access to the basement by implying he'll fix the pumps, which he never is shown to do — his statements about what happened there are vague, and since George is constantly lying I doubt he can be believed. He weasels his way on that by technically 'not promising anything' even though he was the one who broke them in the first place. He is human garbage, and what bothers me most is he never admits to it.

The pumps were fixed though while he was there, either by him or by someone else. He told Nico when he got back that he had a drink with the punters before he stayed overnight in the room not quite for rent. Either George fixed his botch jobs, paid someone to do it once he solved the mystery of the castle or admitted his mistakes to Leary who got a professional in to do it possibly at George's expense. This is a situation that we can read between the lines and come to our own conclusions about.

George does steals the wire, but if you speak to Ron again you can show him the wire that you stole and he doesn't care about it. There's only a few occasions where George is adamant not to show off what he's just taken from someone.

It's just a game and it doesn't take itself seriously.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Apr 6, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



The second and final part of Lochmarne. We've already discovered that there is a lot of dialogue that has been cut out of this chapter of the game which has shortened it considerably. The goat puzzle has also been burnt to ashes, it can now be solved with a single click of the button and with no thought required. The beer mat puzzle has also been simplified, there's no need to return to the sink if you have taken too long as it remains permanently wet. Due to infinite wetness being cast upon the beer mat there's no need to return to the pub for gameplay reasons to experience the extra dialogue to be had with Farmer Fitzgerald. As you can see from the banner, there's also an unnecessary close-up for one of the puzzles towards the end of the chapter.

I'm still on holiday time at the moment and in the middle of my time with my youngest. I recorded another video after I posted the last update while I had time, I'll upload it and post another update over the weekend. After I return from holiday I'll probably be starting a concurrent LP of a different adventure game as the backlog of games has become quite the beast after shoehorning Freelancer in. Although as soon as Return To Monkey Island is released I'll be shoving that straight onto the top of the list.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Tiggum posted:

Also, the rods sticking out of the back of the statue are weirdly short in the zoomed-in version. They don't match the zoomed-out animation at all.

The indents in the wall look circular to me and when you "use" the indents, George shoves his fingers and thumb in there. When you examine the indents they're described as holes that have been "drilled there deliberately". When you examine the statue, George describes "five fingers of stone".

Yet the close-up of the statue reveals square pegs, for some reason.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George returns to Paris and speaks to Nico about his findings and in turn, she gives us a couple of leads to follow. One of those leads opens up an opportunity to speak to someone who may be involved in this whole affair. I may have spoken too soon in an earlier post as I inadvertently spoilt a conversation that we have with Nico at the start of the video, it doesn't spoil any plot so it's nothing too major. I originally recorded this part of the game last Sunday when I had some free time, but due to being away from the game for a number of days, I kept confusing Marquet with Moerlin. I recorded this video about an hour ago while my youngest is sleeping so while my commentary is clear it is a little more subdued than usual. I found out only yesterday that I'm having to return back to work a day early due to a change in my working rota for the Easter holidays, which means that I'm losing out on time with my youngest and an extra day off. I guess normal service will be resuming as of tomorrow, I've already worked out how I'm going to record the next section for each version of the game.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



In this video, we have another new segment involving Nicole while George is in Ireland. George does return the next day and Nicole provides him with a couple of leads, one of which may bring us face to face with a very dangerous man. Apart from the new segment involving Nico, there are a couple of big changes which involve temporarily cutting two characters out of the scenery. One of those is Rosso, which is a little odd considering his animations are already in the game and the topics of conversation are limited anyway. We have seen the other character in the original playthrough, I'm guessing they have reduced that role until we need his services. I have some really big issues involving the Nicole segment and I'd like some input, I don't know if I'm missing something or if I'm an idiot.

Here is my take on it, please correct me if I'm wrong:


Moerlin calls Imelda about Carchon and she makes an appointment with him to visit. She is expecting him, he has an open invitation to enter the property and be in close contact with her but for some reason, he breaks into\lockpicks the door and then cuts the intercom to the front door. She doesn't know what he looks like yet he decides to dress up in a Cavalier costume while he kills her, for some reason, and if it wasn't for Imelda's call to Nico then we wouldn't know about this fact. And this all happens on the same day when Moerlin was also in Ireland?

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George flaunts his new coat off to everyone and meets several of the patients in ward J-2.

Tiggum posted:

I understand why you'd take out the joke about Nurse Grendel for an updated version (especially when you're already removing a bunch of other stuff), but it's an odd decision to leave the entire setup and only remove the punchline.

That matches my understanding.

There are a lot of bizarre decisions that have been made with the director's cut which don't make any sense. I've only played this version once before and when I did it had been years since I played the original version so I didn't really notice the number of changes.

