EQ2 Voiced By Hollywood Actors

An anonymous reader writes "Sony is going to have well known actors voicing major roles in its upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Christopher Lee is doing the voice for the Evil Lord Sir Lucan D'Lere, leader of the city of Freeport, and Heather Graham is doing the voice for Antonia Bale of the good city of Qeynos. An interview with Christopher Lee is also available on the Sony site." It will be interesting to see how this affects the fight between EQ2 and World of Warcraft, which are rumored to be coming out on the same day.

Comments

Actors?

[imsirovic5]

Does anybody really want to hear actors in a game? I personally think that money could be spent in a better way. I would rather see that money go toward physics engine or graphics or anything else. Or maybe, they could just give that extra money back to us in terms of lower game pricing? Do other people think that paying actors will add that much value to the game?

Voice can add a lot to a game.

[2Flower]

Countless times playing City of Heroes, I've wanted to hear SOMETHING other than blips and zaps and pows. Hearing the enemies call out and taunt you, or hear NPCs thanking you for rescuing them, or even screams of terror when people run around... voice beats no voice, hands down. As long as the acting is reasonably good and doesn't stand out for being Resident Evil levels of horribleness then it can add to the atmosphere in the same way great graphics do.

An MMORPG which nails great graphics, an interactive musical score ala old Lucasarts games, and good voice acting... well, then you've got one heck of an experience. As is MMORPGs seem to focus completely on the graphics. The audio side gets third billing at best.

Re:Voice can add a lot to a game.

[vjmurphy]

"Countless times playing City of Heroes, I've wanted to hear SOMETHING other than blips and zaps and pows. Hearing the enemies call out and taunt you, or hear NPCs thanking you for rescuing them, or even screams of terror when people run around... voice beats no voice, hands down."

You may thing this is true, but my experience would be different. They recently added voice into EQ: things that other players can trigger like "Follow me" and "Run."

My wife was playing with that particular "feature" and after about 5 seconds, I told her that if she didn't turn that off, I would. It was the most annoying thing.

CoH is a fun enough game, but they still haven't given us the ability to turn OFF specific repeating sounds (try playing with Fortitude on, and you'll know what I mean). I shudder to think of having villains and (gah) other players being able to spam me with spoken messages. I recall on the test server they had upped the volume of the "breathing while running" sound. They wisely did not continue with that.

So, if any game has sounds, make sure they can be turned off without detriment to the gameplay.

Re:EQ2

[WWWWolf]

all the NPCs have full voice and it really makes a diffrence because it feels more like your there, the graphics are simply stunning

...and the immersion shatters the second anyone utters anything about phAt l00t. Thanks, but I think I'll pass. MMORPGs have this nasty habit of being really cool until you let the other players in =)

Repetition?

[Speare]

Okay, so the voice actor comes into the studio one day, records fifty lines he or she has never thought about before, and leaves. They might sound good the first time around, but these will get so tired, so fast.

First encounter at the camp: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean."

The next day, arriving at the camp. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. ... " yeah, yeah, whatever, gramps

Ten minutes later, walking past. "Once more unto the breach, ..." shut UP already

Five minutes later, walking past. "Once more ..." mute button