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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.
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!
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.
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!
When 900 years you reach, speak anyway you want you will.
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
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
You joke, but the complete absence of a human voice for Gordon Freeman seems totally deliberate.
If you rummage around in Half-Life's pak0.pak datafile, you'll find a couple of pain noises for Freeman which sound like normal human gasps and grunts, just like you get in every other FPS, but I don't think they ever actually get used.
I'm surprised other game developers haven't jumped on board the 'you are the protagonist' route that Half-Life took, what with its absence of speech from the player's character, the lack of third-person cutscenes, etc, etc...
In terms of voice acting in games, some of my favourite is from System Shock 2. Shodan, anyone?
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