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131-476: Following the previous installment, Sierra opted to render the third game in the series in 3D graphics, with a heightened level of puzzle solving and exploration. Work on development was delayed due to difficulties from the team in adapting to the new rendering engine for the game, with some puzzles that were designed found to be complicated and replaced with a number of new puzzles that Jensen did not approve of but could not have changed. Although Jensen had approved of

262-708: A Linux version formerly marked as planned on the Galaxy subpage but stated to not be a priority. As of the Galaxy 2.0 revamp of the subpage, any mention of future Linux support has been removed from the FAQ. In May 2019, GOG announced plans for GOG Galaxy 2.0, which it aims to be a unified game launcher not only for GOG titles, but from other services such as Steam, Origin , Uplay , Epic Games Store , and including console systems through Xbox and PlayStation networks. It has an open API, so users can also create additional plug-ins for it. At E3 2019 , GOG affirmed that Microsoft

393-474: A Mirror image of selected architectural features of his property. They also claim that Maurice Barrès 's roman à clef The Sacred Hill are largely based on the Rennes-le-Château story involving Bérenger Saunière (while novels by Jules Verne are cited to show that the enigma predates Abbé Saunière). The modern reputation of Rennes-le-Château rests mainly in claims and stories, dating from

524-600: A Parisian engineer, conducted several digs in the church, failing to discover anything noteworthy. In November 1956, Monsieur Cotte of the Société des arts et des sciences de Carcassonne asked the membership during its monthly session about the treasure of Rennes-le-Château, which led to an investigation of the subject. Two members conducted on-the-spot research in March 1957 that lasted one year. Local historian René Descadeillas commented: "They found no evidence anywhere to support

655-467: A Visigothic town on the site of the present village, it would have had "a population closer to 300 than 30,000". By 1050 the Counts of Toulouse held control over the area, building a castle in Rennes-le-Château around 1002, though nothing remains above ground of this medieval structure—the present ruin is from the 17th or 18th century. Several castles in the surrounding Languedoc region were central to

786-505: A book by Louis Fédié entitled Le comté de Razès et le diocèse d'Alet (1880), that contained a chapter on the history of Rennes-le-Château; published as a booklet in 1994. Noël Corbu incorporated this story into his essay L'histoire de Rennes-le-Château , deposited at the Departmental Archives at Carcassonne on 14 June 1962. Fédié's assertions concerning the population and importance of Rhedae have since been questioned in

917-416: A cat and use it to make a fake mustache, Bilas recalled: "It was terrible! There was something that Jane [Jensen] wanted to do that was just too hard, too expensive, too complicated to make it happen. I think our producer came up with the cat puzzle [as a replacement]. I'm pretty sure Jane didn't like it. None of the developers liked it, but we were really late and needed to get something in there". Though she

1048-436: A collaboration that allows GOG.com users to launch Cyberpunk 2077 through the cloud gaming service GeForce Now . Both companies announced they also expect to support The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the future and that they "have more news coming soon". On 18 March 2024, GOG announced a partnership with Amazon to integrate their large library of games directly into the cloud gaming service, Amazon Luna . Then on June 19th,

1179-526: A community wishlist, and one of the most demanded feature requests was support for native Linux games, which gathered close to 15,000 votes before it was marked as "in progress". Originally GOG.com representatives said, that there are technical and operational issues which make it harder than it seems, however it's something they would love to do, and they have been considering. On 18 March 2014, GOG.com officially announced that they would be adding support for Linux, initially targeting Ubuntu and Linux Mint in

1310-541: A compelling universe, one that's well-realized and filled with detail". During the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Gabriel Knight 3 for " Computer Adventure/Role-Playing Game of the Year ". In 2011, Adventure Gamers listed it as the 32nd-best adventure game ever released. In August 2000, the game was mentioned by the staff of CNET Gamecenter as one of

1441-528: A dangerous situation or risk occurring a game-over moment, forcing them to retry, restart the game, or restore a previous save. Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned takes place within a world where the occult and the supernatural exist throughout human history – such as ghosts, cultists and demons. To combat those who use such forces for evil against humanity are the "Schattenjägers" – a German translation of

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1572-538: A discount for products that are bought in bundles , to thematic competitions like riddles, "guess a game from a picture" contests or "best time on a specific level". Also, GOG.com gives away promotion codes for a game with review contests. In the CD Projekt Red company update in June 2014, GOG.com announced that it would be bringing a Steam -like client, GOG Galaxy, to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. The client

1703-509: A few titles do not have the Full HD 1080p format available. GOG.com started by adding 21 documentaries about Internet culture and gaming. They also have plans for adding fiction films and series; according to GOG.com's managing director Guillaume Rambourg, they were in talks with many major studios. While studios' representatives liked the idea, they also were reluctant to let go of their current DRM approach until some other major studio would make

1834-498: A hint system to highlight key locations that have actions to be performed for that chapter; additional sites become available as the game progresses. As with Sierra games of the time, a running score is used to keep check on actions, both required and optional, that players have completed (i.e. acquiring an object needed for a puzzle). Interactive objects are highlighted when the cursor is moved over them, to which doing so activates an action bar of "verb" commands that can be conducted by

1965-464: A hollow chamber under the valley through seismological surveys; unfortunately, she is forced to leave him in his room when he makes a drunken pass at her. After midnight, Gabriel heads out into the valley to spy on Larry, and witnesses him burying a manuscript, and recovers it; through it, he learns Larry's surname is Chester, not Sinclair. Upon returning to the hotel to sleep, he suffers a nightmare about vampires, causing him and Grace to sleep together. In

2096-445: A journalist, Gabriel meets him, and notes his views on wine-making are strangely odd and creepy. Later that evening, Grace comes across an envelope containing a document known as Le Serpent Rouge , said to contain riddles that, when solved, lead one to the valley's treasure. Spending her time wisely, she manages to solve some of its riddles, before she is interrupted by Wilkes, who offers her dinner. Grace accepts, and discovers he found

