Josh Gilman Interview

[funcroc]

http://www.rpgsite.net/articles/174/244/jo...-interview.html (lock if old.)

 

RPGSite: Having voiced characters in several RPG and Action games, you could recently be heard voicing Michael Thornton, the lead in the previously mentioned Alpha Protocol, which combined the two genres. Can you remember when you first auditioned for the role?

 

Josh: I think it was back in August of '08. Or that might be when we started the sessions. I can't recall.

 

RPGSite: Are you a fan of the kind of characters Thornton was based on

Edited December 17, 2010 by funcroc

[Sannom]

Michael Thornton

 

They did it. You'd think that people would have learned by now

[WorstUsernameEver]

I think it's interesting that he has such a negative view on the game. And he didn't seem to like the new script either.

[Crazy Tuvok]

I have only heard bits and pieces of what was changed and left out of the original script. Would love to see it.

[WorstUsernameEver]

We still have no idea on why the script was changed in the first place. And why the hell did the director insist on flattening the performance? It's exactly what many many many people complained about Thorton's VO.

[Tigranes]

Perhaps in 5 years or so we might be able to take a look at the original script. It's happened before.

[Labadal]

I hate how he praises Call of Duty graphics. It really doesn't look that great to me. The console versions don't even have HD resolutions.

 

I also wonder why they changed the script? Probably had something to do with SEGA. The funny thing is that the game was one of the best of 2010 in the story department despite the change.

[Zoraptor]

A lot of the old VO stuff- almost all of it from Saudi and Rome, less from other places- is still on the DVD and can be extracted via oggextract; eg ap01_b01 is a lot of VO for the hostage rescue mission (changed into the Saudi mission where you get into the helicopter at the end); rp05_d01_darcy has a bunch of D'Arcy interaction from him trying to apprehend Mike in Rome. There's a lot of synth voiced stuff too. No transcripts though.

 

Presumably the reason for the change was that they thought a serious business Syriana style game would not sell and that changing to a more traditionally video game friendly genre would.

[mr insomniac]

I liked AP a lot. I plan on playing it again one of these days. I think I might have loved the game had it been released as originally intended. C'mon Obsidz, do a director's cut!

[Sannom]

Presumably the reason for the change was that they thought a serious business Syriana style game would not sell and that changing to a more traditionally video game friendly genre would.

 

It's weird, a guy on Something Awful who apparently interviewed a lot of people about this game seems to believe that the first iterations had a lot more 'camp' than the finished product. And given what we know about the hostage situation in the plane plus the free-fall duel that ensues, I would be inclined to believe him .

[WorstUsernameEver]

Presumably the reason for the change was that they thought a serious business Syriana style game would not sell and that changing to a more traditionally video game friendly genre would.

 

It's weird, a guy on Something Awful who apparently interviewed a lot of people about this game seems to believe that the first iterations had a lot more 'camp' than the finished product. And given what we know about the hostage situation in the plane plus the free-fall duel that ensues, I would be inclined to believe him .

 

The guy on SomethingAwful is Pop.

[Sannom]

What.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Pop

[C2B]

I actually thought his voice acting in AP was better than everything else I heard him in.

 

Or maybe that was more because he was the main charachter in this one.

Edited December 18, 2010 by C2B

[Pop]

Presumably the reason for the change was that they thought a serious business Syriana style game would not sell and that changing to a more traditionally video game friendly genre would.

 

It's weird, a guy on Something Awful who apparently interviewed a lot of people about this game seems to believe that the first iterations had a lot more 'camp' than the finished product. And given what we know about the hostage situation in the plane plus the free-fall duel that ensues, I would be inclined to believe him .

 

The guy on SomethingAwful is Pop.

Yeah, that's me. Most of the stuff that I have is from talking to MCA and company at PAX East some 8 months or so ago. I had a thread about it here, with .gifs and everything.

 

The unused stuff on the disc is news to me, though. It seems to be a staple of Obsidian games (there's stuff in FO:NV indicating Victor was once a companion, for example, and KOTOR2 was chock full of stuff), I wonder if it's standard practice. How much could we learn about the revisions in game development by rooting around in files?

[WorstUsernameEver]

The unused stuff on the disc is news to me, though. It seems to be a staple of Obsidian games (there's stuff in FO:NV indicating Victor was once a companion, for example, and KOTOR2 was chock full of stuff), I wonder if it's standard practice. How much could we learn about the revisions in game development by rooting around in files?

 

As far as I know, it is common practice, there's plenty of unused stuff for Dragon Age: Origins too for example. KOTORII was kinda more unused stuff than used though, so that's a special case I guess.

 

And I do remember some previews touting Victor as a companion, yeah, though honestly, I think the way he is right now works. I wonder if it can be restored with a little GECK fiddling though...

 

I remember Zoraptor looked a little around the files, and find some things that were, well, not cut but rather changed in the final draft of the game. Maybe you could ask him?

[Starwars]

Think it's one of those things were Obsidian is under the looking glass a bit more than other companies because the KOTOR2 cut content took on such epic and mythical proportions on the internet, I guess much due to the first (unfinished) restoration project and that it would somehow transform an ohmygod horrendously broken game into a shining gem of Torment-like awesomeness.

