William Shatner Elite: Dangerous Voice Pack Announced

[Lizzy Finnegan]

William Shatner Elite: Dangerous Voice Pack Announced


Seriously.

This is one of those times where I truly feel like the headline is enough - and yes, you read it correctly. Elite: Dangerous is getting an Orion voice pack that contains over 1300 phrases for the ship's on-board AI, voiced by William Shatner.

"A new voice pack with over 1300 phrases from the legendary science fiction master who has lent his voice for a thoroughly immersive experience," the description reads [http://hcsvoicepacks.com/collections/voice-packs/products/orion-performed-by-william-shatner]. "A unique and special preview from YouTuber 'Obsidian Ant' will give you a feel for the character as well as some insight into some new features, one being a Nebula Tour which is a very exciting journey that you can enjoy with Orion in the game."

The voice pack will be available on April 8. Pre-orders are now open, and getting in early means you will be entered to win a variety of Shatner swag. There's also a Behind the Scenes video (below), just in case you're still finding it hard to believe this is really happening.


Just for fun, here's Shatner performing Space Oddity.


Permalink

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

When. Is. The. PS4. Version. Out? Fucking fuck microsoft those fucks! *Ahem*. Sorry. But this timed-exclusive-pending-forever thing is really annoying. I got this feeling that, even though it is supposed to be F2P, it will cost us when it finally decides to come out. Is Shatner supposed to be cool then? I dunno...would prefer Liam Neeson or Morgan Freeman. Hell, Martin Freeman even! But Shatner? And pre-order for DLC? Is it in limited supply? Because i know my money certainly is!

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

When. Is. The. PS4. Version. Out? Fucking fuck microsoft those fucks! *Ahem*. Sorry. But this timed-exclusive-pending-forever thing is really annoying. I got this feeling that, even though it is supposed to be F2P, it will cost us when it finally decides to come out.

Maybe I'm missing something or being daft, but how is Elite free-to-play?

Also: if Elite was out on PS4 right now you'd likely be doing exactly what I'm doing - tapping your foot so hard it makes holes in the floor, not playing the game, and sending bitter mental waves towards Frontier Developments for not bothering to support the console version... Wanna give them money to paint your ship? Well, you can't, as that feature isn't enabled yet despite being in the game for months. Wanna get Horizons to land on planets and utilise a synthesis system? Well, eff you, you dirty console peasant...

XB1 version's absolutely months behind the PC, so at the moment PS4 owners are just lucky they're not being spurned whilst owning the damned game. If you're likely to have a PC that can run it any time soon, just wait for that version because it seems like that's the only one the team cares about.

As for Shatner: sounds nifty, but aren't those voice packs for PC only?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

It's easy to forget that, when he drops the over-the-top hamminess, Shatner makes a pretty darn good narrator.

As for Shatner: sounds nifty, but aren't those voice packs for PC only?

'Fraid so. The voice packs are for use with the VoiceAttack [http://www.voiceattack.com/] program, which is basically a speech-to-macro program for Windows only.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Maybe I'm missing something or being daft, but how is Elite free-to-play?

Also: if Elite was out on PS4 right now you'd likely be doing exactly what I'm doing - tapping your foot so hard it makes holes in the floor, not playing the game, and sending bitter mental waves towards Frontier Developments for not bothering to support the console version... Wanna give them money to paint your ship? Well, you can't, as that feature isn't enabled yet despite being in the game for months. Wanna get Horizons to land on planets and utilise a synthesis system? Well, eff you, you dirty console peasant...

XB1 version's absolutely months behind the PC, so at the moment PS4 owners are just lucky they're not being spurned whilst owning the damned game. If you're likely to have a PC that can run it any time soon, just wait for that version because it seems like that's the only one the team cares about.

As for Shatner: sounds nifty, but aren't those voice packs for PC only?

Hm, fair enough. I kind of read some description of it a while ago that somehow planted the impression it was F2P in the mind and nothing else came along to say otherwise. It did seem a little too impressive sounding for F2P. As for the unfinished nature of the game, well that is also knowledge i was unaware of. The lack of news/updates other than the timed exclusive detail led to such assumptions. My expectations have now been realigned to match reality, thankyou.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

'Fraid so. The voice packs are for use with the VoiceAttack [http://www.voiceattack.com/] program, which is basically a speech-to-macro program for Windows only.

