voice-overs
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Legendary horror director to lend voice to Italian Dead Space port
Often gamers can look forward to celebrity voice-overs in their favorite titles but how often do famous international stars jump into the studio to lend their vocal talents? Legendary horror director Dario Argento, best known for his work on the 1977 film Susperia and collaborations with George A. Romero on the original Dawn of the Dead film, will voice a character in the Italian version of Dead Space from Electronic Arts. Argento will voice the role of Doctor Kyne and while North American audiences won't hear his first vocal role, the famed director has already stamped Dead Space with his seal of approval. "Dead Space truly captures the essence of fear in an entertainment medium," Argento said in a press release outlining his involvement. "Not only is it the most terrifying game I've ever played, but it's also one that all fans of horror will appreciate." Dead Space is set to hit the Xbox 360 on October 14.[via Big Download]
The Daily Grind: Spoken quest text
One of the things that people seem fairly split on lately is the "time" they say is involved with listening to the NPCs talking -- or more properly, reciting the quest text out loud. Some people really like this when coupled with the "multiple choice answer" option that's present in Age of Conan and EverQuest II. Some feel that it leads to greater immersion in the world to hear quests spoken -- and you can always "fast forward" by clicking through if you don't want to hear it. For other people, while this can be a fun and interesting element at first, repeating quests on subsequent alts makes it somewhat annoying. Where do you fall on this one? Do you like the idea of your NPCs actually being voiced and reading out the full quest text to you, or do you think a cursory sound byte (like how it is handled in World of Warcraft) is all that is needed? Do voiceovers tend to make you pay attention to quest "text" -- or do you just click past it all anyway?
Warhammer Online's voice over video
Well it has finally happened folks, now that Electronic Arts as absorbed Mythic we're finally seeing the horrendous outcome. Indeed, Warhammer Online is going to feature professional voice overs for all of its inhabitants because of the EA acquisition -- terrifying!All right, we were having a laugh, but you can't blame us for indulging. This month's production podcast features lots of professionally paid voice actors saying all sorts of weird High Elf lines in a sound room. There's also an Extras reference as well as some screaming at the very end of the video. After hearing these actors deliver some of the lines in the podcast, we're happy to say the voice work in WAR is going to be quite good.
