another debate on story telling in shooter games

[FrieChamp]

There is so much little detail and voice acting in Max Payne 2, it makes my heart melt. Like the 2 guys in the prison ("That's fucked up man" ). The downside is that the game is rather short

[Tequila]

"Any further thoughts? My take is that the gaming community generally thinks BHD and 24 are "good" and not bullshit-cheesy garbage entertainment. "

Of course not, I love 24 Jack Bauer is a legend on so many fronts...

Anyhow, I'll conclude with my belief that you will have to go for first-person voicing, as the context of the plot and game design requires for the character you play as to communicate fluently with those around him, being part of a specialised team. Compared to Gordon Freeman, for example, who's alone and confused - he doesn't need to speak for the cohesion of the game to flow.

[Izuno]

Anyhow, I'll conclude with my belief that you will have to go for first-person voicing, as the context of the plot and game design requires for the character you play as to communicate fluently with those around him, being part of a specialised team. Compared to Gordon Freeman, for example, who's alone and confused - he doesn't need to speak for the cohesion of the game to flow.

This is the core of the debate...can the designers acheive what they want without having player character dialogue. A compromise may be 3rd person cutscene dialogue like in Halo.

Another idea we are discussing with the developer:

Perhaps, on occassion in game, we freeze the player's movements but still allow him free-look. This keeps him in the game while he has his dialogue, or listens to NPC dialogue. Whether he has his own dialogue or not, the notion is the same: deliver some story/dramatic dialogue to keep it more than just a constant action, mindless run/gun shooter.

Not sure how much of these we'd use in the game yet...sigh. Still debating.

[Pericolos0]

random words and sentence like duke nukem used to say all the time

[Duff-e]

am i the only one that doesnt realize the stalker leak had counterstrike sounds?

AWWWWWW SNAP

[RD]

raep??!!!

[Ewok]

Yeah, I realized that, and because you're Duffy probably alot sooner than you did too. Well because your dumb. The one sound sounds exactly like a Ster-Aug.

BTW, Izuno I said that once before. When talking to NPC's sound would be good. In-game cut scene ya know it. So far it's the best neutral option that will probably make everyone happy.

- Ewok

[Izuno]

am i the only one that doesnt realize the stalker leak had counterstrike sounds?

AWWWWWW SNAP

yes i noticed that the first time i saw stalker at the office, which was over a year ago. you have to realize that (1) the GSC doods are all hardcore CS/UTk2/UT2k4/DoD/Wolf:ET etc players, so they paid homage to one of their all time favorites by ripping the sounds for placeholders in their game and (2) in Ukraine, they don't pay attention to copyright until Americans get involved. gg

[zaphod]

you might also consider that counterstike didn't go record all original sounds for thier weapons.

[Guest The_Postman]

How curious a notion Zaphod, my lord, one would imagine they might've simply found sounds that suited their purpose or used sounds that came from pre-packaged sound disks.

[zaphod]

indeed, it may be within the realm of possibility.

[Zazi]

One problem that might occurr, Izuno, is if you freeze the player, but not the view, they may not pay attention as to what is going on. Take KOTR, for example. During dialogue the player cannot move or look around. In fact, the view is barred off(like what you'd find by watching a widescreen movie on a tv) and you get to choose your dialogue. KOTR did dialogue VERY nicely, and it affected the outcome of the game. If you implemented something like that in whatever game you're working on, it would definately be to your advantage. Overall, if you have SOME player interaction in the dialogues(eg. kill the guy you're talking to or something), and control the player in such a way(like freezing him, third person dialogue, etc.), then you'll have a winner.