Wahey!!!!!!!!!! Well, actually I've been playing it since around Teusday lunchtime (GMT) and have fairly enjoyed it.

Here's a run down of my first impressions: To begin with the intro (both of them) looked slightly tacky, however, after about a second and a half I decided that it gave it a dated- slightly nostalgic feel. Next I thought that the Dark Savant's breatplate looked like a face front on (viewed from the side the effect was less pronounced) and that Americans can't pronounce simple english words like Savant without saying "Savarnt". My only grouch so far is that in order to restart I have to exit the game and totaly reload it. On character creation I noticed that the portraits had gone all third edition on us (meaning that they sport an unneccesary ammount of tattoos and body piercings) and I didn't like some of them but the rest more than certainly made up for that. On the voices front I thought they might have given each portrait it's own voice and recorded each personality with each voice. Unfortunately it was not so. Additionally, neither of the laid back voices suited a dwarf fighter so I had to settle for the Scotts one (tough 2 or something like that). Next I realised that the Mooks are a lot taller than I thought being more like Wookies than Ewoks (although the Ewoks were originally meant to be wookies but Mr Lucas had a budget to consider). The monsters either swarm you in mass bundles or hide for ages when you're actually gagging for a fight. Gregor dances between rounds (actually if you're processors slow enough he'll dance during rounds as well). I spent ages searching the Monastery for the wheel key and the "emergency only" key and wandered why there was a square shaped recess in the wall behind the death statue trap door. The road between Arnika is no fit place for a fifth level party (or indeed a ninth level party coming back).

I'll probably post some more things about this soon but that's all for now (it's just a shame that all the voices sounded like Americans doing foreign accents, Myles' was the worst offender, as an Englishman I felt insulted and grateful at the same time).

Thanks for the observations. I agree with you for the most part. I must admit I was a bit let down witht he intro. I guess I was spoiled by Diablo2 and Planescape. The voices are horrible. I gave the character with the Scottish accent the name of Scotty. Sorry, I am a bit of a Trekker. I also had to find a voice for the Elf that looks so remarkably like Mr. Spock. I did and that is my Bishop's name now. They really need to hire me for voice overs. No brag, but I know I can do much better than the ones they used. Hmmmm...maybe money was tight and rather than hire talent they decided to do the voices themselves. Never know.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Nordoki:
They really need to hire me for voice overs. No brag, but I know I can do much better than the ones they used. Hmmmm...maybe money was tight and rather than hire talent they decided to do the voices themselves. Never know.<hr></blockquote>


ROFL! Knowing you, you'll probably finish by making joking speach for all of them [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by ice3:
ROFL! Knowing you, you'll probably finish by making joking speach for all of them [img]tongue.gif[/img] <hr></blockquote>

Speaking of which -- I know it is possible to replace the music that comes with the game with your own by simply renaming their music files and then copying your own in and naming it to the original file name but has anyone tried that with some of the voices? I've been toying with the idea of getting a couple of my friends who do professional voiceover work to record some new voices if I can replace some of the old ones I'm not particularly fond of but I've waited, hoping to see if anyone else had successfully done that. I don't want to go to all the trouble only to find out it's not going to happen.

Jem;

I had wondered the same thing, I think it would be great to replace the voices (although I personally like some of them very much), however, I think it would be hard...

I'm guessing the voices are in Wizardry8\data\sound\sound.slf which is a monster 585 meg file. They're probably all in there. Now if you can figure out the type of sound file it is - hertz and bitrate and all that - then you could replace the voices with other voices, but they'll have to have the exact same length of what you're recording over. At least, I think that's how it would work...

I'm just a fish!

Hi,

you seemeed to be one of the first persons to post from England.
I am glad you managed to get the game.
Where did you get it from and how long did it take you?

Sleipnir

I agree with you on the voices thing. Yes, I'm American, but even I could do better voices, I'm actually quite good at accents, having done acting and a LOT of travelling.

It sounds like they got June Foray (who does Rocky and Natasha on the Rocky & Bullwinkle show) to do all the womens' voices and it sounds so tacky. Or at the very least stereotypical.

As for a Dwarf, I don't know if I'd call dwarves laidback. Maybe the Loner would be better. I think they should have done other voices for certain races.. I mean Humans, Elves, Hobbits they can all sound the same without too much griping, but the Lizardpeople should have some sibilance to their voice. And giving a Fairie a big butch Brute voice is quite hysterical.

Just wanted to point out that the game was developed in Ottawa, Canada by Canadians (not Americans). I don't mind you being uncomplimentary of the voice acting (although I thought it was fine), but please, do not mix up Canadians and Americans. That's just as bad as mixing up Scots and Englishmen! [img]smile.gif[/img]

BTW, one of the most important differences between Canada and the United States right now is Olympic Hockey. Men's Gold: Canada, Women's Gold: Canada. Silver medals: US (hee hee! )

My appologies to the Canadian Bear but I'm used to all the people here being Americans. I just typed a long and exhausted answer then got disconnected for about three quarters of an hour so here's the short answer. I'll type out the rest when I've calmed down.

Careful about those hockey comments Bear... last time I checked, a Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley cup since '93 [img]smile.gif[/img]

About the only Canadian voice-overs I'm used to hearing is the "Audix" voice mail voice at work (recorded in Toronto) <g>

[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: GenXCub ]</p>