Anyway, I have the game for 'life'. So when I feel like some more self-flagellation I can look forward to playing it. Thank goodness Dead Space 3 arrived yesterday or my sanity may of been lost forever.
Since you like to quote metacritic from time to time have you seen the score for that game? I'm not talking about the critic score, but the user score. 5.6 xbox compared to TSW 8.2. Warms the heart to see players getting around the microtransactions in that game and making EA mad.
In al fairness play what you like. Hope it's fun for you like TSW is for me.
Dead Space 3 is not a great game, in fact it's quite annoying with it's set pieces. But even though Dead Space 3 isn't that good it still overshadows TSW on all fronts. Production values, voice acting, gameplay, action, weapons. monsters, gore (if we are comparing) ... I would score it about 7/10 as they have lost the scare factor. But it's a Dead Space game that fits with the rest of them. Action must be the way they want to take the franchise forward. EA announced big pre-order numbers for Dead Space 3 as well. Five times higher than Dead Space 2.
So an already successful game and franchise, compared to a third rate MMO... err Dead Space wins hands down. Even being not that good.
In al fairness play what you like. Hope it's fun for you like TSW is for me.
Eh, agreed -- way too many players willing to be swayed by 3rd party opinions -- everyone's going to have their own take and biases, though users have certainly given TSW a thumbs up on Metacritic with an 8.2 rating. TSW does seem to bring out the "love it or hate it" opinions though (or at least the Funcom trollers); it certainly is a polarizing game. My suggestion -- get a 24 hour buddy key, try it and decide for yourself.
Eh, agreed -- way too many players willing to be swayed by 3rd party opinions -- everyone's going to have their own take and biases, though users have certainly given TSW a thumbs up on Metacritic with an 8.2 rating. TSW does seem to bring out the "love it or hate it" opinions though (or at least the Funcom trollers); it certainly is a polarizing game. My suggestion -- get a 24 hour buddy key, try it and decide for yourself.
Third party opinions are normally what separates you from parting with your cash. So it's very likely that a lot of people will be swayed by a combination of critic reviews and independent ones. You can't rely on user reviews at all. I once bought Alan Wake based on a user review saying it was like Metro 2033. The person that wrote that review must of been on acid or something, the only similarity between the two games was they were both set in a dark environments. Though Alan Wake wasn't a bad game, just not my cup of tea.
The majority of the time a user is reviewing or scoring a game after purchase. Which kind of hinders the whole process. To say 'I bought a lemon' is to bring into question your own initial judgment.
For an MMO you need a decent trial to bother going to the trouble of downloading 40gb of data, some people are still capped on their data download. Why there isn't a decent trial I don't know. Again Funcom are not making it easy for people to try the game, which to all intents and purposes seems to be the plan. I half think they hope people will part with their cash to buy it, not like it and then not play it.
i only read the first lines of the combat sux. Yes it sux. Nobody said it sucks because people die from zombies. The animations are awful, the mechanics are bad. The combat system is just wrong. They should have a few builder skills, a few finishers, and then add more regular abilities with cooldowns and no builder / finisher. Spamming builders then finishing them is not fun when thats your only option in combat. Theres no tactics involved... just build build build finish with every skill then repeat.... thats wrong. My only problem with TSW is the combat (mechanics and character animations fighting and running). Everything else is fun. They needed to keep Age of Conan´s animations and combat in TSW but decided to add a poorly made and inferior one instead.
Originally posted by rojo6934 i only read the first lines of the combat sux. Yes it sux. Nobody said it sucks because people die from zombies. The animations are awful, the mechanics are bad. The combat system is just wrong. They should have a few builder skills, a few finishers, and then add more regular abilities with cooldowns and no builder / finisher. Spamming builders then finishing them is not fun when thats your only option in combat. Theres no tactics involved... just build build build finish with every skill then repeat.... thats wrong. My only problem with TSW is the combat (mechanics and character animations fighting and running). Everything else is fun. They needed to keep Age of Conan´s animations and combat in TSW but decided to add a poorly made and inferior one instead.
Did you ever build more than one deck or change out any of your abilities? There are plenty of special abilities with cooldowns. Chaotic Pull is just one. I'll agree somewhat with animations, but the mechanics are solid. Tanking decks play very differently than dps decks than healing decks than solo decks.
