Regarding the speech : Is it really that bad ?
 

Hello,

I read tht people are complaining about the English and the French spoken texts - one even says that the international version should have shipped with the German speech also : http://forum.dtp-entertainment.com/v…?f=223&t=17098

WTF ???

I didn't know that the speech is so bad. In fact, I must say that I haven't got the English-language version (or any other), so I can't tell.

But this is the very first time I read that someone wants the German speech in international releases …

Now, my question is simply this : How good or bad is the speech ad the translation anyway ?

Alrik

There's an English language version?

Yes, in Belgium.

BeNeLux :p

Interesting, thanks :) Now who ships from the Benelux countries? Hm…

Alrik provided a link in a different thread, but I couldn't get it to load…

In the Drakensang forums virumor posted that Gamesmania.be would be shipping internationally - but I have no idea whether they really do it, because I just don't know anything about Benelux :p shops.


Another thing that was striking me was someone claiming the River Of Time AI would be "broken", because enemies would go after the weakest party member.

He or she has opened 2 threads about it :

http://forum.dtp-entertainment.com/v…?f=223&t=17072
http://forum.dtp-entertainment.com/v…?f=249&t=17112

Is the AI really that bad ? I never noticed …

I could open the link now, but no RoT on the PC games list (it only has 10 items!). Also, no english language so I could read it… Oh well… Seems like a very small operation.

It is there, I found it and posted a link to it in another thread … It was difficult to find it, though; I don't even remember anymore how I actually found it.

Game Mania have it, or had it, but I'm not paying £35 for a PC game.

I have the English voiceover in my version, and it's… ok. Like the first Drakensang, I'd say. This isn't exactly Legacy of Kain, you know. I don't know what people are complaining about.

The translation and voiceover fits the overall tone of the game, and I really like some of the voices, like Forgrimm, Cano, and some others.

My only complaint is that the voices are too quiet, but that's not a problem with the voiceover, just the volume balance of the game, and I had the same problem in the first game, iirc. It's a little difficult to find the perfect voiceover/music/backround setting.

Why is it with foreign language games that they often translate badly into English in terms of writing and speech? Surely the German team don't handle it themselves, they source it out to an English speaking company to do the translation and voicework. There's plenty of great English speaking voice talent. Or do they regard the English version as not worth putting much money into so it has to be done on a shoestring?

I thought the voices in Drakensang were… tolerable. Not great. Most of the time ok but sometimes a bit cringe worthy. But there's one game, Divinity 2 that had fine voice talent and translation. They'd obviously got native English speakers to do the translation and it made the world of difference.

Money.

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Remember that neither Radion Labs nor dtp has the money behind them as EA for example has.

EA has the money and the power to deliver - if they want to - absolutely superb voice acting.

Which sets the standard high. Very high.

So high that everything below this money-driven standard suddenly becomes dull.
And therefore gets bad press.

Which in result means it gets lower sales than the big companies get which erected this money-driven standard in the first place.

So don't compare smaller EU companies with US-based megacompanies. It just isn't fair.

Still doesn't stop dtp being utterly useless when it comes to getting games released in other countries.

Yes. I think they are trying to get the most money out of them - and imho this could be the very reason no-one wantes to publish them in English-language areas.

It's possible that the French text includes some error, in fact Drakensang had also some little flaws, but overall it was quite good for Drakensang and seems quite good too from what I have seen for The River of Time, I wish people quote what's so wrong in the French texts. Often the problem with the texts are coming from a translation from the English version instead of the original so when the English texts are flawed there's repercussion, but not in language rightness but in some counter sense.

But for the French voice acting, it's just pretty solid, like often and like in Drakensang. Should I quote that one actor of Drakensang was the actor doubling the sorceress voices in the whole series of Buffy? Ie not only professional but some of the very good one specialized in voice acting.

In fact since years it's mainly only some Russian games that release some awful French acting Majesty 2 reaching a record and it made me switch to English that myself I found quite pleasant to my non English ears. Other than that it's now constantly very solid in computer games. Voice acting has ton of professional in my country because it's the country (I don't think there's many other like that) where almost all foreign movie is released with local voice acting.

I started playing it yesterday and found the voices just fine. I guess voice-acting is too subjective, what for some people may be ok others can't stand.
In any case, I just read the text and skip the voice, I read faster than I hear

A bit over-the-top, but it's better than no VO at all (Drakensang 1).

I sometimes wonder against what you are measuring your own view of Drakensang.

Have you ever played the German original ? Because, you do so many things in your Mods that I sometimes have the feeling as if you were trying to shape Drakensang into something different … into something that rather suits your taste … something like … (A)D&D, for example, or Gohic or The Witcher …

This isn't anymore the original Drakensang, then.