What do you think of the voice acting?

Synthos

Synthos

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2005

If you played any of the missions this beta weekend you noticed that there is voice acting for all of the cinematic’s now. The cinematic’s have also added new sounds and are much better and more complete.
Even though the voice acting is cheesy at points, I believe it really adds to the game. I actually got chills when the king screamed "And you are No longer my son!!" and I've watched that cinematic like 30 times. It’s a neat feature that the team leader talks in the cinematic’s it actually encourages people to lead teams now. With omni as the future of sound effects for GuildWars, I imagine they will be in charge of the sounds in the cinematic's too, So this trend will definitely help the game. I believe that it adds allot to the immersion of the game as well.

Did you like or appreciate the voice acting that is added in the game now?

Devil's Dictionary

Devil's Dictionary

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2005

Presumed missing...

Me/N

I do appreciate voice acting in Guild Wars. Voice acting, although not always mandatory, may make or break game immersion. Take Morrowind: not a single NPC has voice acting so you get a feeling that every NPC is the same. In KotOR, on the other hand, the voices of the characters may exhibit a full spectrum of emotions and characteristics of the speaker. You can hear the ironic HK-47, the initially arrogant Bastilla, the scarred Carth... I do like the voice acting in Guild Wars yet I have only one remark: in the Old Ascalon cinematic (the first one), the long pauses between the lines make the speech a little synthetic.

Nascent

Nascent

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2005

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The Shi Mai

Quote:
Originally Posted by DEATH AT THE DOOR
I do appreciate voice acting in Guild Wars. Voice acting, although not always mandatory, may make or break game immersion. Take Morrowind: not a single NPC has voice acting so you get a feeling that every NPC is the same. In KotOR, on the other hand, the voices of the characters may exhibit a full spectrum of emotions and characteristics of the speaker. You can hear the ironic HK-47, the initially arrogant Bastilla, the scarred Carth... I do like the voice acting in Guild Wars yet I have only one remark: in the Old Ascalon cinematic (the first one), the long pauses between the lines make the speech a little synthetic.

Keep in mine the scope of morrowind, the hundreds upon hundreds of areas and each reply the npc's gave you was based on your class, race, and overall fame. to do voice acting for ALL of that would have taken immense space. Besides, they do talk to you when you walk up to them, but just random lines that are effected by your race, class etc.

*end rant*

As for guild wars...Im kinda torn on it...the overall voice acting, while it does add to it...is kinda....bad. Half the time it sounds like they're reading off a script, or that they're being a little too overpowering in their emotion... working off Synthos' example of the king...that conversation was perhaps too blunt for the extreme change in attitude they both had. To go from being Father/Son King/Prince to complete and utter disownment in a single sentance?

I just don't know what to think of it right now. Overall though it does add nice atmosphere.

Weezer_Blue

Weezer_Blue

Elite Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

Just a Box in a Cage

Hurry Up The Cakes [Oven]

The voice acting is much better than many games I have seen. The only thing we need now to make the game truley epic is better background music - which I'm farely sure they're working on.

Devil's Dictionary

Devil's Dictionary

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2005

Presumed missing...

Me/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nascent
Keep in mine the scope of morrowind, the hundreds upon hundreds of areas and each reply the npc's gave you was based on your class, race, and overall fame. to do voice acting for ALL of that would have taken immense space. Besides, they do talk to you when you walk up to them, but just random lines that are effected by your race, class etc.
Sorry, mate, but that's bull.
Morrowind had a built-in encyclopedia in every NPC. The differences between a street commoner and a crucial NPC was one or two lines.

As I said, I am always for voice acting. Sometimes it's V-E-R-Y bad (Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders sometimes made me regret I have ears) but then you can turn it out. Games with bad acting aren't always terrible (I believe KUF: Crusaders is one of the best Xbox games) and I am not picky when it comes to that. I do believe that people who usually trash game X because a character sounds too excited are looking for flaws on purpose (I don't point at anyone here).

Manderlock

Manderlock

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2005

TX

Crimson ScS

W/N

Weezer someone was making fun of your char names in the OT forum

Back OT i really like the voice acting, even if its crappy (which these are not crapy) voice acting always adds to to the feeling that you are a part of the game.

Phoenix Avenger

Phoenix Avenger

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2005

Wisconsin

Eternal Knights

E/Mo

I have several problems with the voice acting in this game. It was very un-emotional at times, and then mid sentence, it would switch to anger or sadness or something. Rather un-tuned in my opinion. And there was this one cut scene, where the image was on the group leader, with the correct text that was being spoken, but it had the wrong name on the subtitles of who was speaking. I believe it even had a mans voice for a woman character, if I remember it correctly. Overall, I think Guild Wars should go back and revise some of this voice acting. But even though this has somewhat poor voice acting, I still love the game.

