Voice acting or reading?

More and more games today, especially RPGs, are using recorded voice acting for story presentation, instead of having the player read everything in classics like Phantasy Star. What do you think of this trend? Does the move toward making games that play more like interactive movies hurt or help gaming overall?

Depends on the game really and how well the voicing is.

I remember the first game I played that had voice acting, which was Panzer Dragoon saga. It was also in Japanese and in the first and last movies Panzernese (The game's unique language). I can say that it really added more depth to the game and the voice actors did a fantastic job! I am very glad that there was no attempt to change the voices to English.

Currently I am playing Oblivion, I like the voice acting in it as well (Not only because Patrict Stewart and Sean Bean were voice actors! Nope not at all! XP), but I also miss the reading part that was in Morrowind. It is a bit hard to describe on my part. I like hearing the voices in Oblivion but I felt more could be added!

Other games not so much, sometimes I wish there was a option to turn it off. Not always the case.

Voice acting can be an asset, like Atolm said, but when the games coin certain phrases it makes it a bit harder to pick out what was said. I'm glad when games give you a subtitle option. The best example I can think of is Star Control 2, where there's a ton of terms that I had no idea what was said without subtitles: "Juffa Wup"?!?

If the actors are good, I don't see any problem with it, as long as they include a subtitle option!

I was thinking a bit more on this, and I think that the "Monkey Island" CD games were a great example of enhancing a game through voice acting. The last game was hilarious; much more so because of the excellent voice acting.

Here's an example of the bad: the original PS1 Resident Evil. The voices weren't even synced! Though the dialogue was equally bad, so it wasn't entirely the actors fault, but man, were they awful! Though when it's that bad, it becomes comedy. Barry hands Jill the rocket launcher: "Thanks, I'll take this then." It's not a greeting card, it's a incendiary weapon!!

An old 3DO game, "Off World Interceptor" realized the live-action and voice overs were terrible, and placed two guys a la "Mystery Science Theater 3000" in the foreground to make fun of it. So I suppose awful, truly terrible, voice acting can be a bonus... if you don't take the game seriously whatsoever.

Oh dude! Yes! I remember giggling so much at the PS RE game. Especially the opening movie! I still enjoyed the game, but the voices were pretty funny!

Atolm wrote:

Oh dude! Yes! I remember giggling so much at the PS RE game. Especially the opening movie! I still enjoyed the game, but the voices were pretty funny!

http://video.google.com/url?docid=1661384345388236332&esrc=sr10&ev=v&len=209&q=resident%2Bevil%2Bps&srcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFw5sQn5Cviw&vidurl=%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D1661384345388236332%26q%3Dresident%2Bevil%2Bps%26total%3D2153%26start%3D0%26num%3D10%26so%3D0%26type%3Dsearch%26plindex%3D9&usg=AL29H23DQqWfmD6gMxihlS-eDwHHz8PooQ

Sigh. What were they thinking?!!

HAHAHA! Yes! That is it! Oh man that generic dinosaur roar!

Well if you offer a video of the bad, I'll offer one of good, the opening movie of PDS, the language is Panzernese! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHz2rejzbuU

Atolm wrote:

HAHAHA! Yes! That is it! Oh man that generic dinosaur roar!

I think the worst is the very end where they show a character and the voice-over just says their name. I'd forgotten how awful that was.

Quote:

Well if you offer a video of the bad, I'll offer one of good, the opening movie of PDS, the language is Panzernese! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHz2rejzbuU

Much better. That must have been terribly difficult for them to come up with an entire language of their own. Sega did that with the alphabet in SoA too. How utterly original!

I forgot SOA had a alphabet itself. It has been several years since I last played it.

Somewhere on the net there is a Panzernese dictionary. It is possible to speak the language.

Atolm wrote:

I forgot SOA had a alphabet itself. It has been several years since I last played it.

Somewhere on the net there is a Panzernese dictionary. It is possible to speak the language.

Wow, that's really something! I wonder how long it took them to come up with an entire language! Spelling is one thing, pronunciation is another!