2227-399: A mix of fictional landmarks and sites relating to the plot. Players assume the role of Gabriel Knight, voiced by Tim Curry , and Grace Nakimura, voiced by Charity James, throughout the game, using their own methods and approaches to solving their respective part of the investigation they undertake together. During their work, they receive assistance from Frank Mosely (voiced by David Thomas),

2358-482: A new engine." The game was named the best computer adventure game of 1999 by Computer Games Strategy Plus and CNET Gamecenter , and was a runner-up for Computer Gaming World ' s, The Electric Playground ' s, GameSpot ' s, PC PowerPlay ' s, and GameSpy ' s awards in this category. The staff of Computer Games wrote: "While the game does, at times, feature some klunky dialogue, over-the-top acting, and weak 3D graphics, it delivers

2489-474: A new guise, and for an unbridled pluralism which mixes together erudition and extrapolation, and makes recourse to geology, history, prehistory, esotericism, religious history, mysticism, the paranormal, ufology and other fields. Rennes-le-Château conspiracy theories continue to be a popular ingredient in a publishing industry that is growing exponentially, and are the subject of press articles, radio and television programs, and films. Websites and blogs devoted to

2620-442: A non-linear fashion, allowing them to explore locations and conduct optional actions that provide background and context to the game's story and events. In some chapters, completing certain actions will causes changes during that chapter in other locations - these are indicated by the sound of a ticking clock. Each chapter features a variety of locations that the player can visit, some of which are accessed via an overhead map which uses

2751-483: A place or object, learning about the person themselves, or questioning them on something they learnt. However, conversations cannot be reviewed after they have been done, as with previous games in the series. Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned allows players to have full control over the camera's positioning and angle, allowing them to examine a location in detail; the camera is only fixed during cutscenes, close-up shots of objects, and conversations. In addition, if

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2882-557: A plagiarism suit against Brown in 2006. The extraordinary popularity of The Da Vinci Code has reignited the interest of tourists, who visit Rennes-le-Château to view the sites associated with Saunière. The sudden interest in Saunière's church generated by the stories circulated by Noël Corbu in the 1950s inspired two excavations of the church of St Mary Magdalene. The first, in May 1956, was conducted by Dr André Malacan who, after excavating

3013-541: A police detective from New Orleans . Other main characters in the game include: Emilio Baza, voiced by Billy West ; Madeline Buthane, voiced by Jennifer Hale ; Vittorio Buchelli, voiced by Joe Lala; Excelsior Montreaux, voiced by John de Lancie ; Abbé Arnaud, voiced by Gregg Berger , John Wilkes, voiced by Richard Doyle , Lady Howard, voiced by Samantha Eggar ; Estelle Stiles, voiced by Carolyn Seymour , Larry Sinclair, voiced by Corey Burton , and Prince James, voiced by Simon Templeman . Other supporting characters feature

3144-421: A reason to draw players to buy their product instead of simply downloading it for free from pirate game websites and services. They founded a new subsidiary , Good Old Games, to serve this purpose in early 2008. Their first challenge was to find a publisher that would be willing to work with them; they spoke to several who were generally unaware of CD Projekt; their first big break was from Interplay, who knew of

3275-401: A small company we don't have a huge marketing budget and this is why we could not miss a chance to generate some buzz around an event as big as launching a brand new version of our website and even more important, bringing back Baldur's Gate to life!" The site returned on 23 September 2010, with an improved storefront and additional benefits, as outlined during a webcast presentation. During

3406-426: A third-person perspective. The story is divided into chapters that cover a three-day period of several time blocks, which play out in a linear fashion and places players in control of one of the two playable characters – while Gabriel handles the initial block of chapters, most alternate between him and Grace. In each chapter, players must complete a set of required actions in order to progress the story, but may do so in

3537-404: A total of 10,000 (4%), GOG.com sold 40,000 copies (16%), while Steam sold in the same time period 200,000 copies (80%). On 20 February 2013, Defender's Quest developer Lars Doucet revealed the first three months of revenue following his game's release across 6 different digital distribution platforms, including 4 major digital game distributors and 2 methods of purchasing and downloading

3668-467: A vision revealing the origins of his family's role as Schattenjägers, before Emilio removes the body to a safer location. While Charlie is returned to his father, Gabriel goes to see Grace with the good news, only to find a note from her which he tosses away in sadness. Jane Jensen began designing Gabriel Knight 3 in December 1996. By the time work began on Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned , it

3799-462: A week. Some newer titles have a higher price. GOG.com's digital products can also be given to other persons via redeemable gift certificates. The user does not have to install special client software to download or run the games, although a download manager , which is due to be phased out, and the GOG Galaxy client, which is currently in beta, are available. After downloading, the customer

3930-441: Is "This place is terrible"; the rest of the dedication, over the doors' arch, reads "this is God's house, the gate of heaven, and it shall be called the royal court of God." The quotation comes from Genesis 28:17. Inside the church, one of the figures installed by Saunière was of the demon Asmodeus holding up the holy water stoup . Its original head was stolen in 1996 and has never been recovered. A devil-like figure holding up

4061-549: Is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o. , a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland . GOG.com delivers DRM -free video games through its digital platform for Microsoft Windows , macOS and Linux . During communist government rule of Poland (the Polish People's Republic ), copyright laws went largely unenforced, and copyright infringement

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned - Misplaced Pages Continue

4192-541: Is any evidence on the site may date to the 8th century. However, this original church was almost certainly in ruins by the 10th or 11th century, when another church was built upon the site—remnants of which can be seen in Romanesque pillared arcades on the north side of the apse . This survived in poor repair until the 19th century, when it was renovated by the local priest, Bérenger Saunière . Surviving receipts and existing account books belonging to Saunière reveal that

4323-534: Is designed as a storefront, software delivery, and social network client, allowing players to buy and play games from GOG.com and share them with friends. GOG Galaxy also includes an original multiplayer API , allowing developers to include the same kind of multiplayer functionality in GOG.com versions of games as on Steam. The client is optional and retains the DRM-free objective of the GOG.com website. On 15 October 2014

