A big NO to voicing the PC.
It's not money/development time/resources that concern me. Digital recording is pretty easy in this day and age. And while I'm sure it adds costs beyond money, i'm not sure its as much as is being made out in this thread- but whatevs, this isn't the reason to not add PC voice.

I say "Hell Nah!" mostly because I don't want canned voices in place of my minds ear regarding a character that is mine to customize and play out.
Sure, games like Saints Row use a pitch shifter to give variance in voice tone, but it's pretty a noticeable effect. I prefer, by far, reading out what my PC is saying in whatever pitch, timbre, accent, inflection etc. I decide that MY PC would use.

Aside from that, I don't want to spend the time that it would take my PC to say all of these lines throughout the entire game. I am already reading all of them in order to decide which dialogue I want to reply with. What exactly is the incentive of hearing the choice I have already made and voiced in my minds ear? No new information/content is being given with it, and now I have to sit and wait until the PC speaks their lines, before I hear the reply from the NPC? I am all for deep dialogue, but it's an unnecessarily redundant micro transaction time sink, that actually takes from immersion.

Well typically they don't say the exact same line that is read and it's usually only a gist at what you want to say in games. So it is not really the same. Of course I imagine you would be the type to just keep off the voice. Why do you people see it as waiting? It's catharsis not waiting. I must admit though, it is quite surprising so many of you text lovers still exist. Something I had thought rather died out pre 2006. Guess it goes to show how some small niches just don't die very easily. I still would prefer to have the option to have a player voice.

------- irrelevant to reply above -------

If you could have a voice actor for your player character, who would you want it to be?

None, now could we please move on to a more productive subject matter?

Jack Nicholson, if he wasn't available then it would have to be Samuel L Jackson. Both have great voices in my humble opinion.

Love Jack, but what kind of character do you play as man? Lol! You cutting into doors with axes? Samuel L Jackson is good when he has the right director and hes a pretty cool guy. He really captures rage well.

Perhaps not very much in the spirit of Fallout, but watching some of DA: Inquisition stuff has me wanting a Tactical mode for Fallout 4.

Currently a lot of people use VATs as a way to cheat death in instances, why not replace VATs with a tactics mode. Simply put, when activated it drains AP and switches to an Isometric view where you command your followers and such in a way similar to Fallout: Tactics. Amount of AP determines character effectiveness and time limit for being able to use the mode. A good commander must be quick, decisive, intelligent, perceptive and charismatic so all of these should in some form factor into the mode.

I knew you guy's would be interested in that. Who says debate isn't productive. I would like to see that. Could be pretty cool.

Again, what is the point? I've already read all of the dialogue options. Even if it only hear a snippet or the gist of the option i have selected, what is the incentive for it? The NPC I am speaking to doesn't actually need to hear a voice for their next lines of dialogue, and i have already voiced the dialogue i picked in my head, with far better results and with more versatility than a voice actor could provide.

I am also not sure which niche you're talking about. It simply doesn't make sense to have it.
If this wee a series with cutscenes amounting to no choice in dialogue or playing as a particular character, then sure. but it doesn't fit here, where you're playing a a character you created.

--------completely relevant to the reply above------------
NO voice actor. I don't care if Jack Nicholson has a cool voice. It does little good when my PC build is a 19 year old with a stutter.
Lets imagine that they used a different voice actor for every type of PC build i can think of. That could easily exceed hundreds of voice actors for each and every dialogue choice the PC would have in game. See how it just doesn't work for a game where you are playing a role of a unique character?

If you're going to try and convince me you're going to be upset. I don't agree with anything you just said. And since most of it has already been stated, I will just allow you to refer to the other thread at your leisure as you have said nothing new and neither have I. You think it is pointless and I think it is absolutely necessary. I think it should be optional for people like you though. That is the niche you fail to see. I didn't say I wanted Jack Nicholson as my voice actor either and that was addressed to the crowd and not you. If you didn't want one just don't reply. I didn't ask if people wanted one or not. Nor was a different voice actor for every type of PC suggested. These are things you brought up. If you want to suggest them then be my guest. Otherwise lets not waste any more time on this.

