I'd like to chime in on this. Over the past few days I've been sat reading the forums but haven't posted. After having finally played the game (and really enjoying the story/characters) I have to say please please sort out the audio issues for the next episodes Telltale.
There really is no need to keep the filesize down to this extent. For a title that relies so heavily on characters and voice acting, it seems almost absurd to apply such heavy compression. It really breaks the immersion at times, especially considering the voice acting itself is generally very good.
This port feels rather rushed. The audio quality is quite simply terrible, it sounds like someone is talking in vent with poor quality headphones. Its really inexcusable.
In addition, when you go to the control section of the options, it displays and xbox controller. Seems like lazy steps on behalf of the developers.
I am being civil here, but really the poor audio quality makes the game much less immersing.
The audio problems are really noticeable but I don't think they ruin the game overall. The game is just so great, I managed to shut out a lot of the audio quality problems. It is inexcusable though, I understand they have to keep the file size low for the Xbox and PS3 but PC users are used to downloading big games by now.
I have noticed some issues as well. In my opinion, the overall quality is ok, but there are some issues w/occasional pops, and where the character will not speak the line correctly...you select an option and it appears they begin to say it, then it just cuts off.
the current audio problem might be due to do with limited budget microphones stuff like that.
Don't worry if they do good with the first season they wil likely improve the sound in the next ones.
As for my personal opinion i don't think the audio is bad. i guess i had my headphones volume very high
If you had your headphones high then you should notice the lack of depth more, the distortion should be greater.
The audio is bad and it's a problem that's plagued TellTale's previous games. The main thread for this is here. I joined the forum to comment on this as I've had enough of it.
This port feels rather rushed. The audio quality is quite simply terrible, it sounds like someone is talking in vent with poor quality headphones. Its really inexcusable.
I am being civil here, but really the poor audio quality makes the game much less immersing.
Firstly, I do want to acknowledge that I loved the game and cannot wait until the next installment arrives.
Nonetheless, I did find some of the sound files (curiously, it was only during the conversations) to be of poor quality when compared to the rest of the production. I would get pops, and hissing, and sometimes the volume level would change slightly during a conversation. It was the only thing that distracted me from being completely immersed in the game.
If this is simply an issue of compression, then it would be great if TT could make uncompressed files available for dl.
I don't think there's any limits on PSN but the limit for XBLA games currently at 2GB so there's no excuse for that version.
what i was saying is that size does not matter in any of the ports and that the 2 gb in the XBLA is not a problem right now, and thats no the reason of them "chopping" down the audio.
And the headphones was only my opinion, i mean nothing game breaking through my 2 gameplays. For me lol
what i was saying is that size does not matter in any of the ports right now and that the 2 gb is not a problem right now, and thats no the reason of them "chopping" down the audio.
Yeah I got your point, I was supporting it with fact I dont know what the PSN limits is but 360 is definitely 2GB
There's no excuse why TellTale continue to get great voice actors and compress their performances down to sub-radio quality files
Here here!!!! Please patch or re-release a better version on psn for bttf and JP!!! Would be nice for someone from telltale to Respond to these audio problems too!
I didn't even notice the sound problems my first play through, until the ending sequence. Once I heard it, I hear it throughout the game. Now it is a bit distracting. I think I was so engrossed in the story the first time, I was oblivious to it.
Yeah I heard the popping/clipping sound problems. The spoken dialog in general didn't sound bad at all to me tho. Just when dialog starts or ends do I hear the glitches.
Had it cranked up on my surround sound last night too, HDMI from PC to TV, then optical audio to the surround.(For some reason there's less lag on the surround sound than thru TV? lol Same with Rocksmith, the surround is spot on but I notice lag in the TV. Funny)
I can't say I noticed poor audio in previous Telltale releases (except for one episode of Tales of Monkey Island which was fixed) but there was a bit of audio popping when the characters of speaking, more towards the end of the episode. Just my tuppence worth.
I agree, an excellent game, marred by ugly, popping, over-compressed audio. The dialogue and voice acting is what really stands out in this game, it's excellent, and for it to be limited by size constraints is pretty unfortunate. Still, I loved playing the game, and once I got used to the crappy audio, it really didn't affect me or my enjoyment of the game.
Wasn't really having massive issues playing this with speakers, but as soon as I put the headphones on, it became rather ugly with the screeching and popping. A second build with far less compressed audio would indeed be appreciated.
Just wanted to drop in and let you all know how happy we are that you’re enjoying The Walking Dead, and that we really appreciate your feedback on this audio issue in the PC and Mac versions. To that end, we have just released an update for PC and Mac that makes changes to the compression used in the game and will offer you much-improved audio performance. We always appreciate feedback from our fans and want to give you the best experience possible, so we got this update out to you as fast as we could.
If you’re playing the game on Steam, the update will be downloaded for you automatically.
If you’re using the Telltale version from our site, you will need to download and install the game again. You can do this by clicking the joystick icon in the upper right, and then downloading and installing either the PC or Mac version of the build again. Don’t uninstall the game prior to doing this is you may lose your progress in the game. When the game is re-installing, it will ask you if you want to keep your current settings and saves. Say yes to this.