TCP_Leader

Banned

Join Date: Apr 2005

It's good.

astzzz

astzzz

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2005

The ghostly hero in Tombs got a little tiring.

Mario 64 Master

Mario 64 Master

wats going on

Join Date: Jan 2005

Trumbull, Connecticut

Nuclear Launch Detected [Nu]

W/Mo

The ghostly hero's voice definitely isn't pleasant. I certainly try my best to skip over all the tombs cinematics even faster than before in an attempt to not have to hear the sound clip start at all. Also, every single line of voice was getting cut off because the next one was coming up too fast.

And whose decision was it to hire Richard Karn to play the Ghostly Hero???

I never got a chance to listen to any of the other mission cinematics.

Kaedar

Kaedar

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

The voice acting isn't bad at all and I do feel that it enhances the story in a positive way. It could've been improved by lip syncing and such, but then I'm picking on other details in the game and not the voice acting itself.

Spooky

Spooky

Bokusatsu Tenshi

Join Date: Dec 2004

Bellevue, WA

KEA

E/Mo

Quote:
And whose decision was it to hire Richard Karn to play the Ghostly Hero???
Glad i'm not the only one who thinks there is an eerie similarity between the two. Anywho, I think the single biggest change that could benefit the voice acting is the option to switch it over to the other languages along with the text. Because really, who wouldn't want to do all of the missions again just to hear what it would sound like if Prince Rurik was on Telemundo?

TheRealDecoy

TheRealDecoy

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2005

The Bay Area, CA

The Cornerstone

Mo/Me

I'm still waiting for the Sweedish Chef voice acting to be put in. Once that's in I'll be all set.

Foo ere-a zee herus thet reech thees secred bettlegruoond.
Bork Bork Bork!

Xellos

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2005

No Idea

It sounds too modern and not in character. The effort is put in well enough, but they sound more classy then fantasy. Compare something fantasy like eg. LOTR. Those actors don't exactly have that classy air to their voice, yet they have something that makes it sound like it is from the fantasy world. Sci-Fi or Modern World voice acting is much easier, seeing as how you can put more attitude and familiar feeling in your act (bleh, my english sucks).

If you turn off your moniter, and listen to it, you won't really imagine the fantasy world of guild wars. It's more renossaince(sp?) or you know, like I said, classy. Prince Ruriks voice sounds too stale, the effort like I said is put in, but his tone doesn't ever change. From the first time you hear him, to his death speech, his tone is the same.

Quote:
I do appreciate voice acting in Guild Wars. Voice acting, although not always mandatory, may make or break game immersion. Take Morrowind: not a single NPC has voice acting so you get a feeling that every NPC is the same. In KotOR, on the other hand, the voices of the characters may exhibit a full spectrum of emotions and characteristics of the speaker. You can hear the ironic HK-47, the initially arrogant Bastilla, the scarred Carth... I do like the voice acting in Guild Wars yet I have only one remark: in the Old Ascalon cinematic (the first one), the long pauses between the lines make the speech a little synthetic.
I don't think it's fair to compare to KOTOR series, since those guys are probably the best there is in the game industry for voice acting. Even T3-M4 has higher quality then Rurik, and he only goes BEEP.

Lews

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2005

Seattle, Washington

R/E

It was fine.

Saidin

Elite Guru

Join Date: Jan 2005

Toronto

Theres quite a few similarities in some of the voices to other well known characters/people.

I don't mind em, its a definite needed feature in the game.

I skipped the Tombs cine anyways (I like to scout the map and the team instead of watching the cine)... The ghostly hero voice isn't as crucial as the others.

However, I do think overall the voice acting is kinda slow and cheesy.. The way they read the lines directly off the page.. Doesn't seem quite right. Perhaps we will get more elaborate ones with the cd or something.. (otherwise they would be long downloads with the bwe'ers).

