No one liners Please! ("Eat this! Set em up, knock em down!")

[podtech115]

From kotaku:

The soldiers' barks. ‘Eat this!' ‘Set ‘em up, knock ‘em down!' They're cheesestastic, and will likely become irritating almost immediately. I'm not convinced these guys need to have audible personalities in the first place, let alone posturing action hero personalities.

I don't feel like making a super big post about this, so I'll just say this: If I could choose between My stupid Jarheads saying some stupid one-liners, or them becoming Baby Eaters, I would rather have my jarheads eat babies then have them say so-much as one stupid one-liner word! And I hate people who eat babies!

As if it wasn't bad enough to have the FPS XCOM and old X-COM interceptor saying those stupid one-liners ("THAT ONE HECK OF A WEAPON!" "Well, hello dolly!") Now we have this game doing it too! We already have Battle Los Angeles and Transformers, thank you very much.

I had a bad feeling about this when I saw the Troops looking like something out of a bad G.I. Joe rip-off cartoon.

[SectoidSquisher]

You know a few people who eat babies?

Nah, seriously - you're right. I hope you can turn this sort of thing off. As I said a while back, if they're going to speak then let there be some realism. For example, a cool, calculating veteran saying 'target down', as opposed to the enthusiastic rookie's 'I got one!!' I don't mind them saying stuff as long as it's not over the top Hollywood, which is what it sounds like it's going to be.

[Nosmirc]

But...those are so awesome! I hope they get some Russian writers so they can mistranslate those lines. MmmGRaaaaavy! from Silent Storm was always a classic to hear lol.

[Voqar]

They can add humor, life, entertainment, whatever. Beats playing in a vacuum. If they do have such a thing, they could make it optional for the types that prefer zero fun in their games. Seems to be no lack of them around here. :P

[Cpl_Facehugger]

I hope the unit select/hit/whatever voices can be toggled off without losing the alien death screams.

[serious77]

I hope there are hundreds of one-liners... the cheesier the better!

[ShanDaMan]

If heard sparingly, or there are large numbers of quotes, fine. Every single kill or lots of repeats and it might get old.

Probably good to be toggle-able.

Although it would be cool to hear:

Rookie: I got him! I got him!
Grizzled Veteran: Good shot, but don't get cocky!

[Inkidu]

If heard sparingly, or there are large numbers of quotes, fine. Every single kill or lots of repeats and it might get old.

Probably good to be toggle-able.

Although it would be cool to hear:

Rookie: I got him! I got him!
Grizzled Veteran: Good shot, but don't get cocky!

I find it ironic that you picked one of the cheesiest lines in Star Wars.

Anyway it looks like a mix. The point woman says, "He's down!" When the support man bites it in the vid. I think that's what I heard.

But how dare you, sir. How dare any of you take away our right to have new XCom memes!

[Smight]

infinite possibilities for pop culture references
For Austrian soliders
Get to the Skyranger.
You are one ugly M***** F****
If it bleeds we can kill it
For Female
Get away from her you B***

[marsujenherra]

But...those are so awesome! I hope they get some Russian writers so they can mistranslate those lines. MmmGRaaaaavy! from Silent Storm was always a classic to hear lol.

If you were Finnish, you would feel embarassed for the way the Finnish soldier talked in the game. It made me laugh so much.

Anyways, the worst one-liners are found in Steven Seagal movies. Such as "you know what they do with hoes? They fu*k them 6-0"

[kingsword]

You know what? I'd actually pay 2,5$ for Arnie one-liner DLC pack. True story.

[Brian Damage]

Calling it now, we're totally going to hear someone telling a Sectoid to "Probe THIS!".

[marsujenherra]

I remember that Space Hulk featured only few one-liners. "They came, they died" was heard infrequently. It was enough.

[Mattyx]

Also since this is international defense effort, it would be additionally stupid to hear such stuff.

[Gen_Pho]

Also since this is international defense effort, it would be additionally stupid to hear such stuff.

Unless they have an international crew of voice actors. Remember in Civ series they have people occasionally saying stuff in your civ's language. So...I think we can assume that Firaxis has access to people with a wide range of language abilities. It would make more sense if they all spoke one language for communication purposes, but it would be much more awesome if they taunted the aliens in their native tongue.

