Game News More on Oblivion voice acting

[Chefe]

voice acting though is just in there because too many people complained about having to read all the dialog in morrowind.

That wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't a dictionary.

Full speech is a good thing, especially Bethesda. It should limit them from pulling another WikiTamriel disaster.

 

[jiujitsu]

My thought are if all these big name people would jump on board for this game then maybe it's got a pretty cool story.

Even if all the roleplaying aspects suck I'll still like it if the story kicks ass and keeps me interested.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Oblivion is one of the year’s most highly-anticipated games

I'm actually more anticipiated in this: why I am not anticipating this game for quite a while now.
Is it the annoying and constant Bethesda's PR that has exhausted me or it's Vault Dveller's even more exhausting pseydo-anti-PR of that same game.

But, now that I know what great voice acting is coming within this so ''anticipated'' game, I'm fully satisfied. ;|

 

[corvax]

And some other John Doe voice actor with equal or even better voice acting skills (not that Steward isn't great!) wouldn't add to atmosphere? So, it MUST be a celebrity everywhere now, for something to be atmospheric enough, you say.

Quick to draw conclusions, eh? I never said that "regular" voice actors wouldn't add to the atmosphere. My point is that with the actors mentioned you pretty much got top-notch voice acting guaranteed where as that may not be the case if someone else was in their place. And what's so wrong with that? All the other stuff goes back to marketing and I think you're smart enough to understand how PR works nowadays.

oh i am very faimilar with tes lore.
but even then i still think the story is not that good.
'you must find the last heir to the throne who will save us all'
reminds me alot of the jrr tolken's return of the king.
also you have to consider the price of having such talent. it has obviously drain resources from elsewhere, where it would matter more(mounted combat, staff melee, etc).
voice acting though is just in there because too many people complained about having to read all the dialog in morrowind.

Well I still think that plot wise Oblivion beats most current RPGs out there. Must find the last heir is rather corny but in reality it's not all of the story. It's just a "black & white" explanation of the main issue, something catchy you can put on a box or in a preview. In that article it was mentioned that there's someone from another line of kings ready to take the throne with a different vision for Tamriel. There's also a power struggle between different guilds evolving around power politics. The fall of the Empire is indeed crucial and if you follow TES through Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and even Redguard you tend to apprecieate the scale on which the changes are happening. Therefore I think you are generalising or making premature decision that Oblivion storyline ain't that good.

As far as the price of voice acting...well Bethesda made shitloads of money from Morrowind so I guess they can afford that. It's harder for me to see it as a give and take situation mostly because voice acting isn't something on your priorities when you design a game. Yeah it kind of sucks that there's no mounted combat and that there's one blade skill but I don't think that getting "normal" voice actors would change that.

 

[Garak]

oh i am very faimilar with tes lore.
but even then i still think the story is not that good.
'you must find the last heir to the throne who will save us all'
reminds me alot of the jrr tolken's return of the king.

I must say right now I'm a bit disappointed about the story either. We just know too much already. One will close the doors in the end by finding the heir that's not the player and he's obviously male, too. Spread some more of these definite infos and there will be hardly any twist in the plot...

voice acting though is just in there because too many people complained about having to read all the dialog in morrowind.

Even though I still think Voice Acting is a complete desaster for Oblivions moddability (I liked the possibility of perfecly blending in into Morrowinds original content), I'm relived to see some talented actors on the castlist - I've heared so much of exaggerated accents and other crude overacting which I'd love to forget...

 

[corvax]

w00t! General Zod rules.

Watching Superman II right now...yeah Zod rules.

 

[DemonKing]

"Oblivion is something unique, an epic entertainment experience unlike anything I had seen before," said Bean. "I decided this was a project I really wanted to work on creatively and I hope fans of the game enjoy the results."

Wow, what a sharp observation.

If you believe for one second that Sean Bean actually said that, you're off your rocker.

It's clearly been manufactured by some PR guy - not only is the tone "PR banal" but can anyone seriously believe that doing some VO work for a crummy video game compares to the end result of the cinematic LOTR trilogy?

 

[vazquez595654]

Well I still think that plot wise Oblivion beats most current RPGs out there

That's not saying much.

The fall of the Empire is indeed crucial and if you follow TES through Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and even Redguard you tend to apprecieate the scale on which the changes are happening.

I would say that TES lore is pretty good. I would add that TES lore added to any if its respective games is amazingly shallow and will probably be worse in Oblivion. The only thing that kept me going at all in Morrowind were the books and even some of those were pretty weak.

Daggerfall's intro video was amazing. That set the whole tone for the beginning of the game unfortunately the game itself wasn't that interesting. Although granted for its time it was a significant feat with respect to game design specifically in terms of player choice and freedom.

 

[obediah]

...not that Steward isn't great!...

Stewart is a fucking terrible voice actor. Every thing is Picard. He may have a great voice, and he may be a great actor, but he is not a great voice actor.

You should have just stuck to your guns. Voice acting is absolute shit as a feature - I'm (honestly) much more excited about soil erosion. At least we've been told that it is subtitled, so we can skip through all this crap instead of waiting forever for the characters to spit out their lines.

 

[truekaiser]

As far as the price of voice acting...well Bethesda made shitloads of money from Morrowind so I guess they can afford that. It's harder for me to see it as a give and take situation mostly because voice acting isn't something on your priorities when you design a game. Yeah it kind of sucks that there's no mounted combat and that there's one blade skill but I don't think that getting "normal" voice actors would change that.

they probibly made alot less then you think.
you have to remember they licenced the engine for morrowind so part of their profit goes to pay that. another part goes to microsoft for the privilage of making a game for the xbox(it's how they make money, sell the consoles for a loss but then make the 3rd party devs to give them a certain percentage of their profits)

besides voice acting is a trivial feature in games. everyone i talk too either doesn't care about it or turns it off.