4454-413: Is free to use the software for any personal use like installing on multiple devices, archiving on any personal storage media for unlimited time, modding and patching; with the restriction that reselling and sharing is not permitted. The software installers are technically independent of the customer's GOG.com account, although still subject to GOG.com's EULA , where a "licensed, not sold" formulation

4585-510: Is likely in possession of a strong element of Jesus' bloodline, Gabriel, backed up by Frank and Mesmi, proceed to the hollow under the region, created by the Knights Templar, which houses a temple, confronting Montreaux and his kin, killing them and saving Charlie. Emilio, sensing this, leaves Grace, but advises her to pursue her own path in life. In the temple, Gabriel discovers the treasure is none other than Jesus' body, which grants him

4716-521: Is swiftly becoming an attractive alternative and gaining loyalists of its own, especially in the anti-DRM crowd." At the beginning of 2021, it was announced, that GOG.com was responsible for around 10% of the total PC sales of Cyberpunk 2077 . In terms of pre-orders GOG.com accounted for one-third of early PC pre-orders. Devotion from the Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games had previously been removed from digital storefronts in early 2019 after it

4847-538: Is used. The "licensed, not sold" model frequently raises questions of ownership of digital goods. In the European Union , the European Court of Justice held that a copyright holder cannot oppose the resale of a digitally sold software, in accordance with the rule of copyright exhaustion on first sale as ownership is transferred, and questions therefore the "licensed, not sold" EULA. Along with

4978-605: The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and the Master of Orion series. Over $ 1,700,000 of retail game purchases had been redeemed through this system by November 2017. In August 2018, GOG created an anti- digital rights management program called "FCK DRM". The homepage of the initiative offers links to the websites of Defective by Design , the EFF , Bandcamp , itch.io , Wikisource , Project Gutenberg and other projects that promote free culture . In February 2019, GOG announced layoffs and

5109-550: The Bermuda Triangle , Atlantis , and ancient astronauts as being sources of "ill-informed and lunatic books". Likewise another archaeologist Bill Putnam, co-author with John Edwin Wood of The Treasure of Rennes-le-Château, A Mystery Solved (2003, 2005) dismisses all the popular hypotheses as pseudo-history . Laura Miller, contributor to The New York Times books section, commented how Rennes-le-Château "had become

5240-511: The Holy Grail , ley lines , sacred geometry , the remains of Jesus Christ, including references to Mary Magdalene settling in the south of France, and even flying saucers . Well-known French authors like Jules Verne and Maurice Leblanc are suspected of leaving clues in their novels about their knowledge of the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. Christiane Amiel has commented: No new theory has ever succeeded in entirely replacing any of

5371-651: The Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra from Konami . On 8 September 2021, GOG brought 6 classic Star Trek titles back and updated them to work on modern operating systems. According to the Management Board report on the activities of the CD Projekt Group in 1H 2021, the GOG.com catalog of products as of 1 September 2021 numbers over 5200 items. However, the business expansion didn't bring enough revenues to cover

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned - Misplaced Pages Continue

5502-594: The Occitanie region in Southern France . This hilltop village is known internationally; it receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, drawn by conspiracy theories surrounding a putative buried treasure discovered by its 19th-century priest Bérenger Saunière , the precise nature of which is disputed among those who credit its existence. Mountains frame both ends of the region—the Cévennes to

5633-639: The Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis , the wealthiest part of Roman Gaul . Rennes-le-Château was part of Septimania in the 6th and 7th centuries. It has been suggested that it was once an important Visigothic town, with some 30,000 people living in the city around 500–600 AD. Until 1659–1745 the area was not considered French territory, being part of the Catalan Country since 988. However, British archaeologist Bill Putnam and British physicist John Edwin Wood argued that, while there may have been

5764-608: The San Greal Tavern in Rennes-les-Bains . Gabriel Knight 3 received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . Uros Jojic of IGN said the game "proves that adventure games still have some life left in them" and provides "a welcome change for the action-heavy PC market" with "[an] excellent story and well worked out plot". At the same time, he criticized Tim Curry's voice-over, as "a cold and over-exaggerated interpretation of

5895-439: The "true adventure games" that failed to get sales. They cited the reason: "Now it seems people want more action than adventure. They would rather run around in short shorts raiding tombs than experience real stories. People want it simple. Even in the fight between two first-person shooters with adventure leanings, the simpler of the two ( Half-Life ) won out over the more imaginative ( System Shock 2 ). The golden days are gone;

6026-462: The 1999 adventure game Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned , set in Rennes-le-Château and surrounds, and later in 2003 by Dan Brown in his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code . While Brown's novel never specifically mentions Rennes-le-Château, he gave some its key characters related names, such as 'Saunière' and 'Leigh Teabing' ( anagrammatically derived from 'Leigh' and 'Baigent' ). The latter two authors brought (and lost)

6157-422: The 2000s, along with the use of DRM to control access to games, which raised some resentment with players. CD Projekt saw potential to look back at their distribution days to offer DRM-free versions of classic games through digital distribution, using their past experience in reverse engineering to make the games work on modern platforms and provide a wide array of localization options. In this manner, they would have

6288-641: The CIA, investigating Freemason problems in France . Gabriel returns the manuscript to James, who is accompanied by his manservant Mesmi, and Larry. He confirms his family has a connection to Jesus, and is fearful that Charlie's lineage was the motive for his kidnapping. Gabriel later revisits Montreaux, convinced he is involved, and finds evidence linking him to the kidnapping; unfortunately, the kidnappers spot him, alert Montreaux to his real identity, and chase after him. In his absence, Grace discovers Emilio had been helping

6419-505: The Crown . This was technically made possible through Cinemaware's own written emulator called "Rocklobster". On 28 October 2014, GOG.com was able to secure another major publisher as a DRM-free partner, Disney Interactive / LucasArts . With this new partnership, GOG.com began to re-release several often-requested game titles from LucasArts, starting with six titles ( Star Wars: X-Wing , Star Wars: TIE Fighter , Sam & Max Hit

6550-456: The DRM-free version and other bonus items for that game offered by GOG.com. Not all such games are part of this offer, as it requires GOG.com to work with the game publishers to enable this. Further, the time to claim such games will be limited, though once a user has claimed their game on GOG.com, it otherwise remains in their library indefinitely. GOG discontinued GOG Connect in January 2023 as

