Voice Acting in games

[Kloreep]

Figured I'd split off the discussion of voice acting here, since it's interesting but wandering away from the real topic of the QFG2 update thread...

It's different with a game like QFG4 or 5 when the voices are a part of the game from the beginning.

Actually, I think QFG4's voices were added in later. Still was great, though. I can't imagine only reading the inn regulars' lines - though maybe that's because I only ever played the voiced version. Ditto other memorable voices like the Burgomeister and Katrina. Even the absence of John "the CD from hell" Rhys-Davies as the Narrator would make the game feel weird.

Star Control 2's voice pack (the 3DO version), however, totally ruined nearly every conversation you had.  The aliens sound so much better and witty on text (...and in my head) which caused me to want to turn off the voices all together in the remake.  Luckily I originally played the text version in 1992.

Interesting. I too played the voiceless version first, and only heard the voices a couple years ago when the freeware version came out. Yet for the most part, I like them. I suppose it comes down to what you've imagined. I was willing to forget a lot of what I had imagined and go with the voices; there were only a few aliens, like the Thraddash and Utwig, where I had a real strong imagination that it clashed with.

[Gronagor]

It's different with a game like QFG4 or 5 when the voices are a part of the game from the beginning.

Actually, I think QFG4's voices were added in later. Still was great, though.

Hmmm... not 100% sure, but I think they both were released at the same time. The Floppy version without voices and the CD version with voices. I could be wrong. I only recently played the voice version. Any of the QfG-series would be a great experience with OR without the speech-pack.

Although I really love(d) Star Control 2 (one of my favourite games of all time), I'm not really sure what happened after the first release. Wasn't the voice addition a fan-created pack?

I thought SC3's voices did the characters justice... just the story-line failed the series.

[greensenshi]

The floppy disk version of QFG4 was released first.  The CD talkie version wasn't released until several months later.  The CD contained a bunch of patches that cleaned up the really buggy first release.  :P

That's if I'm remembering right, which I think I am.

[Kloreep]

It's different with a game like QFG4 or 5 when the voices are a part of the game from the beginning.

Actually, I think QFG4's voices were added in later. Still was great, though.

Hmmm... not 100% sure, but I think they both were released at the same time. The Floppy version without voices and the CD version with voices. I could be wrong. I only recently played the voice version. Any of the QfG-series would be a great experience with OR without the speech-pack.

I certainly could be wrong. I didn't encounter QFG until the Collection CDs, so I'm going off questionable memories of what I've read.

Although I really love(d) Star Control 2 (one of my favourite games of all time), I'm not really sure what happened after the first release. Wasn't the voice addition a fan-created pack?

The voices were a Toys For Bob production. They recorded them to put into their port of the game over to the 3D0, a machine that turned out to be one of the many "failures" dotting the history of games consoles. TFB released the source code & assets of the 3D0 version in 2002, and the game was ported back to the PC as freeware - that's probably the fan creation you're thinking of.

So, the voices were after the fact; it was originally a voiceless game. But the addition of the voices was overseen by the original creators. (I remember reading something from either Reiche or Ford talking about how uncomfortable it was to be sitting across from the Syreen actress as she recorded some of Talana's lines, heh.)

I thought SC3's voices did the characters justice... just the story-line failed the series.

Yeah, the voices weren't too bad, but the writing didn't live up.

[Fender178]

Well I agree that QFG2 vga shouldnt have any voice acting based on I have seen form watching a play through of it on youtube that some one is doing and in multiple parts they say the hero's name (what ever name you chose at the start or imported.) and he has a small speaking parts.