So its been about two years.

A mod that re-dubs the game would be a pretty horrible idea, no way the community can produce professional-level work on that front. Pretty much all the mods that add new dialogue are hilariously uneven at best.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
A mod that re-dubs the game would be a pretty horrible idea, no way the community can produce professional-level work on that front. Pretty much all the mods that add new dialogue are hilariously uneven at best.
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Re-dubbing wouldn't help the game as the content would still be bad.
The game would basically have to be rebuild from the bottom up and I honestly don't see people who would be interested in doing that.

People here know that I more than anything would like to be part of Fallout projects but I would rather work on something completely new than doing a Fallout 3 're imagining'.
 
Once again, not answering the question. I didn't pose the question of "if it were to be done, do you think the chances are that people would do it well?" Good and bad quality comes in all things, and there are many different mods that try the same things, but only the "good" ones get recommended. Couldn't "produce professional-level work"? I could grab half a dozen budding vocal talents that live near me if their voices could be put to work (for a mod or otherwise), and I can guarantee that while they wouldn't be "professional", they'd be "good". It isn't hard at all to get good voice talent; that's why FONV's lack of variety in voices is so appalling. This isn't a question of asking for Nolan North or Steven Blum to provide voices; they're prolific enough that even if they ARE "professional", you'd still be sick of hearing them.

So, again, HAS something along those lines been DONE? Yeah, I already know there are many mods that add in voices for their new NPCs; I'm asking if a RE-DUB of any decent percentage of the game's voices has been done.

And TDG, I know you were first talking about FO3, but I wasn't. I was curious about it relative to FONV (this being in the FONV section, and all); i.e. a game that CAN benefit from something as simple as "more variety" in voice cast.
 
It's probably because english is not my main language, but I have absolutely no problem with the voices in FNV. They all sound good to me and even the ones that repeat often don't really bother me at all.

Well, except Cooper at Forlorn Hope. Really like the dev-version from the old E3 video a lot more than the later version in the released game. It somehow had more character.
 
Well New Vegas had more VAs for npcs than FO3, and the ones that they had were some rather good VAs, Like Liam O'brien, mostly because they didn't blow their Voice over budget on getting some overrated action star.
 
That it's better is without a doubt. Also compared to the voices we heard (over and over and over again) hearing DIFFERENT ones than FO3's was also an "improvement". Still, the actual variety in voices in New Vegas is really, really lacking.

Every companion has a unique voice actor. Awesome.
MOST faction leaders and main characters have unique voice actors. Awesome.
Everyone else?
How many voice actors are there for the Powder Gangers. Two. Maybe three.
How many woman are there? Two or three.
How many different voices are among the NCR? Half a dozen, four of which were already mentioned above.
How many ghouls are there? How many different "black men" voices are there? Etc etc...

There are only a few examples of the voices actually being BAD- that's not the problem. It's hearing the same voices over and over again that just gets irritating over time. What actual voices were bad? Well, I can think of the Powder Ganger who won the lottery in Niption, though that was more of a matter of the Oblivion Engine's facial animations not matching the emotion of the actor (small mouth, even though he was screaming). Other times that were "bad" might have been an issue of editing rather than talent (I can recall plenty of NPCs who seemed to "skip" periods when they were speaking sotheysoundedliketheyneverpausedwhichsoundedreallyodd (you get the idea)). So yeah, there weren't many BAD voice acting moments. But again, that's not what I meant. There just weren't ENOUGH different voices.
 
SnapSlav said:
That it's better is without a doubt. Also compared to the voices we heard (over and over and over again) hearing DIFFERENT ones than FO3's was also an "improvement". Still, the actual variety in voices in New Vegas is really, really lacking.

Every companion has a unique voice actor. Awesome.
MOST faction leaders and main characters have unique voice actors. Awesome.
Everyone else?
How many voice actors are there for the Powder Gangers. Two. Maybe three.
How many woman are there? Two or three.
How many different voices are among the NCR? Half a dozen, four of which were already mentioned above.
How many ghouls are there? How many different "black men" voices are there? Etc etc...

There are only a few examples of the voices actually being BAD- that's not the problem. It's hearing the same voices over and over again that just gets irritating over time. What actual voices were bad? Well, I can think of the Powder Ganger who won the lottery in Niption, though that was more of a matter of the Oblivion Engine's facial animations not matching the emotion of the actor (small mouth, even though he was screaming). Other times that were "bad" might have been an issue of editing rather than talent (I can recall plenty of NPCs who seemed to "skip" periods when they were speaking sotheysoundedliketheyneverpausedwhichsoundedreallyodd (you get the idea)). So yeah, there weren't many BAD voice acting moments. But again, that's not what I meant. There just weren't ENOUGH different voices.
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The lottery winner is on my KOS list every time i start a new game in NV.. You just can't let him live. It's not humane! :D
 
SnapSlav said:
That it's better is without a doubt. Also compared to the voices we heard (over and over and over again) hearing DIFFERENT ones than FO3's was also an "improvement". Still, the actual variety in voices in New Vegas is really, really lacking.