Voice acting done badly is comical. I rolled a Templar and went to London. London felt like I was in the film Mary Poppins with every cockney having been trained personally by Dick Van Dyke. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...A very British view of things by people that are obviously not British or are just taking the p***.
Everything else in your commentary aside, I found this to be odd. I can't speak to the 'background' characters, but most of the London characters were voiced by British actors. The game has a respectably professional voice actor cast ... also Jeffery Combs.
Voice acting done badly is comical. I rolled a Templar and went to London. London felt like I was in the film Mary Poppins with every cockney having been trained personally by Dick Van Dyke. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...A very British view of things by people that are obviously not British or are just taking the p***.
Everything else in your commentary aside, I found this to be odd. I can't speak to the 'background' characters, but most of the London characters were voiced by British actors. The game has a respectably professional voice actor cast ... also Jeffery Combs.
Just hiring a professional actor to do the voices doesn't make it professional. There has to be feeling, direction and understanding by the actor for what they are doing/why they are doing it. Tell an actor your a cockney in London and if they are not a cockney, you start to get some very strange accents. So far I have not come across a single character that has put any emotion into what they are saying. It's that bad I would prefer to be reading the dialogue myself and imagining the voices.
Perhaps if they had spent less on hiring these actors they could of spent more on the game. It adds nothing to it and if anything detracts from the game. Funcom took a defensive stance about using voice acting for NPC's with regards to Age of Conan. Morrison (AOC Director) even sat down for some article to say why it wasn't such a good idea blah blah blah... I see now what he meant, done badly it does detract from the game.
Voice acting done badly is comical. I rolled a Templar and went to London. London felt like I was in the film Mary Poppins with every cockney having been trained personally by Dick Van Dyke. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...A very British view of things by people that are obviously not British or are just taking the p***.
Everything else in your commentary aside, I found this to be odd. I can't speak to the 'background' characters, but most of the London characters were voiced by British actors. The game has a respectably professional voice actor cast ... also Jeffery Combs.
Just hiring a professional actor to do the voices doesn't make it professional. There has to be feeling, direction and understanding by the actor for what they are doing/why they are doing it. Tell an actor your a cockney in London and if they are not a cockney, you start to get some very strange accents. So far I have not come across a single character that has put any emotion into what they are saying. It's that bad I would prefer to be reading the dialogue myself and imagining the voices.
Perhaps if they had spent less on hiring these actors they could of spent more on the game. It adds nothing to it and if anything detracts from the game. Funcom took a defensive stance about using voice acting for NPC's with regards to Age of Conan. Morrison (AOC Director) even sat down for some article to say why it wasn't such a good idea blah blah blah... I see now what he meant, done badly it does detract from the game.
I was more saying the voice acting was professionally done, as in done well and by people who have talent. Easily as well done as any video game voice acting I've ever heard anyway, and better than most. Of course I can't speak as to the London accents, as my knowledge of those is nearly nill.
Eh, opinions are opinions and I can certainly understand where you get some of yours, but when it comes to the voice acting it's almost like we're listening to two completely different games. That does happen though so ... eh.
Now if you want to talk games with bad voice acting ... I recently tried Star Trek Online for a bit and it had some voice acting. I got the feeling they used Steve from Accounting. Good lord it was bad.
I was more saying the voice acting was professionally done, as in done well and by people who have talent. Easily as well done as any video game voice acting I've ever heard anyway, and better than most. Of course I can't speak as to the London accents, as my knowledge of those is nearly nill.
Eh, opinions are opinions and I can certainly understand where you get some of yours, but when it comes to the voice acting it's almost like we're listening to two completely different games. That does happen though so ... eh.
Now if you want to talk games with bad voice acting ... I recently tried Star Trek Online for a bit and it had some voice acting. I got the feeling they used Steve from Accounting. Good lord it was bad.
From what I have heard so far the voice acting is totally emotionless, like they have been asked to read a script but not been told the context or the part they are to play. Like they have no real clue how what they are saying is fitting into the general story that is trying to be told. It's flat and monotone. Not the actors fault by any stretches of the imagination, the fault is with the direction.
