The game is feature locked it you want ot send a message to bethesda about voice Protagonist then don't buy teh game. All this QQing about the voice means nothing when millions of people will BUY the game and play it with a voice perfectly fine.

A voiced character absolutely makes the story better.

However, it DOES sacrifice the role playing potential. At least from that standpoint.

You cannot argue that Mass Effect doesn't have a better story than Fallout 3 or Skyrim. But what FO3 and Skyrim lack in story and main character, they definitely make up for it in the role-playing department, which is where Mass Effect starts to fail.

I think it can work. The biggest issue that I have with the new system is partly cause by having no real understanding of how it works. If modders can easily create NPC interaction with dialog that isn't voiced, it isn't going to be much of an issue. But that's the only instance in which it really matters. I'm sure someone will remove the voice overs in a mod at some point. And if they can also replace the newer dialog menu with something a little more... classic... all the better. Then everyone is happy.

So... ultimately, it doesn't bother me much. It did when my friends and I were speculating how awful it could be... but I'm not worried about it anymore. The game looks great, and I didn't have any real issues with the voice over in the gameplay demo. At the end of the day, it's happening whether we like it or not. Embrace it or don't.

Imagine the modding potential.

I can see it now. "Raider PC Voice Pack. Want to sound more like a raider for your cruel/evil/sadistic playthroughs? Download this mod that replaces all of the dialog in the game with custom re-recorded PC dialog using a deeper, more sinister tone!"

I'd download it.

I've never really enjoyed a voiced protagonist. It's just my personal taste, but with the complexity of video games, I've always felt that video games immersed me more similarly to books than to movies. The trend nowadays is more movie-like video games, but I really wanted something with more unspoken dialogue, something to allow me to put in a bit of my own lingual interpretation and imagination. I understand why people like the latter, but games seem much more personal when they imply that YOU are the main character and allow you to personify said character- a feat really only portrayed by bethesda's worlds ala Fallout 3, Morrowind, New Vegas, Oblivion, and Skyrim.

I hope I'm happily surprised!

To be fair how is your example any different than the Lone Wanderer when asked, "Why did you leave the vault". It seems to be basically two choices of either the vault svcks or looking for Dad. However, I felt the main reason was the Overseer and guards went crazy and started killing people and the PC would be tops on the hit list, yet no option when it came to dialogue. Got to admit dialogue options were not that great in FO3 and TES for that matter.

As for the topic, I do not care if we a voiceless or voiced Sole Survivor as I can adapt to either. For the ones who are concerned about a voiced protagonist, how about wait until you play the game before declaring judgement.. that also goes for the other topics on various issues as well.

i haven't even thought about what the modders will do with the voice if new voice mods becomes a regular thing i might actually enjoy it lol

To me, yeah, it does, at least for the Fallout series. It's how it should have been long ago.

Good luck getting modders to record 13k lines.

Someone will do it, I'm sure.

There are mods for Skyrim that have followers with thousands of lines of recorded dialog anyway. Such as Inigo and Vilja. There are also mods like Immersive NPCs which add hundreds of NPCs to the game, all of them with spoken dialog, and many of them voice by the same actors, who had to have recorded thousands of lines across dozens of characters.

i will choose to hope and believe that a hero will come and fix this great mistake

Explain, name me a Beth game besides Morrowind where there has been great dialoge for the majority of the game like the Mass Effects of the world. The Studio isn't a story based studio, it's strength is in World Build and allowing your character to roleplay in that world. It's kinda hard to do that with a voiced character. I want to give Beth the benefit of the doubt but Emil is still Lead Writer. I will remain skeptical that Dialoge will be improved and unfortunately since the Protagonist is voiced, it's even more important then ever that Beth nails this feature. Now the demo shouldn't be the main example of the game but that's all we've seen so far and it lays a framework like Skyrim as to how the game is going to be.

Silent Works just as much as Voiced but Voiced is usually a preset character like Shepard or Geralt that you don't have much control over. This game though, you have control but it's voiced which hurts Roleplaying. I am intrigued by the story and I'm willing to give voiced a try but Silent is superior, you get more choices in dialoge and you aren't limited by someone else's voice.

Awesome outlook on it imo. But logistically re-recording a natural voice for all those lines and repackaging them into the game is a pretty huge endeavor.

Not that there will be people doing it. But the main factor there is the voice acting and audio capture quality. Modder skills to implement it ... not to taxing , except from a data entry point of view.

