Originally posted by DJJazzy

 I kind of like the artistic approach they use but I also feel it removes you from the area that you are in, it's kind of jarring. At least it's only for the personal campaign though and not for every single thing in the game.

Yeah, I have to say I found that rather odd too. I mean the backdrop was kind of cool but it just felt and looked weird to me. Messes with the immersion of the story element for me and felt disjointed.

Background chatter is really good and atmospheric, the cutscenes and random "warcry" can sound kinda weird at times. Like its too clear or articulated.

But overall its two thumbs up!  

I think it's just enough to actually listen to while not being anoying like that other game that spent 200 mill on voices.Pleny of ambient chatter in ther cities and people going about their buisness while having a chat is great.

9/10 ArenaNet ,always room for improvement though.

Originally posted by Creslin321

The questing dialogue is decent, nothing spectacular but acceptable.

But what I really like is how they use voice work to inform you about what's going on in the heat of combat.  For instance, I saw a video where a guy got hit with a "snare" effect and he yelled "My leg!"  It instantly let you know that you had been hit with a condition, you didn't have to look up at any kind of status bar to check.

Now I know that "snare" effects are obvious, but DoTs, confuses, things like that are not always super obvious.  I hope that there are audio cues for those as well.  Like maybe if you're confused your guy will yell "What's happening?!?!" (Rerun hehe) or if you guy gets affected by a DoT or an STD he will yell "Ahh!!  It burns!"

EDIT..

The one thing that I thought was a little cheesy was the announcer at the beginning of the instanced PvP matches.  I just remember he said something goofy like "Hold to control points to get point, DO I HAVE TO SPELL THIS OUT FOR YOU?!?!?!"

...echoes of the Huttball announcer lol :).

"Where did he go I don't see him."

I just like how they added it into gameplay as well for a bit more dramactic effect.

Also did anyone notice in the cutscenes it said [Work in progress]

Originally posted by RizelStar

Also did anyone notice in the cutscenes it said [Work in progress]

So? We're referring to how they are currently so what is your point? Sure most did kind of hard to miss.

the chatter? Awesome

The voice over? I dont care much about it and im generally a deaf when the theme is voice over quality

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Originally posted by DJJazzy

 I kind of like the artistic approach they use but I also feel it removes you from the area that you are in, it's kind of jarring. At least it's only for the personal campaign though and not for every single thing in the game.

Yeah, I have to say I found that rather odd too. I mean the backdrop was kind of cool but it just felt and looked weird to me. Messes with the immersion of the story element for me and felt disjointed.

This is the only thing I don't like about cutscenes but the reasons could be say for example something crazy is happening in the background and after all that the speaker is acting normal or dramactic but not reacting to the bullets flying across or anything, everything would have to be static which makes sense as to why [someone] took that approach.

i like the chatter, but the actual voice overs are sub-par (from the videos i've watched)

Originally posted by RizelStar

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Originally posted by DJJazzy

 I kind of like the artistic approach they use but I also feel it removes you from the area that you are in, it's kind of jarring. At least it's only for the personal campaign though and not for every single thing in the game.

Yeah, I have to say I found that rather odd too. I mean the backdrop was kind of cool but it just felt and looked weird to me. Messes with the immersion of the story element for me and felt disjointed.

This is the only thing I don't like about cutscenes but the reasons could be say for example something crazy is happening in the background and after all that the speaker is acting normal or dramactic but not reacting to the bullets flying across or anything, everything would have to be static which makes sense as to why [someone] took that approach.

Yeah...I can agree to that or if there's some ridiculous clipping going on then you have to wonder why even bother.

Just felt disjointed to me. Who knows what the finsihed product will be like. Doubt the vo's will change 'cept for maybe more sound mix but sure they plan on doing more with those.

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Originally posted by RizelStar

Also did anyone notice in the cutscenes it said [Work in progress]

So? We're referring to how they are currently so what is your point? Sure most did kind of hard to miss.

I had no point I was just curious did anyone see that saying that for me they could possibly get better, it wasn't directed to you or no one else. I just like how they where done except the cutscene background.

I'm fine with the voice acting for the most part.  I haven't heard any truly TERRIBLE voice acting, like the Jedi Padawan in the Black Talon flashpoint in SWTOR.

It's not all stellar, but it's perfectly acceptable.  I do wish the characters would animate a little more.  Body language can speak volumes.

Let me put it this way... I'd rather have all the amazing awesomeness that is GW2 as a whole with vo the way it's presented now, than have ArenaNet spend the budget on full cutscenes and have little left for the actual game, having to resort to a lot of copy/pasta......................

Originally posted by crewthief

It's pretty decent, but it's fairly obvious they didn't spend $200 million on it  

THANK GOD!

I couldn't have said it better.

Fairly good.

I honestly don't know what people (who are critical of it) were expecting. This is a video game, not a Pixar film. 

And I don't think SWTOR's voice acting is all what it's cracked up to be. Nothing truly exceptional as far as VO goes (compared to games like DA, Mass Effect) and nothing truly memorable because SWTOR lacks the fun charm and soul of games like WoW (which spawned dozens of in-jokes -- even when the voice acting was "bad", eg. Sindragosa). 

Originally posted by pharazonic

(which spawned dozens of in-jokes -- even when the voice acting was "bad", eg. Sindragosa). 

BETRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS YOUUUUUUUUUUU

i really liked the chatter, helped make the city feel more alive. voice over is voice over i dont really for it in games but what i saw was done well.

Originally posted by pharazonic

I honestly don't know what people (who are critical of it) were expecting. This is a video game, not a Pixar film. 

