Amusingly enough, I thought the same when I saw the trailer. But then, even a cursory look at the first game should suffice to make newcomers go "What's Britney Spears doing in a vampire game?" Good they're keeping the tradition alive.
On that note, here's my random Bloodlines question of the day: was I the only one bothered that everyone mispronounced LaCroix's name and that he spoke with what was clearly a British accent? I figure he's from the same part of France as Picard.
Some also suggested, that the character in green dress could be Lilith from WoD, though that would be a surprising appearance. On the other hand Bloodlines 1 had Caine as the cab driver, so why not.
Personally I'll always choose more Player Character answers versus voiced answers.
I'd rather have 4 great responses where you can feel the character's emotion than 8 great response where you have to imagine it. Show don't tell is one of the most important concepts in storytelling, and hearing the emotion of the player character is much more effective at doing that IMO than
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Well, you see, there are these things called books...
What I mean is, one could easily make the opposite argument, that a well-written line already 'shows' you the underlying emotion, without the voice acting needing to 'tell' you. Written fiction, the good sort anyway, has never had any trouble putting emotion into voiceless lines. And I would argue that having to infer stuff is by definition the opposite of telling.
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I thought about making a much longer post addressing the "yes books are a thing where one can show instead of tell as well," but thought the post would become a book. I'll try to keep it short.
So when the experience is mostly in your head, the words work very well, because 99% of it is in you head. Much like in a PnP game the vast majority of the game is in the players' heads. A video game is much more like a movie or TV show in that it has already committed to a single visual & audible interpretation of the world that all viewers share. The medium is different, so using books as an analogy is not super accurate. As far as a narrative experience is concerned, a video game without a voiced PC is much more like watching a movie where everyone speaks except the protagonist, whose lines you read on the screen. It's frankly jarring IMO for a story driven game. We've all gotten somewhat used to it over time, but it's far from ideal to me.
The point is hearing the emotion in the line does more for the viewer/players experience than just reading it IMO. Inflection, word emphasis, dramatic pauses, phrasing, accents, etc all greatly add to characterization. You learn a lot about a person by not just what they say but how they say it. Also, the viewer has to do less mental gymnastics to experience the feeling, which is a good thing. The more you're in your head, the less you're "in the game" so to speak.
Some people say "that's not MY so-and-so's voice," but honestly I can't think of any story driven game I've played in the past decade or so that was worse because of the design decision to go with a voice PC. FO4 was bad, but that's because Bethesda is REALLY bad at dialogue. Skyrim's dialogue was very bad too IMO. All the other recent cRPGs I can remember with voice acting, it added a lot to the characterization of the player character.
Touche about the inferring bit though. It was poor word choice on my part.
Paradox is one of my favorite studios. All their games are to notch and I have Ck2, HOi4, Rome Vae Victis, EU 4, this will be a great revival.
There are actual books based on this IP? I wasn't aware.Well, you see, there are these things called books...
What I mean is, one could easily make the opposite argument, that a well-written line already 'shows' you the underlying emotion, without the voice acting needing to 'tell' you. Written fiction, the good sort anyway, has never had any trouble putting emotion into voiceless lines. And I would argue that having to infer stuff is by definition the opposite of telling.
Totally agree with your post and i am sure there was a poll were most voted that they prefer a voiced protagonist. I will admit when the Outer World vid came on i wished it was voiced and the same for this game . A non voiced protagonist seems so old school to me , something from the 80s or 90s .
I've always preferred non-voiced. There's enough actor left in me that it's still effortless for me to fill in the gap in my mind. Part of the reason I disliked voiced stuff in games (overall) was because the quality of VO was often abysmally bad decades past.
Nowadays, I'm a bit torn. I still prefer a silent protagonist, but I will say this: Mass Effect 1's voicework blew me away. I so thoroughly enjoyed the cinematic feel of the game that when Dragon Age released...I was initially really bummed out when my character didn't speak.
To me, it's a matter of the studio mostly. FO4 drove me next to nuts after a while. I seriously hope TES VI has a silent proagonist. TW3 proves that CDPR knows how to create scenes and moments. I'm looking forward to seeing how V evolves.
Nowadays, I'm a bit torn. I still prefer a silent protagonist, but I will say this: Mass Effect 1's voicework blew me away. I so thoroughly enjoyed the cinematic feel of the game that when Dragon Age released...I was initially really bummed out when my character didn't speak.
To me, it's a matter of the studio mostly. FO4 drove me next to nuts after a while. I seriously hope TES VI has a silent proagonist. TW3 proves that CDPR knows how to create scenes and moments. I'm looking forward to seeing how V evolves.
Yep. Was fine for a bit and then the voice didn't match my character and then, yeah, nuts.
Silent protag or at least a really cool voice actor. Since that means different things to different people, it's really important that I like it.
Most of combat is in 1st person, later with some abilities camera will zoom out in 3rd person, shame that is 1st person only, but since they say mods will be supported from day 1 i am sure some modder will make 3rd person option, i will wait for it, i can't stand the crap Deus Ex HR and MD do with zoom in and out from 1st person to 3rd person.
HR did a great job of mixing TPP and FPP in a practical way. Since that game isn't about RPG and costuming, I have no problem with it being mostly FPP. But Bloodlines being solely FPP - I hate this idea.
So the staff is only 50 people... Yeah, this is going to be one indie-looking game.
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So the staff is only 50 people... Yeah, this is going to be one indie-looking game.
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I doubt 50 people is counting voice actors and etc. I suppose that means just developers. And 50 is actually a lot. I don't mind an indie looking game. It often means better quality than mass market junk produced by legacy publishers.
