http://www.learntocounter.com/forums/in ... 3#msg82483DaemonX wrote:Essentially Mike, [Pillars of Eternity] follows the BG2 model of 'voice acting for critical / introductory pieces of dialogue, text for the rest'. This allows it to have tens of thousands of lines of dialogue and in-universe information that doesn't restrict the writers by budget and voice-studio timing constraints - ie it's a GREAT model.
Excepting Witcher 3, there's never been a successful compromise when they start voice acting things - the universe gets shallower, the writing dumber and more plot-holey. eg, Dragon Age Origins was a great game, but it would have been a legendary classic if it was allowed to give you Torment levels of text. Again, Witcher 3 breaks this rule because CDP are completely batshit insane and voice acted and mo-capped some 450,000 lines of decent to excellent writing with a top notch cast of voice actors, but since it's the only example of a fully voice-acted game with the depth of a golden-age CRPG I'm willing to ignore it as an outlier and say the Pillars/Infinity Engine route is just better for every developer.