On The Secret Life Of Videogame Voice Actors

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'Spot On' feature discussing the world of the videogame voice actor, as the article notes by way of introduction: "Their contributions are never seen, but their work can make or break the spell a game casts upon the gamer." The piece continues: "Brilliant performances, like those in Mafia and Freedom Force, help totally immerse players in another reality, while on the opposite end of the spectrum, Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds and some Resident Evil games have voice work so bad they offer up unintentional B-grade-movie-style chuckles", before ending by pointing out: "A good voice actor can earn between $850 and $1,000 for a four-hour recording session. Well-known celebrities command tens of thousands of dollars for a single session." What are your favorite voice-acting performances in recent games?

Comments

Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic

[jebiester]

The voice acting in this game was brilliant, and it really helped make the game.

Some of the voices were loops of star wars alien-speak, but the fact that all dialogue was spoken and sounded reallistic and in character really helped make the game.

Re:Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic

[Senjutsu]

Hear, Hear! I found Bastilla's voice acting to be particularly good.

The only voice that disappointed me was the Jedi Master who was the same species as Yoda. He spoke in normal sentence order instead of Yoda's trademark "Object Subject Verb" pattern. It just didn't make sense that that speech pattern was some personal affectation of Yoda's, rather than the product of the native language of the race.

Yes .. But...

[polyp2000]

Resident Evil games have voice work so bad they offer up unintentional B-grade-movie-style chuckles

I'd call that authentic, what is Resident Evil if not the videogame incarnation of the classic b-movie theme Zombies

You can hardly complain about the acting in a game/movie of that genre!

My Fav

[pat_trick]

David Hayter, voice actor for Solid Snake of Metal Gear Solid / Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. Also, incidentally, the writer for X-Men and X-Men 2. Filmography at imdb.

Cam Clarke

[geminidomino]

This is one BUSY freakin' individual! TMNT, Grandia 2, Metal Gear Solid, Painkiller, Dark Cloud 2, Eternal Darkness, Legaia 2, Alundra 2, Xwing Alliance, even Rise of the Dragon. *huff huff*

This guy has been in so many kickass games, I hope he pulls in the high-end dough for it. If you've played a lot of the games he's in, a lot of times you can't even tell it's him until a word hits your ear just so, and its like "Hey, is that Leonardo?"

My favorite recent voice acting.

[dancingmad]

Disgaea. In Japanese.

The Japanese do voice acting much better. The voices are more emotive, even the sterotyped (big tough guy, for example) voices sound like they have more heart, and they can pull seiyuu (voice acting) talent to do such work.
American voice acting blows chunks in comparison. Seiyuu talent works on games and anime, which Americans treat as throw away.

I was planning on not buying anymore RPGs dubbed in English (Phantom Brave, yay!) but Final Fantasy 12 might make me change that. Hopefully Dragon Quest 8 will come with Japanese.

Re:Best Voice recently

[Ha-reed]

James Warner as Irenicus in Baldur's Gate 2.

Errr.. that's David Warner. As in Klingon Chancellor Gorkon from ST VI or the scientist guy from the second TMNT movie.

Max Payne 2!

[Anonymous Coward]

Has no-one played Max Payne 2? The voice acting was excellent, really drawing you in to the film-noir atmosphere. Plus, most thugs also have some narration, plus the different TV Channels, plus the recorded tape you can start playing, plus, plus, plus...