Thank you for clarifying as I really was wondering if I had missed something important

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Zaroff posted:

How fortunate for George that there must’ve been a Dr. Stobbard somewhere in the hospital. After all, Benoit was very quick to say there’s no Dr. Braille - surely someone should have caught George out as an imposter!

You make a good point with this and I never really paid this fact much attention before now. My reasoning for Benoir glossing over George's status was down to his Uncle's authority in the hospital and ordering him to follow George around blindly. Benoir admits to us that it was his first day at the hospital but somehow he still knows that a Dr Braille isn't employed there. Even Nurse Grendel seemed to have selective memory after we adorned the doctor's coat.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



This video is the second and final part of the hospital segment. There were some really strange design choices made for the hospital and they really cut some corners when it came to redrawing the graphics. Nurse Grendel won't speak to us and Bunny doesn't even appear until after we have donned the white coat. They've completely cut out Croquet's dialogue but still decided to animate him, for some reason. More hot spots, dialogue and scenery have been removed from the game. The graphics and animations in the hospital are either janky or just really badly done, I pointed out in this video some of the more obvious ones in the ward. The next video for both versions will be the final part of third chapter and according to the save file in the director's cut, we have completed 53% of the game so far.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



In this video, George returns to the museum to speak to André Lobineau and also to foil a heist while also trying to perform a heist himself. We have several topics that we need to talk to André about in which he has a hell of a lot to useful information to say about them. This is the end of the third chapter, we will be visiting a new location in the next video and meeting new people who hopefully won't try to kill us.

There is a slight cut at the 19:53 mark as XSplit occasionally has a bug in which the recorded video suffers from stuttering issues so I've had to re-record this part of the video.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Apr 19, 2022

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

By popular demand posted:

Video is private.

:doh: Thank you for letting me know. I didn't change the link address when I uploaded the new video, something that happens about once per LP, unfortunately. I've amended the links in the original posts.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

By popular demand posted:

I do hope the DC edition did something about this part:
:pervert: A female friend?
:v: *I think this guy is a total creep, but I'll give him Nico's address. no need to consult her beforehand*

I was also bothered by this exchange, even back when I first played the game. I had to go back a few videos as there was something in the back of my head and when I was recording the conversation, but I couldn't verify it at the time. In the fourth video of this playthrough, Nico is the one who recommends Andrè and says that she knows him in some capacity. He's still an absolute creep though

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
I've started to record additional footage and there's going to be a lot of it. As much as I'd like to include every piece of dialogue in the game in one playthrough, I also want to keep the flow of the game going. There's a lot of minor dialogue that I've passed by in an effort not to backtrack too much. I'm only up to the beginning of Hotel Ubu at this point of replaying the first chapter and that alone could potentially have its own video. We can still visit Albert and show him all of the cool stuff that we have collected and there's also the temporary inventory that we didn't show other characters before they disappeared.

The knowledge of how to complete the first chapter is so ingrained in my memory that I had completely forgotten that there is a third police officer who is manning the desk in Rosso's and Moue's absence. This has been my first time seeing him in over twenty years.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



This video is the last part of the third chapter and about half of the fourth chapter. George visits André and learns more about the Templars and Hashashin and then decides to hide in the museum to stealprotect the tripod. After the aftermath of the heist, George decides to visit Montfauçon where he gets to make a couple of delightful new friends.

There's not really much I can say at this point compared to the original version apart from some more cuts. I mentioned in the video that they cut out a five-second dialogue that was designed to be a hint, the heist scene has been changed to probably cut down on the animations and they cut out the potential death scene.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Original



This is the fourth chapter in Montfauçon in its entirety, there's a lot of dialogue and plot progression in the final third of the video. George makes some new friends, finds a new talent and then finds more than he bargained for. I've repositioned my microphone so my voice is a little louder but at the twenty-five-minute mark the game dialogue gets really loud and my voice seems to get noticeably lower. I've also been working on a video for additional dialogue from the first chapter which I'm hoping to upload within the next couple of days.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Bonus Videos

Additional Dialogue - Part 1

This video contains additional dialogue with Rosso, Nico, the Police Station Officer, Moue, Albert, Lady Piermont and the Hotel Ubu Receptionist.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 15:57 on May 22, 2022

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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Directors Cut



This is the final part of the fourth chapter. There are a few notable differences between this version and the original, a couple of them are quite odd but nothing is really surprising me at this point. They've added a character who isn't meant to appear until later on in the game and isn't relevant until that time, for some reason. Examining the statue in the church now gives us a line that isn't meant to appear until later and is completely out of context until then, for some reason. There's also a new location in the sewer where we can't actually do anything that they've added, for some reason.

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