Slashdot Mirror
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?
The voice acting in the Resident Evil games is INTENTIONALLY cheesy to reflect the Italian zombie movies of the 70's and 80's that inspired the series.
Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
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.
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!
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
I became quite attached to the sound of my voice in that game ( not my voice but the voice of my character, which wasnt me, but I created him, not as part of the released game but in game after I bought it )
What are your favorite voice-acting performances in recent games?
Monster #72 from Doom. The way he howled when I blew his friggin' brains out was really moving. I nearly cried over that performance.
A close second place has to be whoever had the vocal stamina to do "wacka-wacka-wacka-wacka..." for hours straight when they were recording the soundtrack for Pac-Man! Someone with talent like that should move to Hollywood and be making Police Academy movies!
One of the few games that managed to pull off a sad ending did it so well partially because of its superb voice acting. If you want to play a game with awesome voice acting, or just an awesome game, you can find this one in bargain bins for $10.
I gotta hand this one to Bruce Campbell as the "Tour Guide" in the Spiderman game. The only bad part about it was the fact that I was paying more attention to him than the game.. ;)
I haven't gotten around to trying Evil Dead: A Fistfull of Boomstick yet, but I imagine he's just as good in that one (even though the game got some pretty bad reviews)
End of line..
-Best concept for an end villain ever. -Best plotline of any game, period. -It does the best job of completely rejecting average FRPG stereotypes without becoming one itself, while still keeping an interesting setting you can relate to. -Best puzzle ever.(The tomb.) -Best NPC interaction, as its characters do grow, do banter with each other, and are three-dimensional. -Best areas.(Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts) In short, it's refreshingly original, has the best story and characters of anything we've seen, and never lets up on either.
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
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.
Ohwait ;)
Actually I liked all the voices in Grim Fandango, but the main character Manny was one of the best performances I've heard from a computer game voice actor.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
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?"
"I'm going to tear your head off and shit down your neck," in the final battle... and then HE ACTUALLY DOES IT!
One of the lesser known games, Armed and Dangerous has some fantasic voice acting. The cut-scenes in the game are some of the most well done in terms of the actual acting and in terms of their humorous content.
Great voice acting all around, the characters in the movies were all great, and especially all the radio stations. A tip though, if you rip the Vice City radio stations, dont listen to them while driving, you start seeing pink arrows everywhere...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
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.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
When 900 years you reach, speak anyway you want you will.
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.
In both these games, some of the biggest thrills I've had have been hearing a random NPC's voice and going "Holy shit, it's Tenchi!" (Matt Miller voiced Clasko in FFX and X-2) or "Aw yeah, Vash is on the bridge!" (Jonny Yong Bosch as an unnamed lieutenant on the Woglinde). The voice acting from all of the cast members was excellent; it's the anime alumni, however, who sometimes provide the most memorable performances (to anime fans, anyway).
On a related note, nobody's really mentioned Kingdom Hearts yet, either. Disney standards being what they are, the voice acting was top-notch from Disney and original character actors alike. I especially liked James Woods' performance as Hades (reprising his role from Hercules), and since Greece is an actual section of the game world for KH2 I'd be shocked if he didn't return for a third stab at the character.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
pretty fuckin sweet compilation of games.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I remember Grimgnaw's voice in the first campaigh, especially his "I know you..." speach, was really creepy - exactly the way you'd expect a Sadistic Dwarf to sound. I also remember going around for a few weeks saying "Takasi! Oh, excuse my elven" in a british accent instead of the usual swearing.
If you've ever played this game, they you must know what I'm talking about. Great voices. Ben was so gruff I almost laughed everytime he said something.
Given that one of the first posts talked about how good the Kyle Katurn voice was in Dark Forces (he's right), and how it made Luke sound lame, it's ironic that several of the voices were done by Hamil in FT!
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
In his defence, his voice never got on my nerves ;-)
... had an excellent soundtrack all around, but the English voice acting is phenomenal (I've never played it through with another language). Aside from my loyalty to the man for his great movies, I wasn't impressed by Bruce Campbell's performance as the narrator in Spiderman 2. His lines seemed very flat to me, as if he was relying purely on the fact that he's Bruce freaking Campbell to carry them and make them important (which it almost does). But, I guess that the quality level that he offers is right on par for the game though, because with the exception of a few of Tobey Maguire's spiderman quips, the whole of the spoken dialogue is nuinspired.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
-Voltaire
The original warcraft had the awesomest voice acting of all times (especially when repeatedly clicking on the characters.) That was funnier than the game itself (at least after a few beers.)
That aside, I really liked Homeworld. The radio voices were really dispassionate and distant, and in combination with the sound effects and music gave the game a very eerie atmosphere.
My third favorite are the German soldiers in the sub pen mission in MoHAA--they're standing around discussing something like "why are all the Norwegians so mad at us? Just because we're taking their women to Germany to breed the master race." It's flawless unaccented German, and I honestly have to respect any German voice actor who could pull off a line like that without breaking up laughing.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
David Ogden Stiers's voice-overs for Icewind Dale are the best voice acting I have ever heard in a game. I can listen to the opening segment time after time and never get bored. Or the second intro: "And so you continue your journey... Alone." A lesser actor would have hammed up that line, but Stiers delivers it with understated grace and musicality.
The guy can do amazing things with his intonation. It came as no surprise to me that he's an accomplished orchestra conductor as well.
He's also in lots of Woody Allen films.
Obligatory joke answer: Marvin Mindbender in the C64 game Impossible mission.
Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.
- Oscar Wilde
I was first introduced (or so I thought) to the impressive talent of Michael Bell in the Soul Reaver series as Raziel. The story, but most especially the voice acting, really elevated the game's quality to a higher standard.
It was only after reading the man's filmography that I understood what a powerhouse of animation and game acting he was. It includes game roles in everything from I-Ninja to Warcraft 3, and my jaw hit the floor when I read some of the animation credits from my childhood that he claims (Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man). This guy has been doing this (and well) for a very long time!
(The other actors for the Soul Reaver series should not be forgotten either, including Simon Templeman, Rene Auberjonois of ST:DS9, and another fav of mine: Tony Jay as the Elder God)