Every companion has a unique voice actor. Awesome.
MOST faction leaders and main characters have unique voice actors. Awesome.
Everyone else?
How many voice actors are there for the Powder Gangers. Two. Maybe three.
How many woman are there? Two or three.
How many different voices are among the NCR? Half a dozen, four of which were already mentioned above.
How many ghouls are there? How many different "black men" voices are there? Etc etc...

There are only a few examples of the voices actually being BAD- that's not the problem. It's hearing the same voices over and over again that just gets irritating over time. What actual voices were bad? Well, I can think of the Powder Ganger who won the lottery in Niption, though that was more of a matter of the Oblivion Engine's facial animations not matching the emotion of the actor (small mouth, even though he was screaming). Other times that were "bad" might have been an issue of editing rather than talent (I can recall plenty of NPCs who seemed to "skip" periods when they were speaking sotheysoundedliketheyneverpausedwhichsoundedreallyodd (you get the idea)). So yeah, there weren't many BAD voice acting moments. But again, that's not what I meant. There just weren't ENOUGH different voices.
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I don't know, you want them to hir different voice actors for NPC #1000, major characters have different voices of good acting quality. I rather rpefer generic NPCs having vocies from a limited pool than they spending more money than they should on VA.
 
My last playthrough was around 150 hours long. I could spare that much time again, but I want to play some other games.
However, I did improve my rig a bit since, and would like to try some mods. In a few months, 150 more hours of my life will be sacrificed for a greater good.
 
I'm surprised by claims that FNV has bad voice acting. It's very good, particularly the notable characters. So what if generic characters draw from the same pool? Unless you're some kind of freaky super-OCD person that must absolutely activate every NPC to hear what they're saying, you're not going to notice it. All named NPCs have a more or less unique voice, that's what matters.
 
Walpknut said:
I rather rpefer generic NPCs having vocies from a limited pool than they spending more money than they should on VA.
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Tagaziel said:
...you're not going to notice it. All named NPCs have a more or less unique voice, that's what matters.
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That's really backwards thinking. "There isn't an option to do it better, so let's just settle for what we've got." No form of technology advanced by thinking within the box, safe and sound within its boundaries. Media of all kinds, both practical and entertaining, changed and evolved because of thinking ahead, and wanting more. That's why innovation is referred to as "BREAKING the mold", not adhering to it. Besides, it's not like there WASN'T an option to hire more voice talent; it was simply avoided (in this case because of time/budget constraints from a CERTAIN company of uncreative penny-pinchers). Hiring big-name actors is indeed expensive, but hiring acting students for pennies so that you get a larger variety of talent and they get some experience to add to their portfolio? That's a win-win for both parties in the industry. A simple solution, and even then that's not THE solution. Stop settling and saying "I'd rather blah because I can't think of a solution", that's reprehensible.

Tagaziel said:
I'm surprised by claims that FNV has bad voice acting.
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I'm surprised you SEE any such claims (at least in this topic, anyway) where they don't appear to exist. No one's saying the voice acting is bad. Nor has anyone insinuated the game is bad. (Those who are... well... must have bad standards, or are crazy.) It's a so-close-to-perfect title with some faults that take careful observation to be able to point out. It isn't sacrilegious to call a spade a spade, but it certainly is despicable to pretend it isn't what it is.

Atomkilla said:
My last playthrough was around 150 hours long. I could spare that much time again, but I want to play some other games.
However, I did improve my rig a bit since, and would like to try some mods. In a few months, 150 more hours of my life will be sacrificed for a greater good.
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Back on topic then... =) I find it kinda funny that, back when I first bought FO3, I ran it on "low" settings because my PC couldn't QUITE handle it... Then, a few months later when I built my latest system, I booted up the game first chance I got, maximized settings and all..... and didn't notice much of a difference. XD I mean, water was now VISIBLE (what with the reflections "animating" it), and the details were finer, sure. But overall, it still looked the same. I never had to skip on the max settings for FONV, so I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it "look better than ever". I am eager to see how different of an experience it feels like when I play it, for the first time, with some mods tailored to the specific purpose of fixing the particular faults with the game, thus enhancing the immersion to its fullest... But only 150 hours? Pfft... You must be very busy. <_<
 
I don't understand why 5 different actors needed to say the same generic lines. That really killed it for me. 5 different actors should give you at least 5 different barks rather than just one "Patrolling the mojave blah"
I think the VA in NV was good for the most part but as for random NPC barks I would rather see text bubbles above their heads than hear that shit over and over.
 
mobucks said:
I don't understand why 5 different actors needed to say the same generic lines. That really killed it for me. 5 different actors should give you at least 5 different barks rather than just one "Patrolling the mojave blah"
I think the VA in NV was good for the most part but as for random NPC barks I would rather see text bubbles above their heads than hear that shit over and over.
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Text bubbles would be worse.. I guess.. Both things sucks anyways :P
 
mobucks said:
I don't understand why 5 different actors needed to say the same generic lines. That really killed it for me. 5 different actors should give you at least 5 different barks rather than just one "Patrolling the mojave blah"
I think the VA in NV was good for the most part but as for random NPC barks I would rather see text bubbles above their heads than hear that shit over and over.
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I hate that! It's gotten to the point where I walk around npcs so they want talk to me. It's especially bad in the elder scrolls series.
 
