Narration / Voice Acting in trailer

[GoldenRivet]

about the narration and voice acting in the trailer.

it was very clearly spoken english and there have been some complaints about it. ;)

i would like to remind you all...

... if you select the english option in SH3 or SHIV you get that same plane Jane english.

Im sure if you select the "German language option" in SHV you would get the good German voice acting.

they probably used the plane english option as this trailer was aimed at an english speaking audience.

so... dont fret :rock:

[Mopy]

Heheh it was odd to hear American voices after being used to hearing German in SH3 for so long. There is a German voiced trailer though:

http://silent-hunter.de.ubi.com/silent-hunter-5/

I'm looking forward to German voices/English subs again :sunny:

[Highbury]

I am sure it will have the option to choose as SHIII did.

However, it would be nice if the English itself was at least German accented... I don't know, would just seem better that way.

[Ragtag]

German language with english subs. I really hope there are options for changing speech language in the game.

[Contact]

aimed at an english speaking audience.

Yeah and feeling straight ridiculous. English speaking audience should satisfy reading subtitles instead. Do you think SH3 trailer was made for only german speaking audience ? No it was made because of logical factors and period.

[conus00]

^^^
HAHAHAHA, well spoken! I have been living here in the US for almost 10 years, have learned the language and speak it daily but it keeps amazing me how majority of Americans think of an English as a pinnacle of languages, "The World Language" and "the hardest language to learn".

Only about 20 -25% of planet's population speak English as a native or second language.

http://www.asdk12.org/depts/world_lang/images/Languages_World.gif

[Ragtag]

They aim for the most realistic Silent Hunter game ever. German speech should definatly be in-game imho. Otherwise the immersion will be killed on the spot, at least for me.

[danlisa]

For those complaining about the Voice acting, I ask you this:

"How much do you think it costs to hire professional voice actors for games?"

Alot!

For all I care, they could have Mickey Bloody Mouse voice the German crew as long as the money saved is put towards development and bug killing.

[conus00]

For those complaining about the Voice acting, I ask you this:

"How much do you think it costs to hire professional voice actors for games?"

Alot!

For all I care, they could have Mickey Bloody Mouse voice the German crew as long as the money saved is put towards development and bug killing.

Good point. But let me see "more than 1.5 million copies sold." at even underestimated $35 a copy we are at 52.5 million $ made.
They could afford one.... :D
Just kidding.

[Melonfish]

^^^
HAHAHAHA, well spoken! I have been living here in the US for almost 10 years, have learned the language and speak it daily but it keeps amazing me how majority of Americans think of an English as a pinnacle of languages, "The World Language" and "the hardest language to learn".

Only about 20 -25% of planet's population speak English as a native or second language.

http://www.asdk12.org/depts/world_lang/images/Languages_World.gif

see the problem i have with charts like that is its data manipulation. in fact it tells you NOTHING of how popular a language it is just how many people that speak it. these are two seperate things.
the prime example would be mandarin chinese. granted over a billion people speak it, but they nearly all live in china!

spanish and portuguese are very popular thanks to south america and english is quite provalent.
however i would deem english as a very easy language to learn compared to others, its well structured and easy to understand. this makes it easy for other countries to learn because generally their language is alot more complicated then english, and it prohibits english speakers from learning other languages as they seem complicated to us (that and we're lazy sometimes)

but yeah back on topic i'd love to see some good german voice acting and english text options on sh5 that would make it wicked methinks, plus my german is getting there nowdays!

[Contact]

For those complaining about the Voice acting, I ask you this:

"How much do you think it costs to hire professional voice actors for games?"

Alot!

For all I care, they could have Mickey Bloody Mouse voice the German crew as long as the money saved is put towards development and bug killing.


Yes a strong decent game requires solid budget, so ? you said nothing new here. But that includes also voice actings. If you could play SH5 with mickey mouse voice that means there's something wrong with you..

[danlisa]

Yes a strong decent game requires solid budget, so ? you said nothing new here. But that includes also voice actings. If you could play SH5 with mickey mouse voice that means there's something wrong with you..

Not really, we played SH3 for years with high pitched squeaky crew members.

You know, people are banding around the figure of 1.5 million units sold as if this is some grand number but that is across the whole SH library, that's only 375,000 units per title (given equal sales). Not great for a PC game. The budget given to the Devs by Ubisoft will reflect these sales figures.

I can pretty much assure you that SH5 will not have an adequate budget allowance to cater for accurate and believable voice actors. Voice acting is too much of a financial drain, especially when you are trying to code an accurate sim. Indeed the most accurate and believable voices for any Sim are community created.

[Dowly]

I hereby vote that Neal sends a SubSim mug and T-Shirt to all the original cast from Das Boot and a letter ending with "Or else..." so that they would do the voice acting for SHV. :O:

[Armistead]

I am sure it will have the option to choose as SHIII did.

