DailyTech - Liam Neeson to Voice Fallout 3

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Blog: Software Liam Neeson to Voice Fallout 3
Marcus Yam (Blog) - May 8, 2007 7:31 PM

11 comment(s) - last by Hafgrim.. on May 10 at 5:37 AM

Liam Neeson as Ducard in Batman Begins - Image copyright Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.

Let's hope he lives longer than Patrick Stewart's role in Oblivion

Bethesda Softworks scores another famed actor from the UK to lend voice to an upcoming game. First it was Patrick Stewart in Oblivion, and now, as announced today, Liam Neeson will lead the cast providing voice work in Fallout 3.

Neeson is known for roles in films such as "Schindler's List," "Star Wars: Episode I," and "Batman Begins." His most recent voice acting experience is in "The Chronicles of Narnia," where he voiced the role of Aslan.

For Fallout 3, Neeson will play the role of the player's father and will appear prominently throughout the game (which hopefully means more involvement than Stewart’s limited role in Oblivion).

"This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game," said Todd Howard, Executive Producer of Fallout 3. "Liam is absolutely amazing to work with."

"It's been a pleasure bringing the father to life and working with the wonderfully talented people at Bethesda on Fallout 3," said Neeson. "I hope the fans of the franchise and the game will be excited by the results."

Bethesda Softworks recently purchased the portfolio of Fallout intellectual property from Interplay for $5.75 million. Interestingly enough, Interplay must now pay Bethesda for the rights to develop an Interplay-branded Fallout MMO (completely independent from Fallout 3).

Fallout 3 was originally a Black Isle Studios project until the developer was shut down. In an interesting move for fans of the series, the original tech demo made for Fallout 3 in 2003 has been released on No Mutants Allowed.

The teaser for the new Fallout 3 is just 28 days away.

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This is great.....

By Misty Dingos on 5/9/2007 8:12:46 AM , Rating: 3

But a major complaint about Oblivion was the use of too few character voices. Patrick Stewart was great as was Sean Bean. But with the number of characters they have in the game they really need to get more voice actors. A lot of these parts really don’t need any great skill or depth. Find someone in the cube farm and have them say a few lines in the sound booth. Here is an idea, ask for volunteers from the fans. I would do mine for free. They could literally have individual voices for every speaking character in the game.

Yes I know that this would be difficult for Bethesda to pull together. It might actually take a few months to pull together with the extra editing. But all they need to do is set up a booth at a SciFi convention and BAM the minor voices are done in a day.

Bethesda listening to the same voice come out of a dozen faces it boring and separates you from the game. This is an RPG. Immersion is the key to greatness.

RE: This is great.....

By Hokum on 5/9/2007 9:40:09 AM , Rating: 2

It is getting there though, dont forget, Morrowind was mainly TEXT... Maybe the next game will go the next step?

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RE: This is great.....

By masher2

(blog) on 5/9/2007 9:49:41 AM , Rating: 4

> "This is an RPG. Immersion is the key to greatness"

I'm sorry, but prerecorded voices means a library of a few stock phrases and, ultimately, a more linear storyline to ensure those phrases make sense in context. In audio, its the equivalent of the old "Dragon's Lair" approach of a preprogrammed clips, vs. actual 3D image generation.

I think the industry is moving in the wrong direction. Dump the actors, and work on more realistic text-to-speech technology instead. That way the in-game dialogue can be matched to your actions, not the other way around.

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RE: This is great.....

By Misty Dingos on 5/9/2007 10:01:42 AM , Rating: 2

You have a good idea there but is the technology even close enough to do the job? I would support it. At the same time it is always nice to have a voice you can connect to. Like Patrick Stewart's or Liam Neilson's.

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RE: This is great.....

By masher2

(blog) on 5/9/2007 10:16:40 AM , Rating: 2

> "is the technology even close enough to do the job?"

http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/

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RE: This is great.....

By Misty Dingos on 5/9/2007 11:24:42 AM , Rating: 2

I think that you may be on to something here. They would need to have a large library of voices to work from but the flexability to put together random conversations with simple text files would be a huge improvement over the normal staged NPC replies. I would think that Bethesda would want to either build their own TTS engine or use someone elses and customize the results.

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RE: This is great.....

By Hafgrim on 5/10/2007 5:37:52 AM , Rating: 2

I couldnt agree more with you masher. I already use TTS software when im playing online games. I Actually bought a a few AT&T voices to go with the two awesome TTS programs I use too.

The new Neo-speech voices are almost better then the AT&T voices for some stuff. But Audrey from AT&T will always be my favorite. I currently use her to read all my Lord of the Rings Online quest dialogue boxs & omg what a buzzkill those never ending dialogue boxs are! Thats not to mention all the time savings of not having to stop, sit up, focus on the tiny NPC text windows and take time away from friends to READ for a few minutes everytime an annoying quest box appears. I just hit CONTROL+C and boom she starts reading everything I highlighted on the screen! Its awesome and I to believe this is the future of gaming and the end of overpaid Voice actors! Well except for those select few legendary celebrity voices like James Earl Jones and the like.

Heres two of the better proggys i've found so far that are simple to use and with the good quality 16k voices.

Readplease Plus 2003
http://www.readplease.com/
..Simplest to use but dosnt come with any of the good voices which you will have to buy separately. =( try it out though its free to play with! I actually like this one the A LOT for its "tremendous" ease of use & simplicity .

and
Natural reader 2007
http://www.naturalreaders.com/sample.htm
..A bit more complicated to master & use, but comes with like 4 cool voices right from the start even though its at a higher price I recommend just getting the enterprise version to have the good voices from the beginning if ya got the cash. =)

oh and let me know if you have and cool TTS recommendations too =) Im always looking to improve since the AT&T voices seem to work with any tts progy I install.

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Let us not forget Sean Bean..

By Hokum on 5/9/2007 5:37:43 AM , Rating: 2

Also in Oblivion, and for much longer too.... (not wanting to give out spoilers to the one person in the world who hasnt completed it).

Cool anyway, been awaiting fallout 3 for years...

RE: Let us not forget Sean Bean..

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 5/9/2007 6:17:29 AM , Rating: 3

Leonard Nimoy from Civilization 4

But total awesomeness for Fallout 3. Definitely one of the most anticipated games for me over the next few years.

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One more for the list.

By masher2

(blog) on 5/9/2007 2:09:24 PM , Rating: 2

> "Neeson is known for roles in films such as "Schindler's List," "Star Wars: Episode I," and "Batman Begins..."

And his best film by far-- Michael Collins.

By someguy123 on 5/9/2007 3:01:19 AM , Rating: 1

ownage.

"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired." -- North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il