Its conceivable that they've had a massively larger budget to work with that it could be possible. I haven't been able to play Witcher 3 but it seems like it is possible to do so with out sacraficing dialog options. although the trade off would probably be having any thing in the way of variety in choice of character voice.

I don't think that its actually going to happen either at this point, I find it more likely that they felt it would make for a more dramatic trailer if the vault dweller said something at the very end. but then again it does seem odd to hire a well known voice actor like Troy Baker to just say that one line if that were the case. Then again Troy Baker voice acts in damn near every thing that is game related. There really isn't enough information to do more than wildly speculate.

No.

IMO in this day and age voiced characters are a must as far as AAA games goes.

However having a voiced character does NOT meant you can't allow people to "make" their characters, Dragon Age: Inquisition is a prime example of being able to allow people to make their "own" character while still having a voice.

I mean they had not one, not two, but FOUR voices, two for male/female to pick from to suit your character.

A good voice acted protagonist just helps drive the story for me, get more emotionally involved rather then having all the npc's talk but my character just sits there not saying a word.

You can't compare bioware games and bethesda games.

Entirely subjective and one that it would seem a large number of people disagree with. If Bethesda's games aren't considered AAA anymore because they don't have a voiced protagonist than so be it, but if that's their choice they'll also end up watering down their game and lose a lot of fans in the process.

You think voiced protagonists added to Dragon Age? I personally think it's something that ultimately took a lot away from the game.

Regardless of budget size it's still a matter of diverting budget to voicing the main protagonist. Which ultimately results in everything Styles listed regardless of budget size.

Not to mention a lot of people see a voiced protagonist as a deal breaker. Seems like a waste to me. I prefer to have multiple dialogue options than the two or three Witcher 3 gives me or the four or so Dragon Age now gives me.

Hell no! Ruins the vanilla game for me.

I'm ok with it. Except if it means that we can only play a set character, or that we won't have any dialog choices or something. But by itself I don't mind the idea.

If it's so subjective why do you think the majority of games use voice work these days? Can you name me the number of huge AAA games that don't use voice work?

What if they cut out all voice work, even for npc's? They could give npc's more lines if they did that as well.

Voice acting adds to the storyline, just like people watching a movie don't like to read subtitles, they want to hear the person speak, it is an emotional driving voice behind storytelling that separates movies and games from books and reading.

Yes some poepe are fine without it, I have played many good games with 0 voice work for the protag, however I see the merits behind having a good voiced characters vs having a silent one.

Yes there are trade offs, more limited writing lines since you have to have someone voice it all, but it's a balance and one I think a AAA budget game can handle.

The Witcher 3/DA:I are both excellent rpgs with plenty of dialogue and choices to make. The story/characters (to me at least) are far more memorable then the story of Fallout 3. So the idea of having a voiced protagonist meaning the story/characters will be "less" doesn't hold water.

It's not about having more lines, it's about having GOOD writing, which is where NV trumped Fallout 3 and where the above two games show you an do that with a voiced protagonist.

Also one thing I find a bit funny is this is Bethseda, they are known for spending a ton of money on "hollywood" voices (IE Liam Nesson, Patrick Stewart, etc) vs hiring actual voice actors that can provide maaaaaaany voices (IE Maurcie LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, Jim Cummings, etc).

Of course I could be wrong, but I highly doubt Fallout 4 will feature a voiced protagonist. I think what we saw in the trailer was for just that. For show purposes to get us hyped. If Bethesda made a voiced protagonist, they would have to waste resources recording the same line for both male and female. Plus after what we've come to expect fom the series, I don't see Bethesda going that route.

That doesn't change the fact that it's subjective?

Straw man and not deserving of a response.

That's nice in a movie and it's also nice in a game like TLoU, but those are very different matters.

Up until "but it's a balance" was objective as in it can be measured and tested; however, the remainder is entirely subjective. For instance, you believe Dragon Age handled it, whereas I very much believe it did not.

It also trumped Fallout 3 in choices and consequence and in many other areas as well. Unfortunately it doesn't change the fact that a voiced protagonist will detract from the dialogue and choices in the game.