Darkmane

Darkmane

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix Avenger
I have several problems with the voice acting in this game. It was very un-emotional at times, and then mid sentence, it would switch to anger or sadness or something. Rather un-tuned in my opinion. And there was this one cut scene, where the image was on the group leader, with the correct text that was being spoken, but it had the wrong name on the subtitles of who was speaking. I believe it even had a mans voice for a woman character, if I remember it correctly. Overall, I think Guild Wars should go back and revise some of this voice acting. But even though this has somewhat poor voice acting, I still love the game.
I do love this game also, I'd like to get that out first. The voice acting, although great for helping you get into the emotional mood, simply was poor. I hate to say it because someone out there thinks it was great. But I think a first year acting student could have done a much better job. There was hardly any real emotion felt in most of the acting. There was the mission where rurik goes to the big shiverpeak in the sky and almost all of my teamates comented on something along the lines of: " Apparantly, Ruriks' death is supposd to be moving in some way like we are supposed to feel bad "

I have to say we cant blame this all on the acting. Part of it is because they are simply tired of runing after him trying to keep the O'l Prince out of trouble. The comment about how his father suddenly banishes him, and the emotions that go with the kings' voice. It just didnt' fit right. This by no means will keep me from playing. But, I think the voice acting needs to spend a bit more of the kitty and revamp. I cannot honestly believe people sat in the sound room and said : That sounds Great ! cut it and synch it up with the voiceover.

I am not saying you need to go out and get James Earl Jones or Ian McKellen to do the voices, but you could if you wanted I bet .. LOL.

This is of course, all my opinion.

Devil's Dictionary

Devil's Dictionary

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2005

Presumed missing...

Me/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nascent
If I recall, aren't you the one that's not too fond of RPG's to begin with?
I am not the one.

I guess I am the only one to like the Ghostly Hero voice then.

kerionaka

kerionaka

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

Vienna, Austria

They removed the lip synch from last BWE. It would make a nice addition for the look and feel of the game.
That reminds me of a time where lip sync was still impossible in games... years ago... when Anet has the time they should do it, because it looks a bit clumsy

But on the other hand, I think the engine is not ready for a decent lip syncing (the lip sync from last BWE was .... not so good ).
I saw some pics of the game as it looked like in the beginning ( http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=3461 ) and Anet did a great job of improving it.
It's not an esential thing, but it looks great when it's well done (I know GW ist not Half-Life )

Inde

Site Contributor

Join Date: Dec 2004

Agreed with kerionaka - I liked the voice acting, but with the mouths all rigid it seemed a bit odd.

Xellos

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2005

No Idea

But spoiled people also don't like it when a flat face is zoomed up on and talks :P, before lip-synch, people AVOIDED close ups and used other ways (starcraft used portraits, so did NWN, in fact most games used the lil portrait box idea) to make you feel that the character was really talking, yet didn't have the need to zoom up in the characters face.

Guild Wars is screwed up in it, since they already have it zoomed up, and can't escape from it. They either do it right, or screw it up. Having no lip-synch isn't going to help loads either, it'll be weird with a guy having a dull face going "YARRRRR I R ANGGRRRY" and you'll be like "the heck?"

They prepared for lip-synch, but they didn't pull it off right.

Mumblyfish

Mumblyfish

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2005

Blighty

Kansas City Hotsteppers [KCHS]

Haha, poor voice acting? Understatement of the year. Even if they're trying to be camp, the voice acting in Guild Wars is nothing short of abysmal; easily among some of the worst I've heard in a game, much less a game with such a big-name publisher. Even Namco RPGs like Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia (don't get mad, I still love you) beat the buggery out of Guild Wars on the voice acting front. Most voices are so... flat. So emotionless and uninspired, it's like listening to a cardboard cutout. Tone is all over the shop, and actors fly between the whole spectrum of emotion in one scene alone, which makes me wonder if the actors actually read the whole script or were just told to "Read these lines into the microphone, kthx". Thank... you. King. Iron... hammer.

But there's really only so much that can be done, when the cutscene scripts are a shambles as is. Le sigh. I only hope Arena give us a seperate volume slider for voices. I'd like to watch cutscenes again without Pirate Siegemasters and Russian Dwarves.

Edit: How hard could it also be to have simple Deus Ex-style lip synching? Five or so states for mouths to be in is more than enough. Speaking of which, even Deus Ex has better voice acting than Guild Wars. Yeeeeew will en-joy deh Laaaah-key Mahnny! Hah!

Droniac

Droniac

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2005

The Netherlands

Orto Sole

W/N

The voice acting was decent, sometimes a bit too slow (especially in the opening cinematic) or unnatural (the part with the king & rurik, even though the "You are no longer my son!" was nice ;p)

Ofcourse we can't just expect them to beat Digital Anvil's Starlancer in terms of atmosphere, that was just amazing - nothing has been able to top it yet.
Near flawless voice-acting, lip-syncing, CGI-graphics inbetween missions, amazingly high-quality CGI-based cutscenes, top-notch music & proper scripting definitely made it the most immersive game to date.
Heck, they even had a kill-list where you could see how well you fared against the other Alliance pilots, a complete database of ship/squadron data on both factions (including kill ratio's), your own bunk - including a monitor with regular newsbroadcasts about recent events, a combat simulator, etc.
And it had co-op multiplayer too!!!
It was definitely the most underrated game of it's time, it sold less than 300.000 copies where it should have sold well over a million, imo.



