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Is it just me or is the Space Core the most boring thing ever to be picked up as a gamer meme? It was amusing, but not very memorable.
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Max, don't be such a downer and join us in SPAAAACE
"Dad, are you space?"
"Yes, son. Now we are a family again."
It wasn't so much the core, but the personality and voice talent behind it that made the malfunctioning turrets and the other faulty cores, and by association, the rest of the game, funny to me. You can really feel how much fun Nolan North had with those parts, and it rubs off on you.
If only Oddworld would get the stick out of their asses and hire some actual voice actors. I know Valve has typically brought in old voice actors to play parts in new games, but at least those people are actors who know what they're doing, and that the voice direction from Valve is really engaging, which is why they got such a great performance from Ellen in Portal. Part of what makes puzzle-games like Portal so entertaining was the reward I'd get from hearing GlaDOS ever so often, because Ellen McLain is such a talented voice actor. Oddworld's got quirky humor too, but the "vocal stylings" of Lorne and Co are game-breaking for me. Hearing them fumble their way through simple lines that any idiot, myself included (setting you up for a joke, YOU BETTER BITE), can successfully pull off in a way that sounds natural inexperienced, is grating. The cutscenes in AE, for example, are voiced in a way that sounds both forced and inexperienced (listening to the "boiler panic" scene's dialogue is like dragging myself along broken glass), and then there's the fact that
EVERY NPC in Stranger's Wrath sounds exactly the same. At least the NPCs in Munch have the decency to babble incoherently when not engaged in gamespeak. (The only successful voice actor in Munch was the guy who did the lines for the Vykker auctioneer.)
They could do a lot better, is all I'm saying. Maybe they should try to bite the bullet on the voice issue.
I always find ways to shoehorn unfairly critical OW rants into my posts, but IMO, this doesn't get said enough and in my heart of hearts, which is in my colon, I know that Lorne and company are reading my posts every day, so they'll certainly consider fixing this on their next brand new Oddworld ti-- HAHAHAHA COULDN'T FINISH THAT ONE.
Of course, the factor I'm ignoring for the benefit of my argument is the fact that Valve is a multi-million dollar company, while Oddworld's been putzing around for the past decade and hasn't really been doing much except batting around ideas. Perhaps if Stranger's Wrath rerelease does well, they-- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH MAN.
EDIT,
SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T FINISHED SINGLE PLAYER.
Hit the CC button.
These are the translated lyrics to the Turret opera. Made me cry manly tears of happiness.
So, two theories: a. GlaDOS never deleted Caroline at all. This song was made for her daughter, Chell, which is the idea I prefer because it makes this all the more sentimental, or b. she intended to delete Caroline all along, but first decided to free Chell, pre-programmed the turrets to make her exit a grand one and THEN deleted Caroline, but mine is happier.
Actually, either one works for me now that I think about it, because either way, she programmed those turrets to sing that... beautiful song for... her daughter... sniff...
Either way, I think this might nullify any doubt that Caroline is either Chell's birth or adopted mother.