Going around London and hearing things makes you think you are in the film Mary Poppins. With everybody talking their voice cues from Dick Van Dyke - typically well known for doing the worse Cockney accent (particularly stylized for an American audience) ever. It would have been better to have no Cockney type of accents than to have people doing them badly. What makes me laugh is Cockneys are well known for using the most offense word in the English language as a term of general endearment. I noticed the game shied away from that. Altogether what you have is people with very peculiar voices that sound like idiots and makes the characters have comedic value, where none was intended.
When one of the so called draws of the game is suppose to be real world locations, to get this completely foreign and alien view of London just shows how little thought and effort was actually put into the game. Hand in hand with bad accents and emotionless dialogue it's easy to see why this game is not much of a draw.
As for Star Trek Online, haven't played it in some considerable time. But can't say I noticed anything wrong when I did play it. I thought the game immersed you into the Star Trek universe. While it may have had the purists up in arms over various things, I found it to be a great and enjoyable game.
I enjoy the game, but it's clear that whoever posted it is someone with the mentality of "everyone who disagrees with me is wrong".
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
Originally posted by Azaron_Nightblade I enjoy the game, but it's clear that whoever posted it is someone with the mentality of "everyone who disagrees with me is wrong".
Well, I think he may have been responding to some people with that same mentality over on Steam -- he's definitely in rant mode.
Did another post further in that I think is balanced but still makes the point:
As for Star Trek Online, haven't played it in some considerable time. But can't say I noticed anything wrong when I did play it. I thought the game immersed you into the Star Trek universe. While it may have had the purists up in arms over various things, I found it to be a great and enjoyable game.
I didn't say anything about STO the game. Just that at some point they added voide acting into some of the quests and the bit I heard was very amature quality. As in porrly delivered lines.
I'm going to continue to wonder how you're hearing emotionless from TSW's voice acting though. Unless of course you're mistaking a lack of overacting for emotionlessness. I kind of doubt that's the case though.
The only really strange voice acting choice I ran into in the game was more of an out-of-place character than any bad voice acting. Randomly there's a southern cowboy up in New England camping out and shooting zombies, and he's the first character in the New England area you run into for some reason. It was well done voice acting though so at least there's that.
I didn't say anything about STO the game. Just that at some point they added voide acting into some of the quests and the bit I heard was very amature quality. As in porrly delivered lines.
I'm going to continue to wonder how you're hearing emotionless from TSW's voice acting though. Unless of course you're mistaking a lack of overacting for emotionlessness. I kind of doubt that's the case though.
The only really strange voice acting choice I ran into in the game was more of an out-of-place character than any bad voice acting. Randomly there's a southern cowboy up in New England camping out and shooting zombies, and he's the first character in the New England area you run into for some reason. It was well done voice acting though so at least there's that.
The voice acting comes across to me as an addition they made because they felt it was a requirement. Very little thought seems to have gone into casting. It's sub par at best, as I said before they are acting but they don't seem to know in what context their words are being spoken. Lets also face it the list of actors is a right B list at best.
As for STO like I say haven't played in a while so I may not have heard the bad voice acting. But I also have to say a lot of it is to do with atmosphere. If you feel immersion into an environment then you tend not to nit-pick on the details. I feel no immersion with TSW at all. I don't feel part of the game I just feel like a third party watching the various interactions.
From what I have heard so far the voice acting is totally emotionless, like they have been asked to read a script but not been told the context or the part they are to play. Like they have no real clue how what they are saying is fitting into the general story that is trying to be told. It's flat and monotone. Not the actors fault by any stretches of the imagination, the fault is with the direction.
[mod edit]
If there is one game with excellent cutscenes and voice acting its TSW. My guess is that you haven't made the effort to play through many of the missions, just play through the two egyptian maps and then come back.
So much bias in this thread on both sides of the fence. The OP has a couple decent points, but the majority of it comes off like a rabid fanboy that had his juice box stolen. TSW has many high points, the problem is it also has many low points.
Pros
-The investigation quests are awesome. Seriously, the best quest I have seen in any game, MMO or single player.
