Decline Thiaf Pre-Release Thread

[Infinitron]

 

[Jack]

So, back to Stephen Russell then. Why did using a full performance capture technique affect your decision?
Steven: With the new visual of Garrett we'd created, we found that there was a disconnect that we couldn't ignore between the concepted character and Stephen’s voice today.
Jean-Christophe: Yes. And to answer your question directly, the actor playing Garrett needed to be able to perform his own stunts. Garrett’s a really athletic guy. We could have pasted Stephen’s voice on top of the actions and stunts of someone else, but this wouldn’t appear natural. It really wouldn’t make any sense to capture the full performance for our other characters, but not for our star.
Steven: We’re absolutely huge fans of Stephen’s work on the classic Thief games. But when it came down to it, we ultimately realized that holding onto Steven as the voice of Garrett just for the sake of our nostalgia would be like wanting to cast Sean Connery again in the new 007 movies... It’s a nice thought, but honestly, it wouldn’t make sense for anything else other than nostalgia.

So this is what it has come to. Video game VAs has to perform their own stunts.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

What the fuck? I wonder if there was some other reason they didn't hire him, because that's too retarded to be real.

 

[skacky]

They proved many times that they were complete sperglords. This is just another proof.
EDIT: Hah. I wrote a one-liner full of sarcasm on their Facebook page and they fucking liked it.

 

[Sodafish]

Maybe French Canadians cannot into le sarcasme.

 

[Jack]

Not my shoops but I thought they were worth posting.

 

[Gelbvieh]

"We asked ourselves: what's the first thing you remember about Garrett? We all agreed, it's his body.
So we decided to get people in frogsuits to capture (ho, ho!) what really makes Thief special. Now when you execute a guard, the camera shifts to the third person and you see Garrett and you go 'Wow! That's so visceral! That's exactly how I remember his calves!"

 

[DalekFlay]

What the fuck? I wonder if there was some other reason they didn't hire him, because that's too retarded to be real.

It's retarded in the sense of IT'S A VIDEOGAME HAVE THE RIGHT PRIORITIES but it is not retarded in the sense that it doesn't pass honesty muster. Uncharted had popularized this digital actor thing in games, it's a thing now.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

So, back to Stephen Russell then. Why did using a full performance capture technique affect your decision?
Steven: With the new visual of Garrett we'd created, we found that there was a disconnect that we couldn't ignore between the concepted character and Stephen’s voice today.
Jean-Christophe: Yes. And to answer your question directly, the actor playing Garrett needed to be able to perform his own stunts. Garrett’s a really athletic guy. We could have pasted Stephen’s voice on top of the actions and stunts of someone else, but this wouldn’t appear natural. It really wouldn’t make any sense to capture the full performance for our other characters, but not for our star.
Steven: We’re absolutely huge fans of Stephen’s work on the classic Thief games. But when it came down to it, we ultimately realized that holding onto Steven as the voice of Garrett just for the sake of our nostalgia would be like wanting to cast Sean Connery again in the new 007 movies... It’s a nice thought, but honestly, it wouldn’t make sense for anything else other than nostalgia.

So this is what it has come to. Video game VAs has to perform their own stunts.

Yes. That's why michael ironside is not sam fisher anymore. How stupid is this shit? If you want an actor to portray a character, might as well go back to FMV days. Any actor can dub what the other is doing in motion capture, even improve a performance. Why didn't the world ended in 2012?

 

[Insect Hordes]

So if they didn't get the voice and performance capture in one take they'd just keep doing it over and over again? No wonder these new games cost so much to make. Or it's just a load of SHIT.

 

[skacky]

Oh yeah and they're going to show in-game footage in a few days. If it turns out to be bad in the slightest I'll tear them a new, bigger third asshole.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

What a catastrophe . I'm sure I will be amused by this footage and the actual game.

 

[FeelTheRads]

We want Thief to be a really rich, story-driven experience. Being able to deliver the narrative in the most convincing and believable way is a really important part of providing that experience.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Its beyond retarded and skirts the realm of unfathomably fucking insane.

