Audio Design: Voiceovers

[amazinglarry]

I did a little bit of searching for any topics that covered the voiceovers and such for Brink and I was a little surprised that I didn’t find much of anything at all.

I think it’s the only area of the game that has me a little concerned, and I only bring it up because I haven’t seen any “new” video that may indicate otherwise, but so far I can’t say I’m overly impressed with the quality of the voiceovers that I’ve seen, especially in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDPc-6SrfQI&feature=relmfu

Some examples of the ones that irritate me:

“Mucho bad guys spotted!”
“Halth Boost In-Comin-G”
“I’m going/on my way… to our… command post…”
“Brothers… the enemy are stealing one of our command posts.”

Now before I go on, I’d first like to say that I love the idea that each type has their own unique voices and personalities etc and I think for the most part (at least in the limited things I’ve seen) it’s executed well but some are just brutal.

The middle 2 examples I gave, the guy just has zero sense of urgency and is perpetually yelling, and if I have to listen to him speak so deliberately during a game, I may lose it.

The last one, I don’t know if it’s just me but it doesn’t “feel” right. I feel like the grammar is off but I’m definitely no expert on any language since I can barely speak properly to begin with but… I don’t know

I just wanted to gauge how everyone else felt based on what they’ve seen (and more importantly, heard). From the things I’ve read, a lot of time and effort has gone into the sound design and I’d hate to have one of the more obvious parts like suspect voice work take anything away from a game I’ve been anticipating before it was announced… because I heart SD.

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but I just hold SD to the highest standards and have been in love with vsays and the general voice work in everything they’ve done, and I just haven’t been fully impressed yet. So here’s hoping that in the few months left leading to release, part of the polish they’re applying is also going there.

[Nail]

Bethesda.net

[LyndonL]

Nothing I have seen has annoyed me per-se, but I could definitely see it becoming annoying if those phrases were to repeat over and over again.

[trigg3r]

the only voice i found annoying was the one saying “on my way to our command post”
im not picking that voice accent for my character for sure

[crazyfoolish]

“Are you ready to use these brothers?”
“I am ready”
“Then let’s do this”

Nobody else thinks that that sounds like Paul Wedgwood?

[Senyin]

Yes, some voices and especially HOW things are said do annoy me.

“Mucho bad guys spotted”
Annoys me. It sounds so daft. (not the voice, the sentense)
“Halth Boost In-Comin-G”
How it is said (incoMING) o_O
“I’m going/on my way… to our… command post…”
This particulair voice and especially the way he says things is the worse! Very annoying.
“Brothers… the enemy are stealing one of our command posts.”
Ok voice but I could really do without the “brothers” stuff.

You also hear:
“Bridge access paddle rePEAEAEARED”
Dude, stop yelling.
“Multiple enemies spottEEED”
Dude, calm down!
This guy sounds like in a panic instead of calm and collective.
That annoys me for a different reason.

It’s not so much the actuall sound of the voices that annoy me
but more HOW they say things or WHAT they say.

Now I heard: “Mucho bad guys spotted” and “Multiple enemies spotted”
so I quess with each voice comes a little variation of how things are said too?
If so, that is very nice.

[amazinglarry]

Yeah I think I’m just considering how I’m going to feel after hearing 10 guys scream “I’M GOING TO OUR COMMAND POST!” 30 times a match. And like a couple of you mentioned, it’s not so much the phrases, but more of how they’re said. Some of the deliveries are believable and smooth… others are brutal.

I’m definitely liking the multiple takes on the same kind of phrases though, and hope they continue with that. All I know is one of the guys sounds like my dad when he’s listening to headphones, and doesn’t know he’s yelling when trying to speak.

[tokamak]

A bit more jargon and abbreviations would be welcome. I do like the cultural influence in them though.

[Herandar]

Jargon: “I was checking the specs on the end line for the rotary girders.”

Some jargon is okay, I guess. Memes would be funny, but yeah, that would get seriously repetitive.

[Cankor]

Agree with OP based on that old video, especially annoying was the “brothers, they are stealing one of our command posts” over and over. I’m thinking by now the playtesters and devs themselves would have had enough, so by now they would be toned down / higher quality.

That whole video made me nervous though for the general lack of action and boring gameplay. Have since gotten over it.

[Mad_Hatter]

I think it was more the guy playing than anything else. He seemed kind of removed from the action for most of the video. But yeah (I seem to do that a lot, say “but yeah” or “anyway” or something…), the voices were kind of repetitive and, dare I say it, a little annoying. But again I have faith that it’s been tweaked and polished to the point where it will be a non-issue upon release. I mean, if we found it a little off-putting in one video, the people testing it probably got real sick of it after a few matches.

[Humate]

lol i dont mind the voices - just dont like that its automated.

Also some of the info they give out like - the enemy is stealing one of our command posts… hopefully this is only heard when a player sees the enemy stealing a command post, and not an automated thing the game decides to tell you.

[MF_Maou]

I actually enjoyed the various accents and voices. It’s much better than hearing the same monotone voice over and over.

[trigg3r]

i bet you can turn voices off

[Herandar]

I bet you can’t. The communication is too important.

[Cankor]

I bet you can’t. The communication is too important.

You probably still can, they would just make them on by default. It’s up to you as a player if you want to decide to ignore everyone, and if the voices bug you too much you should have the option to mute them.

What if you are playing with a clan who’s using good voice comms and they are just distracting you?

[trigg3r]

is the same as the announcer voices in CTF modes in games like UT3 or TF2 saying “The enemy has taken your Flag”. Even if it’s important you can still turn them off

[Jess_Alon]

I posted about this on the bethesda boards. I think that it would be cool if each body type had a different sounding voice for their accent. So you kind of had an idea of who was talking when you heard a voice talking. The voices repeat too much and need more variety. Different inflections. If someone YELLS bad guys spotted it better be because he’s being shot. I think the way the voices sound should be context sensitive. I don’t think that’s asking the world when brink is being built as a multiplayer geared game in which little details like that will make a difference. Hopefully even if brink does get released with a lot of “same” voices maybe a patch will come along later. I think it’ll help immersion alot.

[madoule]

if brink hadn’t put some much efforts in the voice pack we wouldn’t discuss about it.
compare it to the standards of other FPS’. brink got different foot-sounds for the three body-types, altered guns sounds for close, medium and long range and different sounds hip and ironsight fire. thats a huge step from what i think the standard has been until now. sure we all come up with ideas to make it subjectively been better but seriously i wouldn’t even imagine how much your inquiry would cost, in time and resources. so yeah i think it is asked too much.

and most importantly, SD should NOT do it because i want my game on may 20th, no day later…

[trigg3r]

well, we’re not even sure the voices we heard will be in the game, that video is 9 months old; a lot of things could have changed