DrWorm73

So, here's the problem. When a studio makes DLC they have to go back and record new dialog for all returning and new voice actors. The returning voice actors can then negotiate a new contract, or even just say no because they are working on a new project. If a studio plans for DLC at the outset then they can do all of this in the initial production run, but a smaller studio like Obsidian who wanted to focus on making sure the main game was solid doesn't really have that ability. Even Bethesda almost never has main game NPCs who are integral to DLC. Far Harbor was a huge departure in that regard.

First, Mass Effect? I can't say for other languages, but the english actors were great. I only played the games through once with male shepard, but he was good, and FemShep was phenomenally voiced by Courtney Taylor. Neither were bland by any means. A narrator is not supposed to have character to their voice, it is supposed to convey the emotions of the text in a fairly neutral way, compared to the actual character actors. That said, since there is no narrator in games like TOW that is irrelevant. FO4 has more than 13,000 lines of dialog for the protagonist, and that is with a script that has to limit branching dialog and player choice. TOW is a smaller game, but the conversations branch with more complexity and scope, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to the same number of lines.

Voiced by the GREAT Courtney Taylor, who also does ADA.

It does add a TON of cost to the making of the game. I'm not sure how many languages Obsidian did localization for with this game, but it was probably at least 3. So you need at least six quality voice actors to come in and do tens of thousands of lines. This process also takes time to cast because you want them to be the best you can get due to voicing the primary character in the game. Getting a Jennifer Hale (female shepard) or Courtney Taylor (ADA, Lilya Hagen- TOW, Nora- FO4) level voice actor is not cheap. I'm sure Ashley Burch is starting to get up there in cost too, as so many people really enjoy her work in games. As to turning it off- that depends on how it's done. If, for example, TOW2 had an option to play in first and third person perspective then I would also expect them to use the same cinematic camera style used in the first game. That means now you have to add animations for talking. I can only speak to Bethesda's Creation Engine, but animations are hard tied to the audio file, and that makes it really hard to just switch off the voiced protagonist.

A voiced protagonist really squashes the number of choices that can be taken in a conversation. FO4 has a ton of lines voiced by Nate/Nora, but still it had to really limit the potential branching options and outcomes to make it manageable. That is expensive. Keep in mind that all has to be done multiple times due to localization. I LOVE the Nora performance! Working on mods has given me an opportunity to listen to her lines and even without visuals they resonate, but I think in the end it should not be in open ended RPGs. Voiced protagonist is really powerful in TW3 and the Mass Effect series (yes, even Andromeda), but limits RPGs where the character is supposed to be whatever the player wants it to be.

I'm not sure Obsidian wants to be lumped in with those games. Both 2K20 and the PC port of RDR have dropped with disastrous results. The bugs are so bad. I know that Take Two is just the publisher, but eesh.

It's funny, because people bitch and complain about Bethesda's Creation Engine and how it handles graphics, but no other engine can handle having as many dynamic objects as it can. Witcher 3 was the closest I've seen, but nowhere near being able to dynamically pick up a basket in Skyrim so as to put it over an NPCs head and have that cause the line of sight to be blocked. That level of dynamic interaction comes at a price, however, because it makes the world exponentially harder to manage from a GPU perspective. Every time Fallout 4 loads the next surrounding cells it has to check the save file if and how potentially thousands of dynamic objects have been altered or moved from the base state. All this is to say UE4 is not a engine made to do that. In return it can offer sharper graphics, smoother motion, and quicker load times. Personally I forgive the CE it's flaws becuase it is so easy to mod and offers a very interactive world, but I also really like the gameplay of TOW.

I am just about to do this with one of my characters. I have two that I am playing on parallel tracks and at similar points in the game.

I'm not sure you are aware of how huge an undertaking this would be. Not only does it change how the world is rendered, it adds player animations for EVERYTHING the player might do in the game, and adds in a camera that has to have it's own physics. Bad camera movements and controls alone can be enough to sink a game. I like to have a third person view too, and I empathize with those that can't play due to motion sickness, but changing the game would likely cost far more than they might recoup from the sales of those gamers who won't or can't play it without a 3rd person view.

The digital versions (for PC at least) downloaded with the patch already applied.

Nope. New Vegas was made using the creation engine- Bethesda's game engine and all assets belong to them. The Outer Worlds was made using the Unreal 4 engine. If this was made using creation engine it would have had two dozen mods for it before it even launched, and would also have several reskins of weapons by now. It also would likely not be as stable or have the graphics that TOW does. From what I understand the engine TOW runs on is quite a bit harder to mod. What you're seeing is likely due to the fact that the artist who pretty much defined the look of the fallout universe for the very first game was made also worked on TOW.

Frankly I just want to be able to remap controller buttons on PC. M&K get to remap.

Oh, they posted in the Beth forums too. I saw it there before I saw it here.

The epic store is even listing as the game releasing on 10/25, which is really unfortunate for me because I should be able to play it in about 15 hours (4:00pm PST).

I'm a big fan of a good game score, and I really like to get a feel for a game ahead of time with the music. Obviously I can't do that since as far as I can tell there isn't an OST released yet, but I really hope we get one soon.