After the flurry of holiday releases, I am a bit depressed looking at the desolate release schedule of early 2011. Oh, how should I rejuvenate my gaming hobby? Time to catch up on oldies-but-goodies? What are your suggestions--what are you playing during release slumps?
I couldn't agree with you more. After the news broke, I was mired in a feeling that a great developer, with a fantastic track record, missed the market mark on their last game and was rashly closed down. I would like to believe that developers are more than the financial statistics of their most recent release. Developers are dynamic groups of talented individuals--and investment to be nurtured, not to constantly be put to the knife.
The Japanese version of Fallout: New Vegas features lackluster, disappointing dubbing. Considering the number of NPCs and unique voices featured in the English versions of the game, I am constantly irked by running across the voice of the same Japanese actor covering multiple, distinct NPC personalities. Furthermore, nearly all nuances in accent, vocabulary, and delivery of the English dialogue are lost in rather dead-pan Japanese readings. There are some exceptions, of course, and the robot voices are almost always entertaining. As a whole, however, the decision to produce Japanese voice-overs, instead of leaving the English acting intact, significantly detracts from the flavor and variety of the wasteland's myriad characters.
I am tempted to set aside my Japanese edition and import a copy of the 'Asia' release, which, unlike the Japanese version, still features the original English voice acting. For the sake of full disclosure, however, I must admit I am one of those people who always prefers subtitles over dubbing--even when I don't understand a word of the spoken dialogue.
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