Once again, we greatly appreciate your feedback, and we look forward to hearing what you think of the audio in this updated build. Enjoy!
Mike posted about this and then removed the post (I think because it was too early) but there's a new "v2" version of the episode available to download, and right from the first line the voice quality is clearly much, much better than the original version!
Thank you very much to Telltale for taking this problem seriously and getting it sorted out. I look forward to this improvement being carried forward to all future Telltale episodes, of TWD and other series too - it makes a real difference to a large number of people's enjoyment of the games.
Just wanted to drop in and let you all know how happy we are that you’re enjoying The Walking Dead, and that we really appreciate your feedback on this audio issue in the PC and Mac versions. To that end, we have just released an update for PC and Mac that makes changes to the compression used in the game and will offer you much-improved audio performance.
this is the kind of stuff that will get me to preorder again and again from you guys.
in this day and age, when gaming has become a business where suits just count up the cash, a move like this gets you long term customers.
keep up the great coomunication with the consumers
The audio sounds much improved in the new version!
I found that turning down the games default "10" settings for the audio also helps. It is almost like the game is over-modulating when set to max. I have mine set at...
Voice - 8
Music - 5
Sound - 8
Seems to work very well, at least for me. I'm running a SB X-Fi with Logitech 5.1s.
Is the new version finally free from audio sounding weird whenever there's an 'S'? That's been driving me crazy in the previous Telltale games Telltale should at least have 2 alternative download links, one for those who want to save on quota & another for those who want a movie-like experience with higher bitrates
The audio sounds much improved in the new version!
I found that turning down the games default "10" settings for the audio also helps. It is almost like the game is over-modulating when set to max. I have mine set at...
Voice - 8
Music - 5
Sound - 8
Seems to work very well, at least for me. I'm running a SB X-Fi with Logitech 5.1s.
close to my settings. i have mine at:
voice: 8
music: 6
sound: 7
quite like playing it with the music off too. feels less "gamey" just hearing the ambient sounds.
a+ for the new version too. sound is much better. for a good example, the cop in the beginning. there are 2 spots where it pops and cackles, when he says his son goes uga and about the guy kicking the back of the seat. with the new version its perfect. no pops. well done telltale.
Once again, we greatly appreciate your feedback, and we look forward to hearing what you think of the audio in this updated build. Enjoy!
-Mike
Thanks for the attention and post. I hope because it's been noticed in more than a few reviews that this will continue to be addressed before hand with future TellTale games.
Hi, Mike. Cheers for listening to our feedback and acting on it so quickly. Tremendous way to restore my faith in you guys as a quality developer.
I just fired WD ep1 up to try out the new audio and it sounds miles ahead of what was there originally. As Neilka said earlier, I also hope you guys will carry this change in your audio packaging forward to your future game series and all further episodes of the WD, and I will continue to be proud to call myself one of your fans.
Maybe your integrated audio just sucks? BttF had fine sound for me, both PC and PS3
It has nothing to do with the sound card. It happens to literally everyone which can be proven by simply checking some let's play videos on youtube. The pops and audio gltiches even happens in the EXACTLY same spots for everyone no matter what kind of pc configuration they have.
The reason you don't hear it is either because you have shitty sound system or aren't really sensitive to audio issues.
If you are using standard pc speakers or speakers in your tv, then you will most likely not notice the issues.
To me it sounds like it has been wrongly downsampled/upsampled and is overly compressed on top.
They downsample the audio to put down the size of the game.
Not just that, but the way they downsample it is definitely not how you should do it. It reminds me of what happens if you downsample a 48khz sound file to 44khz using a low quality"fast" algorithm.
I mentioned in my review on Alternative Magazine Online how:
"Sadly, there are a few audio issues at times that might be due to compression, but they are few and far between enough to be forgivable."
My review copy from Telltale was the Steam version - am I correct in saying it should patch itself automatically? If so, I will update my review accordingly - great to see that the devs are taking on board feedback from players and responding in a timely fashion.
UPDATE: Apologies, I've only just seen the message from Mike above - great news!
Telltale, something is changed for better inside your comany! It was a rarity that an issue got repaired is so few time!
I'm enjoying the new audio and the comression quality is EXCELLENT!!!
You deserve my congrats!
Bloody hell TellTale, thought you guys would have learned by now! At least you released a fix, the good news is people, after complaining during Tales of Monkey island, the voice quality remained pretty good from there on out and remained good through Sam & max Season 3 to, but for some reason, I guess they wanted to see if they could try crappy quality again and see if anyone would notice from BTTF onwards?
Superb news for pc lot, and I think the ps3 & 360 versions sound fine. If only TT would fix bttf & Jurassic park on psn next with the same voice quality. Please?
Comments
There really is no need to keep the filesize down to this extent. For a title that relies so heavily on characters and voice acting, it seems almost absurd to apply such heavy compression. It really breaks the immersion at times, especially considering the voice acting itself is generally very good.
In addition, when you go to the control section of the options, it displays and xbox controller. Seems like lazy steps on behalf of the developers.
