Mars: War Logs Gets English Re-localization, Introduction Video

As a welcome surprise, Focus Home and SPIDERS sent over a press release this morning letting us know that they weren't entirely happy with the English localization for the PC version of Mars: War Logs, and since they were still putting the finishing touches on the Xbox 360 version anyway, they decided to completely rewrite the English text/dialogue and re-record the game's voiceovers. To illustrate just how much work was put into this effort, they've sent over the first seven minutes of the game featuring the new localization and voiceovers:



And here's a more detailed explanation of the reworking, courtesy of the press release:
MARS WAR LOGS REWRITES THE STORY (IN ENGLISH)!

Mars War Logs was released in late April and, if most players who bought the Spiders Studio title liked the game itself, they were disappointed with the narrative element because the English version strayed too far from the original French. The general feeling was that the translation didn't stick closely enough to the original French story and dialog.

Luc Heninger, Director of Production at Focus Home Interactive, explains:

"Mars contains a vast amount of dialog, even by RPG standards. The plot has numerous strands and the dialog often has many variants to mirror the hero's changes in reputation. The tight deadlines between the game release dates meant that the initial English translation lacked depth and contained a number of errors; it was then sent to the recording studio, making the job of the actors extremely difficult. The actual game was thoroughly tested and released with very few bugs on PC, but unfortunately the procedures for the audio and text QA failed and allowed many English localization issues to slip through. We realized the extent of the problem after seeing the first feedback from the press and gamers. The result was so far removed from what we usually produce that we took the decision to halt the submission process for the console version, which was due for release only weeks after the PC title. We have re-written the game text and dialog and, of course, recorded the actors again, replacing the sections that weren't true to the characters in Mars. All these problems will therefore be fixed in the console version. An update is now available for players with the PC game, and we have also incorporated the new audio in the PC versions on the various download sites."