 

Then, when you play the restoration mod, you kinda realize that yeah... A lot of this (not everything though!) was probably cut for a pretty good reason. I think the importance of a lot of it is extremely exaggerated. Some of the ending stuff in particular would've been very nice to have, but for the most part I think the game plays much better in its released form.

 

Alpha Protocol is probably "worse" in terms of its development seeing as how it seems to have re-written and re-started in the middle of development which is of course troublesome.

 

The bit about making Mike's performance flatter is a bit hard to judge I think. The performance is good now as far as I'm concerned and I'm absolutely not convinced that it would be better from the player's perspective if Thorton showed more emotion or whatever. Even though this is a cinematic game and Mike has a character and voice, I still like to retain some ownership of that and having the performance being too emotional could easily be a way to break that. Probably a tough part of the game to get right when we're talking about a RPG (especially as choice-heavy as AP), but that has the "omg cinematix" thing going for it.

But from Gilman's point of view, it would obviously be more interesting to do more with the character.

 

It's a shame he kinda puts it down though because AP is one of the best-acted games there is IMO. And to think that a game like Heavy Rain was praised for stuff like acting, writing and plot. It's hilariously sad.

Edited December 19, 2010 by Starwars

[Sannom]

Then, when you play the restoration mod, you kinda realize that yeah... A lot of this (not everything though!) was probably cut for a pretty good reason. I think the importance of a lot of it is extremely exaggerated. Some of the ending stuff in particular would've been very nice to have, but for the most part I think the game plays much better in its released form.

 

I don't think that the importance of the missing stuff is exaggerated, it's more that there is no way to re-create what Obsidian wanted to do from that incomplete stuff, especially when it comes to the ending. It was deemed 'incomplete' for a reason after all!

 

The bit about making Mike's performance flatter is a bit hard to judge I think. The performance is good now as far as I'm concerned and I'm absolutely not convinced that it would be better from the player's perspective if Thorton showed more emotion or whatever. Even though this is a cinematic game and Mike has a character and voice, I still like to retain some ownership of that and having the performance being too emotional could easily be a way to break that. Probably a tough part of the game to get right when we're talking about a RPG (especially as choice-heavy as AP), but that has the "omg cinematix" thing going for it.

But from Gilman's point of view, it would obviously be more interesting to do more with the character.

 

Yes, I think that he was said to make it flatter because Mike was to have a less 'affirmed' personality when the game changed his formula. His character was probably a lot more defined in the earlier versions of the game.

 

It's a shame he kinda puts it down though because AP is one of the best-acted games there is IMO. And to think that a game like Heavy Rain was praised for stuff like acting, writing and plot. It's hilariously sad.

 

The funny thing is that the more we learn about the earlier versions, the more I think they were kinda Heavy Rain-ish. Alex Brandon's description of that boss fight in the plane, someone talking about a time where the game was more 'adventure game' than in the final product (I think it's the person on the Something Awful forum, Comte de Saint-Germain), etc.

Edited December 19, 2010 by Sannom

[Zoraptor]

I remember Zoraptor looked a little around the files, and find some things that were, well, not cut but rather changed in the final draft of the game. Maybe you could ask him?

You can't tell that much, partly because there have apparently been several revisions with seemingly mutually exclusive stuff included and it's unclear which bits belong to which revision, and there just isn't that much stuff there- it only covers most of Saudi and Rome and even including the synth stuff is only ~350MB of sound.

 

The main things seem to be:

(1) Westridge is your partner originally. He dies at the end of the Saudi Missions after the hostage rescue/ skydiving (?), you are blamed and go off after one of the hostages (Parker) invoking Alpha Protocol along the way

(2) Mina is not your handler though she does seem to be mentioned as a sort of secretary, one of Westridge's old contacts Uli Boo(l)i (she is voiced by Grey DeLisle; Boo(l)i spelled with and without the 'l' in various file names) is.

(3) After catching Parker (he dies? disappears? after) you have to get something (a statue with files hidden in it?) off Madison in the museum. It all culminates in a hostage situation at Pompeii with Madison vs tourists stuck in a bus. D'Arcy tries to arrest you in Rome with some pretty amusing dialogue "which one of your daddies was mummy? Maverick or Iceman?"

(4) The main bad guy for Rome is still Marburg. Leland is mentioned but appears to not be the CEO of Halbech- the original CEO's name is mentioned in a still used news clip at the end of the game (though the captions read Leland).

 

There are a few other minor bits and pieces: the G22 base in Taiwan was a Vodka factory for ?someone? but there's basically nothing much there for Taiwan or Moskva. Almost all the mission maps seem to have been retasked rather than redone

[Sannom]

Okay, if this image is really the costume that Uli Booi was supposed to wear at some point in the game, I think we can safely say the game was completely in the 'camp' area :

 

 

Even Sie's and Omen's outfits don't reach that level , and God knows that Omen has one of the most stylish and 'grand' outfit of the game.

 

EDIT : what with the backpack? Seriously, lady ?

Edited December 20, 2010 by Sannom

[WorstUsernameEver]

Jesus Christ.

[HoonDing]

Re

[Sannom]

I think it will be better if I put a thumbnail :

 

 

Whoever was responsible for that design must have been a fan of Power Girl.

Edited December 21, 2010 by Sannom

[HoonDing]

She kinda reminds me of Lady Deadpool with the number of pouches and catsuit.