I am being civil here, but really the poor audio quality makes the game much less immersing.
no xbox/ps3 games can also be 20 gb big, the current audio problem might be due to do with limited budget microphones stuff like that.
Don't worry if they do good with the first season they wil likely improve the sound in the next ones.
As for my personal opinion i don't think the audio is bad. i guess i had my headphones volume very high
I don't think there's any limits on PSN but the limit for XBLA games currently at 2GB so there's no excuse for that version.
If you had your headphones high then you should notice the lack of depth more, the distortion should be greater.
The audio is bad and it's a problem that's plagued TellTale's previous games. The main thread for this is here. I joined the forum to comment on this as I've had enough of it.
And the thread on the Steam Forums is here
Nonetheless, I did find some of the sound files (curiously, it was only during the conversations) to be of poor quality when compared to the rest of the production. I would get pops, and hissing, and sometimes the volume level would change slightly during a conversation. It was the only thing that distracted me from being completely immersed in the game.
If this is simply an issue of compression, then it would be great if TT could make uncompressed files available for dl.
what i was saying is that size does not matter in any of the ports and that the 2 gb in the XBLA is not a problem right now, and thats no the reason of them "chopping" down the audio.
And the headphones was only my opinion, i mean nothing game breaking through my 2 gameplays. For me lol
Yeah I got your point, I was supporting it with fact
There's no excuse why TellTale continue to get great voice actors and compress their performances down to sub-radio quality files
Had it cranked up on my surround sound last night too, HDMI from PC to TV, then optical audio to the surround.(For some reason there's less lag on the surround sound than thru TV? lol Same with Rocksmith, the surround is spot on but I notice lag in the TV. Funny)
Hopefully Telltale are taking note of the impact that this problem has on their games' reviews and the company's reputation.
Not
Just wanted to drop in and let you all know how happy we are that you’re enjoying The Walking Dead, and that we really appreciate your feedback on this audio issue in the PC and Mac versions. To that end, we have just released an update for PC and Mac that makes changes to the compression used in the game and will offer you much-improved audio performance. We always appreciate feedback from our fans and want to give you the best experience possible, so we got this update out to you as fast as we could.
If you’re playing the game on Steam, the update will be downloaded for you automatically.
If you’re using the Telltale version from our site, you will need to download and install the game again. You can do this by clicking the joystick icon in the upper right, and then downloading and installing either the PC or Mac version of the build again. Don’t uninstall the game prior to doing this is you may lose your progress in the game. When the game is re-installing, it will ask you if you want to keep your current settings and saves. Say yes to this.
Once again, we greatly appreciate your feedback, and we look forward to hearing what you think of the audio in this updated build. Enjoy!
-Mike
Thank you very much to Telltale for taking this problem seriously and getting it sorted out. I look forward to this improvement being carried forward to all future Telltale episodes, of TWD and other series too - it makes a real difference to a large number of people's enjoyment of the games.
this is the kind of stuff that will get me to preorder again and again from you guys.
in this day and age, when gaming has become a business where suits just count up the cash, a move like this gets you long term customers.
keep up the great coomunication with the consumers
I found that turning down the games default "10" settings for the audio also helps. It is almost like the game is over-modulating when set to max. I have mine set at...
Voice - 8
Music - 5
Sound - 8
Seems to work very well, at least for me. I'm running a SB X-Fi with Logitech 5.1s.
close to my settings. i have mine at:
voice: 8
music: 6
sound: 7
quite like playing it with the music off too. feels less "gamey" just hearing the ambient sounds.
a+ for the new version too. sound is much better. for a good example, the cop in the beginning. there are 2 spots where it pops and cackles, when he says his son goes uga and about the guy kicking the back of the seat. with the new version its perfect. no pops. well done telltale.
Thanks for the attention and post. I hope because it's been noticed in more than a few reviews that this will continue to be addressed before hand with future TellTale games.
Hi, Mike. Cheers for listening to our feedback and acting on it so quickly. Tremendous way to restore my faith in you guys as a quality developer.
I just fired WD ep1 up to try out the new audio and it sounds miles ahead of what was there originally. As Neilka said earlier, I also hope you guys will carry this change in your audio packaging forward to your future game series and all further episodes of the WD, and I will continue to be proud to call myself one of your fans.
The reason you don't hear it is either because you have shitty sound system or aren't really sensitive to audio issues.
If you are using standard pc speakers or speakers in your tv, then you will most likely not notice the issues.
To me it sounds like it has been wrongly downsampled/upsampled and is overly compressed on top.
"Sadly, there are a few audio issues at times that might be due to compression, but they are few and far between enough to be forgivable."
My review copy from Telltale was the Steam version - am I correct in saying it should patch itself automatically? If so, I will update my review accordingly - great to see that the devs are taking on board feedback from players and responding in a timely fashion.
UPDATE: Apologies, I've only just seen the message from Mike above - great news!
Telltale, something is changed for better inside your comany! It was a rarity that an issue got repaired is so few time!
I'm enjoying the new audio and the comression quality is EXCELLENT!!!
You deserve my congrats!