Yeah, thought so. Yet another reason to ignore the XB1 version if anyone has a chance to play the PC. I mean, I genuinely still love the thing, and I'll enjoy it even more when they finally bother to release Horizons. But Frontier clearly have their priorities.

The lack of news/updates other than the timed exclusive detail led to such assumptions. My expectations have now been realigned to match reality, thankyou.

Heh, no worries. I've not heard any news of a PS4 version either, but it could be that they'll release the Horizons version (they say 'before Q4') at the same time on both consoles, meaning it's more or less a fresh release across those platforms, which would make sense.

Of course, if they stagger the release on PS4 or haven't even started work on it, then yeah, PS4 owners will be the most screwed/marginalised. But at the moment Elite being on XB1's not exactly great if you pay any attention to what's going on with the PC scene.

 

[FalloutJack]

*Walks in, sees subject matter, and drops off the appropriate response...*


This is either very good or very bad. I'm not sure which, though.

 

[LetalisK]

Hm. This might push me to get the game. Question for you guys. I absolutely loved Rebel Galaxy. It's one of the few games I've been motivated to finish in a long time. How does it compare to Elite Dangerous?

 

[FogHornG36]

Thank you for putting that space oddity clip, i needed a good hard cringe...

 

[Mikeybb]

*Walks in, sees subject matter, and drops off the appropriate response...*


This is either very good or very bad. I'm not sure which, though.

I would also like to have this feller as my trusty, reliable copilot.

For now though I'll have to settle for the Shat when he is made available.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Heh, no worries. I've not heard any news of a PS4 version either, but it could be that they'll release the Horizons version (they say 'before Q4') at the same time on both consoles, meaning it's more or less a fresh release across those platforms, which would make sense.

Of course, if they stagger the release on PS4 or haven't even started work on it, then yeah, PS4 owners will be the most screwed/marginalised. But at the moment Elite being on XB1's not exactly great if you pay any attention to what's going on with the PC scene.

It can only benefit from more development time if the XB1 port is struggling. Though i'm not sure how the release of No Man's Sky will affect Elite's demand. Being an Escapist vagabond, i keep a casual eye on the PC scene. A gaming PC platform setup is an eventuality, with the speed of improvement it allows, so am just biding time so far. To be honest, space exploration is a new genre for me with Rebel Galaxy being the only teeth cutting experience. Am a little excited and maybe scared of the possibilities.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

It can only benefit from more development time if the XB1 port is struggling. Though i'm not sure how the release of No Man's Sky will affect Elite's demand.

I would say Elite and No Man's are very different games, but I still have no idea what you really do in the latter... Even so, in Elite you could just be sitting there for about ten to fifteen whole minutes, perhaps not even needing to touch the joypad at all as you inch your way [at many times the speed of light] within a system to a distant star/black hole/space-thing, and very few games have the balls to be that--- er, reserved. It's one of the reasons I love it - it gives very few fucks about going out of its way to entertain.

As for dev time? The XB1 version's not struggling as a build, per se, it's just lagging several months behind in terms of the expansion/season. What's there now is pretty rock solid, and moreishly engaging if the player takes a liking to it. I just don't currently want to venture out/in and commit another 60 something hours until I have Horizons.

To be honest, space exploration is a new genre for me with Rebel Galaxy being the only teeth cutting experience. Am a little excited and maybe scared of the possibilities.

Only seen glimpses of Rebel Galaxy, but it obviously seems like a completely different experience in terms of control; one of Elite's tangibly thrilling yet mundane/mundane yet thrilling experiences is the simple act of docking, landing, taking off, orienting your ship around asteroids or a planet's rings, fuel skimming [certain] stars, and so on. If people don't find that very moment to moment experience enjoyable (regardless of what you're doing in-game), I doubt they'd find it very engaging.

I'd also say it practically demands to be played with significant use of online resources at the start, or/and with good advice from fellow players, because in some ways it's more obtuse than something like, say, Dark Souls re the devil being in the details. The community trading/commodities website's also arguably essential if you want to make the most of a trading role, at least until you suss out some trade routes/regions of your own.

 

[Ylla]

I just want my friendship drive back
*Throws money at Elite Dangerous anyway*

 

[Czann]

This game was on my list anyway, but now it just jumped several positions ahead.