Editorial The cost of dialogue

[Mr Happy]

I had to stop playing Mass Effect because it wouldn't let you skip the voiced dialog. I have shit to do, Bioware.

And codexes were voiced, which was distracting.

Problem with the biggest AAA productions, the ones that cater to the lowest common denominator, is not that they exist, but that they change everything around them.

And god thanks they do. It's called progress, son.

what evolution has there been in the action or rpg genre in the last ten years beyond the superficial? I guess firing from behind cover is new as far as I know but really

 

[someone else]

I thought this thread is about the cost of putting points in speech to unlock dialogues.

 

[Lightknight]

lip-synchronization and associated dialogue animations required an intense piece of work

Source engine is 8 years old. Why does everyone thinks that they need to reinvent the bicycle over and over ?

They're nearly never as good as Hollywood would do

Thats a rather low bar. If we're talking animation voice-overs - Hollywood will more often than not just invite someone with the name recognition, like Kiefer Sutherland, or somesuch.
Hollywood voice-overs are nearly never as good as Japanese would do.

 

[sigma1932]

BG2 had the perfect amount of VA.1 line is enough for normal NPCs and full voice should be reserved for important/special characters only(Firkraag,Irenicus etc.)

These fully voiced games bore me to death....and needless to say that it has negative impact on the quality of dialouges and the amount of content too

I like the Torment way of VA. Important NPCs and PCs have a couple of spoken lines here and there so whenever I would read, I would read it in their voices. I actually remember every important character as if all of his dialogue was voiced.

These two posts pretty much cover my opinion. I will add that people who like newer games that go play older games and end up disliking them rarely if ever even mention that they're not 100% VA'd.

I believe it's truly something that no one misses much if it's not there... unless the gameplay is ridiculously bad as well and their attention can wander to the VA being missing as well.

It's called progress

Yes it is, and it's not always a good thing. There are many examples of this in RL.

Regardless, specifically on topic, when "progress" consists of using money/resources for 100% cosmetic changes not only disallowing more gameplay features/depth to be added to the game, but is actually causing them/it to be removed, it's a bad thing.

 

[Haba]

I guess reviewers were upset with the lack of "gruff" voices.

More's the pity.

Heh, I loved the talking chests/boxes of Divinity 2. And that one chest that flirted with you.

Not to mention the tranny illusionists ;-)

 

[DragoFireheart]

FUCKING VOICE ACTING!

It's not in Mario, but it's still MAJESTIC!

FUCKING VOICE ACTING!

It's not in Zelda, but it's still MAJESTIC!

FUCKING VOICE ACTING!

It's not in Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's still MAJESTIC!

FUCKING VOICE ACTING!

It's in Dragon Age 2, but it's still a PIECE OF SHIT!

Voice acting does not make a game.

 

[My Name is]

I wondering why would any dev thinks putting VA onto every single bland dialogue they can think of gives any value to the player whatsoever. Bonus points if they are so bad until it makes people cringe.

And its not like people working on the VA are doing it for free either, so why bother unless they really want that "FULLY VOICED!" line appearing on the box.

 

[Stinger]

So what AAA games have managed to get away with minimal to no VA in the last few years (from memory I can only think of the Zeldas, Marios, Epic Mickey and other Wii games) and is there any reason they've managed to avoid that criticism when many RPGs suffer for it?

 

[DraQ]

So what AAA games have managed to get away with minimal to no VA in the last few years (from memory I can only think of the Zeldas, Marios, Epic Mickey and other Wii games) and is there any reason they've managed to avoid that criticism when many RPGs suffer for it?

STALKER series.

 

[Trojan_generic]

Voiceovers are for people who move their lips while reading.

 

[Oarfish]

Just do one set of VO in Russian and subtitle it. Foreign reviewers will then be less able to moan it if its shit, as it will be 'arty'.

 

[JarlFrank]

Personally, I'd aim for recording the memorable lines from major plot characters. Plenty of voiced first line greetings followed by text can also be useful for easing retards into reading.

Yeah. The fuck happened to the way Fallout, Arcanum, Infinity Engine games and Morrowind handled voice acting? Give it to a few (or even many, depending on how much money and effort you want to spend on it) characters, preferably those of high plot importance or those with a personality that could benefit from VA and make those VAd characters AWESOME.

I don't give a fuck if every peasant is voiceacted. It's unnecessary overkill. Give VA to the important characters, heck, maybe even most characters if you feel it necessary, but give text boxes to generic chars like merchants or farmers, who don't have a developed personality anyway. It only leads to reduction of overall lines of dialogue in the game and doesn't contribute anything valuable. This way, you may even have every bum in the country explain his unique backstory to you, while those characters who are VAd also get more lines.

And you prevent the horrible "everyone sounds the same!" issue that modern "every sentence has VA!!!!" games have.

 

[rpgcodexusername]

the only voice acting allowed in RPG's is "Go for the eyes Boo, GO FOR THE EYES!! RrraaaAAGHGHH!!!"