I thought I would start another thread about this subject. Sorry about not posting links,
Wintermute Engine
http://dead-code.org/home/
Before you go bombarding them with questions they will ask you if you looked at the manual. That is a good idea because everything you want to know is there. I haven't used Wintermute yet myself so I can't give you definite answers, but here is their link that should answer everything for you
Wintermute Help
http://res.dead-code.org/doku.php
As for voices, you can get text to voice creators but they make your voices sound like robots, unless you have the money to spend for commercial voice changers. But yes you do have to record your own voices, the engines don't do them for you.
The engine does 2D and 3D 1st, and 3rd person games. The engine is free but if your game is commercial then you may have to purchase a license. I believe it does do 360 degree panning, the manual will tell you that for sure. Messages I've read over there they say that 800 x 600 is plenty for resolution, but now you have these high res monitors so that might have changed now, not sure about that, again read manual. I'm not fluent with Wintermute myself, I only skimmed over the demos and manual. I'm waiting till I finish all my work before I dive into the engine
The only time your graphics become cartoony is if you create them that way, actually, graphics look better through the engines. You can have text based games in all engines, but if you want to hear voices then you have to record them. Check out the links I gave you and check out their site as well as their forum, all your answers should be there. Hope this helps