will the storyline in this one suck too?

what I'd like to see is some character development from Cynn, Aiden, Devona, Mhenlo, and especially Eve (very mysterious).

I'd like to see something where we follow them, help them out, perhaps something with their home or family, and actually get some character development.

Beyond that, please PLEASE better voice acting. Between Danika (like oh my gawd!) and that spirit dude in Crystal Desert that you do some missions with, we have some room for improvement.

I thought Prophices story was great. Far more than I would have expected from this game. I mean come on there were even some pretty good twists and the plot kept getting more interesting and the focus changing yet not (you know what i mean)

Factions... hehe I didn't like it very much because well it makes sense and all but it makes sense in a silly way. Again it's my opinion and some people could love both... BUT

Since I guess this is the Tyria team... then I imagine this story will be better than Factions and at least as good as Prophices story for those who liked that one better.

Kay I'll go now...

edit: voice acting could totally use some improvement yes. I could do better, probably most of us could.. I wonder who is doing the acting... certainly they could shell out a little moola to get some voice actors...

And finally... saying "Will the storyline in this one suck too" makes me think that no matter what you are going to go into Nightfall nitpicking at everything you can find and with just a down right negative attitude so if that is the case then yeah chances are you'll think it sucks also.

I'm sorry guys but i have to say that even though the plot isn't the greatest out there for both games, i still stayed on to watch the cutscenes to get as much info as possible into the story but it seems that whenever i do play almost everyone skips the cutscenes after a mission, and i'm talking about players that have played that mission for the first time. so how can anyone try to appreciate the story if u don't take the time to listen and see the cutscenes to explain the story a bit?

Are you kidding me ? Danika's voice can actually give you cancer.

*spoilers, but if you're reading this thread you're kind of asking for it*

Prophecies may not have had the strongest storyline, but it was executed very well. And although Factions had more emotional dialogue, it was really Prophecies that drew you in more. And not just because of "plot devices" either. When the White Mantle betrayed you, it really felt like a betrayal, as Confessor Dorian ordered the Mantle to destroy the Shining Blade. When Jalis's brother joined you on the trip to the Ring of Fire, you felt proud to have that dwarf with the overdone, yet awesome, accent on your side. When you met Rurik again on the islands, it definitely felt more dramatic than Togo's death.

Factions just kind of rushed everything. I'm not sure whether they wanted sympathy for Shiro or not, between the gameplay and the fortune-teller scenes. The Alliance missions went too quickly, the clans just kind of got together on their own, your help didn't account for much of it.

All in all, Prophecies was a good story, and "plot devices" don't make it cheaper in my opinion.

The Ghostly Hero's voice (from the various Crystal Desert mission cutscenes) can give you the aids.

The problem I have with the Proph story is that it spends the first ten hours our so building up the Charr and the Searing. If you read the literature that came with the game, it's almost entirely about the Charr invasion. Once you get to Yak's Bend, you don't hear a damn thing about them any more. And the new apocalpytic enemy becomes the Stone Summit then the White Mantle then the Mursaat then Titans then this then that....it's basically the same story <insert new apocalpytic enemy here>. I lost interest when there was little continuity, just plug n play enemies.

I agree, he can give you AIDS, but not with his voice. Ghostly dude is cool. Eviscerate + Executioner's cool.

I don't really give a hoot about the story line.

Prophecies was... acceptable. The marshlands were horrible but apart from that, it was ok. Factions - horrible. I got bored after the first three missions. I know GW isn't about storyline, but still... A bit of effort on that would get them more new players imo, expecially cause most new players (new to the MMORPGs, not just GW) prefer PvE to PvP.

The stories in both were awful, cringeworthy even. Guild Wars really suffers from a lack of innovation in story (both wider plot and short quests). Still, the gameplay's fun.

The most enjoyable parts of both games (barring missions) were the earlier regions (pre-searing and Shing Jea). Even though they may present some challenge (Shing Jea in particular), you didn't have to wade through a huge amount of enemies or navigate a maze (i.e the city, while its easy to dodge a lot of groups when you're familiar with the place, it takes a lot of circuitous time wasting to get where you want to regardless) to get to the relevant bit.

Roman a Clef, I believe is the proper spelling for the term, or novel with a key. The greats used these tricks to add depth and meaning to their work; notably Hemmingway and The Sun Also Rises.