And I don't think SWTOR's voice acting is all what it's cracked up to be. Nothing truly exceptional as far as VO goes (compared to games like DA, Mass Effect) and nothing truly memorable because SWTOR lacks the fun charm and soul of games like WoW (which spawned dozens of in-jokes -- even when the voice acting was "bad", eg. Sindragosa). 

Who said they were expecting a Pixar film? VO has been done well in some games. I think my favorite are the Kain series. BW tends to do a decent job at this. SWTOR was pretty good in this area. Where they came into fault was having a story for every little thing and quite frankly some of those stories...well...they're just lame.

Not to mention due to their insistance on having a story for every little thing you only get to rehash the same fucking lines at times from your character a few hundred times.

There were a lot of "Hmms" from characters in Divinity's Reach. But in terms of ambiance, it's necessary. It akes the cities feel alive. There's nothing worse than standing around in a city where it's just glorified wall paper and static NPCs. In terms of wilderness sound effects and Soule's music, I haven't been this impressed  since WoW regarding the environmental ambiance, and since GW1's music. Soule is a force to be reckoned with.

WoW (Vanilla WoW particularly) I feel has some great ambiance. Children running around in Stormwind. Wandering NPCs that became accesible in the citties when you reached a certain level. The way the Onyxia questline unfolded and made you feel a part of your city, your faction. (Bethesda nailed these concepts with "Skyrim" as well. Tell me that you don't feel that region of Tamriel to be wholly extant.)

I hope GW2 incorporates ideas like this, particularly WoW's ambient subtleties, into the overall game. It makes you feel connected to the world.

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Who said they were expecting a Pixar film?

When people base their opinions on "Voice acting in a game" on a few snippets heard during some odd hours of press footage, you have to wonder what exactly they were expecting. There really isn't a huge criteria on what makes ambiant chatter Oscar quality.  

The Witcher this is not. But were people honestly expecting it to be? 

VO has been done well in some games. I think my favorite are the Kain series. BW tends to do a decent job at this. SWTOR was pretty good in this area.

See, I disagree. I thought SWTOR was a significant step down from BW's previous games. And while we're on the topic of SWTOR, the game severely lacked any ambiance. I'd rather have mediocre atmosphere over no atmosphere (not that I think GW2's ambiance is mediocre).   

Where they came into fault was having a story for every little thing and quite frankly some of those stories...well...they're just lame.

You may be on to something here. I thought the non class specific stuff was outright horrible. Repeated themes, repeated soundbites, bland. Too bad that was like 85% of the game. 

Not to mention due to their insistance on having a story for every little thing you only get to rehash the same fucking lines at times from your character a few hundred times.

"Absolutely!"

Originally posted by pharazonic

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Who said they were expecting a Pixar film?

When people base their opinions on "Voice acting in a game" on a few snippets heard during some odd hours of press footage, you have to wonder what exactly they were expecting. There really isn't a huge criteria on what makes ambiant chatter Oscar quality.  

The Witcher this is not. But were people honestly expecting it to be? 

VO has been done well in some games. I think my favorite are the Kain series. BW tends to do a decent job at this. SWTOR was pretty good in this area.

See, I disagree. I thought SWTOR was a significant step down from BW's previous games. And while we're on the topic of SWTOR, the game severely lacked any ambiance. I'd rather have mediocre atmosphere over no atmosphere (not that I think GW2's ambiance is mediocre).   

Where they came into fault was having a story for every little thing and quite frankly some of those stories...well...they're just lame.

You may be on to something here. I thought the non class specific stuff was outright horrible. Repeated themes, repeated soundbites, bland. Too bad that was like 85% of the game. 

Not to mention due to their insistance on having a story for every little thing you only get to rehash the same fucking lines at times from your character a few hundred times.

"Absolutely!"

 

Actually, I haven't gone over every post but seems to me far as the "world chatter" goes I think just about everyone is in agreement this is impressive, immersive, and ambient. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure somewhere out there someone will say it sucks donkey balls but generally speaking I think most are either pleasantly surprised or are happy with it. Which to me seems they should pat themselves on the back for and keep it up. Really makes the cities appear to be a living, breathing world and something that tends to be missing from more than a few mmos.

The only contention appears to be with the vo for the main story lines. Which I'm just laying it out there. To me it was incredibly cheesy for reasons I mentioned earlier. Granted these are only bits we've seen but hey...it is what it is...

Doesn't mean I'm going to refuse to play the game and certainly wasn't one of my main focal points for the game but what can I say? Like I said before if that is the biggest thing I can poke fun at or comment on them not excelling at then this game is a keeper far as I'm concerned. I doubt most were expecting the same quality on the level of Witcher but on the same hand wouldn't it have been cool if it was or another game that excelled in that area? 

Far as SWTOR goes, don't get me wrong, I don't think it was even that company's best job in that department. Although overall I thought they did a fairly decent job at it. Well, outside the issues I mentioned with their vaunted pillar as a whole. Actually, if they would have stuck to their supposed diagram and used it as a pillar rather than a crutch I personally think the game would have been better off in the long run.

...and yes, SWTOR was severely lacking in ambiance. I mean in epic fashion. Not only in vo but their designs as well. The amount of copy paste or least what appears to be copy paste in that game is simply mind boggling. 

...and their one or two random comments they have per major hub does not equal ambiance as they seemed to think. Not sure how a game that planned on supposedly focusing so much on story and immersion could get those kinds of aspects so wrong but...ugh...did they ever.  

Definitelly, cant complain!