6681-464: The French equivalent of Roswell or Loch Ness as a result of popular books by Gérard de Sède." Christiane Amiel commented in 2008 that the treasure of Rennes-le-Château "seems to elude all the investigations that people make into it. Like the fairy gold which, in the popular fables, turns into manure as soon as a human being touches it, it remains impalpable. It can only exist as long as it remains on

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6812-881: The Priory of Sion, via the Knights Templar , guarded the Merovingian bloodline, that this dynasty descended from a supposed marriage of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene , and that Pierre Plantard was a modern-day descendant; it suggested that Saunière may have discovered that secret and amassed his wealth through blackmail of the Holy See . Despite its popularity, historians think the book advances faulty premises and that several of its arguments merit questioning. The bloodline hypotheses of Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh, and their connection with Rennes-le-Château, have been picked up in various media, including by Jane Jensen in

6943-745: The Road , The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition , Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ). On 5 May 2015, GOG.com released Pacific General and Fantasy General and named itself, GOG Ltd, as the publisher. The company revealed that it had acquired the copyright to these titles and that it intends to acquire more in the future. On 26 August 2015, Bethesda Softworks joined GOG.com with classic titles as id Software 's Doom and Quake , Fallout (which had been sold on GOG by Interplay before

7074-461: The acknowledged historical mysteries present at Rennes-le-Château and environs exist in many different countries; authors' interviews can be accessed on podcasts . Archaeologist Paul Bahn considered the various hypotheses pertaining to the village of Rennes-le-Château as "beloved of occultists and 'aficionados' of the Unexplained". He groups the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château with those of

7205-400: The actor who portrayed Gabriel in the last game, it was decided that Curry should return, owing to her belief he provided the right personality for the character. Gabriel Knight 3 was the last game to be made by Sierra prior to the crash of the adventure video game industry. Although not a commercial success, much like its predecessors, it received mainly positive reviews from critics. Praise

7336-508: The added features would draw buyers away from pirated copies. Their first major success was with Baldur's Gate (1998) with which they had 18,000 units sold on its first day of release in Poland. Due to this success, Interplay , the publisher of Baldur's Gate , asked CD Projekt if they could do a similar treatment to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance , a console title released in 2001. As their past work had been strictly on personal computers,

7467-486: The announcement, GOG reversed its decision, stating that they reconsidered this "after receiving many messages from gamers". The move was met with criticism and accusations of censorship. On 17 September 2021, Game of the Year edition of Hitman was released on the storefront, which was met with a big backlash from store's users, as the game, while could be played offline, still required an online connection to have most of its content, e.g. rankings, unlocked, even though

7598-544: The area, and that the kidnapping has some connection to a hidden treasure in the region linked to the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. That evening, after Grace arrives with James' men, Gabriel tails his replacements, and witness them interrogate Arnaud roughly, while greeting Larry with an odd handshake; Frank later reveals it to be Masonic. Deciding they can't drop the case, Gabriel and Grace agree to continue it, with Frank offering to help. The next day, Gabriel searches

7729-507: The assertion that, down the ages, any individual, family, group or clan could have accumulated a precious treasure-hoard at Rennes and then concealed it in the locality or its environs. What is more, the activities of the Abbé Saunière were undoubtedly eloquent of the sort of stratagems that he was accustomed to using in order to enrich himself." In more recent times, following up claims by a Canadian purporting to be related to one of

7860-960: The battle between the Catholic Church and the Cathars at the beginning of the 13th century. Other castles guarded the volatile border with Spain . Whole communities were wiped out in the campaigns of the Catholic authorities to rid the area of the Cathar heretics , the Albigensian Crusades , and again when French Protestants fought against the French monarchy two centuries before the French Revolution . The village church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene has been rebuilt several times. The earliest church of which there

7991-459: The bishopric to appear before an ecclesiastical trial to face charges of trafficking in masses . He was found guilty and suspended from the priesthood. When asked to produce his account books, he refused to attend his trial. Supporters of the hypothesis that Rennes-le-Château and its environs enshrine unsolved enigmas have suggested that Saunière's estate was set up on a large-scale checkerboard, while others have suggested that Saunière produced

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8122-435: The company accepted to try to port it, but the project fell through before it was completed. However, as a result, CD Projekt realized they had the ability to make their own games, and moved into games development. This eventually proved fruitful, as it ultimately granted the company the rights to The Witcher video game series. The company's interest in game distribution has declined since then. Digital distribution grew in

8253-458: The company had already worked on several titles (such as Alpha Protocol , Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger and the original Resident Evil trilogy), porting them to PC and addressing various technical issues . GOG.com works to offer older games as well as new releases to users, with the product lacking any type of digital rights management to give consumers the ability to install

8384-415: The company's past work, and allowed them to offer their games on the service. After some time, Good Old Games was approached by Ubisoft , who were interested in selling their older titles through the service as well. Once Ubisoft was signed, it became easier for Good Old Games to convince other publishers to allow them to offer older titles on the service. From 19 to 22 September 2010, the GOG.com website

8515-549: The construction of Tour Magdala, a tower-like structure originally named the Tour de L'horloge and later renamed after Saint Mary Magdalene. Saunière used it as his library. The structure includes a circular turret with twelve crenellations , on a belvedere that connected it to an orangery . The tower has a promenade linking it to the Villa Bethania , which was not actually used by the priest. He stated at his trial that it

8646-438: The dream is over. Casual gamers killed adventure gaming, and Myst made them do it." Cliff Hicks made a point about the vanishing adventure genre: "There's no way to beat this one, we're afraid, and we don't think we'll see these games make a return, not for a long time, anyway. Sierra, the pioneer in this field, seems to have given it up. Sierra cancelled the last Space Quest game, there isn't another Gabriel Knight game in

8777-467: The end of its Fair Price Package program. When a game was purchased in a region with higher prices than most others, this program would provide the purchaser with store credit equal to the difference in price. Some insider sources in GOG told Kotaku that GOG was "dangerously close to being in the red" and that the market's move toward higher developer revenue shares would affect the company's profitability. On 19 November 2020, Nvidia and GOG announced

