Voice acting in English/American versions

[migwell]

That's my question. Has Aspyr added American voice actors or are the voices in the earlier released English version the same as those in the Aspyr-released demo and American version?

[curious]

all the voices are american in all but german and french versions. unlike the prior gothics which were 'english' voice actors.

[migwell]

Thanks. Now why was the 'English' version available a month before the 'American' version. Exactly what was Aspyr up to during that delay?

[Acleacius]

Waiting and hoping PB could fix the game that JoWood shamelessly whored out at least 3 months to early?

[Dez]

yep seems that Jw has much to learn from Aspyr..

[Lethal Weapon]

Aspyr did not a good job with translating this game imho.

[elkston]

Aspyr did not a good job with translating this game imho.

No, they did fine. I'm a native English speaker ... trust me the
translations are good and the voice acting is adequate.

[Acleacius]

Actually didn't Aspyr work with the UK release people and do it coopertively, at least what I recall?
Also native English speaker, certianly no grammarist but I would say the voice acting is poor, also.

I can't recall anything wrong with the translation, give us an example?

[Gorath]

AFAIK the cooperation was that Aspyr did everything.

[Lethal Weapon]

Actually didn't Aspyr work with the UK release people and do it coopertively, at least what I recall?
Also native English speaker, certianly no grammarist but I would say the voice acting is poor, also.

I can't recall anything wrong with the translation, give us an example?

Sry, I meant the voice acting, not the translation itself.

[Neo]

Voice acting was quite bad, in my opinion. I missed Diego's voice (G1), and Gorn's voice. The voice of the Hero is still rather O.k. but the former voice was better.

[elkston]

Let me clarify my opinion. Yes, I was dissapointed that every voice actor for a major character was changed. However, overall the voice acting is okay to good. It is not "bad'. Have you people even heard bad voice acting? Go play the Honk Kong parts of Deus Ex. .... or play a game called Prince of Qin. I mean really ... you could do a lot worse than Gothic 3.

I still think Gothic I had the best English voice acting out of all them, though.

[Acleacius]

Gorath maybe Aspyr offered to do them for free, otherwise I am surprised the UK didn't complain.

Yeah the PC's voice is acceptable but the leads suffer greatly, gone is the charm. :(

I still haven't gotten the Aspyr version, in the past I have gotten the UK and US version and in the case of NotR German too.,
This time I am waiting though I feel like Aspyr has done a better job, and deserves the sales more so than JoWood.

[Jaz]

Have you people even heard bad voice acting? Go play the Honk Kong parts of Deus Ex. .... or play a game called Prince of Qin.May I add Dune 2 to this collection? English voice acting was okay, but the game came with different language versions on one CD, and the German version was tragically comic - the translation in itself was decent, but voices were done by people whose native language wasn't German - so much was obvious. I mean... in German, 'OK' is pronounced 'Okay', just like in English. It's NOT pronounced 'OckAh' ^_^.
I toyed around with the English language G3 demo, and while I find the voice pack somewhat funny, it's not 'Dune 2' bad.

[Corwin]

My only comment on the voice acting is that I'm pleased they are using more than 4 actors!! :)

[txa1265]

I really like it - and love the side talks and the generic comments going on - I loved it in G2 and still do!

[Gorath]

Gorath maybe Aspyr offered to do them for free, otherwise I am surprised the UK didn't complain.

They surely didn´t do it for free. It´s a normal business negotiation. The voices are recorded either in the UK or in the US. There´s a certain budget and the involved parties somehow split it or compensate with other things.

[txa1265]

I think it was a very good idea - the voice acting is very nicely done, translations are very good and only a couple of minor errors I've picked up so far. In this regard it is much better than either version (std or Gold) of G2 I played

[Dez]

voice acting in g3 is quite good, actually sometimes stunning quality. In particular i prefer hero's new voice. I only miss diego's voice from g1 :). Gorn, milten and lester are very well voiced.

[curious]

i too like the voice acting and think it is all very well done. milten's voice however is about as comical as his new haircut. gorn's voice really bothered me at first as well - sounded like he had marbles in his mouth. diego was done well although obviously nothing could compare to the amazing job in gothic 1. xardas while not bad also was probably the most missed voice for me, simply because of the uniqueness of it. but with no narration in the game, it really didn't matter all that much. given the budget too i think they showed a lot of care in at least getting actors that sounded as close to as possible as the first 3 games.

[elkston]

Yeah the English Xardas in G1 & G2 was awesome. He had a deep, commanding baritone voice. They used him too much in G2 though -- diluted the effect somewhat. The new guy is not bad, but I miss the old Xardas -- in more ways than just the voice too...

Some of the Mages (like Myxir) and other "eccentric" characters have a truly annoying voice-over though. I think it is done by Dwight Schultz who is a reasonable well known actor over here and even bigger in voice work. But man, does he sound grating when doing these particular voices...

You guys may remember Shultz as playing the zany "Murdock" character on the 80s action show The A-Team.

[Dajjer]

As far as the quality of the voice acting, I think the game is excellent. No back room mail clerks and programmer wifes here. Real Pros. And generally well directed. While it is disappointing they changed some of the voice actors, what there is, in the game, is fine. I simply can not see how anyone can call the voice acting here bad unless they have some kind of agenda. You want bad, see Spellforce, Beyond Divine Divinity, Lost Island, Gods land of Infinity, Neverend, Mage Kngiht, and a ton of others I have thankfully forgotten.

Typically voice acting falls into two categories. The quality of the voice and the speaking the line in context of the story. The former is a product of the actor and the later is a product of the director. I am level 28 so far in Gothic 3 and I have yet to hear a misstep in the voice acting.

BTW, Dwight Schultz also played Barkley (the engineer addicted to the Holo deck) in Star Trek, TNG.

[Cleric]

Personally, the only voice that seemed close to those of the previous games was the one for the main character.

Overall, I can't say that the voice acting was bad in any way. But it was a big disappointment that all of the voices and the derived personalities from G1 & G2 were missing from G3.