[kingsword]

That would really be great indeed but doubt it'll be implemented if we can also choose voice of soldiers.

[SectoidSquisher]

I'm sure I saw a feature in the troop custom section that mentioned different voices. They'll probably end up being stereotypical voices, but if they're international stereotypes as opposed to just 'USA! USA! USA', then they might just about be bearable. As has been said before, this is Earth vs Aliens. Not USA vs Aliens. Sure, they've all got different national patches on their uniforms, but it's going to sound daft if someone with the Union Flag on their back is spewing forth 'Americanisms'.

[Gen_Pho]

Yeah I think choosing the nationality should restrict the "voice type" you can choose. The voice option should basically affect the tone that the soldier speaks (high, low, gruff, nerdy, whatever).

That said, I would rather be able to choose the language they speak rather than the voice type. Especially since that dialogue won't be particularly vital.

SectoidSquisher, I guarantee that in this game will maintain the UK's lock on voices for in-base stuff. It always seems to be some British chick telling us that "research is complete", or "mission accomplished". I blame James Bond for this.

[SectoidSquisher]

Yeah, that's probably true!!

[cahtush]

There should be 3 options, No Taunts, Millitary (things that real soldiersmight say) and Silly (Millitary + action movie one-liners (including references to things like Predator))

[CaptainMuton]

I'm sure I saw a feature in the troop custom section that mentioned different voices. They'll probably end up being stereotypical voices, but if they're international stereotypes as opposed to just 'USA! USA! USA', then they might just about be bearable. As has been said before, this is Earth vs Aliens. Not USA vs Aliens. Sure, they've all got different national patches on their uniforms, but it's going to sound daft if someone with the Union Flag on their back is spewing forth 'Americanisms'.

The guy in the video with the bazooka had a Union Flag (props on correct term btw) and I like to think as the beserker collapsed he muttered 'Your cricketing days are over', before falling into a bout of self-hatred and apologies.

I can do without voices tbh, they are there to characterize your troops but it has the opposite effect with me- if more than one soldier has the same voice I really don't care much about them. Sometimes having one's imagination filling in the gaps is better for immersion. Just my opinion though. Also, I really hate the over-macho jingoism found in modern games when it comes to soldiers- mixed with thier muscular frames it always looks homoerotic to me (Gears of War in particular). Keep it realistic e.g 'Contact!' 'That was close!' 'Enemy down' 'Go go go!' etc.

[badoguer]

I see no problem with some emotive voices, however, something like:

For example, a cool, calculating veteran saying 'target down'

Would be welcome too.

[nassos]

or tango down

[kingsword]

This game needs "If it bleeds, we can kill it!"

[Brian Damage]

"Welcome to Earth!" :P?

[nordoM]

Don't like the one-liners, but all Firaxis have to do is make Unit Voices a toggleable option and it's all good.
Except death screams, those are always a must.

[SectoidSquisher]

This game needs "If it bleeds, we can kill it!"

Yep - that's something that you can see being said in a real world situation - especially if the rookies are showing a lot of (understandable) fear. Do we agree that 'one liners' might be OK if there's a noticeable difference between what a rookie and what a veteran might say? Also, they might not be that bad if there are a lot of them. The real problem comes when you hear the same thing over and over and over again. One thing I am sure of is that I don't want them to be completely silent - that wouldn't feel right either. Firaxis need to strike the right balance.

[g0pher_11]

I hope the unit select/hit/whatever voices can be toggled off without losing the alien death screams.

+1. The human death screams contribute to the tension as well...

Gung-ho wisecracks might work against the tense mood of the game for me and I would at least like to be able to turn them off without losing the death screams.

[kingsword]

Wilhelm scream would be great. :P

[SamBC]

Hang on... move and shoot... and the soldiers commenting on what they just did.... it's Worms!

[Gazz]

It's not worms without sheep bombs.
But considering we don't know what weapons will be in the game...

EAT SHEEP, ALIEN SCUM!

[JundtDH]

Many games try the one liners, but sometimes the situations just don't work out. Either it is scripted and you hear it every time at the exact same moment, or it depends on actions. In Xcom you will be taking those actions over and over and over again. So to get decent variety and avoid repetition, it would have to be only for very special events, or based specifically on squad interaction.