A good voice actor is more than capable of conveying whatever the director wants them to perform.

I dont even know what kind of dumb logic that they seem to be attempting to engage. Having one guy do it makes it cheaper? They dont trust a VA to be capable at his job? They want to make a film?

 

[skacky]

They want to make a TR00 CINEMATIC EXPERIENSH WITH CRAZY ANIMASHUNS

 

[FeelTheRads]

Apparently so far in all their existence, all voice actors did shitty jobs because they couldn't jump. Now comes Eidos to the rescue.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Jean-Christophe: Immersion. Being able to capture the voice at the same time as the actors' movements and facial expressions, all while the actors play off each other, delivers a much more convincing experience than traditional techniques of recording each characters' dialogue separately and then animating everything by hand afterwards.

Steven: Yes, exactly that. Immersion. We want Thief to be a really rich, story-driven experience. Being able to deliver the narrative in the most convincing and believable way is a really important part of providing that experience.

IT'S LIKE THAT THING DarkUnderlord WAS TALKING ABOUT

Todd: Well, you'd think "bring the axe skill back" but that's not where games are going.

Pete: Yeah, it's not where games are going.
Todd: That's right, it's not where games are going. Games are getting more stream-lined. Lots of skills is complex and people don't like complex systems with like numbers, and maths and stuff -
Pete: Yeah, I hate maths.
Todd: - Especially console gamers. So as developers, we're really taking that trend and opening up new pastures of gaming.
Pete: New gaming pastures.
Todd: Yeah. So what we've done is we've removed it. We've now combined what were the Blade and Blunt weapons' skills into just one weapons skill.
Pete: We call it "Weapons (r) (c) (tm)".
Todd: Yeah, so now gamers can increase their Weapons Skill (r) (c) (tm) without having to worry about "am I increasing the right skill", "maybe I should use a different weapon". It really opens up all the weapons to players, no matter what they choose to use.
Pete: Yeah, it's about choice.
Todd: That's right. It's about being able to choose to do what you want without having to worry about the consequences because to us, that's what gaming's about, no consequences.
Pete: We call it "Consequence Free Gaming (r) (c) (tm)".

 

[Azrael the cat]

Unless you're hiring Andy Serkis (who is seriously underrated as a voice actor, due to being considered mainly a motion capture guy), there's no excuse for choosing voice actors on the basis of their motion capture ability.

Didn't George Lucas work that out decades ago when he got James Earl Jones to replace the voice of Darth Vader?

 

[Azazel]

I can't even come up with a witty response to asshattery of this magnitude. This is depressing.

 

[skacky]

Looks like even the people over at the eidos forums are tired of the autistic moderation and stupid excuses the CMs give them.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Hrm, if they really want immersive acting with their mo-cap guy being the voice, he should wear the bondage suit and veil when doing his stuff, nothing like a muffled Gorrett voice wheezing due to lack of oxygen. Probably an OH&S violation though.

Can someone redo the trailer with South Park Kenny's trademark voice?

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Unless you're hiring Andy Serkis (who is seriously underrated as a voice actor, due to being considered mainly a motion capture guy), there's no excuse for choosing voice actors on the basis of their motion capture ability.

Didn't George Lucas work that out decades ago when he got James Earl Jones to replace the voice of Darth Vader?

Even Darth Maul was dubbed by another actor, and in films, there's ADR, in which the same actor re-record his lines months after the shooting of that same scene.

Andy Serkis may be an underrated voice actor, but and overrated actor overall.

And why worry about matching voice with facial animation when the game is in 1st person? And who cares about that?

 

[skacky]

Eidos Montreal does. For some reason.

 

[FeelTheRads]

The reason cannot be possibly this retarded. * It's obvious that there's a corporate reason behind it or for some reason or another they just didn't like the guy.

*If it is... then... I don't know why this world exists anymore.