Voices

[ShellShock]

The family intros that IGN posted today also have American voiceovers -- that was what triggered the question.

That sounds really bad...perhaps CA farmed out the voices to Activision, to appeal to the American market.

What we need is Laurence Olivier as Crassus in Spartacus: "Rome is an eternal thought in the mind of God".

What we're going to get is John Wayne in The Greatest Story Ever Told: "Trooly, this man was the son of Gaaad".

Please note: this post is not aimed against American accents, but poor acting. And for any John Wayne fans - he was great on the back of a horse with a six shooter in each hand, but a fish out of water in a biblical epic.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I would really like the actual languages (with subtitles, or options for them). However, I doubt we will get that. I'm an American, but I think I would prefer British English if terrible voice-overs must be had!

Sounds more Romanesque, even if it is not actually Roman.

And no offense, but I get a kick out of strong English accents!

[biguth dickuth]

I'd prefer to have Greek, Latin, Gallic, German, Phoenician, Scythian e.t.c. but the problem with that is that if we wanted to stick to accuracy we'd have to recreate the versions of these languages that were spoken during that time and this is a very difficult, if not impossible thing to do. There is much we don't know about the form and the way those languages were spoken during the "hellenistic" era and that is basically more so with the languages who either had no alphabet of their own or the people who spoke them left very few (or none at all) written documents behind them.

Therefore, i wouldn't be so displeased by the use of english, if only there wasn't all this silly-accent-mimicking and bad acting. A decent, flat voiceover in english wouldn't be exciting but, at least, it would be far better than the one in the demo...

Especially the carthaginian voiceover freeks me out...: "Yur soldieers have crrrashhed thee eneemy..."

[Thoros of Myr]

I really don't care who does the voices as long as they sound good, and right now they don't. The mediocre writing doesent help either.

[SirGrotius]

I'd prefer to have Greek, Latin, Gallic, German, Phoenician, Scythian e.t.c. but the problem with that is that if we wanted to stick to accuracy we'd have to recreate the versions of these languages that were spoken during that time and this is a very difficult, if not impossible thing to do. There is much we don't know about the form and the way those languages were spoken during the "hellenistic" era and that is basically more so with the languages who either had no alphabet of their own or the people who spoke them left very few (or none at all) written documents behind them.

Therefore, i wouldn't be so displeased by the use of english, if only there wasn't all this silly-accent-mimicking and bad acting. A decent, flat voiceover in english wouldn't be exciting but, at least, it would be far better than the one in the demo...

Especially the carthaginian voiceover freeks me out...: "Yur soldieers have crrrashhed thee eneemy..."

While I sympathize w/ your cringing, I don't think even the more hardcore Total War audience would generally object to the voiceovers being done in our 21st-century understanding of what the accents, intonations, etc. of those ancient languages sounded like.

I think the real issue here is that CA has apparently caved in to the demands of a publisher who wanted to sell, sell, sell, and thought that having ancient languages in the game might make it less accessible to the general public. Allow me to suggest that war gaming transcends all bounds, as does religion (think The Passion of the Christ), and having authentic (or close to it) voiceovers lends realism and depth which even the laymen would appreciate. Don't misunderestimate the consumer.

[Colovion]

Ha - I laugh at your thinking that CA "caved in to the demands of a publisher who wanted to sell, sell, sell"

HAHAHAHA

Remember - Activision gave CA a whole extra year to work on teh game. It was ready last year but CA had some goodies on their wishlist that weren't ready for the date that it was due to be reviewed by Activision - Activision saw that they had a possibility of an awesome game and wanted it to be the best it could be so they gave CA an extra year to make it as good as possible. I say that deffinately shows Activision to have it in their minds not to rush the game. It's how CA wants it - they said in the interview at Gamespot that they got every item on their wishlist into the game thanks to that extra year. Props to Activision.

[The_Emperor]

Voiceovers could probably be done in native languages for Syrian arameic (sp?) and latin (the languages used in Passion of Christ) and Greek.

Latin and Greek of course were widely doumented and spoken and arameic is still spoken in some isolated parts of Syria.

But when we are dealing with the other factions we have no idea what many of their languages were. The Gauls, The Germanics, the Scythians, Carthage... For all of those factions we do not know what their language was so we can hardly be authentic. (I suppose Welsh is the closest language for the Britons)

The bottom line is we just do not know what everyone spoke to be able to make them all authentic.

Besides it would be a real waste if the General's speech function was all in a strange language! "err what did he say this time?,Gah! Who Cares!"

[Daevyll]

Oh come on, having the game voices in the 'original' languages is utterly ridiculous, get a grip.

There's reasonable complaining (such as the runspeed issue), and there is nonsense. This falls into the latter category.

[Thoros of Myr]

Oh come on, having the game voices in the 'original' languages is utterly ridiculous, get a grip.

There's reasonable complaining (such as the runspeed issue), and there is nonsense. This falls into the latter category.

I take it you havent heard the Julii, Scipii, and Brutii introduction videos?
Sounds like they hired WWE wrestlers

[Adrian II]

Especially the carthaginian voiceover freeks me out...: "Yur soldieers have crrrashhed thee eneemy..."

LOL, but I'd still prefer it to your accent, Dickuth. Ethpethially if I have to thuffer it theveral timeth per turn. However, I bet your Carthaginian can't hold a candle to the quasi-Arab voiceover in MTW, particularly its bizarre emphasis on certain words. "Yourrr soldierrrs now hold captive the enemy generrral." What, you mean anybody else did before me? OK, I know I'm just being a thmartath.

[SirGrotius]

The voice work is great too. From the simple cheers let out by your victorious units to the full on battle cry of those crazy German ladies, the sounds of your men on the battlefield add a lot of life to the conflicts. Your own general will even give a surprisingly fitting speech as a prelude to each battle. There are also small commentaries voiced now and then, like when a general is killed or starts to run away. This bit of color commentary fits right in to the style of the game.

-IGN