Enemy chatter

For the last 7-8 years we have experienced a growth in a game component: enemies talk. This applies mostly to FPS games, but there are examples in other genres as well. When done correctly, this is great: instead of just bang bang kaboom click-clack aieeee sound effects we can hear enemies insulting us and saying funny things; examples of well done enemiy chatter are No One Lives Forever, Halo and Splinter Cell.

When done poorly, though, this feature can be a pain: enemies may speak random lines with no coherence with the current situation (he's behind that crate! But your character is a girl and in an open space...). They may keep shouting the same two lines over and over and over and over (get theeeem! Kill theeeem! Keep firing! Taking heavy fire!). They may also keep yelling orders even if they are alone (a lone enemy: cover me! Suppressing fire! Help me! Flank them! and my favourite: Grenade!! Thanks for the warning) and this on a regular basis.

Worst enemies chatter ever are IMO:

Outlaws (great game. Cool but annoying chatter): Don't be a fool marshall! You're outnumbered! Millions of times per level

Killzone (good one. Irritating chatter): get theeeem! Kill theeeem! Keep firing! Taking heavy fire! Billions of times a second

Alpha Prime (decent. Laughable chatter): Go, Go, Go!Quickly come on go! And these are about the only two lines enemies will say in the whole game, no kidding

Any game to add? (with quotes of course :D )

Mass Effect. The streaming is so bad, that comments usually come too late. For example, you may hear something like "Hmm, look at that pretty lake" while the character is drawing his/her weapon and shooting at bad guys.nopalversion

:lol:

Hey what's so strange about it? I live near a lake and things like that happen for real.

Btw, I remembered another funny chatter: in Thief Deadly Shadows there are these stone statues that animate and wander around looking for you. while they do that they talk to themselves in low freaky voices. The problem is they put together random small periods to create a longer sentence, so the result can be: Search and search and find and crush and crush and crush and find and crush and kill! :lol:

The rest of the voice acting is awesome, though.

*storms in building killing everybody*

NPC arrives

NPC: Alright marines lets do this!

*Storms into an empty building*

Oblivion: I'VE FOUGHT MUDCRABS TOUGHER THEN YOU! *Hit's them once in the face* I'VE FOUGHT MUDCRABS TOUGHER THEN YOU! *gives them a nice smack in head with a warhammer* I'VE FOUGHT MUDCRABS TOU-BLAAAGH!-*dead*

That line frikin' HAUNTS ME!

In company of heroes, this isn't a problem anymore, but I remember when you were playing the Axis team, you could have like, an MG team sitting perfectly still, just waiting patiently for the enemy, but I swear, every 5 seconds you would hear them say 'STOP PUSHING!" it was so annoying, that they had to make a patch taking that line out lol!

I love some of the stuff the terrorists in R6 Vegas say

"Whered he go?" "Man, your seein things, too much blow." Or "S***, hes dead!" "S***, B**** owed me money!"

I remember an elite in halo 2 saying "Come out, I have a banana for you" and a grunt yelling "VERY BAD THING!"

Or a game a freind showed me once, I think it was Theif 3 for PC

"Has thou mine plumsies?" "Plumsies all gone, I aters thems" "NOOOES!! PLUMSIE TAKER!"

Another good example: In Splinter Cell:

Guard A: 'I think I saw someone'

Guard B: 'Who...?'

Guard A: 'I don't know who. That's why I'm worried'

Guard A: *after blindly searching in the dark* 'Ok, I'll admit it: I'm scared...'

Awesome. Too bad they repeat it a lot, even in different languages in SC Double Agent.

I think some of the best AI (enemy and friend alike) I've heard is from Halo 3. Some seriously great stuff there. I also remember some of the conversations stormtroopers were having when you sneak up on them in Jedi Outcast, and those were hilarious too.

Some of the ones from Oblivion got really annoying, like the mudcrab one, and also "Why won't you DIE?," "Now is part where you fall down and bleed to death!" and many others.

Awesome. Too bad they repeat it a lot, even in different languages in SC Double Agent.

Black_Knight_00

Haha, same in RS Vegas.

I also remember seeing a video of a Marine in Halo 3 yells out 'THIS IS SPARTA!'

I got some more chatter gems from Western Outlaw, a crappy pc FPS I'm playing:

Bandit A: *after being shot from the player* "Aaaaahh! You got me!

Bandit B *three feet away from bandit A* "I think I hear him!!"

And another one. This one made me laugh big time, I'm sure it's random, so it was fun as heck:

Bandit A: *yelling to the player* "You should have never come here!"

Bandit B: *half a second later* "You should never have come here!"

:lol: Grammar freak bandit.

Best so far, to me. Is either the musical madman in Bioshock, or the runts in Halo 3. My favorite line ever uttered by an AI. Was in Halo, by a runt. He ranted about his friend "You killed flip yap, or was it yap flip?" He goes on about him being dead and how they went to nipple academy together.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=d7IiiyukTc

Best so far, to me. Is either the musical madman in Bioshock, or the runts in Halo 3. My favorite line ever uttered by an AI. Was in Halo, by a runt. He ranted about his friend "You killed flip yap, or was it yap flip?" He goes on about him being dead and how they went to nipple academy together.

edit: Link is sour, my WB. Youtube has the line in a bunch of videos. Just search, Funniest grunt line.

I think some of the best AI (enemy and friend alike) I've heard is from Halo 3. Some seriously great stuff there. I also remember some of the conversations stormtroopers were having when you sneak up on them in Jedi Outcast, and those were hilarious too.

Some of the ones from Oblivion got really annoying, like the mudcrab one, and also "Why won't you DIE?," "Now is part where you fall down and bleed to death!" and many others.

WeaponXMerc

This is the one that I thought of first when thinking about good ones. I remember one in one conversation the Storm Troopers were talking about their new health plan. It was great.

The most annoying one that comes to mind right away is the Klingon in Star Trek Legacy, "today is a good day to die", one shot and repeat.

Mass Effect. The streaming is so bad, that comments usually come too late. For example, you may hear something like "Hmm, look at that pretty lake" while the character is drawing his/her weapon and shooting at bad guys.nopalversion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d7IiiyukTc

Lol, don't kill a grunts Best friend, thanks for the search idea.

Btw, I remembered another funny chatter: in Thief Deadly Shadows there are these stone statues that animate and wander around looking for you. while they do that they talk to themselves in low freaky voices. The problem is they put together random small periods to create a longer sentence, so the result can be: Search and search and find and crush and crush and crush and find and crush and kill! :lol:

The rest of the voice acting is awesome, though.

Black_Knight_00

Yeah, I've always thought that the Thief games have always had the best enemy chatter.
Recently, The Witcher has had soem great lines, too - "Your mum sucks dwarf ****", for example. :lol:

As for laughably bad NPC chatter...hmm...Oblivion had some questionable dialogue - ie. "I heard you know how to move in light armour."