The idea is that certain things remain ambiguous (stock and trade with Anet storylines, so I hear) and only become clear to the reader when that missing piece is applied. When that key is found, readers get that "ah ha" moment of clarity, the feeling of accomplishment when they start to view the whole story in a new light; things that seemed unimportant at the time become clear and meaningful. Words the characters choose with seeming care (in light situations) become important, powerful.

There are, however, several problems with this writing strategy for a video game:

Too many of your viewers are teenagers who do not want to think, or adults who do not want to think. That’s right; me included. I want my meaningless hack and slash save the world action story that chugs along one-way like a train down the track. When I want a brain teaser I play puzzle games and text-based RPGs; not a Competitive Online RPG. make our brains work when we don't want to, we press "skip" every time.

This kind of writing requires that characters be extremely engaging and realistic. Even people who don't get Hemmingway remark that his characters are "ordinary people". Ordinary because these characters are people that you can relate to, at any level. They seem human from the start and continue to be.

Adding a human quality to Guild Wars would change this from T to M in a heartbeat. This is a war story. Dealing with the reality of this violent game (omgz; I just killed that Char!) ain't in it. Kids won't get it, softer hearts would take offense. Example; look at the player reaction to the Kurzick/Luxon mini-quests placed in LA pre-Factions. All, team and guild chat; there was a certain level of bewilderment upon completing these quests when people realized “The Kurzicks are dead…and they’re not coming back…because I killed them”.

This was just a lack of respawn with a couple bones scattered on the ground, but people seeing it, being forced to look at this as they passed the area…well, it was shaking to younger players and some of the elders took offense. It was a powerful statement, and one of the better quests in the game because of it, imho. It harkened back to FF7 and Aeris. But it was not rated Teen in after quest content because we killed these people. Unlike Aeris and this all-time great RPG, we are not the avengers saving the world from an evil that has also taken a valued friend's life. Instead of giving us an emotional attachment to the fight--a personal stake in kicking Sephiroth's butt as FF7 did--it forces players to become detached, lest they have to "deal" with the consequences. Many younger players can't.

So, to keep this T, you keep the characters (their lives and their story) on the lighter side. They don’t deal with the issues of life and death; they fight the evil Afflicted (*cough*Flood!*cough*) and Shiro, their master. But you still tried to give Shiro a human face; show his pain and the anguish of his decision. In a lightly characterized story this becomes, not a powerful struggle within Shiro between his duty to the Empire and his desire to live (yes, I get the inherent Asian influence and how betraying his master made him far more evil than most American/Europeans would precieve) but comical and sad (to watch; not emotionally).

To people searching for a good story, light can somethimes come off as vacuous. Its the price you pay for playing a story driven game that young teenagers are also playing.

IMHO, the best part of story mode was the interchange between Menhlo and his various lady friends, with Cynn ready to burn them all to a cinder. I’d have liked nothing more than to see her chase Menhlo around at the end, casting fireballs at his butt after he made a pithy comment about her envious behavior, but that might have been too light.

Which makes the Roman a Clef used in factions crumple like a minion with too much degen. The small key holes become canyons of misunderstanding; these tiny plot holes that help the story evolve as people learn “the truth” are, instead, massive areas of gray and black that no mind can grasp, even when you give us the answer. And by the time we do (in chapter 3 I hope) we don’t care anymore.

To be frank: you were too smart for your own good with Factions story, and it came back to bite you in the ---. Just give us our mindless hack and slash Tolkien-esk struggle between good versus evil in the future. Everyone will be happier that you did.

To keep it simple.

1. At least it has a main story period.

2. It's online rpg. they can't make it too complicated as not everyone will play every day and may get lost or confused. Guild Wars may be your life (it may be mine) but it certainly isn't everyones.

Simple Story = Easy Accessablity

Final Fantasy XI had a powerful, complex story and was still rated T. Are you saying that having a non-black and white story is bad?

No I'm not saying it's bad but FFXI (which I love by the way) is not a pick up and play casually for a half an hour to hour a day which is what A.Net has stated as one of the perks of Guild Wars. Kay? Kay.

I was actually refering to Minus Sign's post, but the reason FFXI is not a casual pick-up and play game isn't because of it's story, it's because of it's leveling and Notorious Monster and it's economy.

If they created Final Fantasy XI, they could have told the original story within a 13 mission segment if they'd wanted to (Final Fantasy XI [before the expansion packs] have a total of 10 non-skippable missions, the first four were mostly fluff). They'd just have to rework certain scenes.