8908-740: The fall of 2014. On 25 July 2014, Linux support was released early, and 50 games were released compatible with the operating system. Several of the launch titles included games that were newly compatible with Linux, while most of the games already supported downloads made for the operating system on other distribution platforms. On 27 August 2014 GOG.com announced the launch of the new addition to their service – distribution of DRM-free films. GOG.com offers DRM-free downloading in mp4 format and streaming of video in standard and DRM-free HTML fashion which doesn't bind users to any specific platforms or devices. Movies are made available in Full HD 1080p, 720p and 576p for limited bandwidth or download quotas; however,

9039-624: The first step. Still GOG.com plan to work on overcoming the initial reluctance and moving DRM-free video forward. On 9 December 2013, GOG.com introduced a money-back guarantee for the first 30 days if customers face unresolvable technical problems with a bought game. On 26 February 2020, GOG extended this policy to offer a full refund up to 30 days after purchasing a product, even if it was downloaded, launched, and played. Beginning 2 April 2015, GOG.com began to offer DRM-free downloads to holders of game keys from boxed copies of select games whose DRM validation systems no longer operate; examples are

9170-463: The first wave of GOG games were integrated into the streaming platform, including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided , Stardew Valley , and Hollow Knight , with more games to come later on. According to GOG, users will need an active Prime or Luna+ subscription to access their library through the service, but will not need to repurchase their games through Luna to play them. Additionally, supported games purchased through Luna will be automatically added to

9301-907: The focus of sensational claims involving Blanche of Castile , the Merovingians , the Knights Templar , the Cathars , and the treasures of the Temple of Solomon (booty of the Visigoths ) that included the Ark of the Covenant and the Menorah (the Jerusalem Temple 's seven-branched candelabrum ). Since the 1970s, the area's associations have extended to the Priory of Sion , the Jesus bloodline ,

9432-613: The foremen who supervised Saunière's works, a much-publicised 2003 excavation of the floor of the Tour Magdala by the Mayor of the village failed to exhume any anticipated treasure. A simultaneous request to excavate the church met with refusal from the Directions Régionales des Affaires Culturelles (or DRAC), the archaeological body of France. In the 1950s and 1960s, the entire area around Rennes-le-Château became

9563-597: The game anywhere and as many times as they want. Prior to any development work to bring an older game for use on modern computers, legal experts within GOG.com need to track down all ownership rights to games and make sure that all necessary parties agree to their redistribution. This can be difficult for many games of the late 1990s and early 2000s, where very few publishers and developers kept digital records of their legal documentation, and there were large numbers of acquisitions and dissolutions that make tracking down rights difficult and take years to complete. One difficult case

9694-418: The game directly from the developer. The results showed that GOG.com generated 8.5% of the revenue – second only to Steam's 58.6% among the digital distribution platforms used. Doucet noted that "for the major [digital game distributors], GOG's star is clearly rising. Even under direct competition, GOG generated 14.5 percent as much revenue as Steam. [...] Steam enjoys a captive market of ardent loyalists, but GOG

9825-442: The game's code if it is not available. In cases where it is impossible to recode the game, they will instead package the game with open-source emulation or compatibility software, such as ScummVM and DOSBox . For newer titles, particularly for indie games , GOG.com offers the ability to publish their games on the site starting 2013. GOG.com offers indie developers a typical 70/30 split on revenue (meaning GOG.com takes 30% of

9956-408: The game's page stated that no activation or online connection was required. GOG later issued a statement saying that they "will not tolerate review-bombing and will be removing posts that do not follow our review-guidelines", which was also met with a negative feedback. As a result, the game had a rating of 1.4 stars out of 5 possible, making it the lowest rated game in GOG and the lowest rated entry in

10087-415: The games, customers are also able to download numerous extra materials relating to the game they purchased. Often these extras include the game's soundtrack (partly as FLAC ), wallpapers , avatars , and manuals . GOG.com also offers full customer support for all purchases and a money-back guarantee for the first 30 days. Promotions are organized regularly. The style of these promotions varies from

10218-558: The group, and examines the crime scene with Frank; the visit sees him experience visions of the murder, determining the killers were vampires. Gabriel informs James of his men's deaths, who implores him to continue his work, before visiting Larry to confront him about their visit. An angered Larry evicts him from his home, but not before he spies him setting his alarm for later that night. Talking with Grace regarding their suspects, she suggests to him to visit Montreaux, after finding his winery to be deeply unsettling for unknown reasons. Posing as

10349-795: The holy water stoup is a rare and unusual choice for the interior decoration of a Church but not exclusive to the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene; a similar subject can be seen in the Saint Vincent Collegiate church in Montréal , a short distance from Rennes-le-Château. The new figures and statues were not made especially for this church, but were chosen by Saunière from a catalogue published by Giscard, sculptor and painter in Toulouse who, among other things, offered statues and sculptures for church refurbishment. Saunière also funded

10480-505: The infidels), whose surplus she had hidden at Rennes-le-Château. Having found only part of it, Saunière continued his investigations beneath the church and in other parts of his domain. Corbu, followed by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln , asserts that Rennes-le-Château had been the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom Rhedae , while other sources postulate Rhedae's hub as Narbonne . Corbu's claim can be traced back to

10611-417: The legal rights to games. From this, they can work to make the game compatible with modern and future hardware, directly apply compatibility fixes , and sometimes incorporate well-established community-made patches from a game's fan-community. They also seek external help with some of the code issues, approaching developers that may have previously worked on the title. They may also need to reverse engineer

10742-408: The mid-1950s, concerning the 19th-century parish priest Bérenger Saunière . Those led researchers Michael Baigent , Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln to write The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , which became a bestseller in 1982; their work in turn fuelled the premise of Dan Brown 's The Da Vinci Code , published in 2003, as well as other media. The first known popular article about Saunière

