Looks like their server is being flooded. Can’t load the damn page.
It does sound awesome but also incredibly challenging from a production perspective. At a minimum you’re talking about recording twice the VO for each line. And unless it’s binary it seems like it could be difficult to convincingly mix the Spanish and English (as per the example) to make it seem like the translation was halfway working and you need to invest in it further.
You’d also need to get a talented native language writer in every language if you want to include slang. (I doubt it could just be localized from English if you wanted to make it feel right rather than localized text.) And if you’re wanting to make it a convincing version of a future Central American Spanish slang it would be even harder. Then the question becomes how do you qualify the writers of a language you don’t speak, etc. etc.
Couldn’t it just be Spanish (or whatever) text and VO, but with a translator, you’d get varying degrees of whatever language in text that the player’s version needs to be?
Ah, yeah if that’s what they meant rather than a nascent version of the Universal Translator, you would save on the VO costs. But if you’re going to the trouble of having native-language VO talent you’re still going to need a writer to turn out lines that are worthy of that talent, not just localizations.
If it was text only it would be easier to play with the gameplay implications such as misleading players due to poor translations if their translation implant isn’t fully upgraded. Or even to some humor value with bad translations at times. (If including a humor counter-point worked with the game.)
Either way I think it’s a brave choice that chooses art over commercialization. Personally, I watch any non-English-language movies with subtitles to hear the original performances. But apparently even in Europe the masses prefer dubbing.
This is driving me nuts.
I’ve looked into it, and it looks like this is just CD Projekt developing…
I asked before, but is this game a joint venture between CD Projekt and another developer?
Or did the OP just arbitrarily throw “joint” into the title?
The second option.
You need to spend more on that higher level slang translator implant. Spike Lee movies are Spike Lee “joints.” Similarly, that’s how it is being used here for CD Projekt.
Sorry. It’s a riff on “A Spike Lee Joint” that appears on all of his films.
Joint is a slang term for a place or project.
What are the odds that they’ll be using some sort of auto speech translator? While google speech and translate is okay, there are already far better options out there. I know because my GF works with one of them for kids so the option is actually there which would save on the whole translating thing.
Remember - in-game this is supposed to be some sort program, so it would make sense to actually use a program.
The issues with that may be: 1) this is supposed to be 2077 so any modern tech could seem out of place, 2) it would probably be painful to listen to an emotionless auto-interpreting bot voice overlaying the non-English performances for large swaths of the game.
Oh and not to mention potential licensing fees.
You mean like Space Rangers, but with audio speech? :D
Vaguely related, I haven’t looked in 2-3 years, but last time I did state of the art TTS was pretty horrid. And auto translation was pretty much a clusterfuck of word salad.
I can’t show it to you, since its a program, but the one my GF uses for the kids in school is pretty good. It sounds more or less like a real person talking, so don’t judge by Googles horrid one.
What’s it called? - I use a TTS to read me stuff when I’m running and what I’m using really leaves a lot to be desired
whoah, that sounds amazing but I can’t imagine the kind of resources required to implement this vision while meeting the game’s release deadline.
Depends. It could be trivial: “we’re already recording multile VOs for the world market, lets switch mp3s around, add lag or static to simulate low level skill, done”
i played part of the witcher games with english subtitled polish voice-overs. that was pretty awesome.
You guys need to get this in your head: they aren’t going to do it. They just mentioned it because it sounds “cool” and gullible readers eat this shit up.
CDP are very good at that.