Enough. Please. So many topics on this. We get it- some people don't like VA dialogue. But a whole lot do, its in the game, and that's the way it is. Can we please, please stop these topics now?

Nobody here is doing that. We're discussing similar or differing opinions. The only people getting upset about this are the one's who want to get upset. If there's a thread you don't like, don't post in it. It's kind of like, if there's a game you don't like, don't buy it right? lol

There's people I disagree with, but it's their opinion. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

On topic:

I don't think a voice-protagonist breaks immersion just for being voice, rather if the voice doesn't fit for whatever reason. The only issue I have is that they're doing this without going all the way. There needs to be more voice actors or vocal styles here.

That's one of Bethesda's problems, has been for a very long time. They implement something that half works, and then it gets fixed with a later release. If it doesn't work like you intend, then don't implement it i.e Radiant A.I, Radiant quests, ect.

Everyone is talking about Mass Effect here. It's kind of a different game than Fallout in that you play some variation of Shepeard while, in Fallout, you play whomever you want with some variation to your backstory. The thing is, the voice acting, the cinematics, the style of game that Mass Effect was, "worked." Everything fell into it's right place. The voice acting in Mass Effect is phenomenal even, for the protagonist especially.

With Fallout 4, they're adding something new, which of course we don't really know much about, but we can assume that there is one voice for the player character, and that will not change. This is going to change the gameplay experience. No matter what character we have in mind, he's going to assume just one style of voice, and that's going to affect the game when you decide to play from a good guy to a bad guy to a wimp to a bulldozer, ect. I know I'm going to have some problems with this. The voice acting might be great, but it's going to be a problem for me, simply because I have to overlook it.

I'm not cutting down Bethesda's attempt at this, but if they really wanted to do this, they should have went all the way, with a variation of styles to pick from. I imagine the work and time would be too long and too much for an attempt at this, well then they should have pulled a Baldur's Gate and had partial vocals for the protagonist or no vocals at all.

I am Dr Seuss...

I apologize if I'm mistaken as I'm new here, but how do we know that there won't be styles of voice? I'd imagine that'd be something selectable. I mean games like Saints Row had ~7 choices for voice included in character customization (although really not the best example for the question of immersion.)

I was under the impression that there is only one male and female voice based on the gender you choose. I didn't see any options to change the voice in the E3 video I saw.

edit: Oh by the way, welcome to the forums.

My one potential gripe with having a voiced protagonist in ANY role-playing game is the fact that dialogue options might suffer from vagueness. In previous Fallout games, what you saw on the screen as you chose speech options was exactly what your character, an extension of you, said. While a voiced protagist can still easily be an extension of the player, sometimes the words spoken by a voiced protagonist are not what was depicted in the selection menu.

If people become ashamed of Fallout 4 just because of a voice actor, that's pretty sad.

There's always the other option of waiting for a non-voiced protagonist mod.

We're starting to see a lot of hyperbole and exaggerated opinions in here. In my experience with this forum, when a thread starts to turn into complaining about those complaining about the complainers who complain about all the complaining people are doing about how much complaining there is in the thread the next step tends to be one of us moderators locking down the thread and handing out warnings - because inevitably it'll turn into a handful of members trading personal attacks back and forth.

Members are allowed to create threads about the opinions they have and can express those here on this forum. It's not up to us to decide the "worth" of a topic - if no one has anything to say then the thread will die out. That there's been threads discussing the dialog on the front page of this sub-forum since the announcement video came out means that this is still a topic that people want to discuss. It really, really does not matter whether Bethesda is likely to change anything at this point - people are still free to talk about their concerns. It's all opinion anyway.

From a moderation standpoint the only thing we ask is that conversation be constructive and civil. It's only when generalizations and personal attacks enter into the conversation that this becomes a problem.

I would recommend everyone take a breath and maybe even take a moment to read back through your post before hitting send to consider how what your saying may across to those reading it.

Thank you very much!

No, I don't think any evidence has been shown that there will be styles, but it seems to me something pretty important to overlook, and I'm sure there are things in the game that we weren't shown, so I would hope that styles of voice would be included in the game itself.

They could even potentially have made it so that there are different styles of voice depending on race and gender. They might've made it so that a Caucasian female might sound different than an Asian male. However, that might run a fine line when it comes to controversy. I'd think it'd be easier to just allow you the option of different-sounding voices.

Perhaps the feature hasn't even been finished yet for it to have been shown in the demo? With the amount of vocal lines required, perhaps the voice actors will still be speaking into microphones for the next few months.