However, it would be nice if the English itself was at least German accented... I don't know, would just seem better that way.


:haha:

Like trying to watch Cruise in Valkerie, almost funny and ruined the movie.

[Contact]

Not really, we played SH3 for years with high pitched squeaky crew members.

You know, people are banding around the figure of 1.5 million units sold as if this is some grand number but that is across the whole SH library, that's only 375,000 units per title (given equal sales). Not great for a PC game. The budget given to the Devs by Ubisoft will reflect these sales figures.

I can pretty much assure you that SH5 will not have an adequate budget allowance to cater for accurate and believable voice actors. Voice acting is too much of a financial drain, especially when you are trying to code an accurate sim. Indeed the most accurate and believable voices for any Sim are community created.

Ok so you know digits. However I still think it is no excuse to leave voice actings behind. I think it is not less important part of the whole work for exitement and immersion factor of the game.
Budget retrenchment in any development state is always causing lower numbers in buy off. But I want to believe UBI had done their homework and planned the budget correctly.

[Kapteeni Rantala]

I think people should just forget about this already. There's a German voiced trailer (which sounds just fine), and there will certainly be the option of choosing German language in the game.

So - drop it, already.

[Rockin Robbins]

The voice acting is irrelevant. The trailer itself sucks! It reduces a U-Boat captain and crew to a collection of fools who post no lookouts, whose first inkling of an air attack is BOOM!! Then an entire fleet of deadly escorts, previously undetected, of course, descends on them.

They're at 120 meters and urgently, as if going deeper were difficult, captain orders "deeper!" Yikes, this is Das Boot overdramatization and crew retardation all over again. It reduces Silent Hunter to an arcade game.

It's supposed to be a simulation. A simulation where crews post lookouts and planes are sighted in the clear unlimited visibility of day from a distance from which bombing is not possible for a few seconds. Ships are detected by their smoke before they ever pop up over the horizon. U-Boat crews and captains are professionals, not fools!

That's just great: a trailer directed at 13 year olds. Thanks, Ubi, for respecting your players.:down:

I guess we shouldn't be surprised by whatever we find in the game, should we? Why does that trailer not encourage me. I think they should have spoken Pig Latin.

[Contact]

I think the trailer was made in order to demonstrate new graphics and life itself inside the u-boat more than point out that this is also simulation :) However yes it looks somelike odd seeing sonarguy at his station listening for noises and next minute task force approaching from not too far away..

Anyway as you shouln't judge the book from it's cover the same goes for the trailer.. :)

[Dowly]

Ah, there you are RR. Was waiting when you post your rant here after reading your rant at Ubi forums. :O:

Right, can we just wait to get abit more info from the game before we start slinging mud at them? This is the first trailer after all.

[Kapteeni Rantala]

Actually, Dowly summed it up.

[danlisa]

Mr. Rockin Robbins generalizes....

Please don't encourage him.:o

:har:

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Imagine if they got Jurgen Prochnow to make a cameo in the voice acting.

:yeah:

[Rockin Robbins]

So your position is that a game company's attitude toward its customers is not relevant. Very interesting. It's been a long time since I was 13 years old. I would have been thrilled then.

We've also redefined rant here. A rant is when somebody issues an incoherent, usually profanity and name-calling riddled, pointless attack with no merit. I made specific, reasoned observations, easily understood and based on fact and without attacking anyone's character. If that is a rant then opinions on anything are off limits.

[u-168]

i hope they are good quality german voices as thats all i play with in sh3 and in uboat missions.

U-168

[Dowly]

So your position is that a game company's attitude toward its customers is not relevant.

No. But I also dont see how a trailer, yet alone the first trailer of a game that is still under developement would or should represent how the finished game is. Maybe ubi should have put the 'This is work-in-progress yaadiyaa' stamp on it. :yep:

We've also redefined rant here. A rant is when somebody issues an incoherent, usually profanity and name-calling riddled, pointless attack with no merit. I made specific, reasoned observations, easily understood and based on fact and without attacking anyone's character. If that is a rant then opinions on anything are off limits.

I'm pretty sure that is your definition. :yep:

[Contact]

So your position is that a game company's attitude toward its customers is not relevant. Very interesting. It's been a long time since I was 13 years old. I would have been thrilled then.

We've also redefined rant here. A rant is when somebody issues an incoherent, usually profanity and name-calling riddled, pointless attack with no merit. I made specific, reasoned observations, easily understood and based on fact and without attacking anyone's character. If that is a rant then opinions on anything are off limits.