The point is, you don't have to have a crappy story just because it's a "pickup and play" game.

Prophecies was great.. or at least, it started out great.
A war with some beasts, pretty generic but i really didn't expect to see Ascalon get blown up like that. After that it wasn't great, though not bad either.

I'd like to see more choice anyway, multiple endings. Playing the uber-leet-hero-who-will-save-the-day-and-kick-the-bad-guys-backside gets really boring.
I want something like:
"This key character is being attacked"
And choices like "Too far.. i'm gonna leave him to fend for himself" or "Lets run in, twat that big baddy thingy and save him!"

I don't want to follow a linear storyline.

A little variation in the quests would be nice too. In Devil May Cry, there's a couple of 'take this here' quests that have been altered slightly into 'take this here before it consumes your life' - adds a little bit of imediacy to the problem. In the infamous and often mentioned Final Fantasy VII, there are several chases/escapse incorporating various means of transportation and skills; the submarine is a hunter game, the snowboarding run about timing and the motorcycle chase about reacting quickly whilst remaining aware of enemies and your own health. On top of that FFVII has its betting, chocobo training/racing (and more betting on that), a rollercoaster where you shoot things as you go round for points and a hounted house hotel, a really gimicky one, not to mention a the fortune teller

A little varation in the actual gameplay would go a long way to GWs longevity and if woven into the story might help younger players pay a little more attention to it. In addition, betting on guilds and a maybe a few gimmicks thrown into PvP once in a while to make things more challenging for the experienced (FFVII's battle square took away abilities/health/attributes, added afflictions, or maybe even cured you on a pure chance slot result each round).

That’s not what I said. I said that the holes in the Factions story were a fault of the tools Anet is using to build Guild War's story based on the restrictions of a single PoV narrative for the teenage targetted audience.

I can't comment of FFXI; I don't pay to play anymore. I shouldn't have called linear story telling "mindless". In fact there are quite a few stories that are engaging for different audiences and never leave the PoV of one character.

Example: Halo Combat Evolved. Everything we see from the point of his revival is from the Master Chief’s perspective and the story was considered an instant classic at the time.

***spoiler***

Even the cutscene where Captain Keys is captured by the Flood is told from the PoV of the MC watching a recording through a dead soldier’s helmet. This type of flashback could have been put into Factions easily without compromising the story driven content or trying to subvert the player’s emotions with useless information.

EX:

The team has successfully made it through the Naphui Quarter Mission and are speaking to Suune. Instead of being a jerk and telling them to get lost, Suune confides in them.

Suune: “There is little remaining about him from before the time of Shiro’s madness, but what I do know may help you.” As he speaks the camera zooms in closer on his face and the screen turns white. “We know that Shiro was trusted first among the Emperor’s body guard, and before that he had distinguished himself as a great warrior or honor and integrity.” As Suune speaks, several cutscene pics are shown with a white border, depicting Shiro facing tengu, who at that time were in uprising, and fighting for the Canthans to quell Luxon/Kurzick uprisings.

Fade to a young Shiro in regular imperial guard armor with the tell tale scars. Enter fortune teller; Suune narration continues. “Those who have become closer to the Stars know too that Shiro was We No Su, led to the path by the most unlikely of sources,” begin dialogue with Shiro and Fortuneteller.

All of a sudden—from information available IN the cutscene--we’re fighting a renegade We No Su instead of some dead guy that went nuts a few hundred years ago and now he’s back. We’re still linear, there’s no hiding information. It’s just being given out piecemeal as you progress. More important, there is a reason for the first fortuneteller scene. Beyond basic character introduction (and we’ve already seen Shiro; he just killed us a mission ago, remember?) there is none in the way “sane” Shiro’s debut is portrayed. So, why is the fortune teller, the only new aspect to the story, important? We find out at the end, when Shiro goes crazy due to her prediction.

This type of information—given freely as the player watched--could easily have continued its incorporation through Tanakai, Boreas, Arborstone and a final revelation at Unwaking Waters through the mouths of those who had lived and fought with him and then been forced to fight AGAINST him. It also begs the question (to those who want to think beyond the story line given); all our henchmen go through the same experiences with us in Prophecies and Tyria, becoming Ascended or We No Su. Could the next villain be in our ranks? What would it be like if we were leveling the next Darth Vader in Ch 3 or 4?