-The setting and story lines are unique to the genre and well done. A very nice blend of classic horror and urban legend.
-The cutscenes are typically very entertaining. The downside is, they are basically just NPC monologues as opposed to an interactive conversation.
-The classless system and skill wheel combo offers lots of freedom for deck creation and a real sense of horizontal player progression.
Cons
-PvP, it's bad. Fusing is mainly just a node flipping contest. There is still no open world PvP (I believe a flagging system is coming, just 8 months too late). Faction population imbalances, has this been addressed by Funcom at all?
-Lack of content. I understand that every zone can be revisited and quest redone, but the lack of zones is disappointing, especially considering that its the quests most people enjoyed the most. It only takes a few weeks to blow through all of it.
-Character creator and character animations. I am combining these two because they both feel like it was literally the last thing addressed in development. The original character creator was very sub par for modern standards. No sliders, limited options, very incomplete. The character animations feel the same way, incomplete.
-Combat. This was the big one for me. The freedom of ability choice was overwhelmed by the lack of creative gameplay. Yes Ort, I understand that you get a whole 7 actives. But 80% of combat is just spamming your builder. It's like auto-attack withou the "auto". Yes, I understand you can have all these other abilities on your bar at the same time. Yes, I understand that I can use a different weapon type and build if I get bored with one, but it doesn't change the builder spam mechanic. Even with a healing build, it's mostly builder spam. It's like the devs said "OK, you can choose any weapon, any style, any range, as long as you play like a rogue. Build 5 combo points, then use a finisher."
Buti digress, the game has lots of upside, but for someone that really enjoys PvP and combat, that upside is over shadowed.
So much bias in this thread on both sides of the fence. The OP has a couple decent points, but the majority of it comes off like a rabid fanboy that had his juice box stolen. TSW has many high points, the problem is it also has many low points.
Pros
-The investigation quests are awesome. Seriously, the best quest I have seen in any game, MMO or single player.
-The setting and story lines are unique to the genre and well done. A very nice blend of classic horror and urban legend.
-The cutscenes are typically very entertaining. The downside is, they are basically just NPC monologues as opposed to an interactive conversation.
-The classless system and skill wheel combo offers lots of freedom for deck creation and a real sense of horizontal player progression.
Cons
-PvP, it's bad. Fusing is mainly just a node flipping contest. There is still no open world PvP (I believe a flagging system is coming, just 8 months too late). Faction population imbalances, has this been addressed by Funcom at all?
-Lack of content. I understand that every zone can be revisited and quest redone, but the lack of zones is disappointing, especially considering that its the quests most people enjoyed the most. It only takes a few weeks to blow through all of it.
-Character creator and character animations. I am combining these two because they both feel like it was literally the last thing addressed in development. The original character creator was very sub par for modern standards. No sliders, limited options, very incomplete. The character animations feel the same way, incomplete.
-Combat. This was the big one for me. The freedom of ability choice was overwhelmed by the lack of creative gameplay. Yes Ort, I understand that you get a whole 7 actives. But 80% of combat is just spamming your builder. It's like auto-attack withou the "auto". Yes, I understand you can have all these other abilities on your bar at the same time. Yes, I understand that I can use a different weapon type and build if I get bored with one, but it doesn't change the builder spam mechanic. Even with a healing build, it's mostly builder spam. It's like the devs said "OK, you can choose any weapon, any style, any range, as long as you play like a rogue. Build 5 combo points, then use a finisher."
Buti digress, the game has lots of upside, but for someone that really enjoys PvP and combat, that upside is over shadowed.
Just coming off the construcrtive criticism thread, and saw this. At least you put down your experience and back it up. +1
I do still believe the game is steadily improving, and some of the negatives you put down are on the priority list for the devs. My own experience with the character creator was good, but I don't typically spend as much time customizing my toons -- I zipped thru the Skyrim options pretty quickly. I use all 7 of my abilities, and don't mind the builder/finisher mechanic simply because I mix in some other elites and specials along with those. I am blade/chaos primarily, and I've always found the combat very actiony and fun -- again, just me.
I agree that more content is needed, and I'm hopeful they'll keep up with the storyline releases. Agreed PvP definitely needs more work.
