View Full Version : Is GameTap taking a day off? / No machinima short
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 01:32 pm
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/595/frank1copyim2.jpg
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The first machinima short is now up on GameTap. It'll be on this site on Monday.
Emily
11/30/2006, 01:37 pm
The short is supposed to go up today. I don't know exactly when, but I haven't heard anything to the contrary.
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 01:41 pm
I'm sure they still plan to put it up, they just haven't gotten around to releasing ANY content today (i.e. games or tv shows). I guess I've come to find that when GameTap says they release updates on Thursdays, they really mean anywhere in that 24 hour period. It's pretty annoying.
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 02:53 pm
The update just happened a few minutes ago. Saw the first machinima.
Question: Did Max's voice change from Culture Shock?
jp-30
11/30/2006, 03:08 pm
I assume Gametap has a 2 week exclusive window for the shorts as well as the games?
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 03:10 pm
No, GameTap will release them on Thursdays, and Telltale the following Monday.
jp-30
11/30/2006, 03:12 pm
Ooh. Nice! Where'd'ya read that?
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 03:13 pm
http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-136
jp-30
11/30/2006, 03:18 pm
Sweet! Thanks.
Udvarnoky
11/30/2006, 03:28 pm
Question: Did Max's voice change from Culture Shock?
It's still Chaikin, but he does sound a little bit different. Or maybe it's the doubly compressed audio.
Emily
11/30/2006, 03:55 pm
It's still Chaikin, but he does sound a little bit different. Or maybe it's the doubly compressed audio.
Or is it...? :p
It's a new guy. Andrew Chaikin was unavailable for personal reasons so we had to recast.
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 04:45 pm
Well I hope he comes back for the next episode. I had no problem with the voices in Hit the Road, the animated 90's TV show or Culture Shock, but this voice is just plain bad (sorry to whomever did it). ;)
jp-30
11/30/2006, 05:24 pm
Is this recast just for the short?
Well I hope he comes back for the next episode. I had no problem with the voices in Hit the Road, the animated 90's TV show or Culture Shock, but this voice is just plain bad (sorry to whomever did it). ;)
Hey let's not start this again. I hope you were joking.
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 05:41 pm
I loved the voices in Culture Shock. I'm one of the few people who thinks they are almost perfect. This machinima voice just isn't as good.
Udvarnoky
11/30/2006, 05:45 pm
Or is it...? :p
It's a new guy. Andrew Chaikin was unavailable for personal reasons so we had to recast.
Crazy! Despite the noticeable change I was sure there was some hint of him in there, which is why stated it like it was a fact. Well, clearly the recast isn't going to affect me much. Does this mean Phoney's voice is as good as replaced too? Seems to me that would be a more devastating change because he's really distinctive and, well, really great in the role.
Can you tell us who The New Guy is? Is it Nowlin voicing both again? It did kind of sound like the Max in the original trailer... I don't trust my own ears anymore!
Is this recast just for the short?
Apparently it's for the second episode as well - the voice in the gameplay video on Telltale's site is the new one. I honestly wouldn't have guessed it though. Maybe the difference will be more obvious once I hear more.
I loved the voices in Culture Shock. I'm one of the few people who thinks they are almost perfect. This machinima voice just isn't as good.
Here's the story...
Andrew Chaikin won't be playing Max in episodes 2 or 3. This isn't because we weren't pleased with his performance (we loved it), nor was it for any financial or scheduling reason. Andrew had to pull out of his recording for Max, and all of his other acting gigs at the time, for personal, medical reasons.
We don't know a whole lot about the situation, and what we do know is personal so I won't be writing about it here, but Andrew was unable to record for said health reasons, so we waited, and pushed the voice recording deadline out as far as possible in hopes that he'd be better. Unfortunately that didn't happen. It got close enough to our internal release date for the game that we eventually had to arrive at the difficult decision to re-cast Max for the time-being, if not permanently. It sucks, and we wish Andrew the best in his recovery! He was great as Max in Culture Shock, and he's also of course the voice of Phoney Bone. Sadly, reality meant that we couldn't wait on the games forever; we had to move on with production.
Fortunately, the guy we got is awesome! His deliveries are spot on - his performances make the jokes come off as, you know, funny, instead of mundanely stomping them into the ground as is the case with so many "funny" video game voice performances. He even sounds quite a lot like Andrew, and as an extension, a lot like Max! The only people who noticed the new voice in our Episode 2 focus tests were people we actually told about the change. These are good signs. We miss Andrew, because he's excellent, but we're really really happy with where the voices are at right now.
Basically, it's my hope at this point that you guys trust our judgement on voice casting. There were huge waves of online hate about the voices sloshing back and forth in these forums before Culture Shock was released, but the overwhelming majority of players had nothing but praise for our choice of actors once they actually got their hands on the game. The consensus here at Telltale is that the voice performances in Situation Comedy and in Episode 3 are well above the high water mark set by Culture Shock, and we're sure players will agree once they get a chance to play it for themselves.