Now, I’m pulling stuff out of my – here, but its still a smoother transition than what we get in game. Fade to black, see fortune teller, see Shiro walking by (oh, we must be a few hundred years in the past now; ok…um…how’d we get here?) begin dialogue. No; they wanted a “mystery”. Translation: Put the pieces together on your own, but don’t work too hard; the puzzle’s not complete yet. The way it’s portrayed, Roman a clef rated T for Teen, makes Factions disjointed to most viewers, jarring and unimportant. They don’t take the time to read the text because there’s no story being given in the cutscenes.

EDIT: sry for the slow reply. been having trouble getting Guru to run the last few days.

The Prophecies story line was chessy, but that's what I expected from the game.

The Factions "storyline," to use the term loosely, was horrid. Or maybe it was presented in such a way as to be completely annoying and make one not want to pay attention to it. The fingernails-on-chalkboard voices and the Dialogue bubbles (which I gave up on reading) made me lose all interest in the actual story, I just wanted to get through the missions and get it over with!

While neither stories were the best, Prophesies story was tons better and has seemingly laid the ground work for more chapter story lines. Chapter 3 will be taking place in Elona, and there is also Orr to be seen. We could also see a return to Ascalon as it is rebuilt someday (maybe even as "traitors" as we left with Rurik).
Factions, with it's on going turmoil (Luxon vs Kurzicks) is a dead end of a plot though it did let us know Mhenlo is a ladies-man... so maybe Factions was more a character building "story" than anything? Which also may mean Nightfall could do the same, just build a charcter back story...?

Factions storyline was absolutely atrocious. It was boring, derivative and not at all engaging. It's not even worthy of being put in a dime novel, let alone a top tier game.

The cutscenes are bad (half the time you need to skip them otherwise you run the risk the party will be attacked during it), the voice acting is even worse and the overall manner the story is presented is just not good at all. Just because this is an MMORPG doesn't mean the story has to be garbage.

For Anet sake i hope not, then again they want this as a PvP game so they wont care much about PvE as long as people still foolishly buy it for the PvE content.

The Prophecies story was quite good, except it left one major plot hole: what did ever happen to Ascalon after you left it? Was it destroyed by the Charr? Did the Ascalonians remain victorious? Is the war still going on? Did the Charr eventually invade Ascalon City?

While the story of the Lich rolled on forward, the story of Ascalon was left behind, and when you think about it, the story's incomplete without knowing the fate of Ascalon since Ascalon is the place where the hero's whole journey was driven upon. Because of the Charr, the hero decided to move on to Kryta with Rurik. Because of that, they get all immersed into some gigantic plot. And that makes you think: it's because of the Charr that we left... what happened to them? did they win?

If Nightfall comes out, hopefully, we will get some new stuff about Ascalon. I doubt it. Supposedly, Elona is in the south. The Charr hail from the north. Doesn't really fit, does it?

@FujiwaraKazuma: It's not clear from your post whether or not you are aware of the Titan quests after the final mission. Admittedly, they don't provide a lot of extra storyline, but The Last Day Dawns and The Titan Source at least let you revisit Ascalon and see where they kinda-sorta end up.

If you've beaten these already and mean that they still don't resolve enough, then fair enough and ignore this post.

The Titan quests become available after you beat Hell's Precipice. To receive them, /kneel in front of the shrine at Droknar's Forge and a vision of Glint will appear. The Titan Source is available only after you beat the other Titan quests.

Prophecies was pwnage, it had a lot of differnet things going on at once and it was very creative.

Factions=
oh noes a plague
2 groups of people hate each other
ally and kill teh shiro
end of the plague
story over.

I hope this one is like prophecies.

Prophecies was pwnage, it had a lot of differnet things going on at once and it was very creative.

Factions=
oh noes a plague
2 groups of people hate each other
ally and kill teh shiro
end of the plague
story over.

I hope this one is like prophecies.

Prophecies was pwnage, it had a lot of differnet things going on at once and it was very creative.

Factions=
oh noes a plague
2 groups of people hate each other
ally and kill teh shiro
end of the plague
story over.

I hope this one is like prophecies.

