Post your questions about the game here!

[MattW]

In international matches, we do have about 5-6 commentators. So what's wrong in having these many commentators in the games ?

Money. Space on the disc. That it still wouldn't be enough?

 

[thefonz]

Yeh it is the best Ive personally experienced from actuslly playing it for 5+ years. It sounds awesome the first few weeks. Then, like every other game, it gets super repetitive. Especially if you use the same team a lot.

The point is, it's a challenge that all sports games face. By nature of playing a game alot, it becomes repetitive.

Real life commentary is actually repetitive to an extent.

I don't agree that all game commentary is the same though - clearly I would rather listen to the commentary in some games than others even when repeated as the commentary is more insightful and entertaining.

The original Brian Lara Cricket 99 had analysis during over breaks for example - I still enjoy listening to that now.

 

[lion100lion]

Money. Space on the disc. That it still wouldn't be enough?

Money:- As I said, there is no need of using tv commentators. Any tom, dick and Harry can do the commentary if they are good in doing it.(good voice and meaningful commentary ). So less cost.
Space on disc:- That's not an issue because as time passes by we will see much more heavy games(at least due to graphics) and further the size can be compressed using modern technology.

 

[AdrianKuiper]

The big thing to get right for commentators in games are to get the same emotion that they would have had commentating on an actual game.

Would have been cool if actual commentary could have been used for when a six is hit or a game has been won on the last ball of the match or so.
Or maybe get voice actors in that can do impersonations.

 

[logout20]

what i meant was add an option in cricket academy to add commentary ...we can add commentary from youtube match highlights etc...

 

[barmyarmy]

This is an amazing commentary - NBA 2K13 Gameplay - Lakers vs. Heat - YouTube

The first time, and maybe the second, third and fourth times. After that you've just spent a whole load of money and it's still annoying.

 

[thefonz]

The first time, and maybe the second, third and fourth times. After that you've just spent a whole load of money and it's still annoying.

A question of taste I guess.

But I wouldn't tire of that style of commemtary - it is context specific, well timed and insightful.

Almost better than the real thing!

 

[Biggs]

Sorry, no disrespect at all - Biggs, did it sound good?

We're talking a release over 10 years ago. I'm not sure Biggs was on the scene...

Barmy's right, well before my time. Be intrigued to have a listen though. Curiosity. As an aside, i do have a theory on how to implement unique commentary in games which is relatively simple, not giving that away for free on a forum though, he winked...

...also:

Something that really annoys me is when a cricket game has a large number of commentators but they all have identical lines and don't rotate.

The next revolution will come with text-to-speak style commentary. Think; Siri for games. Except it will respond to unique gameplay rather than pre packaged audio sounds, resulting in more space on the disc. If I had a million dollars I'd be leading that innovation and research, there's already firms laying groundwork for this stuff, the concept of "recording scripts" for commentary will be gone in 5-10 years time.

 

[OmairB]

Barmy's right, well before my time. Be intrigued to have a listen though. Curiosity. As an aside, i do have a theory on how to implement unique commentary in games which is relatively simple, not giving that away for free on a forum though, he winked...

...also:



The next revolution will come with text-to-speak style commentary. Think; Siri for games. Except it will respond to unique gameplay rather than pre packaged audio sounds, resulting in more space on the disc. If I had a million dollars I'd be leading that innovation and research, there's already firms laying groundwork for this stuff, the concept of "recording scripts" for commentary will be gone in 5-10 years time.

Ahem, release date please....

 

[MattW]

The next revolution will come with text-to-speak style commentary. Think; Siri for games. Except it will respond to unique gameplay rather than pre packaged audio sounds, resulting in more space on the disc. If I had a million dollars I'd be leading that innovation and research, there's already firms laying groundwork for this stuff, the concept of "recording scripts" for commentary will be gone in 5-10 years time.

I can't wait to hear a computerised voice attempt to be excited about something.

I think there'll always be a role for normal voices, there's a degree of emotion that you can't emulate. Plus, you'd still need to script all the commentary, so you're still limited to the scenarios that someone can think up, just with the jarring nature of switching between pre-recorded clips switched with a slightly robotic sound.

 

[T.J.Hooker]

I know it takes us so much work to get it right, I just cant imagine doing it without a studio and all of the equipment required, plus full time staff.

Well the editing side needs a professional ear to get it sounding pro quality, avoiding glitches and compressing the signal correctly so it sits with your other audio.

Equipment wise it's dead easy though. Commentary mics are shite in real life. It's not like recording pop vocals where you go straight for a ?5000 condenser mic and require a deadly silent soundproof room.

If anything, that's one of the problems with video game commentary for me. They record it like a pop vocal and you end up with a sound in the game that's so full bodied and so isolated that it couldn't possibly have originated in a com box during a game.

 

[Biggs]

Yup, that's the first thing I would do... Record it on a comm box mic IN the comm box. No brainer. I'd even use the same eq/comp settings as broadcast.

I can't wait to hear a computerised voice attempt to be excited about something.

You'd be surprised at how far the technology has come in just a few years. It's not there yet, but I linked to an article recently on twitter from a company in the states that is leading the way. "emotion" isn't far away with "intelligent" voicing. It's a totally different style of voicework for the talent, your average tv commentator would be hugely frustrated by the process, but eventually they'll walk in, say a few paragraphs with varying degrees of excitement and disappointment and the code will do the rest.

Eventually.

 

[grkrama]

I can't wait to hear a computerised voice attempt to be excited about something.

I think there'll always be a role for normal voices, there's a degree of emotion that you can't emulate. Plus, you'd still need to script all the commentary, so you're still limited to the scenarios that someone can think up, just with the jarring nature of switching between pre-recorded clips switched with a slightly robotic sound.

check this out its still a long way to go but we will definitely reach there in the next 10-20 years
OpenMary: Open Source Emotional Text-to-Speech Synthesis System Released ? MARY Text-to-Speech.
not just these various other tech firms like nuance ,ivonna are already working on such systems.

 

[IceAgeComing]

I've never noticed repetitive commentary in NBA 2k; and I've played a few seasons of MyPlayer and Association. Sure, it doesn't sound as great after the 200th time; but because the commentary sounds like a real TV broadcast, it just starts blending into the background. All games have at least that one line that you always notice (Ross; if "no no no no no" makes it into the next Rugby League game, I shall personally send you an angry letter about it), but its how often that line is called up in the rotation that affects things - the more commentary lines, the better!

Also, text to speech will always sound fake, because computers don't have emotions...

 

[Paulo]

Personally, I will be turning up the sound effects and muting the commentary. I will provide my own Geoff Boycott and Bumble impressions, with the odd Henry Bloefeld for good measure each time I hear the leather hit the willow and race to the boundary.

I may even throw in my slightly South African sounding Shane Warne. Then it's complete. Context sensitive commentary. Non-repetitive phrases. Multiple commentators. All at the press of a mute button.

'Mi gran kud av hit that wit stick a roooobarb. E might be battin at three but a wunt put him at leven, ee's a complete idiot'