10873-409: The mid-1950s, to turn the village into a household name. Corbu began circulating stories that, while renovating his church in 1892, Saunière had discovered "parchments" connected with the treasure of Blanche of Castile , and which "according to the archives" consisted of 28,500,000 gold pieces, said to be the treasure of the French crown assembled by Blanche to pay the ransom of Louis IX (a prisoner of

11004-430: The morning, Grace reveals the manuscript is about the fact that Jesus Christ had descendants, and covers his bloodlines following his crucifixion. Meanwhile, Gabriel finds Wilkes had disappeared from the hotel that night, and later finds his body near a local landmark, killed in the same fashion. Grace continues her work on Le Serpent Rouge and discovers the riddle's answers conform to Wilkes' findings. After completing

11135-440: The mythology of vampires and the Holy Grail , the myths surrounding the Knights Templar , and the religious stories of Jesus Christ before and during his crucifixion. The locations featured in the game included a fictionalized layout of Rennes-le-Château, which faithfully recreates local landmarks such as the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, alongside the real-life locations of Rennes-les-Bains and Château de Blanchefort, with

11266-457: The northeast and the Pyrenees to the south. The area is known for its scenery, with jagged ridges, deep river canyons and rocky limestone plateaus, with large caves underneath. Rennes-le-Château was the site of a prehistoric encampment, and later a Roman colony , or at least Roman villa or temple, such as is confirmed to have been built at Fa , 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Couiza , part of

11397-494: The open multiplayer beta of the GOG Galaxy client was started, accompanied by the giveaway of Alien vs Predator . In July 2015 the GOG Galaxy beta client was reviewed favorably by the PC Gamer magazine, especially noting the focus on user respect in comparison to Steam. On 22 March 2017, the client added in cloud saves for 29 games from its catalog. GOG Galaxy is currently available for Microsoft Windows and macOS , with

11528-530: The ownership of Dungeons & Dragons -related games between Atari , Hasbro , and other companies. On 27 March 2012, Good Old Games announced that it was branching out to feature " AAA " and independent titles in addition to older games. The site was rebranded to GOG.com. In October 2012, GOG.com was announced to be bringing DRM-free games to OS X . This included the previously Steam exclusive (OS X version) The Witcher and The Witcher 2 , both made by CD Projekt Red. GOG.com gathered user feedback in

11659-488: The pair with their investigations. He reveals that he once served in a brotherhood known as the Magi that aided and protected Jesus during his life, and that Montreaux is part a group of Magi who sought to secure his blood for their own end, becoming vampires as a result. Emilio himself attempted the same and became immortal, but regretted his actions, and so swore to prevent the group hounding Jesus' descendants. Realizing Charlie

11790-430: The pair's help in protect his infant son Charlie from "Night Visitors" - beings claimed to be vampires that have plagued his family. Upon agreeing to the job, the pair are overcome on their first night by a strange force; Grace is knocked out, while Gabriel is left paralyzed and forced to watch Charlie being kidnapped. Regaining his limbs, he pursues after the kidnappers onto a train, but is ambushed by them once aboard. When

11921-404: The player's character is not in view, they will spawn someone off-camera near to the current position of the viewpoint. At certain points in the game, players can make use of a laptop for scanning in and comparing evidence, conducting research on topics, linking evidence and items to marked down suspects, and for tackling one of the game's central puzzles. In some situations, the player must overcome

12052-573: The player. Actions can involve things such as examining an object/person, picking up an item, or talking to a person. As with previous titles, players store items collected in an inventory, and can examine them, use them, combine them, or make them an active object for interactions with other items or people. Conversations with people range from those who provide brief words on things and those who need to be interviewed on topics. For interviews concerning questioning someone for information, an action bar of "verb" topics appears, which can range from asking about

12183-599: The presentation, GOG.com's co-founder Marcin Iwiński and managing director Guillaume Rambourg had dressed as monks to atone for their sins. The relaunch of the site was considered by Rambourg to have been successful, having brought new customers that were previously unaware of GOG.com. As promised after its relaunch, GOG.com was able to offer several Black Isle Studios games such as Baldur's Gate , Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale which have previously been unreleased through any download service due to legal issues about

12314-402: The previous ones and, as the researches have intensified, so the various lines of investigation have accumulated and crossed in a system of ramifications in which criticism of one line of approach simply gives rise to others and Today the vogue is for analyzing and checking the most minute details, for comparing and contrasting rival theories, for reviving old and unexplored lines of enquiry in

12445-572: The priesthood. At the end of the last century he had a rather original idea. He placed in foreign newspapers, especially in the United States, an advertisement announcing that the poor priest of Rennes-le-Château lived among heretics and had only the most meagre of resources. He moved the Christians of the whole world to such pity by announcing that the old church, an architectural gem, was heading for unavoidable ruin if urgent restoration work

12576-468: The purpose of trying to bring legitimate sales of foreign game titles into Poland, knowing they would have no easy way to compete against pirated copies. They would obtain import rights from foreign publishers, and where possible, provide in-game localization for text and voice lines, typically through reverse engineering to decompile the game's code. They would then package the game with localized instruction manuals and other physical goodies, hoping that

12707-501: The renovation of the church, including works on the presbytery and cemetery, cost 11,605 Francs over a ten-year period between 1887 and 1897. With inflation that figure is equivalent to approximately 30 million Francs as of 2019, or 4.5 million Euros. Among Saunière's external embellishments was the Latin inscription Terribilis est locus iste displayed prominently on the lintel of the main entrance; its literal and most obvious translation

12838-504: The riddles, she and Gabriel find the manuscript missing. Suspecting Mosely took it and discovering Prince James has turned up, Gabriel decides to question his friend and asks Grace to track it down. Her investigations later lead the pair to reveal Buthane to be with French intelligence, investigating recent activity in the region, Vittorio to be a priest from the Vatican, also for the same reasons, and that Mosely recently signed up to work for

12969-470: The rights changed hands), and also some classic Elder Scrolls titles. In March 2019, Blizzard Entertainment joined GOG.com with classic titles Diablo , Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition , with Diablo: Hellfire joining later on 5 June 2019. On 25 September 2020, GOG.com announced the comeback of three Metal Gear titles ( Metal Gear , Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance ) as well as