With all respect dude, the trailer is the first impression maker of any game and I agree with that. But trailer not necesserily has to show game type if you was pointing to this matter and if I understood you correctly. Narration of it into english was ridiculous but now we have german version too so this compensates wonderment of how could this happened at all with simulation.
And I think it might be not the official trailer, hard to tell. :salute:

[Melonfish]

it appears RR's bonet contains not a singular bee but perhaps an entire swarm....

i'm waiting for more info, yes i agree this trailer is aimed at an arcade audience but we haven't yet seen the game, thats not in game footage surely? and it may well strike a balence between arcade and sim or even just have a big ol slidey bar that says

Wasserbomben! -------------------/-------------------- Pop-guns
(real) -------------------------------------------------- (arcade)


we'll wait and see.

[Stormfly]

i totaly agree with you Rockin Robbins,

...but they had to produce a short trailer, showing all the new features, by telling us what business strategy and target group is sitting behind it (teenagers)...

I hope they realise sometimes, that not only teenagers are buying video games, because interactive movies like games get more and more market shares, so that means more and more adult people would play a interactive movie as a simulation rather than just looking it.

But my disapointment on that trailer isnt to much, because...

1. We know about the past first UBI-Trailers (just concept art) and where never much realistic.

2. They identified the demand of a full moveable interactive 3D submarine.

3. They identified the demand of a more manual controlable sub.

4. They identified the demand of more interactions with the crew.

i hope they also identified the demand of human controlled surface opponents, and a special admosphere which was created by Bavaria Movie Studios.

...hoping for a strong budget also :dead:

[Rockin Robbins]

Wouldn't it be cool if we really did have the realism/arcade sliders? THAT would be fun.

[Brag]

German version trailer better than English :DL

[Stormfly]

German version trailer better than English :DL

look, even the german trailer isn´t worth to much, for a german it sounds like a footage of U-751 and was nothing compared to "Das Boot", also they even dont know the importend things like, on german submarines the highest rank is a LtCdr -> Kapitän Leutnant (Kaleun) not a Captain or Kapitän...

...those little but important details just tell us, they have simply no or just little knowledge assets in their promotion team, it seams consulting a WWII atlantic war expert is highly recommended.

I hope they mistaked very deliberately, so we just have something to talk about ;)

[Sailor Steve]

That language chart posted earlier is interesting, but this version says something different entirely:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language

The number of people who live where the language in question is native, versus the number of people worldwide who speak the language, are two entirely different equations.

The reason SH3 had "American" English without German accents is mainly because they knew that someday they might make a US fleetboat sim, and thus the voices were already done. I'm hoping that this is indicative of the same sort of thinking.

[Sonarman]

I think it was indeed a mistake to use American accents a German accented English voice actor would have sounded a lot better and more in keeping with what we are used to in movies etc.

This is actually probably quite an important point as it has already been picked up in the two major SH5 previews I have read online.

Battlestations Pacific has recently been ridiculed for its terrible voice acting/accents hopefully the released SHV will not suffer the same indignity.

As I recall the opening cinematic for SH3 has some great German accented English speaking voice actors they should try to get those guys back for SH5 in game audio.

[mookiemookie]

For those of you all up in arms about the trailer...

If you knew nothing about SH3, and only watched the SH3 intro trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFfSPO4OrqU), would you have the whole picture about SH3? Could you pass judgment on the entire game based on that?

I thought not.

[Frederf]

It's not the "whole picture" it's the "theme / tone." The SH3 intro was miiiiiles better than the SH5 intro. There was teamwork and diligence from the crew on watch. The commander assertively and precisely told orders.

The SH5 trailer had a bunch of emo submariners too wrapped up in themselves to notice the enemy. Then they take a hit from a naval shell and it's not big deal. Really? The German kalun, reflecting years of training and experience is barking out primetime television drama orders like "Deeper!" what. the. fudge.

I have to agree with RR.

If the SH5 trailer was a teaser or other advertising material that would be something else but the video was the intro. This is the video designed to play before the final game every time. There are basically two cases relating the intro to the game that follows:

1. The game intro is nothing like the game in terms of tone. That's very inconsistent and indicative of bad overall design and direction cohesion. Not a good sign

2. The game intro is indicative of the game in terms of tone. That speaks of a very shallow and lackluster arcade game. Not a good sign

[mookiemookie]

If the SH5 trailer was a teaser or other advertising material that would be something else but the video was the intro. This is the video designed to play before the final game every time.

And you know this how?

[Rockin Robbins]

He knows because history repeats itself. Wonder about the manual there...:hmmm:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/smileys/lol-045.gif

[mookiemookie]

Well, our friends at Ubi Romania are the ones working on this and I think they know what they're doing by now. :03:

[Sonarman]

I wonder if the marketing division had a hand in selecting the voices, the same geniuses who put a Typhoon image on half of the stuff in the limited edition SH4 box. Little details matter and and can put potential customers off.