Hero1
11/30/2006, 05:56 pm
Well I didn't notice the difference in the situation comedy gameplay video.. yep the voices in culture shock were good, im sure that will continue.. the delivery of sam's lines could be funnier though..
I am going to ask a potentially silly question. What the heck is a machinima?
tabacco
11/30/2006, 06:28 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima :)
Thanks for indulging my laziness Doug. :D
Udvarnoky
11/30/2006, 07:10 pm
It's funny to think that a relatively obscure comic book character like Max has been voiced five different times.
tabacco
11/30/2006, 07:44 pm
Six if you count that week where I was the voice of Max. Of course, we weren't doing any voice recording that week, so nobody really noticed.
Legolas813
11/30/2006, 07:46 pm
Andrew had to pull out of his recording for Max, and all of his other acting gigs at the time, for personal, medical reasons.
Well I think I speak for everyone when I say my thoughts go out to him and I hope he is ok.
I'm sorry if I sounded negative before. I do appreciate everything Telltale does for us fans.
artwking
11/30/2006, 07:51 pm
I like the new Max voice (although, I thought it seemed like the volume for Max was higher than for Sam and Bosco -- but maybe I'm just hallucinating). I also liked the Culture Shock Max as well, though. I think you did well with this new casting choice, given the circumstances and time constraint.
I hope Mr. Chalkin gets better soon though. He's a talented guy and an asset to Telltale's growing voiceover harem.
jp-30
11/30/2006, 08:08 pm
Indeed. Get well soon, Mr Chalkin.
So, is the 'voice-actor for Max' the new 'drummer for Spinal Tap'?
artwking
11/30/2006, 09:13 pm
Hehe... how about a running joke where Max's voice is re-cast with every episode?
thebirdistheword
11/30/2006, 09:26 pm
So what's the new guy's name, or is it actually New Guy?
In all honesty I can't remember. I'm sure Emily will chime in eventually and let you know.
As for whether or not the "new Max" is "good or bad" in relation to the "Culture Shock Max," this may sound cheezy, but after recently playing through most of Episode 2, I was back in Episode 1 playing through a couple parts and it didn't even register to me that the voices were different. That's actually the comment that went around the office more than anything else when the new voice recordings came in for episode 2, "After working on the game for two hours this morning I realized that in all that time I hadn't even given Max's voice a second thought."
thebirdistheword
11/30/2006, 11:42 pm
Yeah, I still can't spot the difference in the gameplay video, I'll just have to take everyone's word for it.
xChri5x
12/01/2006, 05:45 am
I didn't even notice the voice change in the new video from episode 2. I'm going to have to watch it again
Diduz
12/01/2006, 06:05 am
Here's the story...
Andrew Chaikin won't be playing Max in episodes 2 or 3. This isn't because we weren't pleased with his performance (we loved it), nor was it for any financial or scheduling reason. Andrew had to pull out of his recording for Max, and all of his other acting gigs at the time, for personal, medical reasons. We don't know a whole lot about the situation, and what we do know is personal so I won't be writing about it here, but Andrew was unable to record for said health reasons, so we waited, and pushed the voice recording deadline out as far as possible in hopes that he'd be better. Unfortunately that didn't happen.
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I wish him the best recovery. I consider myself a fan of his: he did a wonderful work on Phoney and Max...:(
Legolas813
12/01/2006, 07:26 am
Is this new gameplay video (not the machinima) on the Telltale site? If so, that's why I haven't seen it yet. I haven't been able to access any of the game pages for a few days now.
tabacco
12/01/2006, 10:07 am
That should be fixed now. IE7 handles xmlhttp differently from IE6. sigh.
Emily
12/01/2006, 11:29 am
The new actor's name is William Kasten.
Legolas813
12/01/2006, 11:48 am
Yeah, I still can't spot the difference in the gameplay video, I'll just have to take everyone's word for it.
I barely notice a difference, if anything at all, in the video on the site. The difference can be heard in the machinima short only (at least for me).
That should be fixed now. IE7 handles xmlhttp differently from IE6. sigh.
Thanks. As of today, the game pages are back up and running now. I use Avant Browser, by the way.
tabacco
12/01/2006, 03:07 pm
Avant Browser is IE :)
Legolas813
12/01/2006, 09:17 pm
I know. It's basically the same browser, just with added features and skins.
xChri5x
12/02/2006, 08:11 am
I watched the clip again and they sound pretty much the same. Maybe a little difference, but nothing huge. Maybe he can do a decent phoney too?
I guess this is as good a place as any to say "Welcome, Kasten, to the madhouse that is the Sam&Max Fandom!* Also, Get well soon, Chaikin!"
*Does Sam&Max fandom have a nickname? Like, Star Trek people are Trekkers...
I think they're called "S&M enthusiasts," but I'm not wholly sure of that.
personally i did not mention any differences when i heard the new voice first.
i think the new guy is a pretty good choice.
I hope the other voiceactor recovers soon and i wish all the best!
vBulletin® v3.8.2, Copyright ©2000-2012, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.