You might be right, and actually, I like your idea about types of voice acting depending on the different races and genders. I could see them doing that, in fact, it would make the most sense. We'll have to see though.

....

So much bizarre. 1, the idea that this thing (a voice protag, something relatively normal with the general realm "gaming", if not specifically Beth games) is something to be "ashamed of", and 2. the thought that there's any "public perception" at all about games beyond the anti-violence histrionics of Faux News/etc.

Or that the general public - or heck, even the general GAMING "public" - would even notice "Fallout has a voiced protag" as anything of note, let alone a BAD thing. Outside your little corner of the Fallout fandom, no-one is even going to pay it any mind. Your reputation will take no hits for the amazing crime of being associated with Fallout.

haha, I laughed at this. I can see where he's coming from though, but jeesh, "outside of your little corner of the Fallout fandom."? That was harsh man lol.

Thank you, glad you think so! Cheers to looking forward to the release! (Not everything in this thread has to have hostility)

And on the subject of being ornery about there being voices, really the only downside I'm caring for at the moment is the difficulty it will be to modders. I just hope Fallout 4 isn't too high-end to alienate them.

Seeing as how they have given names to the voice actors and even had them on stage answering questions, and there were only two of them, I seriously doubt that there will be multiple styles. Not unless they have the same two actors doing multiple voices. Or maybe they're hiding the other voice actors in the closet, while these two get the lime light, so they can surprise us later?

No, in one of the interviews Todd talks about how they would listen to the auditions from various actors while looking at different faces posted on the wall. They were looking for voices that would fit a wide variety of characters. We're only getting the two.

I wonder how many of these modders have great voice acting skills lol. I was thinking about it yesterday. I mean is our character going to be mute during some of these fan made story mods? That would be odd for sure.

Really? I didn't interpret the two as being "only" two. Still, it isn't unheard of to use only a few actors to do a multitude of accents or variations. Not picking sides, just trying to hold out some hope. But thanks for the information.

Perhaps they could just have it stay first-person when our mute character is speaking? Then it won't be that different to how it is in the past games.

EDIT: Also, from what I've seen of mods, good voice-acting isn't all that common, especially for females. Finding a good female voice actor seems to be tough. Suppose that's because of the large male-dominated demographic of the series?

"You do not like them,

So you say.

Try them! Try them!

And you may.

Try them, and you may, I say."

Thanks for reminding me about some long-forgotten words of wisdom.

Won't be that much different than most of the current mods for OB/FO3/SK, where the NPCs are usually unvoiced even though the regular in-game ones are voiced. (Even with mods that add lines to normal NPCs - so some of their responses are voiced, and the ones added by mod aren't.)

I'm just assuming you'll need to turn on subtitles, so that you can see the full dialogue your character is saying.

I for one have absolutely no problem with so many threads about the same topic. It's a topic that many people feel strongly about. The purpose of forums is discussion. There's countless Skyrim DiD threads, yet you people who don't participate don't feel the need to complain about those all the time.

Ignore this thread if you don't feel like talking about it.

You people constantly whining and moaning are making an active choice to be upset. Your outlook is your own doing.

We have new people join these forums every day. New people who have new perspectives. We have old people who think of new perspectives!

You are contributing NOTHING to the community by pointing out that we have this thread a lot.

I'm sure most of them will work with existing dialogue, limiting player dialogue to lines already present in the vanilla game. I'm sure with 13 thousand lines to choose from, they will be able to do passably well, even if it isn't perfect.

I'd think more likely were just going to get modifications to the original voices for the most part. For one thing it's a huge amount of dialogue that not only has to be done, but has to be done well. I'd guess there will be pitch modifier mods to give some semblance of choice and a non-voiced protagonist mod for those who don't like it.

A more story-driven game.

i've been thinking alot about this, i think there will be some pioneering soul who cuts a bunch of dialogue into some generic one liners for modding use. It's a serious slap in the face to modders but it also has the potential to be able to have voiced protag dialogue be used in quest mods. It's just another thing they've done to make modding more difficult.

When you chase the casual bux these things are going to happen.

I second the motion!

...people speculating about all the problems modders will have, imagining reusing lines, splicing words, "slap in the face", etc.

When modders have already had to deal with this for several games. Because NPCs have been voiced for several games. And modders have made mods with new NPC dialogue. And, as I've said, except for some of the most ambitious quest mods, they mostly do it with unvoiced dialogue.

Nothing new here except for figuring out how to deal with the new dialogue wheel.