It's about role playing. Not being shoehorned in by one voiced actor. If every character sounds the same, it's pointless. My young merc is going to sound like my old gunslinger? One of the best parts of any Beth type RPG is the ability to make tons of unique characters and role play them any way you see fit. Voiced actors, in a way, limit this.

I think you are confusing subjective of the majority with your own opinion.

Yes there are people that prefer non voiced roles, I am not debating that.

My point was that in this day and age the voiced protagonist is what the majority want/expect.

Do you think that there haven't been countless focus groups/studies done by publishers to know this? I mean if the majority are satisfied with si mply reading dialogue boxes a la 1990's rpgs someone should really tell the publishers so they stop wasting so much money on voice acting.

It's the same thing with movies, you have a movie that has subtitles vs a movie that has none, which will people prefer? The majority will go for the non-subtitles, even if it's a "Terrible" dub of a movie it will still get more people watching it over the subtitled version.

I was using Fallout 3 vs DA:I/The Witcher 3 as an example of having a voiced protagnist while still maintaining more choices/consequences and general higher quality writing.

Also pointing out for the people who keep saying the voice acting budget eats into writing/dialogue choices yet none of them seem to care that Bethseda has a track record of spending their VA budget on big "Hollywood" name actors rather then just having a good strong voice actor that is capable doing multiple voices/more dialogue then what it'd cost for a big hollywood name to do a smaller amount of work.

I'm hoping it was a telepathic dog in the trailer and that that was the dog talking.

I myself do not care for voice acting or voiced Player Characters (PC's). I prefer most if not all RPG video games to have text dialogue like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I even purchased 5 copies of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

For video games developed by Bethesda Game Studios I see a voiced Player Character (PC) breaking the immersion of playing their video games and extremely annoying.

A boy and his dog?

"IMO in this day and age voiced characters are a must as far as AAA games goes."

Definition of subjective: "Characteristic of or belonging to reality as perceived rather than as independent of mind" "based on feelings or opinions rather than facts"

The rest doesn't need a response as it'll just go in circles and derail the thread.

or maybe we're all wrong in assuming that the vault 111 guy is the protagonist, maybe he's a NPC essential to the plot of the game

I say no. I hate using voiced protagonists in rpg's they never get it right. This is one of the many reasons I never got into the "Mass Effect" franchise. I can't stand Shepards voice at least the males. The femshep is good but i don't play chicks. I tried too but got freaked out when Kaiden started making googly eyes at my character (brrr). I also can't stand Geralt of Rivia's voice, it's one of the reasons besides his personality I can't get into those games either.

So I like my rpg characters to be mute.

I picked the fifth option ("Not really, but I will get over it very, very, very, very, very, very quickly, if it happens.")

I liked Inquisition and all, but the male Inquisitor VAs made me cringe on several occasions (never played female. Heard they were better). There was a tendency to either overact to an absurd level. And sometimes I'd say something meant to be serious, and they would say it really goofy-like as if everything's a joke. It was hard to feel like the hard-ass Inquisitor I tried to role.

I get what you mean, but I think that as a specific example is on the fault of Bioware for not telling the actors the mood of the conversation. They had the same problem in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I don't want a voiced character. It's just better left up to the imagination IMO. An option to have it or not have it would be fine, As long as it's not forced.

Unlikely.

Cost more money when it will be massively muted out by either your own developers or the modification making community afterwards. Unless of course they produced, and perfected, a text to speech software that can incorporate emotions. Though considering there are companies who specialize in that, for good reason, I'd doubt they'd bother with it; along with a voiced main character. Limits what you perceive which they try to avoid.

It is only ok if:

- They didn't decrease dialogue options and or lines of dialogue.

- We aren't stuck with just one certain voice.

- You can toggle the voice on or off.

If they keep these options in game then why not? I can see a protagonists voice adding a more realistic immersion to the character in my opinion, but I could see why others would rather stick with a silent type.

This is twice today I've read that voiced protagonists are what is wanted and or expected. I'll say the same again in response.
According to whom? Where's this data?
If we look at this thread's voting results, (presently) this logic is false.

I know. It was in response to DA:I specifically receiving praise for implementing this well, as I don't feel that it did at all. And I certainly wouldn't want to see Fallout suffer from the same sort of problem. Bad protagonist VA work will do far more to take me out of the game than none at all.