Pressing 5 repeatedly does not spawn a butterfly. I also heard they wrote in the Candyman rumour, I only tried twice in the mirror house, no idea if this is true or not.
Hmm, Fallenlord may be the first person I read who critizeses the voice acting. Can't think of another game with such a lot of memorable npcs. You probably should have played more than 2h.
Combat sucks... yes, to some degree. Combat sucks in every mmo when you are soloing. TSW combat might not be the beauty queen but especially in dungeons I really like the fast paced and dynamic combat.
There are fetch and kill quests but as already mentioned they are somehow well done. For example one quest from the writer in the lighthouse where you find pages of his books decriping you current situation . I really liked how it was done. So even if you have to kill a lot of stuff TSW knows how to add something meaningfull to it. But of course a matter of taste...
PvP... I had some fun in fusang but I think there is a balance problem ( there a balance problems with skills in PvE too) which are even worse in Stonehence, glance-tanks and unbreakable stuns from claws anyone???
Hmm, Fallenlord may be the first person I read who critizeses the voice acting. Can't think of another game with such a lot of memorable npcs. You probably should have played more than 2h.
It's not just the voice acting it's the script, it's laughable. Rolled an illuminati yesterday, ends up in some female bosses office. Where she tells me she is multitasking and she 'f*ing loves old school hip hop'. Things are just so random and the comedy they have tried to instill is groan worthy. This game is just so bad on so many levels. I know I am looking at it from a critical perspective but the more I play the worse I think the game is overall.
It's not just the voice acting it's the script, it's laughable. Rolled an illuminati yesterday, ends up in some female bosses office. Where she tells me she is multitasking and she 'f*ing loves old school hip hop'.
And what's wrong with old-school hip-hop? I mean I'd pick the 70-80's rock / progr.rock personally, but if KG (Kirsten Geary, the afforementioned "some female boss") likes hip-hop, that's her choice... Btw she's a great character
It's not just the voice acting it's the script, it's laughable. Rolled an illuminati yesterday, ends up in some female bosses office. Where she tells me she is multitasking and she 'f*ing loves old school hip hop'.
And what's wrong with old-school hip-hop? I mean I'd pick the 70-80's rock / progr.rock personally, but if KG (Kirsten Geary, the afforementioned "some female boss") likes hip-hop, that's her choice... Btw she's a great character
Well depends if you are suppose to take these people seriously or view them as a bunch of muppets playing at Secret Societies. Because they come across as a bunch of muppets playing at Secret Societies.
In fact all the characters I have met so far either drop some unexplained expletive (probably the only reason this game isn't U/PG rated), tell me do things where I have no choice anyway or just come out with some random stuff. For example:-
'Come to London ... or not' (rolled a templar) well if I decide 'or not' do I stay in my apartment for the rest of the game. Or is 'or not' not really an option but a way to try and make the NPC sound flippant, which instead makes them sound annoying and you want to punch them.
'I am the last of the Cowboys' ... so you are a Cowboy by virtue of wearing a hat then? Camped in the middle of nowhere eating beans, surrounded by Zombies who seem to virtually ignore him. Does that have something to do with the beans, because there was little to no other explanation.
I have started skipping cut scenes because they are so just so bad. In fact without the cut scenes the game is a little better.
cabal or pvp faction balance is a huge issue for most game,i play gw2 and in wvw ?its ridiculous how imbalanced it is.this is the main thing that will kill any game!if you have 15 player in faction red 35 in green and 100 in blue faction guess witch will win!
ya blue!and there is no automatic balancing (to a certain point)like you are killed by the same player ()because he is good)there no throttling of him :meaning he is slowed by x % in all that he do vs you .exxemple
the pro(ya lest call him or her pro)killed alexander the great for the second time,the game mecanic knows this so the pro was slowed in all that he does vs alexander the great!up to a max of 15% (subject to tweaking of caurse ,might be more might be less testing is needed)but you get the idea.
