I really do... I desperately want to believe that Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware's newest RPG, will be a great and entertaining game.

Now the recent changes in marketing had me confused and unsettled for a while. All that focus on the blood and violence just seem very dark and griddy to me. Just juvenile and begging for attention-ish. And Marilyn Manson music... really? Why? I mean, I like some of Manson's songs, but it just seemed out of place.

But I thought to myself and others agreed, that DA: O is still the same game at heart. It still is, as promised by Bioware, the spiritual successor of Baldur's Gate II. A heavy burden, but if anyone can pull this off, it's the people who made this game in the first place.

Yesterday I've watched this trailer. [link] As you can see it was shown to a live audience. This article here [link] deals with this video and pretty much sums up my feelings.

I've always loved Bioware for it's characters. And how they presented them, which includes great voice acting. How can it be that my biggest problem with their new game is the voice acting.

My first and smallest issue with the voice acting is, that wayyy too many characters seem to have a british accent. Normally I'd say this is fine and fitting for a game set in medieval times. Do you want to hear texan accents in such a scenario? Of course not. Actually, I really enjoy hearing british accents. It makes the characters sound distinctive and educated. So why is it problem for me?

I noticed it while watching this trailer. The voice acting is really bad. I mean, the voices fit and everything, but how can Morrigan, Bioware's figurhead character for this epic tale sound so... not dark, not sexy and not mysterious. She just sounds wrong. And the dialogue's not helping either. Shoulnd't an important scene leading to sexual intercourse between two characters be... more sophisticated? The less profilic but still important Leliana is even worse. It's bad acting, plain and simple.

How can this happen in a Bioware game?

Or is it just me?

Fellow deviants, please help me out. Tell me your opinion of the voice acting so I can feel sane again.

PS: I'm actually considering to buy the German version, which I normally refrain from doing. I saw a trailer and the voice acting seems decent. Seems they finally got the hang of it when they did Mass Effect. Miracles happen all the time.