I, Personaly, Liked both story lines. I really enjoyed playing Proph. Factions was okay, jumped you around ALOT. and I think it should have been way longer. I think they only reason Anet came out with Factions was to get ready for nightfall. Like Factions was a filler. I HATED all the vidoes on Factions, they ALL sucked. Other then that I didnt mind it at all. Good skills, Loved the scenary. One thing im really hoping for with the relase of Nightfall is that Anet will allow you to merdge your Nighfall account with your already merdged Factions/Proph. account. So that you would have 8 characters on one account and be able to take them to all the lands. Im hoping for that more then anything else.

Anyone have any info on that?

Same, but I hope they make it somewhat interesting this time around...

The factions voice acting literally made me cringe at times. The sheer fact that they let that kind of quality ship out the door just amazes me. Did they just give some college students a microphone and a script and say "Make it happen" and then never checked up on the final product? Either way, my guildies and I had a blast mystery-science-theater-ing the entire Factions storyline over Teamspeak. The resulting laughs were worth the 49.99 price tag, even if the story was not.

meh... I wish A-net would look to such titles as Neverwinter Nights, The Elder Scrolls, or anything to see what a good story looks like. Prophecies was just a mish-mash of cliches and Factions was .... just a literary mess, by pretty much all standards.

I don't know whether they need some more authors over at A-net, or better authors, or what... but I hope they put a lot more into the storyline this time, and give Guild Wars more lore and history, and create stories that you actually want to see how they end (as opposed to Factions.... "Are we there yet?" implies the mentality most of my friends/guildmates had while playing through the storyline.

Well, there is no way chap3 story is bad, I mean how it can get more worse than the Faction's one??? I play pc games from a long time and this almost wins the title of "What were you thinking when making the story and cut scenes?".
The only part I don't like in Factions.

storyline doesnt matter much, as long as its over quickly. case in point, the shorter a story, the less depth it typically has, so itll probably be just as bad as both of the others ;P

agree with u , i enjoyed every bit of prophecies storyline and pve

Factions atleast storyline was weaka dn the PVE content crap

But Chapter 3 is made by 1st teams who made prophecies so expectations are high
I hope they raise the cap level

They are not going to raise the level cap for the BILLIONTH time

As to the OP's question: depends, but I doubt it will be any better.

Is Anet going to bother to hire professional, talented voice actors this time around?

They didn't for Chapter 1.

They didn't for Chapter 2.

Logic would seem to suggest this pattern will continue, and hence the storyline will again not be very good in Chapter 3.

I personally felt that the PvE side of Factions was very boring and predictable, however the new class's and skills have really improved the PvP side. I hope that Nightfall will not be released for some time eg Christmas or just after and i am looking forward to see if the PvE side of it will be more interesting and less predictable, i have high expectations for it. I guess we will find out a little more in the preview event comming up

As for the voices in Prohicies and Factions i also felt they could be better they all sounded abit dull in my opinion lol

Excuse the length...

Looking back to my first experience with Prophesies, I can hardly remember if I can make a distinction between great and good, but I can say that even with over a year's time between then and now, I still have a nice feeling about what I went through.

I can't say that much about factions. I beleive that a well thought out plot exists on paper somewhere, or in the minds of the developers, but it definitely did not come across in general gameplay. I was so annoyed by the limited path I was given, it was hard to feel like I had any say in what was going on. Even though prophesies only gave you an illusion of control by allowing you to wander, that illusion was vital to how I felt about tackling the story. Factions was like an overbearing GM. "My story unfolds MY way players, you are simply unimportant place holders at the table." Some of you will understand what I mean...

You can still include barriers that the players must overcome to move the main story along, just not so frequent and overbearing. I kinda wish that factions happened this way...

Your new character starts out training on Shing Jea Island, moving from place to place fulfilling quests to impress your instructors. You can travel anywhere on the island, but find that tavelers to the city on the mainland have been mysteriously turned away by order of the emperor. Togo askes that you not interupt your studies as he will be looking into matters himself, (only block needed at this point, not multiple.) After you've achieved a certain noteriety around the monestary, a cut scene is triggered to move the story along, (this inserts a mission location into an already explored map, showing that you do not need to limit travel to corridors, you just script events to flag very specific locations on or off). You are taken by togo to visit his magistrate friend, passing a large mass of troops on thier way out of the holding, only to witness his corruption. You defeat him, witness a short cryptic speech about "his" return, then you spend the rest of the mission trying to stop that passed group of soldiers from attacking the monestary. You then unluck new quests related to a gathering evil that culminates in togo deciding that he needs to visit the mainland to conferm his fears about "his" return.

