Audio diaries.

[silver wolf009]

Audio diaries, I love audio diaries. I know some people see them as meaningless collectiables, but I really view them as something that incrediably expand the story. But then there are those audio diaries that either scare me sh*tless, or make me feel sad for the character.

So escapist, share with us your feelings on audio diaries. And what you feel are the scariest or the saddest or the best audio diaries.


Peter Stevens, Fallout 3, Vault 87

"Cantstandthesoundsanymore
takethepillstheysaywhytakethem
IAMNOTCRAZYIAMNOTCRAZYJasonslaughternofamilygoneforever
stuckherefor evereternityend
IamsaneIammeIamforever"


Jamie, Fallout 3, Dunwich building forsaken ruins

"Sharp knife. Sharp knife to send him to deep temple. Flay and say my words. Abdul comes again, on the feast of the weaker. Feast for the Deep Temple.
Born again, here. Alhazzared G?yeth G?yeth."

Emergency Catasphrophy response unit, Fallout 3, Germantown police head quarters

"These days I feel like more of a preacher than a nurse. We've lost hope that the reservists will be back. I can only hope they died with some scrap of honor and didn't abandon us. Without medication, people are succumbing to radiation sickness, for which there is no hope of treatment. We can do nothing more than make our patients comfortable as we await the end. When the painkillers and whiskey run out, prayer is all that we can offer them. I've taken to wearing a headwrap; I don't want them to see how much of my own hair has fallen out."

 

[ultrachicken]

I love audio diaries. I think they're a great way of conveying information without resorting to a cutscene (looking at you, metal gear).

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

I like audio diaries sometimes, but I'm easily bored. So whatever.

 

[latenightapplepie]

I love audio diaries. I think I would love ordinary diaries as well. Anything to flesh out the characters and settings a little bit more is excellent.

EDIT: The creepiest audio diaries I can think of at the moment are archaeologist Tanis' first few in Borderlands. The game is pretty silly and lighthearted until you come across these diaries and hear about Tanis' team being eaten by Skags and Tanis' growing madness.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

I hate collecting them....that is all I can say

 

[Insert Comedy Here]

"Have a happy Holocaust..."

Fallout 3, Keller Family tapes.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I like audio diaries. I find nothing wrong with them, they're just a collectable and you're not forced to listen to them through. Usually.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Yeah, most of the time. Usually they add some interesting backstory and flesh out the games universe.

In particular for me was BioShock. That game had some great audio logs.

 

[ShakesZX]

Audio Diaries, if implemented correctly can be an important part of defining an environment. Games such as Fallout 3 do a great job of incorporating those diaries into the atmosphere of the game. However, like in Bioshock, when the diaries become more of a collectible with a loss of purpose (many of the Bioshock audio files I find repeat others), then they become fairly annoying.

 

[Twad]

THere are easy way to add fluff, flavor and background information to the player without interrupting gameplay.

 

[Tharwen]

"I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse. I want to take the ears off, but I can't! It's my curse, it's my fucking curse! I want to take the ears off! Please! Take them off! Pleeeeeeease!"

 

[Daestar]

I don't really like audio diaries, collecting the diaries in Borderlands for Tannis was a real pain, because I had to like 6 times, twice per character, but I'm lightened from that by being able to play Sledge Static whenever I have to listen to her painfully slow descent to madness.

So really, they're not bad, but I don't really care for audio diaries, they're a pain to me while gathering, and listening to them.

 

[Vrex360]

I love audio diaries. Especially in games like Bioshock where you hunt around for them and you learn bits of the story. It was great, brilliant voice work and good solid writing that made the story flesh out and come alive in a way that just playing the game without them never would.

Similar story with the whole Web of Intrigue with Prototype. Seeing one of those little targets on screen was such a treat.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Some of Fallout 3's audio diaries are so sad that I can't stand it.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 Spoiler

Such as the one near the middle where you're going through your dad's audio diaries in the Jefferson Memorial (I think it was there) where it's his testing diaries and everything is all happy... hearing him laughing with his wife... and knowing the whole time that she had died... that makes me sad just thinking about it.

Fallout 3 was an extremely depressing game... I hope New Vegas brings a bit of humor into it because I think I would spiral into depression if they keep the same tone.

EDIT: Oh, I thought of another good one... the puppy one from BioShock... you know which one this is.

 

[Serenegoose]

I like the idea of audio diaries but I think often the implementation of them is a little silly. They're always lying around in completely public spaces that have nothing to do with the character in question, and why would you record a diary and then drop it on the ground? Diaries are for you, not other people, and you don't leave them where you make them, you take them and add to it! I get that it's a way of dripfeeding characterisation and plot details to the player that might make an an acceptable break from reality, but sometimes it just seems a little odd.

 

[wrecker77]

I think they are wonderful. A great new storytelling device, I could go on and on about some of my favorites. So I will.

I don't know if they count, but if they do, my favorite are the radio broadcasts from resistance 2. The one where he see's the father and son die and the next one where he climbs out of his bunker to see the songs body and find it to be a chimera zombie, chilling.

In Bioshock, during the first level, their is one that sounds like a very angry voice message on an answering machine about a hole in a bathroom that leads to a theater and how it makes it smell like crap.

Fallout 3, the building thats haunted. You find the logs scattered around, depicting the adventures and decline of sanity of the wastelander, and they are all either conveniently placed next to a severed head on a table that moves, or next to a corpse and statue of a monster.

Also Fallout 3, while not an audiolog, needs a shoutout. Germantown police headquarters, one of the 911 logs is from the insane dude talking about how moths are eating him and his shoes are alive, and all sorts of crazy stuff. I can picture how he or she would say it too. And right next to it, their is the one about the man breaking into a home, and the man knocks out the women, and says "Sorry, she forgot to take her medicine today".

EDIT: Oh, I thought of another good one... the puppy one from BioShock... you know which one this is.

Goddamn it! Suppressed memories...

Spoiler

Making a child kill a defenseless puppy.... DAMN YOU ANDREW RYAN AND THE ASIAN GUY WHO BUILT BIG DADDYS

 

[oreopizza47]

If it's collectable, point me at it. If it talks to me, give me some popcorn so I can listen properly.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I love audio diaries. They add more to the story and provide background. And they are generally unobstructive to gameplay.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I think audio diaries are a great way of conveying either parts of the story itself or the backstory in the game. I think Bioshock had some really good ones, my favourites being Bill McDonaugh's , though I also liked a particular Suchong diary

Spoiler

That being, when Suchong is killed by the Big Daddy after hitting the Little Sister. It's not that I didn't like Suchong, that diary just always made me laugh.