 

[DemonKing]

another part goes to microsoft for the privilage of making a game for the xbox(it's how they make money, sell the consoles for a loss but then make the 3rd party devs to give them a certain percentage of their profits)

Actually MS has made a $4 billion loss so far on the XBOX - including software sales. Their whole strategy is really one for the future - they're hoping to capture part of the amrket now so they can reap profits in the long term - and MS is one of the few companies that can swallow one of its departments recording a big loss like this.

besides voice acting is a trivial feature in games. everyone i talk too either doesn't care about it or turns it off.

It's difficult to judge the importance of VO. Bad voice acting can really be detrimental to a game (DS2, Silent Storm etc), but the effect of good VO is hard to judge. I would argue that good VO can really help a game to create an atmosphere. eg. The original IWD had great VO work that really meshed well with the sound and graphics. Also the full VO in KOTOR has also been pretty immersive, although the quality of the actors does vary a bit.

 

[Psilon]

I'm not a fan of fully voiced dialogue for several reasons.
First, most voiceovers tend toward the mediocre at best. For every Quest for Glory IV, there's a King's Quest V. For every Fallout, there's a FreeSpace. That's money that could be going toward additional programmers, designers, or--if Brooks's Law is kicking in already--testers.
Second, full VO severely constricts the script. Gendered terms get replaced with the neutral equivalents, the player's never referred to by name, and the odds of a character commenting on monumentally bizarre character choices, actions, or other borderline easter eggish circumstances drop to near zero.
Third, the VO and script both have to be really good or else I'm going to skip the VO at every opportunity rather than just repeats. (Unless it's an absolutely priceless delivery, I never let the VO repeat while I'm in a dialogue loop.)

 

[DorrieB]

"Oblivion is something unique, an epic entertainment experience unlike anything I had seen before," said Bean. "I decided this was a project I really wanted to work on creatively and I hope fans of the game enjoy the results."

Wow, what a sharp observation.

If you believe for one second that Sean Bean actually said that, you're off your rocker.
[/quote]

No, no. Sean Bean, Sharp observation. As in, still sharp, that's sharp, etc? S-h-a-r-p-e?

Please get it already. It was a lame joke to start with, without having to explain it.

 

[Twinfalls]

I've always wanted to go to a ZZTop concert wearing a shark costume.

So when someone asks me what the hell, I can say hey, don't you know - 'coz every girl crazy for a Shark Dressed Man'

 

[Atrokkus]

Second, full VO severely constricts the script. Gendered terms get replaced with the neutral equivalents, the player's never referred to by name, and the odds of a character commenting on monumentally bizarre character choices, actions, or other borderline easter eggish circumstances drop to near zero.

Moreover, it constricts the dialog body somewhat. I mean, hell, it's friggin' impossible to voiceover Torment with its sheer number of conversations! It would require huge amount of disk space and even bigger expenses for all the actors and studio-work involved. That's the biggest reason, not the voice quality - in most fully-VO RPGs i liked all the voices (for instance, German Gothic was perfect).

 

[DarkUnderlord]

You know, it wasn't until the end credits rolled in GTA: San Andreas that I realised Officer Ten Penny was voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

While I'm here though...

PATRICK STEWART!

So when do the news announcements from Bethesda about the voice-overs end?

 

[Atrokkus]

You know, it wasn't until the end credits rolled in GTA: San Andreas that I realised Officer Ten Penny was voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

One of the reasons why I actually played the game almost through was the EXCELLENT voice-acting. Ten-penny, Smoke, OG LOC -- great acting.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Apparently Raven Software got Patrick Stewart to do X-Men Legends 2 as well.

 

[truekaiser]

Apparently Raven Software got Patrick Stewart to do X-Men Legends 2 as well.

he also seems to voice a major character in the cartoon 'american dad'
so either he is a superman or somone is useing a imitator.

 

[triCritical]

I have never understood the necessity to drive up the budget of a game by getting voice actors, who aren't even voice actors. Same pit the Hollywood CG films fall in. I mean the master of Mutants in Fallout was like 2 or 3 different characters in that game and he does the voices for Winnie the Pooh and tigger. Lets see Picard do that... But he can't because he is an overpriced non-voice actor, who has only ONE voice!

 

[DemonKing]

No, no. Sean Bean, Sharp observation. As in, still sharp, that's sharp, etc? S-h-a-r-p-e?

LOL - Sorry, I was molested as a child by my father's determination that humour = the Pun, and therefore have ever since mentally blanked out any puns in the vain hope that they weren't inflicted on me on purpose.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Apparently Raven Software got PATRICK STEWART!! to do X-Men Legends 2 as well.

There Saint, I corrected it for you.

 

[golgotha]

...

 

[Psilon]

That said, maybe Patrick Stewart is a good choice after all:

Patrick Stewart: I will 'Make It So.'
[blank look from Andy]
Patrick Stewart: Have you seen Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Andy Millman: No.
Patrick Stewart: Your girlfriend won't let you watch it?
Andy Millman: No, I haven't got a girlfriend.
Patrick Stewart: Oh, your wife then.
Andy Millman: No, I don't have a wife.
Patrick Stewart: You don't have a girlfriend or a wife. You live alone and you have never seen Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Andy Millman: No.
Patrick Stewart: Oh, God.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

God bless Patrick Stewart.