I hate where the put the loading screen after the dragging scene. It should be right after the second black out.
Also, it’s hard to tell when I’ve disengaged the tram.
I have scanned through this entire thread and I am completely dumbstruck and mystified that no one - not a single soul - has mentioned how absolutely fucking god-awful the HECU speech is… it is akin to getting dental work done… on your ears!..
As some of you know (from the Where is HECU Marine audio folder thread) I went through the trouble of muting every last HECU speech wav… I hate the HECU speech that much!.. especially the taunts. There is no way in hell I am alone… no fucking way that all of you actually like/enjoy the HECU speech? This is truly the worst voice acting work I have ever seen in a game. Muting HECUs (was afraid to break game by deleting them) took BM to a whole new level and made it essentially… perfect. And HECUs are like Assassins now!
So my input would be: [1] Cut the HECU speech amount to about 1/5 of its current. [2] Add heavy walkie-talkie distortion to all HECU speech - to where it is almost unintelligible (like original). [3] Soften and reduce volume of all HECU speech significantly. [4] Add some echo to HECU speech - since virtually every instance takes place in a location that would produce some echo. [5] Use no less than four dudes for HECU speech voice recording!!
Yeah, I liked them more in the original.
Thanx Dotard… me and you have had our differences for sure, but I am thrilled you are with me on this one. 
And for the record, please know that I appreciate all the hard work that went into making HECU speech… of course, a ton of work probably went into things like Windows Vista & Catwoman…
it was bad, but I think you are overreacting
Maybe more lines and voice actors would fix it. Sometimes they say funny things not appropriate for the given situation, like me being behind a door and them yelling: “squad neutralize freeman!”
Well, first:
- They shouldn’t have had any idea about Gordon’s presence as I was quiet
- If they know about him (judging by their lines) why won’t they just open the door and attack?
I know it’s not entirely the dev’s fault as good AI is hard to do, but it’s funny.
I disliked most of it as well. It just sounded so…immature?. Or just really stupid things to say.
Even if some of the lines are from HL (not sure if they are or not), the way they’re ‘acted’ out just makes me cringe.
They don’t sound like highly trained professionals doing a kind of “seek and destroy” cover up mission, they sound like a bunch of young men (like, between 18 and 21) that had nothing better to do than pick up a gun and run around shooting people for fun, like it was something they just decided on the spot after breakfast.
Don’t even get me started on the filter used.
To be honest, I think that the HECU voice acting problem could be fixed simply with better direction. Sadly, that’s not going to happen, because the developers intentionally chose the current direction to avoid making an intelligent game.
Hey bro – it was the one thing that almost ruined a game that I waited seven long years for… muting those wavs was one of the best decisions I made this year.
And gents, I highly encourage you to mute (or rename those two folders - which would likely work) those wavs for your 2nd or 3rd playthrough. It is like another game - much better and more mature (you are spot-on Bendy) one. And as I suggest in that other thread: it makes for much more challenging combat with those bastards… not knowing when and where their attacks are coming from… attacks not telegraphed to you in advanced. Wicked shit!
still think it doesn’t need change, they were highly immature in Half Life, except that they sounded like they gave fellatio to a mix of acid and voicedecoders, while they sound more human in Black Mesa
I still get that you hate the taunts, but I simply ignore them
I’m still considering modulating them like so, “if I can be arsed” as they say.
I do agree they are rather immersion-breaking. I was actually going to make a sound pack that gave them the FEAR Replica voices, but I got lazy.
^ get off your lazy ass and make it happen cap’n… or as the HECUs (use to) say “DO IT!!”
I have a fair amount of audio editing experience - and have used many filters in Audition et al… I am pretty confident that if you know your stuff half decent, you should be able polish these turds… into something that is not-too-shabby.
I think the key (really) is to make them just another audio element… a bit player… that supplements the environment and current situation – and does not become the main attraction - like a screaming 4-year-old brat in a Walmart - which (clearly) the voice actor set out to emulate. In other words, make them so it is easy to forget they are there… should one choose to. And prolly still mute a shit-load of them… maybe more than half… or turn those ones into soft mumbles or something.
I will be first in line to download your HECU voice pack.
Thanks, I’ve been making a soundpack for the whole game for a while now, it’s just a pain in the ass renaming files and stuff. Although I think the Replicas sound fine the way they are, no need for an echo or anything.
This is what they will sound like incase you’re wondering.
[COLOR=‘Red’]“it’s just a pain in the ass renaming files and stuff”
Have you tried Win7 X Folder?.. it is a pretty nice app for batch-renaming… you could add something like [COLOR=‘Red’]_replicas to all files in a given folder with just a couple clicks. Adobe Bridge does batch-renaming too, but I like X Folder better.
Just listened to the replicas… yikes… forgot FEAR enemy voices drove me fucking nuts too – for me, that is still way, waaaay too obnoxious. I will pass on voice pack afterall… I love my (slient HECUs) BM just the way it is… But good luck bro!
I might try the Win7 X app. I don’t know, I thought the FEAR Replicas sounded fine, very serious to me. Different tastes I guess. I’ll be including other sounds as well (sfx as a whole were a bit lackluster in BM, to me anyways), so you can exclude the HGrunt sounds, but include the other sounds if you want. I really ought to get Fraps and record a video of the sounds.
You would be doing yourself a disservice by not getting X Folder (free) - if you ever do any renaming of files. Plus it does replace – which is indispensable when you have hnuderds fo misspleeld wurdz in your file names.
I completely disagree about sound fx in BM – I think they rock… particularly the ambient environment sounds… I actually made a couple ambient tunes (cobbled together from BM ambient and other stuff in my stash) to add to my ambient playlist (that includes a bunch of HL/HL2/Portal ambient pieces). This is one place where BM shines.
I will just add (and leave it there) that if HECUs were very distorted with walkie-talkie, and also muffled - as if coming through a gas mask (whether those a-holes wear them or not - and would entail making them softer with less volume) – then I would be gung-ho. Anything short of that… anything that does not lower the obnoxiousness levels, drastically, would get the ole heave-ho from me. There is something more mysterious (and almost spooky) about the original HL HECUs… because you couldn’t make out what they were saying half the time. Again, good luck bro!
Here is a shot at Half Lifing the Black Mesa HECU. It’s actually a fairly complex process, particularly trying to adjust the register so it sounds like the originals.
First is BM original, followed by modulated BM version, followed by HL original for comparison.
^ I quite like the Mod’d BM, sounds more ‘modern’, than HL1 but similar feel.
Certainly an improvement. By not hearing him like he is right up in your fucking grill - mere inches away - it feels much less retarded and way less amateurish… obnoxiousness levels have been diminished tenfold. I still think the tiniest bit of reverb/echo could go a long way. You are never in a room with those a-holes that has carpeted walls and full of soft sofas etc… they only seem to appear in places that would produce at subtle echo - at a minimum. Cutting the volume by 50-70% across the board would be a great idea as well – as I mentioned above… imho of course.
Alas, I will be sticking with my muted BM nonetheless… I love it too much now to have anything but… now I just hope I get a chance to play again in near future… too much f-ing work. 