In the city, you are not restricted from moving about, only from escaping the city. The Afflicted menace becomes more apparent the deeper into the quest threads you go, leading to a string of missions that lead you to defend various sections of the city's vital areas from destruction. You hold out against a seige to allow citizens to flee a district, you track down a mystic who shows you how to get "closer to the stars," which allow you to take on missions that require you to see the spirits that are under shiro's control... because he really isn't much of a badass without some sense that he has a network of badies running thngs on his orders. Togo comes to the realization that the city being closed off is what shiro wants as he is obviously preparing for an assault and that you need to escape the city through an infested underground to summon help from the rival vassal states of the currently uncaring Luxons and aloof Kurzicks.

You exit the city and find that the age old fueding has turned into downright genocidal campaigning. Through cutscenes you learn that shiro and his simpathizers (traitors!) are secretly fueling the flames to mire the two staes in a war that allows shiro an easy siege of the capital. A minipulative mastermind is far more evil than a guy who makes people sick by standing near them...

You work feverishly on BOTH sides to root out the traitors and make them see that they are being manipulated... and this means you have free access to both regions instead of single tracks as you are required to accomplish quests on the whole map this time to foil plots and convince hard headed warriors on both sides that you mean business... this stuff trigers the missions which would possibly be massive battles in which you have to chose a side temporarily to ensure that key figures don't get themselves killed as you gather evidence. Finally, once these missions are done, a cutscene reveals a large force of corrupted warriors from both sides are flooding to the harvest temple, scene of an ancient betrayal... You arrive with a force of both luxons and kurzicks to battle the traitors only to find when you make it into the temple that shiro is laughing at you, that his diversion succeeded, and he flies off to the capital with a spirit host, leaving you to fght the corrupted gaurdian of the temple... the dragon.

Once you defeat the dragon you learn about togo's bloodline. Rushing to the capitol by the speed of the dragon's magic, you are in time to fight off a seige of the palace. Fighting your way to the throne room, through shiro's minions and some new minions previously unseen(darkness/chaos), fearing that your noble sensei may sacrifice himself to give you a means to combat shiro, you are in time to witness his sacrifice and are drawn into the final battle against shiro. Upon his defeat, you not only save the empire, but you learn that shiro wasn't acting entirely alone, that this darkness/chaos had an interest in events happening here, and provides you with the desire to track the creatures back to the ancient desert home of the elonians (segway into chp3.)

The way I envision it, the game could have been blocking our progress at only three major points, given us an illusion of control over our movements, and still have scripted in major missions in events triggered by quests. Not only that, but provide us with a tease that suggests that events in this game are somehow tied to a bigger scheme of evil and dark deeds. I hope they take a more open route in this new chapter, and envision giving us grander things to do...

Well i agree with what you said, and i think that it feels like there "throwing" Nightfall in our faces without giving us a real chance to do most things in Factions on the majority of our characters, also some people have only just been able to purchase factions or ave yet to purchase it. However i only reached as far as Cavalon on one of my characters in Factions as i didnt like it one little bit, i enjoy playing Prophecies more and i have pritty much nothing to do in it.

Both Prophecies and Factions had pathetic stories. And when I say story, I mean both the overall plotline as well as the script and dialogue. Who writes this stuff, a 12-year old pre-adolescent? Don't get me wrong, I love fantasy. But even fantasy written for kids can be far, far superior and much more enjoyable (e.g., Incredibles, POTC, LOTR) than the garbage in the two campaigns we have seen thus far.

If there's anything worse than a bad story with bad dialogue, it's bad voice actors reading out the bad dialogue. Neither Prophecies nor Factions disappoint in this regard. You could actually picture the actors reading out from a typed script. Each and every cutscene made me cringe in pain, and yet I couldn't skip them because I would freeze with horror and disbelief that such a quality game could have such crappy dialogue.

I've always wondered who actually did the voice-acting. There were several jokes going around that Anet got their programmers to sit and and read out the script lines that they themselves had probably written to begin with. Anyone know what the real story is? I wonder why they couldn't afford to hire professional voice actors.

Do I expect any better in Nightfall? I'd say it's very unlikely. Which is why I will hold off on purchasing this one until I have read detailed reviews. I expect that the combat will be the usual GW fare - stellar. I hope the exploration and feeling of adventure will be similar to Prophecies. But this time, I want a good story and good dialogue or its GG for me, for good.