this way even if the other player isnt pro he has a better chance of killing the ganker.it doesnt mean he will
most player in wvw can kill 2 or 3 other player around them(ya literally solo)it isnt a balance issue they just have a better understanding of the game.some think changing weapon isnt very needed or whatever.this is one of the most under rated mechanic of the game.i do it too!i focus on dual dagger because its simpler.but if i am honest,say i go for a 2 build set up then i need 2 armor and 2 weapon.changing armor isnt as easy as it sound and yet it is a part of the game.why didnt arenanet implement and auto armor switch?i suspect it would have given an unfair advantage to the pro
even now i suspect most pro do switch armor and weapon!you dont have the choice if you dont you die!
so i am sorry but a lot of point you made we kind of useless.because people see and live the myth everyday when they game you cant just say its another urban legend!we arent in a uncoonected part of the world where the highest teck is a candle
It's not just the voice acting it's the script, it's laughable. Rolled an illuminati yesterday, ends up in some female bosses office. Where she tells me she is multitasking and she 'f*ing loves old school hip hop'.
And what's wrong with old-school hip-hop? I mean I'd pick the 70-80's rock / progr.rock personally, but if KG (Kirsten Geary, the afforementioned "some female boss") likes hip-hop, that's her choice... Btw she's a great character
Well depends if you are suppose to take these people seriously or view them as a bunch of muppets playing at Secret Societies. Because they come across as a bunch of muppets playing at Secret Societies.
To be honest, I usually don't take them dead serious (especially KG with her fun facts and 'Ciao' 'xoxo' messages ). And since the game areas are crowded with anima-users, no wonder the secret societies aren't so secret anymore in the world, maybe due to muppet management .
I personally like the npc interaction, it's mostly well-written and funny. And for Boone (the cowboy), he's more than a bean-cooking dude with a rifle - at least according to Wolf...
Comments
Dead Space 3 is not a great game, in fact it's quite annoying with it's set pieces. But even though Dead Space 3 isn't that good it still overshadows TSW on all fronts. Production values, voice acting, gameplay, action, weapons. monsters, gore (if we are comparing) ... I would score it about 7/10 as they have lost the scare factor. But it's a Dead Space game that fits with the rest of them. Action must be the way they want to take the franchise forward. EA announced big pre-order numbers for Dead Space 3 as well. Five times higher than Dead Space 2.
So an already successful game and franchise, compared to a third rate MMO... err Dead Space wins hands down. Even being not that good.
Eh, agreed -- way too many players willing to be swayed by 3rd party opinions -- everyone's going to have their own take and biases, though users have certainly given TSW a thumbs up on Metacritic with an 8.2 rating. TSW does seem to bring out the "love it or hate it" opinions though (or at least the Funcom trollers); it certainly is a polarizing game. My suggestion -- get a 24 hour buddy key, try it and decide for yourself.
Did you ever build more than one deck or change out any of your abilities? There are plenty of special abilities with cooldowns. Chaotic Pull is just one. I'll agree somewhat with animations, but the mechanics are solid. Tanking decks play very differently than dps decks than healing decks than solo decks.
The story, missions and lore is basically all that's good.
I didn't care for anything else but the quality of the quests justified the cost and two weeks of play for me.
Everything else in your commentary aside, I found this to be odd. I can't speak to the 'background' characters, but most of the London characters were voiced by British actors. The game has a respectably professional voice actor cast ... also Jeffery Combs.
I was more saying the voice acting was professionally done, as in done well and by people who have talent. Easily as well done as any video game voice acting I've ever heard anyway, and better than most. Of course I can't speak as to the London accents, as my knowledge of those is nearly nill.
Eh, opinions are opinions and I can certainly understand where you get some of yours, but when it comes to the voice acting it's almost like we're listening to two completely different games. That does happen though so ... eh.
Now if you want to talk games with bad voice acting ... I recently tried Star Trek Online for a bit and it had some voice acting. I got the feeling they used Steve from Accounting. Good lord it was bad.
From what I have heard so far the voice acting is totally emotionless, like they have been asked to read a script but not been told the context or the part they are to play. Like they have no real clue how what they are saying is fitting into the general story that is trying to be told. It's flat and monotone. Not the actors fault by any stretches of the imagination, the fault is with the direction.
