Lame accents and voice acting.

[Brandoggie]

I really wish Larian didn't screw up so royally with the accents. The original BG series had a refreshingly diverse set of accents including Japanese, American, Spanish, Old English, English, Scottish. Now its essentially all British, which a) is annoyingly cliche, and b) totally screws up the timeline/universe. Voice acting is really underwhelming, too.

[Cat®]

How does accents affect the timeline?

[Brandoggie]

Originally posted by Cat®:

How does accents affect the timeline?

BG 1 and 2 have accents which i already wrote about, all of which (with the exception of scottish and bri'ish) have apparently died out over the past 200 years since BG 2. However, when you wake an 'ancient' talkative skeleton, he speaks in the same dialect as your characters. Silly. Where the heck did everybody go in the past 200 years??? How did BG-Bri'ish culture dominate and assimilate??? Unless Larian has a very unexpected plot line in Act 2, we're just supposed to forget about how people used to speak in the region of Baldur's Gate over the past 2 games (or 4 if you include Icewind Dale).

As I said, cliche. And another example of how Larian veers away from the games I continue to love.

[Potato Salad]

what a weird thing to get hung up on

[Cat®]

Originally posted by Brandoggie:

Originally posted by Cat®:

How does accents affect the timeline?

BG 1 and 2 have accents which i already wrote about, all of which (with the exception of scottish and bri'ish) have apparently died out over the past 200 years since BG 2. However, when you wake an 'ancient' talkative skeleton, he speaks in the same dialect as your characters. Silly. Where the heck did everybody go in the past 200 years??? How did BG-Bri'ish culture dominate and assimilate??? Unless Larian has a very unexpected plot line in Act 2, we're just supposed to forget about how people used to speak in the region of Baldur's Gate over the past 2 games (or 4 if you include Icewind Dale).

As I said, cliche. And another example of how Larian veers away from the games I continue to love.

I agree with you that when everyone's a young British voice actor it gets samey very quickly. But I don't see why it'd affect immersion. Fundamentally that any off them speak English to begin with is nonsense, that they speak the same language more-so, that the local lich would even be able to communicate with anyone after 500 years is also complete fantasy. If you start pulling at the thread of "doesn't make sense" the only thing unravels pretty quickly.

I think having varied and colourful accents is its own reward, no need to justify it.

[Alealexi]

I like the accents & dialogue. They are better in BG3 than BG 1&2

[Brandoggie]

Originally posted by Alealexi:

I like the accents & dialogue. They are better in BG3 than BG 1&2

Woah! That is a BOLD statement! I'm just looking back at the dialogue between Korgan and Viconia, Viconia and Jan, Edwin and *anyone*, not to mention how diabolical Jon was. So well written! David Warner performs incredible stuff on there. In my mind, there's just no comparison.

...I will say that I'm a trained actor, and have studied theatre and voice overs extensively. I'm not saying I'm the expert here, I'm just saying I'm perhaps more sensitive to it than the average player.

Along similar lines, in response to the comment from "Got any Cheese"... I'm simply mystified. Why would one *not* get hung up on bad acting and cliche accents?!? To each their own, I suppose. But again, I thought this was one of BG2's greatest assets.

[Brandoggie]

Originally posted by Cat®:

Originally posted by Brandoggie:

so, that the local lich would even be able to communicate with anyone after 500 years is also complete fantasy. If you start pulling at the thread of "doesn't make sense" the only thing unravels pretty quickly.

I think having varied and colourful accents is its own reward, no need to justify it.

Very well stated. Thank you.

[Razorblade]

Originally posted by Brandoggie:

.. I'm simply mystified. Why would one *not* get hung up on bad acting and cliche accents?!?

You realize most of the voice acting in BG1 and 2 wasn't good, right? Maybe the accents weren't cliche, but the performances certainly weren't what I'd call "good." Very standard 90s video game voice acting, imo. And that's when there was voice acting. Wasn't much voice acting to speak of except the excessively repeated combat voice barks, cause, once again, 90s.

[Cleffy]

I think it's because Larian is Belgian. The access to other English accents is limited by their geography. The original Baldur's Gate is from Bioware.

[alanc9]

Originally posted by Cat®:

Fundamentally that any off them speak English to begin with is nonsense, that they speak the same language more-so, that the local lich would even be able to communicate with anyone after 500 years is also complete fantasy.

In a fantasy world where some people live for centuries or even longer, how fast would language change?

[Brandoggie]

Originally posted by Ronin Gamer:

Good, stop wasting your time on something you clearly don't like and stop wasting space on these forums ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about something that likely isn't going to change. Don't let the door smack you on the way out. :cozycastondeath:

Geez. It'll definitely change, friend. Everything does. You sound like a despot, and I'm not a troll. Chill.

[Brandoggie]

Originally posted by Razorblade:

Originally posted by Brandoggie:

.. I'm simply mystified. Why would one *not* get hung up on bad acting and cliche accents?!?

You realize most of the voice acting in BG1 and 2 wasn't good, right? Maybe the accents weren't cliche, but the performances certainly weren't what I'd call "good." Very standard 90s video game voice acting, imo. And that's when there was voice acting. Wasn't much voice acting to speak of except the excessively repeated combat voice barks, cause, once again, 90s.

Hmm... Yeah, I can see your point about battle cries and stuff. That WAS pretty annoying. Dialogue though, I've got to disagree. By the way, I see you decided not to disagree with my comment about David Warner's Jon Irenicus :) He was central to that story. He was great, right along with most of the crew.

As for you trolls out there, please don't forget the trend studios are getting into by hiring big name actors to play the roles we love. Just off the top of my head- Sean Bean, Kevin Spacey, Mark Hamill, Keanu Reeves all have been hired for big games, and that trend won't end. This is especially true for titles that have started blurring the distinctive lines between movies and virtual reality. Accents matter. Acting matters. Don't take stuff for granted.

[Egro]

Only Elfs are hardcore Brits, most are Yanks mix with some Ohio accents. I see no problem here, sure they need more variety but believing that they're going for Brit cliche is just idiotic.

[zenebatos1]

Cause any of you know what "Accents" Fictional fantasy races from another world with a different Civilisation and evolution curve should sound like?...

[Lethan]

My honest hope is that they add in a few other VA's for the Custom. They have 2 'okay' for each Gender, but I'd kill for an Irish and a Scottish accent and maybe one overly American for each -- but that's 6 new VA's -- copying all the lines of "Tav", that's not cheap. Minimally 5k lines.