13100-456: The rights to System Shock 2 , one of the most requested games at GOG.com for years, and have since found and relicensed other older games thought lost to licensing issues. In order to ensure compatibility with newer versions of operating systems and current PC hardware, games are pre-patched and restored by GOG.com. Whenever possible, GOG.com attempts to acquire the game's original source code , which can prove as difficult as determining

13231-623: The rising costs - between January 2021 and September 2021, GOG lost $ 1.14 million. Due to poor financial performance GOG.com management announced the plan to scale down, focusing on "a handpicked selection of games" and moving staff to other projects within CD Projekt. The offered digital goods ( video games and movies ) can be purchased and downloaded online and they are distributed without digital rights management. The prices of products typically range from about $ 5 to $ 10 for older games, along with special offers in sales held several times

13362-676: The sale), as well as an option for an upfront payment to the developer, with GOG.com then taking 40% of the sales until the upfront payment has been covered, reverting the cost back to 30%. Such games are still distributed DRM-free. On 26 March 2009, GOG.com announced it had signed a deal with Ubisoft to publish games from their back catalogue; this was the first deal with a major publisher to offer DRM-free downloads. The deal to publish through GOG.com also included games that were not available through any other online distribution channel. On 5 September 2014, GOG.com started to sell Amiga games from Cinemaware 's catalogue, starting with Defender of

13493-464: The series . On 8 October, the game was removed, followed by the announcement from staff team, saying that they "shouldn't have released it in its current form". Rennes-le-Ch%C3%A2teau Rennes-le-Château ( French pronunciation: [ʁɛn lə ʃato] ; Occitan : Rènnas del Castèl ) is a commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza , in the Aude department in

13624-636: The service had been effectively inactive for several years with no new titles offered for connection. As GOG.com does not typically release absolute game selling numbers, market share considerations of GOG.com among the digital distributors are a challenge. But, sometimes an individual game developer releases their internal statistics about the selling performance on different game distribution channels for their specific game. In an article dated 11 November 2011, PC Gamer reported statistics for online sales of The Witcher 2 . According to PC Gamer: Direct2Drive , Impulse and GamersGate 's combined sales were

13755-426: The shutdown may be related to the nature of DRM -free strategy, based on Twitter messages from the company. On 22 September 2010, GOG.com revealed that this shutdown was a marketing hoax as part of the site coming out of beta. The site's management, aware of the reactions to the fake closure, stated: "First of all we'd like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by the closedown of GOG.com. As

13886-404: The southern accent", and the switch to 3D which they felt "is not yet ready to depict the emotions and feelings in the way actors can". Erik Wolpaw of GameSpot shared the sentiments about Curry's "terrible acting job", calling the "fake accent and overly dramatic delivery [...] almost unbearable". The dialogue was also criticized, as were the puzzles, the latter which fortunately "get better as

14017-417: The story progresses". The story itself was more positively received, including "some excellent plot elements" and "fascinating" connections between fact and fiction. Dan Ravipinto of Adventure Gamers found some of the smaller puzzles "outright silly", but at the same time the vast Le Serpent Rouge "one of the best-designed puzzles in adventure gaming history". The storyline with its "interesting narratives"

14148-468: The subsoil of the church at a depth of approximately one metre, discovered bones that included a skull bearing an incision, but failed to unearth anything else of interest. Dr Malacan died in 1997, and the skull remained in the possession of his family until May 2014, when it was finally handed back to the village following several years of legal wrangling (carbon-dating of the skull has dated it to between 1281 and 1396). Between 1959 and 1963, Jacques Cholet,

14279-615: The survival of the line of Dagobert II , from which Plantard claimed descent. Plantard and Sède fell out over book royalties and Philippe de Chérisey , Plantard's friend, was revealed to have forged some parchments as part of a putative plot. Plantard and Chérisey lodged documents relating to the Priory of Sion in France's Bibliothèque Nationale . Corbu's story inspired author Robert Charroux to develop an active interest, and in 1958, he, along with his wife Yvette and other members of The Treasure Seekers' Club which he founded in 1951, scoured

14410-416: The tour groups' room, and discovers Buthane and Vittorio are not what they appear to be. Meanwhile, Grace joins the treasure hunting tour to learn more about the hidden treasure in the region. After a visit to a local winery, owned by Excelsior Montreaux, she and the group come across the bodies of James' men, both of whom were brutally murdered and drained of their blood. Upon hearing of this, Gabriel questions

14541-407: The tour's leader; Vittorio Buccheilli, an Italian tourist; John Wilkes, an Australian treasure hunter; Emilio Baza, a Middle Eastern tourist; and Frank Mosely, Gabriel's police detective friend from New Orleans . At the same time, he meets with local priest Abbé Arnaud, and historical writer Larry Sinclair. During a search of the village and the region, he discovers the kidnappers must be hiding out in

14672-437: The train stops outside the town of Couiza, a station porter helps him to a hotel in the nearby village of Rennes-le-Château. The next morning, Gabriel calls James to report his location, but is confused when he is asked to investigate what he can until James' men can take over. When seeking coffee in the hotel, Gabriel learns that the night he arrived, a treasure hunting group arrived at the same time, including: Madeline Buthard,

14803-520: The user's GOG library. On 13 November 2024, GOG launched the GOG Preservation Program, an initiative aimed at ensuring the continued availability and compatibility of classic video games on modern and future systems. The program, introduced to coincide with GOG's 16th anniversary, initially launched with over 100 titles. The GOG Preservation Program formalizes GOG's past efforts to restore and update classic games. In previous years,

14934-546: The village and its church for treasure with a metal detector . In 1969, Henry Lincoln , a British researcher and screenwriter for the BBC , read Gérard de Sède's book while on holiday in the Cévennes . He produced three BBC2 Chronicle documentaries between 1972 and 1979 and worked some of their material into the 1982 non-fictional bestseller, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , co-written with fellow researchers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh . Their book concludes that

