Eternity Pillars of Eternity II Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Sentinel]

Let me explain how Obsidian should better spend their budget, because they're obviously casual-pandering idiots with no real (=my) understanding of the industry.

Well they were once on a brink of bankruptcy.... your point is?

That they now aren't

and who's to thank for that? It's certainly not themselves.

 

[Merlkir]

Let me explain how Obsidian should better spend their budget, because they're obviously casual-pandering idiots with no real (=my) understanding of the industry.

Well they were once on a brink of bankruptcy.... your point is?

Totally not biased objective Codexers with loads of experience in releasing successful games are obviously who Obs should listen to here.

(more seriously for a moment - was budget ever an issue during PoE 1 development? Did Obs spend too much on something worthless at some point? I've always got the impression the game's planning and production were managed pretty well.
Not that many aspects of game dev can be fixed or improved by throwing more money or people at it, especially at this stage towards release. VO is one of those that can. It kind of does sound to me like they just potentially had some leftover money and got a good deal from the actors.)

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

You already acknowledge voice acting limits. Hint, it's limitations are not exclusive to player character.

The dialogues were already written and they were simply voiced. What limit does that apply? The limit when voicing the protagonist comes from the fact that you can't voice too many options so it leads the player to basically choose the same stuff over and over.

Full VO? Okay, I just have one question.

Why. The. Fuck?

Why not?

Because full VO just does not work in a prose-style dialogue with a lot of descriptive text. Your reading speed does not correlate with your hearing speed, the voice over is also choppy because they do not voice the descriptions, which makes the entire experience an exercise in futility.

This is text-based isometric game. The only thing that should be voiced are the main quest, the chapter intros, the combat barks and party banter. Maybe companion interactions. Full VO is limpstick on a pig.

a) You can disable voices if you read too fast, I'm sure.
b)No, the game is not "text-based isometric game", where did you get that? Why are all these things that you say supposedly staples of the genre or sth?

But I don't want to disable the voices. I want the barks and I want the banter and I want narrator to read intros and NPCs to introduce themselves and shit. Without that the game feels lifesless. I don't want full VO, because full VO in this type of game sucks gigantic dick. Unless if they have changed their writing style, but this seems like a late decision to make full VO, so I doubt that.

And of course it's a text-based game, and a text-based genre. Always was. Which is why Fargo tried to advertise his latest brainfart as having 1 million words.

Full VO

a) sucks
b) is expensive

and therefore

c) Josh can suck my grandma's armpits.

 

[Lacrymas]

D:OS2's relative mainstream success was unprecedented and the hope that the lightning will strike twice by clumsily clopping through the now-beaten path is an empty one.

 

[Sentinel]

Let me explain how Obsidian should better spend their budget, because they're obviously casual-pandering idiots with no real (=my) understanding of the industry.

Well they were once on a brink of bankruptcy.... your point is?

Totally not biased objective Codexers with loads of experience in releasing successful games are obviously who Obs should listen to here.

(more seriously for a moment - was budget ever an issue during PoE 1 development? Did Obs spend too much on something worthelss at some point? I've always got the impression the game's planning and production were managed pretty well.
Not that many aspects of game dev can be fixed or improved by throwing more money or people at it, especially at this stage towards release. VO is one of those that can. It kind of does sound to me like they just potentially had some leftover money and got a good deal from the actors.)

Josh already confirmed they went overbudget. I don't think they had "leftover money". Unless you mean "leftover money" from the 2nd budget that financed the overbudget part. But that'd be one hell of a coincidence.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

(more seriously for a moment - was budget ever an issue during PoE 1 development? Did Obs spend too much on something worthelss at some point? I've always got the impression the game's planning and production were managed pretty well.

If I'm not mistaken, they run over budget and had to put their own money into production and Sawyer very nearly got fired at some point because the game was not looking good.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The only reason for these games to add full vo is that they intend to release on console. There is absolutely no other reason to invest so many resources on it.

 

[Merlkir]

Let me explain how Obsidian should better spend their budget, because they're obviously casual-pandering idiots with no real (=my) understanding of the industry.

Well they were once on a brink of bankruptcy.... your point is?

Totally not biased objective Codexers with loads of experience in releasing successful games are obviously who Obs should listen to here.

(more seriously for a moment - was budget ever an issue during PoE 1 development? Did Obs spend too much on something worthelss at some point? I've always got the impression the game's planning and production were managed pretty well.
Not that many aspects of game dev can be fixed or improved by throwing more money or people at it, especially at this stage towards release. VO is one of those that can. It kind of does sound to me like they just potentially had some leftover money and got a good deal from the actors.)