(o.O how we can go from voice-acting to a tribute to Starlancer )

Executioner

Executioner

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2005

UK

N/A atm

I thought it was fine, yeah they havent got high poly game models with fancy lip sync but thats just being picky, the game Mechanics,equipment,gameplay etc... are more important than getting lip sync right. (take HL2 as example nicely done lip sync, but completed in 3 days !) havent played it since...

Uthar

Uthar

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2005

QUite frankly, the Ghostly Hero 1) sounds like he's just gotten over some bad laryngitis, and 2) is trying too hard, which is a problem with a lot of the voice acting.

The woman in the opening cutscene, for instance, is trying to sound like Galadriel in the opening of FOTR, but can't pull it off. I myself have not seen the Rurik/Adelberd scene since the voices were added, but can easily imagine what it sounds like. Most of the voices are devoid of emotion, whether from trying to hard, or not trying very hard at all. If you are going to do voice-acting, do it right or don't do it, is my opinion.

Lamaros

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2005

Australia

Some of it is just abysmal, some is tolerable. None is good. I skip over most of it so it's nothing I can't handle.

Illiniskippy

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2005

The voice acting was fine. It added to the game which is a good thing.

My only problem is the lack of moving lips. I was playing the first mission with some guildmates and we were all laughing at our abilities to be a master ventriloquist.

Darkmane

Darkmane

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mumblyfish
Haha, poor voice acting? Understatement of the year. Even if they're trying to be camp, the voice acting in Guild Wars is nothing short of abysmal; easily among some of the worst I've heard in a game, much less a game with such a big-name publisher. etc.. edited for space, if you wish to read it all go back to the begining. etc..

Edit: How hard could it also be to have simple Deus Ex-style lip synching? Five or so states for mouths to be in is more than enough. Speaking of which, even Deus Ex has better voice acting than Guild Wars. Yeeeeew will en-joy deh Laaaah-key Mahnny! Hah!
I simply loved Deus Ex' everything about that game was awsome. Great story, great gameplay great acting and voices. It is the emotion in the voices that make great voiceover. (and partly the voice) Which to me is non existant but in some places tries to be in GuildWars.

Mumblyfish

Mumblyfish

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2005

Blighty

Kansas City Hotsteppers [KCHS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkmane
I simply loved Deus Ex' everything about that game was awsome.
Okay, my bad. I should have elaborated, given Deus Ex is one of my favourite games evers, and my favourite PC game by a long shot. I meant the voice acting in Hong Kong. You know, that kid in the market with the most excruiciating, high-pitched, grating voice imaginable. Guild Wars' voice acting is like being stuck in Hong Kong forever, Jock ain't taking you back to New York, sunshine. You're stranded.

Devil's Dictionary

Devil's Dictionary

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2005

Presumed missing...

Me/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Droniac
Ofcourse we can't just expect them to beat Digital Anvil's Starlancer in terms of atmosphere, that was just amazing - nothing has been able to top it yet.
Near flawless voice-acting, lip-syncing, CGI-graphics inbetween missions, amazingly high-quality CGI-based cutscenes, top-notch music & proper scripting definitely made it the most immersive game to date.
Heck, they even had a kill-list where you could see how well you fared against the other Alliance pilots, a complete database of ship/squadron data on both factions (including kill ratio's), your own bunk - including a monitor with regular newsbroadcasts about recent events, a combat simulator, etc.
And it had co-op multiplayer too!!!
It was definitely the most underrated game of it's time, it sold less than 300.000 copies where it should have sold well over a million, imo.
You forgot the little fish in the aquarium of the Yamato .

Although I loved Starlancer, I believe you are exaggerating and forgetting the fact that Starlancer was a mission-based space-sim.

Thy Shadow Wolf

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Erie, PA

N/

Voice acting for me is not that essential. GW does have a decent job of it from what I've seen. I've heard better, and worse.

Grumpy Old Man

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

All I am gonna say is, go back and play Resident Evil 1.

So long as I am not sitting through one of "Those" quality Voice acting, it's all good!

Besides, the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) is putting the kai-bosch on the flat fee voice acting, they want in on a percentage. We may have to suffer for bad and/or no voice acting for a while.