From the deep dive video, you can almost hear a couple of lines spoken by the units while taking actions. So it seems like they have a form of action confirmation dialogues. If that is in so far, then they must feel that it isn't too much yet. Tag line drops, and other one liners would still be a different part of the dialogue and might not be in.

While they can be fun, most of the time they just get too repetitive or have no real place in the game because they aren't unique to any appropriate moment.

[g0pher_11]

Along the same lines as the one-liner question - I hope the language of the game interface stays true to the intended mood of the game. For instance, scientists research and discover things and engineers invent things, they don't 'unlock' them. Nothing draws you out of whatever immersion you had achieved and reminds you that you are sitting in a room at a computer playing a video game quite like an interface saying 'congrats dude, you have just unlocked a new technology!' or 'congrats dude, you have just plugged your 100th alien!'.

[Inkidu]

Along the same lines as the one-liner question - I hope the language of the game interface stays true to the intended mood of the game. For instance, scientists research and discover things and engineers invent things, they don't 'unlock' them. Nothing draws you out of whatever immersion you had achieved and reminds you that you are sitting in a room at a computer playing a video game quite like an interface saying 'congrats dude, you have just unlocked a new technology!' or 'congrats dude, you have just plugged your 100th alien!'.

How about, "You've unlocked the secrets of X!"?

[Usul]

Along the same lines as the one-liner question - I hope the language of the game interface stays true to the intended mood of the game. For instance, scientists research and discover things and engineers invent things, they don't 'unlock' them. Nothing draws you out of whatever immersion you had achieved and reminds you that you are sitting in a room at a computer playing a video game quite like an interface saying 'congrats dude, you have just unlocked a new technology!' or 'congrats dude, you have just plugged your 100th alien!'.

I totally agree with that! I even would go so far, that when a soldiers levels up it should not say "Soldier XY has leveled up.", but rather "Soldier XY has become more experienced." or something like that. I want to feel like a commander of a secret international organisation, not like a gamer.

[g0pher_11]

I even would go so far, that when a soldiers levels up it should not say "Soldier XY has leveled up.", but rather "Soldier XY has become more experienced."

Yup, that was another one that came to mind. 'Levelling up' is definitely not immersive in-game lingo. I found the simple approach in the original XCOM game to be appropriate, ie: the recap at the end of the mission tells you all you need to know, and you can also check in the soldier's stats if you wish. A specific notification is not needed or provided during the battle.

[podtech115]

I got a big reason why there shouldn't be any one-liners in this game:

That reason is: Silent Hill

In that game, you were fighting horrible monsters, and the last thing that you would want to hear is your central character vomiting-up stupid one-liners at you. I want to be scared, and I can't do that if My Jarheads are all shooting-off "Funny" jokes.

infinite possibilities for pop culture references
For Austrian soliders
Get to the Skyranger.
You are one ugly M***** F****
If it bleeds we can kill it
For Female
Get away from her you B***

You do know those are all from the 80s, don't you? That's like 30 years ago. Can you come up with something from the past 5 years? Like from Transformers or Battle: LA?

And you also do know that one of the reasons why fans didn't like Duke Nukem Forever is because of how awful and old the one-liners were, right?

Calling it now, we're totally going to hear someone telling a Sectoid to "Probe THIS!".

I see you were a big fan of X-COM Interceptor. They would say things like "take that to your leader!"

And for those who don't know, here's what the whole game was like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MHyqpWWYgA

------------

You know a few people who eat babies?

Well, maybe one or two.

[olyer]

I think the comic/super hero visual style practically beg for cheesy one liners.

[kingsword]

And you also do know that one of the reasons why fans didn't like Duke Nukem Forever is because of how awful and old the one-liners were, right?

I liked that game simply because of the one-liners uttered by the extremely talented John St John. Not every game character needs to be Gordon Freeman-slient.

If anything, looking at old X-COM opening video, we have the kind of 80's big action movie heroes. They weren't looking like scared-stiff Silent Hill characters, they looked like Arnie or Stallone, toting miniguns, kicking ass and chewing bubblegums.

[xGx]

Bad voice acting sure as hell was annoying the the UFO Aftermath/Aftershock/Afterdark games, it didn't ruin them but it was really irritating... I really would hate for such things to start massacring xcom games though I did not mind it so much in xcom Interceptor.