Josh already confirmed they went overbudget. I don't think they had "leftover money".

Must've missed that. I guess they're confident it'll be worth it.

 

[Tenebris]

The only reason for these games to add full vo is that they intend to release on console. There is absolutely no other reason to invest so many resources on it.

And surprise surprise! We got a console announcement before the game even came out on PC.

 

[fantadomat]

Let me explain how Obsidian should better spend their budget, because they're obviously casual-pandering idiots with no real (=my) understanding of the industry.

Well they were once on a brink of bankruptcy.... your point is?

That they now aren't

Maybe they went all in?

You and TheSentinel even agree that the full VO move is good marketing-wise so if they DO have financial issues isn't it a good choice??

Well i don't see many people here going full ,RPGs are pretty niche genre fans know what they want from the games in it. Doubt that many mainstream gamers will jump the ship just because there is a voice acting. Full VO is good for a action RPG like ELEX or The Witcher. For an isometric RPG it could even be a negative marketing. Also they have another projects in the making,they could easily fuck themself in the ass if PoE2 doesn't sell well.

 

[Iskramor]

This is a Balkan thread. Everyone else leave the premises immediately.

Said the guy from asia.

We have a tendency to go to places where we don't belong.

REMOVE KEBAB

 

[Iskramor]

Fuck me.

We dont fuck bisexuals

 

[Infinitron]

You can dislike VO, but it's not much different from investing in better graphics - which is this game's true budget sink, btw. All those character models and spell effects, remade from scratch. Nothing kept from PoE1.

 

[fantadomat]

Fuck me.

We dont fuck bisexuals

He could be a lusty busty teenage girl.

 

[Sentinel]

You can dislike VO, but realize that from a cost-benefit perspective it's not much different from investing in better graphics - which is this game's true budget sink, btw. All those character models and spell effects, remade from scratch.

That wasn't so much graphics but new engine + fixing the mess that was combat readability in PoE1. It's a "well, we have to do this anyway... might as well redo them" kind of situation.

 

[Thonius]

Let me explain how Obsidian should better spend their budget, because they're obviously casual-pandering idiots with no real (=my) understanding of the industry.

Well they were once on a brink of bankruptcy.... your point is?

That they now aren't

Maybe they went all in?

You and TheSentinel even agree that the full VO move is good marketing-wise so if they DO have financial issues isn't it a good choice??

If they manage to cover VO and make some by attracting people who like VO- Alright good to them. But it's feels easier to just you know make some ads.

 

[Iskramor]

tfw when you back a game which saves a company from bankruptcy only to realise - way too late - than they're plain retarded.
Never have i dropped so many despair ratings in so little time.
It feels like carrying griffith on top of that fucking hand.

We created a monster.

 

[Thonius]

Now consider localization.... I know that's mostly done by publisher/s but in 99% times it's PURE CRAP, and can take extra time/cut from sales.
They got overbudget? What a shocker.... time to make some more VO right, that will cover the expenses.

 

[fantadomat]

You can dislike VO, but realize that from a cost-benefit perspective it's not much different from investing in better graphics - which is this game's true budget sink, btw. All those character models and spell effects, remade from scratch.

That wasn't so much graphics but new engine + fixing the mess that was combat readability in PoE1. It's a "well, we have to do this anyway... might as well redo them" kind of situation.

I didn't knew that it was on a new engine. Is it fully new or just an updated version of the old one? The old one seemed decent but with problems.

 

[Iskramor]

The twitch crowd is ecstatic at least

turns out the crpg renaissance came with strings attached
mainly, the crpg downfall all over again

We must resuerect heinrich himmler to unleash his wrath on californian antifa hipsters.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[vonAchdorf]

You can dislike VO, but it's not much different from investing in better graphics - which is this game's true budget sink, btw. All those character models and spell effects, remade from scratch. Nothing kept from PoE1.

Doesn't make VO content / story / dialogue creation way less flexible? Better graphics seem to be more flexible.

For example if Larian had done full VO for (launch) D:OS - would they still have made the changes in dialogue / story for the EE?

 

[Fry]

 

[Ibn Sina]

I think most are forgetting the bigger issue. The problem is not with voice Acting if it is done right. Either you do it right and fork over those bills to hire professional voice actors with range or do not do it at all. Going halfway is the worst of both worlds and will yield to you the terrible results you see in PoE and probably PoE 2. Hiring a bunch of people from cafes or using your own staff is just lazy ass work and low effort and does not cut it anymore.