Going around London and hearing things makes you think you are in the film Mary Poppins. With everybody talking their voice cues from Dick Van Dyke - typically well known for doing the worse Cockney accent (particularly stylized for an American audience) ever. It would have been better to have no Cockney type of accents than to have people doing them badly. What makes me laugh is Cockneys are well known for using the most offense word in the English language as a term of general endearment. I noticed the game shied away from that. Altogether what you have is people with very peculiar voices that sound like idiots and makes the characters have comedic value, where none was intended.
When one of the so called draws of the game is suppose to be real world locations, to get this completely foreign and alien view of London just shows how little thought and effort was actually put into the game. Hand in hand with bad accents and emotionless dialogue it's easy to see why this game is not much of a draw.
As for Star Trek Online, haven't played it in some considerable time. But can't say I noticed anything wrong when I did play it. I thought the game immersed you into the Star Trek universe. While it may have had the purists up in arms over various things, I found it to be a great and enjoyable game.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Well, I think he may have been responding to some people with that same mentality over on Steam -- he's definitely in rant mode.
Did another post further in that I think is balanced but still makes the point:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/375755/page/4
I didn't say anything about STO the game. Just that at some point they added voide acting into some of the quests and the bit I heard was very amature quality. As in porrly delivered lines.
I'm going to continue to wonder how you're hearing emotionless from TSW's voice acting though. Unless of course you're mistaking a lack of overacting for emotionlessness. I kind of doubt that's the case though.
The only really strange voice acting choice I ran into in the game was more of an out-of-place character than any bad voice acting. Randomly there's a southern cowboy up in New England camping out and shooting zombies, and he's the first character in the New England area you run into for some reason. It was well done voice acting though so at least there's that.
The voice acting comes across to me as an addition they made because they felt it was a requirement. Very little thought seems to have gone into casting. It's sub par at best, as I said before they are acting but they don't seem to know in what context their words are being spoken. Lets also face it the list of actors is a right B list at best.
As for STO like I say haven't played in a while so I may not have heard the bad voice acting. But I also have to say a lot of it is to do with atmosphere. If you feel immersion into an environment then you tend not to nit-pick on the details. I feel no immersion with TSW at all. I don't feel part of the game I just feel like a third party watching the various interactions.
[mod edit]
If there is one game with excellent cutscenes and voice acting its TSW. My guess is that you haven't made the effort to play through many of the missions, just play through the two egyptian maps and then come back.
Comments like this really piss me off.
So much bias in this thread on both sides of the fence. The OP has a couple decent points, but the majority of it comes off like a rabid fanboy that had his juice box stolen. TSW has many high points, the problem is it also has many low points.
Pros
-The investigation quests are awesome. Seriously, the best quest I have seen in any game, MMO or single player.
-The setting and story lines are unique to the genre and well done. A very nice blend of classic horror and urban legend.
-The cutscenes are typically very entertaining. The downside is, they are basically just NPC monologues as opposed to an interactive conversation.
-The classless system and skill wheel combo offers lots of freedom for deck creation and a real sense of horizontal player progression.
Cons
-PvP, it's bad. Fusing is mainly just a node flipping contest. There is still no open world PvP (I believe a flagging system is coming, just 8 months too late). Faction population imbalances, has this been addressed by Funcom at all?
-Lack of content. I understand that every zone can be revisited and quest redone, but the lack of zones is disappointing, especially considering that its the quests most people enjoyed the most. It only takes a few weeks to blow through all of it.
-Character creator and character animations. I am combining these two because they both feel like it was literally the last thing addressed in development. The original character creator was very sub par for modern standards. No sliders, limited options, very incomplete. The character animations feel the same way, incomplete.
-Combat. This was the big one for me. The freedom of ability choice was overwhelmed by the lack of creative gameplay. Yes Ort, I understand that you get a whole 7 actives. But 80% of combat is just spamming your builder. It's like auto-attack withou the "auto". Yes, I understand you can have all these other abilities on your bar at the same time. Yes, I understand that I can use a different weapon type and build if I get bored with one, but it doesn't change the builder spam mechanic. Even with a healing build, it's mostly builder spam. It's like the devs said "OK, you can choose any weapon, any style, any range, as long as you play like a rogue. Build 5 combo points, then use a finisher."
Buti digress, the game has lots of upside, but for someone that really enjoys PvP and combat, that upside is over shadowed.
