Bartimaeus

I checked my copy of BG:EE - from what I can tell, they seemed to have converted sounds from .acm to .ogg. It's pretty universally known that you don't convert from one lossy format to another lossy format, so that probably decreased quality of all the original voicework a little...but I don't think to the degree you're speaking of. The top is BG:EE, the bottom is the original. As you can see - if you know what you're looking for - the top track is much more blocky and less-detailed looking than the the bottom. Notice specifically the very tops of each track - the EE version is just flat data blocks while the original version has a smoother/softer transition to the higher frequencies. Those dummies - they couldn't figure out a way of adding higher quality sound support without removing support for the old sounds, and so they just decided to re-encode all the old sounds into the new format? What kind of clown show are they running over there? It's too bad they couldn't get the master recordings and put them in stereo...thank you BioWare for your terrible record-keeping abilities.

Here are three lines by Imoen extracted directly from Baldur's Gate (non-EE): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/fphdrsrkarznzm4/_IMOEN04.WAV & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/n1ttb9ny1uzdq09/_IMOEN05.WAV & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/6hf12qzayef12ca/_IMOEN06.WAV Here are three lines by Imoen extracted directly from Baldur's Gate II (non-EE): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xizyclh9245uusu/_IMOEN01_.WAV & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lloj2bonatpsv7o/_IMOEN04_.WAV & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/3nan40as0t1jsbk/_IMOEN10_.WAV Here's a spectrum difference between one line of each game: Both are in mono with frequencies that extend up to about 11k (...the closest 'comparison' for modern MP3 quality in terms of spectrum cut-off, such as it is, would be somewhere between 48kbps and 64kbps mono - note that unlike music, though, these are not too complex sounds, so obviously, it doesn't sound as crappy as an MP3 song of this quality, and actually, the REAL kbps is probably somewhat lower than this). They both appear to be exactly the same quality (although I'd guess that recording equipment/setup probably differed - BG2 sounds a little better/crisper to me), which is what I figured from memory. Do these sound better or worse than what you remember or currently hear in-game in the Enhanced Edition?

You'll have to clarify - the actual sound quality of the BG2 voice-acting seems lower than BG1's? Are there any specific lines you're thinking of that seem evidently lower than the majority of lines in BG1?

I finished EarthBound/MOTHER 2. Well, that was a weird ending. Just about had a seizure...

Meanwhile, acting director of FBI says that the investigation will continue...but that the White House will not not be kept in the loop.

Yeah, I'm going to have to say absolutely no to that. I'd like to be able to buy Hitman games in the future.

Although half of the name is, . ...and also the franchise they were working on.

Hey, there's still time: the company is for sale, after all, .

The "downsizing" has been misframed somewhat, here and elsewhere: nobody got laid off, people were just shifted to other projects/teams, which makes perfect sense, seeing as the game has been released and all they're going to do now is do patches and maybe some DLCs (unless the "Mass Effect put on ice" means no DLC, too, I guess).

...Avoiding impropriety? This is Trump we're talking about: I'll be surprised if he doesn't initially try one of his sons, Michael Flynn, Alex Jones, or even Putin himself.

McConnell rejecting calls for a special prosecutor because it would just "impede" the investigation. As opposed to firing the guy in charge of probably the most major one of those investigations...

I'm a zombie right now after having gotten back from a funeral and subsequently spending the rest of the day watching Stranger Things, so whoops, good call.

So basically, he's fired everyone that has investigated him - Sally Yates, Preet Bharara, and now Comey. Didn't Nixon fire the special prosecutor for his impeachment right before it happened? May it be that we are lucky enough that this is the case here.

I watched all of Stranger Things. I had virtually no interest in it to start with - not really my genre, and so it more or less happened by accident. I have pretty severe difficulties tolerating child actors... It was pretty, uh, pretty good.

MOTHER 2/EarthBound. It's pretty good. Not sure if I'd rate it that much higher than M1, though - a few innovations in the combat and encounter systems, and better characterization of your party members, but not quite as good music, I don't think. It's not often that I feel an NES game has better music than an SNES game, but while M1's music was simpler, it was simpler in a good way. M2's is like...too avant-garde for my tastes or something.

Yeah, and now he gets paid like an additional 6.5 million from the Patriots - or rather, his family does. It's quite possible that this was the reason for him doing it after all, then.

I don't feel too strongly about Bethesda as a publisher either way, actually. The "crappy" comment is from the perspective of someone who feels more strongly about it than I - I'm not that knowledgeable of their business practices*, so it's hard for me to comment. Personally, the fact that I feel that they're a pretty poor developer is actually what pushes me away from their games. I don't know too much about Prey yet, but I have very little love - none, actually - for the rest of Bethesda's games, including the recent efforts of both Arkane Studios and id Software. *...which is usually more the onus I judge publishers by, at least the more major ones.

There are a lot of arguably "really good" games out there - that's hardly a convincing point to buy a game from a crappy publisher.

I'm not much of a spring or summer guy, but it is nice to be able to go outside in a leisurely manner again. The effect will probably wear off in a couple of months after it gets hot again, though - I can't stand the heat.

Ah. I don't think I've bought or played a Bethesda game since New Vegas.

But rather, I think his point was that there's been like maybe one game in between DOOM and Prey, which would be Dishonored 2? So yeah, not much of a benchmark yet...

Nice job, .

Mine is the former Queen of Iran, Princess (of Egypt) Fawzia Fuad; Amentep's is actress Natasha Parry.

I imagine it's pretty abysmally low, which makes the admission requirements for it for higher end colleges all the more silly... Imagine if you actually had to DEMONSTRATE your 2-4 years of taking a language to get admission - that would be a much more serious requirement.

Ha! Funny how that seems to be a problem a lot of natural multi-linguists run into...don't think it's as common for people who learn languages later and in a more formal setting, but I'm sure it's not that unusual.