15065-579: The voices of Philippe Bergeron, Rene Auberjonois, Susan Silo, Karen Ross, and Tom Kane. Four years after the events in The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery , novelist Gabriel Knight, fulfilling his family's role as Schattenjäger, and Grace Nakimura, his research assistant, receive an invitation to the home of Prince James of Albany, a descendant of the House of Stuart , in Paris . James requests

15196-402: The words "Shadow Hunters" – who take it upon themselves to defend the innocent from such beings; their origins, however, are shrouded in mystery. The game's story is inspired by a 1950s conspiracy theory concerning 19th-century parish priest Bérenger Saunière and a secret treasure he hid away around the village of Rennes-le-Château in southern France , incorporating several elements concerning

15327-472: The work of archaeologists and historians. Corbu's story was published in the book by Robert Charroux Trésors du monde in 1962, that caught the attention of Pierre Plantard , who, through motives which remain unclear, used and adapted Corbu's story involving the apocryphal history of the Priory of Sion , inspiring the 1967 book L'Or de Rennes by Gérard de Sède . Sède's book contained reproductions of parchments allegedly discovered by Saunière alluding to

15458-453: The works, and King's Quest is MIA. Alas, adventure, we hardly knew ye." A month later, Erik Wolpaw of Old Man Murray used Gabriel Knight 3 and its "Mosely disguise" puzzle as an "alternate theory of who killed adventure gaming". He concluded his hypothesis with: "Who killed Adventure Games? I think it should be pretty clear at this point that Adventure Games committed suicide." GOG.com GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games )

15589-539: Was acquiring the rights for the Strategic Simulations " Gold Box " series games, due to the number of acquisitions that Strategic Simulations went through since the 1990s. GOG.com offers users a means to request back-catalog games they would like to see, and the company uses this list to identify games that may require more extensive licensing research. Some of this work has been done in coordination with Nightdive Studios , who were able to find and acquire

15720-415: Was already clear to the development team that it would be the final Gabriel Knight game. Jane Jensen remarked that "we were the last dinosaur on the block. We had until the game shipped, and then it would be over". Nonetheless, Sierra felt the series should move to 3D graphics to keep up with the times. The development team had little experience with or understanding of the format; when programmer Scott Bilas

15851-582: Was an official partner, which will allow GOG Galaxy 2.0 to have strong incorporation with Xbox and Xbox Game Pass titles. The new client entered a closed beta period in June 2019, and open beta in December 2019. On 20 July 2020, GOG announced official integration with the Epic Games Store for GOG Galaxy 2.0. Revealed in June 2016, GOG Connect enables users with both GOG.com and Steam accounts to claim certain games they already own on Steam as part of their GOG.com library, allowing them to download

15982-399: Was brought on board mid-production, he was told that the game was nearly finished, only to find that the team had left out a number of features that were needed to make the game playable. The game was announced in mid-August 1997. The team's struggles with the technology led to a number of delays. Alluding to an infamous puzzle early in the game in which Knight must use tape to get hair from

16113-408: Was called "epic in every sense of the word" and the game "ultimately a success". Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen said of the game, "It's a cliché, but: if you are really into adventure games – and one heck of a puzzle solver – man, is this a rare treat." In May 2000, Jane Jensen remarked that the "sales of Gabriel Knight 3 were not sufficient to offset the cost of development given that we had to build

16244-447: Was disabled, leaving behind messages on the web site and their Twitter accounts that the site had been closed. A spokesman for Good Old Games reiterated that the site was not being shut down, and confirmed news would be forthcoming about changes to the service. A clarification posted on the site on 20 September 2010 said they had to shut down the site temporarily "due to business and technical reasons", with industry journalists believing

16375-549: Was found the game included content critical of Xi Jinping , the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and faced numerous complaints from Chinese gamers. Red Candle Games apologized and stated they would remove the content, but had not been able to bring the game back. In December, Red Candle and GOG had announced that GOG would offer Devotion later that month, but within a few hours of

16506-444: Was given to the story and its setting, along with one of the "best-designed game puzzles" in adventure games, while it was criticized for some of its poor dialogue, Curry's performance, and its transfer to 3D graphics. The game was re-released as part of Sierra's Best Seller Series in 2001, and again for GOG.com , in 2010, and Steam , in 2016. Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is a point-and-click adventure game, played from

16637-410: Was intended as a home for retired priests. Surviving receipts and existing account books belonging to Saunière reveal that the construction of his estate (including the purchases of land) between 1898 and 1905 cost 26,417 Francs. Following Saunière's renovations and redecoratations, the church was re-dedicated in 1897 by his bishop, Monsignor Billard. In 1910–1911, Bérenger Saunière was summoned by

16768-411: Was not undertaken as soon as possible." Crouquet added: "The stoup which decorates the entrance to the chapel is carried by a horned devil with cloven hooves. An old woman remarked to us: 'It's the old priest, changed into a devil'." Crouquet's article faded into obscurity and it was left to Noël Corbu , a local man who had opened a restaurant in Saunière's former estate (called L'Hotel de la Tour ) in

16899-428: Was rampant across electronic media. Following the change of government, consumer perception of copyright in Poland remained largely the same, making it difficult for legitimate sellers of electronic media; pirated and bootlegged versions were often sold in open markets right next to boxed copies of legitimate items, but for a fraction of the cost. CD Projekt was founded by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński in 1994 for

17030-564: Was satisfied by Dean Erickson 's performance in the previous game, Jensen felt that Tim Curry represented the real voice of Gabriel Knight and opted to have him return to the role. The game's score was composed by David Henry, based on themes created by the series' original composer, Robert Holmes . In every Gabriel Knight game, the popular gospel hymn " When the Saints Go Marching In " can be heard, albeit in different remixes and forms. In Gabriel Knight 3 , it can be heard in

17161-523: Was written by Roger Crouquet in the Belgian magazine Le Soir illustré , published in 1948. The author was visiting the Aude to meet his friend Jean Mauhin, a Belgian who had moved to Quillan to open a bell and hat factory, and at his suggestion visited Rennes-le-Château. There Crouquet collected testimonies from villagers about Saunière. One person told how the priest "preferred wine and women to practising

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