If the PC had a voice I'd prefer to not see him/her talking (camera on PC's face), but rather to have it as it is now, but with voice, possibly even seeing reaction in the NPC's face while listening.

Can't believe I overlooked npc reactions. Brilliant really General.

This is something that has been around in Bethesda games since Oblivion, although awkwardly done at best. Only the extreme ranges of emotion have been shown, nothing in comparison to what was accomplished in a game like LA Noire.

That would be tough to do. Didn't they use some kind of experimental tech for that at the time?

Missed a lot of the voice discussion, so i will just give my opinion on this.

It is very simple. The player character is me. The more it will be defined, regardless if it is forced backstory or voice, the less it would feel it is me.

Period.

I wouldn't suggest a L.A. Noire type of dialogue system. Seems like it would harm the modding community. I would prefer just a improved audio detection system in which lips would be better synced.

I don't want my character voiced. It would do the opposite of what it is supposed to (in that it is for immersion but it will harm it in the end). The System in place is fine. I wouldn't mind limited voiced however. Like you could select a voice in the beginning of the game and maybe you will only hear it in cutscenes. The main reason I feel we don't have cutscenes is because the player is not voiced.

They applied facial sensors on live actors and then transitioned that to the computer graphics to simulate emotions in the video game. They managed to accomplish this because the faces of all the participants were then ideally represented in the game, something I think that Bethesda probably couldn't achieve considering they have to create over a hundred "unique" NPC's in the world and probably don't have even 50 actors to base it on. But with next-gen now an option, who knows what possibilities they have in store.

As a console gamer, I really don't care for the modding community if it means a better core game. Then again, this system likely won't be implemented in Fallout so you don't have to worry.

Many features of the modding community influence the core product. Its sad to see some who haven't seen what the Bethesda modding community can do. Some times it can even be better than a Bethesda game. Maybe one day you will have a PC capable of playing the games and will appreciate what modders can do

I don't like altering the original product, because then it ceases to be what is was intended to be. Sorta like how Mass Effect fans effectively changed the ending to the series because of all their griping, destroying the initial artistic vision of the game, however lame it was.

You never get to play what the game was intended to be. Many features are cut from the game so the game you actually get is not what was intended to be released. So you don't ever get the initial artistic vision of the game. Altering the original product is fine. DLCs and Updates do that, but apparently that is exempt to you. Also some mods don't even change the game. You can have a mod like Nehrim/skywind/Enderal which don't effect the base game but just add a new world (that is often the size of a new game).

The intended product is what is finally released. The material that is cut out of the game was obviously viewed as obsolete by the developers.

I wouldn't say "obsolete". Many developers often comment that they were forced to cut some material from the game that really hoped to add and expand upon but were limited by time and resources.

I love Patric Stewart and all, but 500k? What that boil down to per word, cuz he sure didn't have too many. There is an old timer I know who would gladly do voice acting for a bottle of mad dog 20/20, and do just as good of a job.

There has never been a single game where a voice actor made me buy the game. I also agree with Cannibal as further reasons why I don't need one in FO. What is next? Cut scenes?


Btw, you say that a voiced pc is an absolute necessity. So, that means you won't buy FO4 if it doesn't have one?

Many features/contents are cut because they aren't stable enough by the time of release. (KOTOR 2) Rather to have it fully bugged, better not have it. Sometimes, they aren't finished by the of the release, because the publisher was putting some pressure to release early (FOT). Sometimes, they have to cut some content because of censorship (kids in Fo1). Sometimes, those are cut to be put on a DLC (Street Fighter X Tekken) (there were even already there, but locked in the vanilla games). Sometimes they are cut because they are obsolete, but it isn't the rule.

The intended product you never see. The intended product winds up getting cut down due to time constraints, budget concerns, general bugginess etc. Take New Vegas for instance, both Freeside and The Strip were intended to be one worldspace each (not both together as one) but due to limitation of many people's hardware (IIRC pc gamers too) this feature was cut. Video games are not alone in having parts wind up on the cutting room floor. Movies, tv shows, and even musicians have music that never sees the light of day for one reason or another.