So what happens if you apply this patch to the 1.3 English non-Stardock version? What are the new features and fixes you get? Is it worth it or do you witness a lot of Russian text in the game?
I tried to install the Russian patch over the UK version (published by Excalibur) and the game refused to launch, probably because UK and Russian discs are nothing alike. Just the fact that they both use StarForce doesn't make them compatible, the encryption key on the disc would have to match as well. I'm pretty sure people with Cinemaware's version won't fare any better. I'm also pretty sure that the patch will screw up a lot of the text in the game.
I would really, REALLY like to see an universal 1.8.1 English patch which could be applied on all English versions. That would mean that StarForce has to go, but since Elemental Games has gone belly-up and the game is soon about 1,5 years old, I doubt that unprotecting it will hinder its sales at this stage. A solid patch, however, could boost them.
I myself ran into error message "Warning: Nothing to Output Bframe decoder lag" after I upgraded my computer, which makes the intro movie unviewable (one of the things that has been fixed ages ago in the Russian patch, or so I've heard). Has anybody figured out some kind of a workaround? I think it has something to do with ATi's Catalyst drivers since I had no problems with nVidia.
Anyway, the game itself works and I can always 'enjoy' the intro's brilliant voice acting coupled with incredibly smooth lipsync on my laptop so it's not that much of a problem, really. But still, it would be nicer if the intro still worked.
