Synchronisation Troubles ...

[Coraan Talme]

A great disturbance in the force causes me to cry out in anguish ... and you are my only hope!

 

Is there any way to change a foreign language version to English? Some companies offer such downloads for their games ... or perhaps some gentle souls did invent some trick to do this, a private mod - whatever? I'd even change my 'collector's edition' (yes - all those wonderfully useful backgrounds and screensavers) for a simple english version cd of the game ...

 

Maybe this is just me, but I guess there are actually many others, who are not living in an english-speaking country, and can share this sentiment.

Now - don't misunderstand me - I do not think that the synchronisation of Empire at War is particularly awful. It is not. Living in Germany, I am actually used to pain in this respect... perhaps it's just my imagination, but at least in my opinion & experience, german language versions tend to be really REALLY bad. Narrators that seem to be more experienced in making faery tale tapes for children, evil villains speaking in a high pitched voice that is difficult to endure for more than a few seconds, remarkably talented amateurs - who somehow manage to mispronounce every single syllable, similarly capable speakers who virtuously play dying messengers by declaring sentences like "Arg! I am dying ..." without any emotion whatsoever. Not much better are the ones that apparently at least heard of concepts like dramaturgy - and consequently make valiant attempts at dramatic pronounciations ... that are way over the top. "NO! WE WILL DEFEND this base! FOR FREEDOM! FOR HONOUR!" ... it might occasionally achieve highschool drama niveau ... but it is still slightly irritating in games.

As I said - the situation is not that bad in this particular case. However ... it's not exactly satisfying, either. For example, when I played the english demo, I was impressed by the excellent voice of the imperial tutorial officer. He was appropriately ... well, arrogant - as it is fitting for one who has risen to his position in the valiant service to the Emperor. His synchronised counterpart is ... decent. As are the voices of Tie Fighter and Bomber pilots, the Stormtroopers and pretty much everyone else. Vader ... doesn't sound very vader-ish at all, though I - grudgingly - have to admit that I'm getting used to him. The benign Emperor himself (may he live forever) has seen better days. Merely Tarkin and a few others manage to actually shine somewhat. I'm not that far into the game, yet, and I haven't touched the Rebel's side so far ... but I believe that the situation will probably stay the same. To summarize it:

The synchronisation is decent, but not more - and this hurts the great Star Wars atmosphere considerably. Certainly, I can live with it, but I would love to have the opportunity to switch to English. Sadly, the practice to include multiple language versions of the game on one dvd and to sell the game in this way doesn't seem to be very wide-spread, yet. So - for the sake of atmosphere and all those countless (well ... probably not quite countless, but a little dramaturgy can't hurt ) similarly desperate souls that feel the same way - is there a path to salvation (short of bying a new game)?