Just coming off the construcrtive criticism thread, and saw this. At least you put down your experience and back it up. +1
I do still believe the game is steadily improving, and some of the negatives you put down are on the priority list for the devs. My own experience with the character creator was good, but I don't typically spend as much time customizing my toons -- I zipped thru the Skyrim options pretty quickly. I use all 7 of my abilities, and don't mind the builder/finisher mechanic simply because I mix in some other elites and specials along with those. I am blade/chaos primarily, and I've always found the combat very actiony and fun -- again, just me.
I agree that more content is needed, and I'm hopeful they'll keep up with the storyline releases. Agreed PvP definitely needs more work.
Still love the game.
Pressing 5 repeatedly does not spawn a butterfly. I also heard they wrote in the Candyman rumour, I only tried twice in the mirror house, no idea if this is true or not.
Hmm, Fallenlord may be the first person I read who critizeses the voice acting. Can't think of another game with such a lot of memorable npcs. You probably should have played more than 2h.
Combat sucks... yes, to some degree. Combat sucks in every mmo when you are soloing. TSW combat might not be the beauty queen but especially in dungeons I really like the fast paced and dynamic combat.
There are fetch and kill quests but as already mentioned they are somehow well done. For example one quest from the writer in the lighthouse where you find pages of his books decriping you current situation . I really liked how it was done. So even if you have to kill a lot of stuff TSW knows how to add something meaningfull to it. But of course a matter of taste...
PvP... I had some fun in fusang but I think there is a balance problem ( there a balance problems with skills in PvE too) which are even worse in Stonehence, glance-tanks and unbreakable stuns from claws anyone???
It's not just the voice acting it's the script, it's laughable. Rolled an illuminati yesterday, ends up in some female bosses office. Where she tells me she is multitasking and she 'f*ing loves old school hip hop'. Things are just so random and the comedy they have tried to instill is groan worthy. This game is just so bad on so many levels. I know I am looking at it from a critical perspective but the more I play the worse I think the game is overall.
And what's wrong with old-school hip-hop? I mean I'd pick the 70-80's rock / progr.rock personally, but if KG (Kirsten Geary, the afforementioned "some female boss") likes hip-hop, that's her choice... Btw she's a great character
cabal or pvp faction balance is a huge issue for most game,i play gw2 and in wvw ?its ridiculous how imbalanced it is.this is the main thing that will kill any game!if you have 15 player in faction red 35 in green and 100 in blue faction guess witch will win!
ya blue!and there is no automatic balancing (to a certain point)like you are killed by the same player ()because he is good)there no throttling of him :meaning he is slowed by x % in all that he do vs you .exxemple
the pro(ya lest call him or her pro)killed alexander the great for the second time,the game mecanic knows this so the pro was slowed in all that he does vs alexander the great!up to a max of 15% (subject to tweaking of caurse ,might be more might be less testing is needed)but you get the idea.
this way even if the other player isnt pro he has a better chance of killing the ganker.it doesnt mean he will
most player in wvw can kill 2 or 3 other player around them(ya literally solo)it isnt a balance issue they just have a better understanding of the game.some think changing weapon isnt very needed or whatever.this is one of the most under rated mechanic of the game.i do it too!i focus on dual dagger because its simpler.but if i am honest,say i go for a 2 build set up then i need 2 armor and 2 weapon.changing armor isnt as easy as it sound and yet it is a part of the game.why didnt arenanet implement and auto armor switch?i suspect it would have given an unfair advantage to the pro
even now i suspect most pro do switch armor and weapon!you dont have the choice if you dont you die!
so i am sorry but a lot of point you made we kind of useless.because people see and live the myth everyday when they game you cant just say its another urban legend!we arent in a uncoonected part of the world where the highest teck is a candle
To be honest, I usually don't take them dead serious (especially KG with her fun facts and 'Ciao' 'xoxo' messages
). And since the game areas are crowded with anima-users, no wonder the secret societies aren't so secret anymore in the world, maybe due to muppet management 
.
I personally like the npc interaction, it's mostly well-written and funny. And for Boone (the cowboy), he's more than a bean-cooking dude with a rifle - at least according to Wolf...