An easier method to get variation on the PC voice , will be to just alter the existing files upon output. With voice modding software

Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games i have played it is also one of the best rated games on Metacritic of all time and it has a voiced protagonist. So should we use examples as that then? Don't get me wrong, Dragon Age Origins is my favourite game of all time, but it could have been voiced and i would still love it as much. It doesn't break immersion or roleplaying for me, and i don't understand why others want their character to be mute. Atleast in 3rd person games, i can't react to what you are saying.

We will agree to disagree about Mass Effect 2, I felt the 1st one was way superior although I'll give the 2nd credit, it did Loyalty missions, it's Final Mission and atmosphere very well.

In terms of Protagonist, I prefer the Freedom of a silent one, Voiced can work very well if the dialoge is written well. That's my biggest fear with Dialoge, that it hasn't evolved from the previous games. Now I do think though that dialoge will be improved because of New Vegas but I remain skeptical. We'll see, I want to be wrong and Fallout 4 be amazing with it's dialoge while providing the freedom to roleplay like all the previous games. Hopefully that's what happens.

I'm willing to bet the majority will say your wrong there. But your opinion is duly noted. And I'm sure beth just didn't make their decision willy nilly.

If the game can't be played by turning off the PC voice and reading text as an option ... I Totally Feel Ya !!!

I just can't believe they would be that stupid.

Better to dive in on low expectations about the story and be pleasantly surprised

I want my character to be mute because i can guarantee that whomever Beth has voicing them will not sound the way they'd sound in my head as i'm reading their dialogue. I like certain voice ranges and accents based on character appearance and with the voice already chosen, it just feels... wrong.

I seriously doubt we'll have several voices to choose from (13k lines recorded multiple times... the file size would be massive). So even various races could be at odds with the voices. There are just too many variables, imo, to make this a good idea.

Even in Witcher 3, it barely works. Sure, Geralt is completely pre-made, with little to no player influence, but even then, i just want him to shut up. I can barely play the game because Geralt's voice acting is so horrible. He's got the personality of a stick. But i digress.

I know some of you watch Gopher's Let's Plays, especially his Fallout: New Vegas play through with Jack. Tell me, would Jack still be Jack if it weren't for Gopher giving him a voice?

No, he wouldn't. He would be a completely different character. How is that a good thing? Especially in a game where character development, progression, and freedom are supposed to be paramount.

I do not really have a problem with a voiced protagonist, as the character I am playing will not be me anyway. However, if I choose to play another male character and he sounds exactly the same as my main character, then we have a huge problem.

Beth really needs to give us options to help fix this.

Hell Ya I watch Gopher's lets plays. And I'm going to be sampling his voice so I can swap the default protag for him.

I really disagree with the idea that we need a voice protagonist to "make the story better" that just sounds like the writer needed excuses for their crap writing.

Just like they needed essential NPCs to "make the story better". They needed essential NPCs because they're terrible developers and had to keep their game from breaking itself or allowing the player to fail in any way, shape, or form.

Just some more hand holding by Bethesda that's completely unwarranted.

He doesn't really roleplay though,and his Lets play is kinda infurating. He talks first and foremost as Jack, Himself and to the audience. Also he tries to pretend he doesn't have knowledge that he has, but Jack does not, so it just contradicts himself. Instead of actually trying to make a background that gives a certain type of knowledge that he could use to influence his Lets play videos. I love his Mod videos though, good stuff.

I think roleplaying means so many different things to people that it doesn't make much sense anymore. Someone see it as playing themself, or beeing the opposite, or really go into the role you are given (that is my prefered one).

As soon as you leave the vault your character would be like: "MY NAME is not imPORtant. What's imPORtant iz what I'M aBOUt to DO..."

Oh no, you're absolutely correct. Gopher actually blocked me from his YouTube channel for pointing out that much.

The point I'm trying to make is that every single character any of us makes will share the same voice. Save for a different gender, that is. So not only does every character you watch on YouTube sound exactly like your "from scratch" character, but so does every character you create.

Your first character, the good guy, will sound exactly like your second character, the bad guy. And both will sound exactly like your third character, the neutral guy. How is that immersive in any way? It's not like Witcher 3 where you are the same exact character in every play through. In Fallout, the character you create will always play a certain role in the game.. but beyond that, they're completely yours to control. It's so completely different from most other games out there that "features" in those games just wouldn't work in Fallout. They aren't compatible.