There was an article hosted on NMA a few months back where a few notable RPG developers expressed discontent with the genre heading in the direction of "full voice overs". They suggested the genre should try with different models of some voiced and some "mute" NPCs. Most of the reasons for the suggestion were utterly pragmatic, but I really liked the idea (in no small part due to my disdain at the repetitive voices in FO3/NV) and I felt future RPGs could REALLY benefit from such strides. It harkens to the days of The Sims, where characters would converse with one another, and utter incoherent murmurs with subtle intonations and characterizations. The player's imagination gave them a voice, so the only disappointment would lie within their own creativity. If RPG developers realized (thanks to Diablo III and Wasteland 2) that the genre DOESN'T need to be 3D FPP, and we see more top-down titles, a return to speech bubbles and mumbling with "special" NPCs getting full voices/animation, I can only think the genre as a whole would improve in quality as a result. The whole idea that a game format CENTERED around creativity and individuality should follow one method of execution just seems self-defeating...
 
SnapSlav said:
That's really backwards thinking. "There isn't an option to do it better, so let's just settle for what we've got." No form of technology advanced by thinking within the box, safe and sound within its boundaries. Media of all kinds, both practical and entertaining, changed and evolved because of thinking ahead, and wanting more. That's why innovation is referred to as "BREAKING the mold", not adhering to it. Besides, it's not like there WASN'T an option to hire more voice talent; it was simply avoided (in this case because of time/budget constraints from a CERTAIN company of uncreative penny-pinchers). Hiring big-name actors is indeed expensive, but hiring acting students for pennies so that you get a larger variety of talent and they get some experience to add to their portfolio? That's a win-win for both parties in the industry. A simple solution, and even then that's not THE solution. Stop settling and saying "I'd rather blah because I can't think of a solution", that's reprehensible.
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Backwards thinking? No, it's called *prioritizing.* Important NPCs are a priority. Generic NPCs that do not have any dialogue except for random barks are not.

Explain to me why should money be wasted on providing unique voiceovers for generic NPCs? Criticizing New Vegas for not having an unique voice for every single random NPCs is simply stupid. It'd be expensive, time consuming and bloat the installation file for no real gain.

What's reprehensible is you not doing research on the costs and time requirements of voiceover recordings. You know why fan-made voices are usually bad? Because there's no one to process it, clean up, review and say "No, you suck, we hire someone better." This process costs *money* and *time.*
 
Yeah, yeah. And according to the "right" mindset, forward thinking could be labeled as "inconvenient". If you fail to recognize that a conservative approach is conservative, or that the very criticism of "backward thinking" is that it's TOO conservative, then not much else can be said on that matter. In fact, the whole criticism ends up proving itself!

When you word your demands as such that I "have" to explain to you the merits of doing a BAD thing (selecting the word "wasted" money), you're just baiting, you're not freely conversing. That's political banter, which is the enemy of free thought, of critical thinking. Once more, criticism is NEVER a bad thing, but you're saying my criticism is stupid by its own virtues, which IS bad.

You'd be wrong to assume I'm "not doing research on the costs and time requirements" of my suggestions. My previous 2 posts insinuated (at the very least) my deep understanding that the process of creating the end result I long for is indeed taxing. That doesn't mean it should be automatically disregarded. "It costs money, BURN IT!!!"

You can argue in favor of a more practical approach (and that DOES seem to be your prerogative, underneath the baiting, excessive conservatism, and disregard of criticism) which would mean avoiding an arguably "better" product for the sake of making it an "accessible" product (It's wonderful, it's perfect, it's the stuff dreams are made of... and it's yours after a 5 disc 4 hour installation!) which is all well and good. But all that means is offering a compromise. Taking A instead of B. It doesn't mean B is bad, it means you'd rather A. If you recognize your way isn't the only way, there's conversation to be had. It's implying that there's ONLY one way- the way that was taken, or the only way you can personally imagine -that's indeed "backwards", and that's the whole point of the criticism.

Again, don't go assuming I'm uneducated in a matter simply because I disagree with you on it.
 
He's not assuming you're uneducated in the matter, you're doing a pretty good job of proving it yourself. Do you have any idea how expensive voice actors and studio time is? These aren't movies. They don't have 100 million dollars and 300 people at their disposal. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on something as trivial as generic NPC voice overs?
 
I used to work in Hollywood and Formerk is right. In fact, his cost estimates may even be a bit optimistic for professionally, individually voicing every generic NPC in the game. Such prices would be passed on to the consumer. And since video games don't have as wide a market as movies, we would pay more per unit. I don't want to pay $600 for a game.

It simply isn't practical for a game developer to commit the recources needed for such a trivial detail. The only way something like this could be done would be if someone undertook a mod and had a host of good volunteers to provide the voices. It's actually surprising what you can do today with a good commercial digital video camera, sound setup, and a laptop, if you have the creative talent to put it all together. But, it would have to be done on a strictly voluntary basis. Gaming, studio, and, acting professionals need to get paid because they have bills just like the rest of us.
 
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