Voice Acting?

[ravenshrike]

I would certainly like some voiced combat bits, which is like BG, and a largely voiced antagonist.

 

For example, David Warner's portrayal of Jon Irenicus really made that character for me.

I want a game with David Warner and Wayne Pygram voicing the main villians of two separate factions. There must be at least one scene where they monologue at one another.

[Dwarfare]

Yeah, that's the good bit about some RPGs that go deeper into the character customization, like NWN 1 & 2, and the old isometric RPGs to a lesser extent. Having ten or fifteen character voice options per gender keeps them from sounding the same unless you specifically choose they should, as well as providing a nice range that can help passively add personality to a character rather than actively (in other words, just having some sort of battlecry, call for healing, aid, voiced combat commands, damage indicators, but not having him speak actual dialogue in the game). BG & NWN franchises handled it fairly well, I think. Still, there's the incessant problems of cost and preference. Always, always...

[Zap Rowsdower]

Having voice-acting only in party interaction and major cut-scenes like Planescape did is indeed the best way to go. It would be even better if they had as great VAs as the old Infinity Engine and Fallout games had.

Edited October 18, 2012 by Zap Rowsdower

[kabaliero]

People should be given an option to make their own sounds, and stuff them in "root/sounds" folder as .WAVs!

[Parhelion13]

Some of my favorite v/o work is still Kevin Michael Richardson's narration and

in Baldur's Gate. Excellent stuff. Less a fan of his Sarevok, but that is more a personal preference than anything. Seeing him in a similar role for PE would be awesome. Or if not for the game, maybe as the narrator for the audiobook of the novella that Avellone is doing!

[Skirge01]

I was considering posting something about this, but figured someone probably brought it up. I'm with what seems to be the majority here. I'm okay with major points being voiced, but I definitely don't want my character speaking. I also have no interest in the entire game being voiced. I do want the battle cries and other little comments.

 

However, I absolutely loved the party banter in BG and even enjoyed the additional mods people made for characters. I'd even go so far as to say I'd be willing to purchase some DLC which adds (more?) party banter. For me, when the party starts having random, non repeating conversations, it seems to add to the mood and makes it feel more real.

[Tauron]

If spell has voice component, than that must be voiced to

[samm]

I'm sure there's some thread better fitted for specific voice acting "requests", but that's what a search turned up...

 

So anyway, thinking about the character voice sets (assuming character creation is similar to IWD / BG in that respect) or for opening lines in an important NPC's dialogue, it would be absolutely great to have some deep, rhythmic voice à la Avery Brooks. If there's any way of getting him to do voice acting, I'd actually create my character around that voice instead of the other way around.

[gamerdude130]

It will likely be similiar to Baldurs gate and Ice wind dale. Were important characters will be voiced.

[Foksuh]

Old thread necroed but.. yeah.. It's weird to think of how many great voice actors there have been in games, yet the ones I remember better are usually from games which only had few spoken lines, not fully voiced dialogue.

Full voice is obviously a hinderance for RPG's(unless you got crazy budget but those don't happen), the dialogue just suffers along with the storytelling.
It's the few well voiced roles, the few important lines they get to speak that I stick with me better.. and when you got a well picked voice actor, they flesh out those key characters in amazing ways.

The likes of Irenicus from BG2 are memorable for a reason. David Warner might not have had many lines but the delivery was amazing.. and same goes probably for all the works of Tony Jay. Peter Stormare as Isair from IWD2 was also a voice that I loved even though it was just a few lines.

[dr membrano]

Samuel L Jackson should voice the main boss.

[Namutree]

Samuel L Jackson should voice the main boss.

No way need Louie Anderson to voice the main villain and Gilbert Gottfried to voice all female characters.

[Karkarov]

Old thread necroed but.. yeah.. It's weird to think of how many great voice actors there have been in games, yet the ones I remember better are usually from games which only had few spoken lines, not fully voiced dialogue.

Did you know the only good surfacer is a dead surfacer?

[PrimeJunta]

I want Arnold Schwartzenegger to voice everybody. Everybody!

[Doppelschwert]

I want Arnold Schwartzenegger to voice everybody. Everybody!

 

Only if this is part of the main quest:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qM7xR8VOkM

[Gorbag]

I want Arnold Schwartzenegger to voice everybody. Everybody!

n/a He is no mercenary.

[PrimeJunta]

Maybe he's a backer and will do it for free?

[nipsen]

I'd like to see a game again where most of the story-telling happens with just text. But when all the live action - gameplay, combat, quips, dialogue between characters, responses to smaller events, and so on is voiced. Lots of games did that out of necessity I guess, with just sparse events in the game, and so on. 

 

But maybe if you wrote the game consistently as if all that happened while there was any movement on screen was in a different space - that  would set up the story-telling sequences in text as easier to read into. Flesh out the movement more, put the choreographed events there. Let them reflect back to the increased amount of text you would get away with during dialogues..

 

If you read..  Jack London, or maybe Conan Doyle could be a good example, they maybe use something similar. That they describe the characters and the scene in almost obtuse detail ahead of when the actual talking happens. But never actually add or reveal motivations and thoughts directly. Except through dialogue during the conversations (or with London, internal monologues more often), that only make sense because of the long descriptions earlier..

[BLnoT]

I think voice acting is very hit or miss in a game. The affect of good voices to bad ones can make or break a game for me ( unless you have an option to keep it in text )

Adding on what ConconHead said about the character not sounding how she imagined them to. I found that it never bothered me so long as my main, chosen character, did not have a voice. He could remain the tough/soft/mean/kind person i wanted to be and my companians would be how they were designed/sound  to be.