[Sonarman]

i totaly agree with you Rockin Robbins,

...but they had to produce a short trailer, showing all the new features, by telling us what business strategy and target group is sitting behind it (teenagers)...



Read the comments here (http://www.destructoid.com/silent-hunter-5-announced-has-epic-trailer-144711.phtml)to see what the teenagers think of SH5 :damn:

[Webster]

it would be nice if the English itself was at least German accented... I don't know, would just seem better that way.


i agree and no matter what the language is that you choose, if its german crew it should be german accent even if they speak russian or english

[Sonarman]

Maybe they should follow Hollywood's example witn Sean Connery and just use a Scottish accent for everything,... Russian-Scottish in Red October, Spanish-Scottish in Highlander, American-Scottish in Outpost etc etc'

Torpedosss loshhhh :up:

[Frederf]

And you know this how?

There's this little thing called the English language. The word "intro" denotes the introduction video to the game. If this wasn't the game's intro... they wouldn't have called it intro; they would have called it "teaser" or "trailer" or "video."

[Stormfly]

Read the comments here (http://www.destructoid.com/silent-hunter-5-announced-has-epic-trailer-144711.phtml)to see what the teenagers think of SH5 :damn:

lol thanks for this, is indeed funy :haha:

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Read the comments here (http://www.destructoid.com/silent-hunter-5-announced-has-epic-trailer-144711.phtml)to see what the teenagers think of SH5 :damn:

Now I want to hit them.

[mookiemookie]

There's this little thing called the English language. The word "intro" denotes the introduction video to the game. If this wasn't the game's intro... they wouldn't have called it intro; they would have called it "teaser" or "trailer" or "video."

I'm very aware of the existence of the English language, as I speak it quite fluently. But the question remains: Where does it say this is the intro? Or are you assuming? Everywhere I've seen it posted labels it the trailer. The SH4 trailer wasn't the intro.

[akdavis]

That trailer was horrible, shameful even.

[Frederf]

SILENT HUNTER 5 - INTRO TRAILER (http://www.eurogamer.de/videos/silent-hunter-5-trailer) (Hosted by Eurogamer - 02:51)
http://www.combatsim.com/printer.php?id=11859

Everywhere I've been linked to it's been referred to as the "intro."

That being said it looks like it is more oft referred to as a trailer instead of the intro which makes me happy. If that video was the intro video it would be sad news.

[pythos]

Ok guys, this is a trailer for a new game, that we are VERY lucky to have coming. You have heard what happened at microsoft concerning flight simulator? It is gone. The liquidated it. No more MSFS for some time.

SH5 is a complete surprise for me to see, I thought it was a joke.

The trailer is a bit over done....so what?

It shows what will hopefully be the first first person submarine simulation EVER.

All of the Sh series has been leading up to this, it was evident even back to SH2. Sh3 was a light year jump, sh4 was a hop, that bowed down to those wanting the pacific action of the US boats. I will bet there will be a US add on for Sh5 just like there was a U-boat add on for sh4.

For those who act all butt hurt by the depiction of the crew relaxing with no proper watch.

Take a chill pill.

This trailer was designed to draw in the short attention span people that want action.

For us the mere tour of a boat running along the surface would be enough, but Ubi is trying to draw audiences in. This trailer does it, to a T.

As far as it being an insult. Geez, you just can't be satisfied can you.

I read Buchiem's book and watched the full version of Das Boot. Aside from some things left out near the end, the book and movie Parallel.

I wouldn't mind if the game is exciting as Das Boot.

Let's be patient and gobble up the little morsels we get given as the release leads up.

[karamazovnew]

Read the comments here (http://www.destructoid.com/silent-hunter-5-announced-has-epic-trailer-144711.phtml)to see what the teenagers think of SH5 :damn:

Actuallly Silent Hill on a submarine would be cool :o. SUre is bigger than that apartment in Silent Hill 4. And all the holes in the walls would lead you to sunken ships :yeah:.

[karamazovnew]

By the way, about the trailer, I'd love it if the next trailer shows us the features in the donwloadable SDK (hint for Ubi :03:).

[Sailor Steve]

... if you select the english option in SH3 or SHIV you get that same plane Jane english.

Im sure if you select the "German language option" in SHV you would get the good German voice acting.
Actually the German voice acting in SH3 was just as bad as the English version. That's why the original Schwertfisch team made the original Das Boot Sound Mod for SH2. But at least it was German.

Which leads to a funny story: Apparently the German release of Destroyer Command had German voices with American Accents. One German owner asked if anyone could send him a copy of the US-release sound files, as he would rather listen to flat, stilted American voices that German voices using silly American accents.

You can't please everyone.