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Favorite/best/interesting voice casts?

Deadeye Dragoon

Scholar
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
105
So, after random drunk internet stuff I found out that this guy, good ole Smilin' Jack from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines: Computer Game...

653807-sm_pawnshop_10037_super.jpg


Is Bender from Futurama. Both are John DiMaggio.

And I've always had a giant wet spot for Fallout's voice cast:

CCH Pounder
Richard Dean Anderson
Clancy Brown
Richard Moll
Brad Garrett
Ron Perlman
Tony Shalhoub
Keith David
Frank Welker (who is in everything of course)
Cree Summer

I didn't include Tony Jay or Kath Soucie in that because they're already known awesome game voice actors. So sadly as awesome as any are, wouldn't include Jennifer Hale (Deionarra, Bastilla Shan, etc.) or Kevin Michael Richardson (Sarevok, etc. times a million), since VO is their job. That of course doesn't mean you can't include them in your all-star VO line-up.

So what's your favorite/the best collection of VO talent in a game? Or your most suprising discovery, such as mine of DiMaggio? Didn't Ellen Page VO something recently btw? What a sweet little number that is.
 

Gnidrologist

CONDUCTOR
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
20,856
Location
is cold
Bloodlines has the best overall voice acting of any game i've played.
I really like Divinity 2 voicing, but can't be bothered to look after the cast. The narrator and Belegar are probably my favorites.
Oh and JA2. All the recorded banter from mercs are so damn good both in execution and quotability. ''I mees ven Rasha vas at vor vit eevribadee''.
 
Self-Ejected

IncendiaryDevice

Self-Ejected
Village Idiot
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Nov 3, 2014
Messages
7,407
It's not my favourite but I'm a big IMDB trawler, I can trawl on there for hours at a time and I recently came across Malcolm McDowell's IMDB page and this guy's been VO'ing for years and I had no idea, so I guess he crops up for the surprise category:

Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994)
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1996)
Mummy: Tomb of the pharaoh (1996)
Star Trek: Generations (1997)
Superman (1998)
Superman: Shadow of Apokolips (2002)
Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest (2004)
Fallout 3 (2008) (the one everyone here knows about)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising (2009)
Wet (2009)
Bolt (2009)
God of War III (2010)
Killzone 3 (2011)
Elder Scrolls Online (2014)

Although Icewind Dale isn't known for it's dialogue, I always thought that when they did have it, it was really more superior than I was expecting, particularly Jim Cummings and Michael Bell:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0225966/

Micheal Bell's IMDB, almost purely Video Game credits since Balder's Gate: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068407/?ref_=tt_cl_t6

Jim Cummings likewise http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191906/?ref_=tt_cl_t1
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
6,207
Location
The island of misfit mascots
Well the obvious ones are Bloodlines and PS:T. I'd go the latter, though obviously the music, general ambience and it's near solitary status as a computer game story that's a tragedy (in the Hamlet 'pathetic shit who thinks he's the hero ends up kicking a lot of ass by eventually realising he's not the hero and accepts reality - winning bur realizing his original ideals were a shallow fantasy' mould, not the Greek 'everything is fucked' version of tragedy kind) obviously gives the cast a lot of help. But in their defence, I'd argue that while some parts, like Ravel, would be gold even if Prosper voiced them, and lots of great character dialogue is unvoiced (Dakkon's best material, in particular has no voice acting), there's so much stuff in that game that was written for talented voices actors in that it's the kind of stuff that is gold if performed well, but could have been utterly cringeworthy if done less than exemplary. Morte's quips, for example, are written in the kind of way that ordinary friends make quips - they aren't 'set piece funny lines', and they rely utterly on the voice actor nailing them (and some of the best are just reactions, complete non lines like his YEEEEAAHHH softly in the background when Falll-from-grace agrees to tag along. Sheena Easton is still the only non voice actor I've heard nail a role - normally voice acting is its own talent and guys like Mark Hamill who slide from screen to mike are the exception not the rule (and he didn't exactly do it seamlessly either, after scarring his face and realizing it meant be could never play leads again, and that he was too well known to get hired for character parts, the guy seemed to commit to voice acting as a start-again second career).

Take the near end sequence where the party get killed one by one. The end hinges on that working, and with a weaker voice cast it could have been cringeworthy. And every single one fucking nails it. Even Modron, whose voice til then is standard robot voice, let's slip just the faintest hint of actual emotion, while staying robotic enough to suggest that his breaking away from his nature was probably going to destroy him even if TTO didn't.

The other game, less obvious, I'd mention is the first FEAR. Didn't need a sequel and I loathe that they through away a beautifully crafted ending for a last second piece of sequel bait. But the whole game is written and voiced superbly, and Paxton Fettel (in that game - for me the sequels don't exist) is one of the most underrated antagonists in video games. The game plays the same twist and metagame commentary that reviewers jizzed themselves over with Bioshock, but does so far more subtly, to the point that a lot of players ended up missing just how much evidence the game gives that he's going far out of his way to minimise civilian casualties, and that his victims really did deserve to die (and that it the player characters existence, which Fettel is well aware of 'what's the first thing you remember', shows they were intent on continuing the experiments the first chance they got unless they were killed) - especially as, in the original if taken stand alone - it's far from clear that Alma is going to go full apocalypse as opposed to being fucked up and terrified (note the ending - kills you if you don't empty your clip into her fast enough, but then when she realises what's happened it's a whispered 'my baby' and a cut to teenage Alma, restrained in the lab, screaming as the infant player character is ripped from her arms). Beautifully voice acted all the way through, especially Fettel - and again, with lines that could have been cringe worthy if they weren't delivered well.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
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Bjørgvin
Baldur's Gate 2 and Morrowind.
Voice acting was good and the game didn't treat you like an illiterate by voice every bloody line in the game like modern games do.
 

rogozhin

Cipher
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
294
835511-bu_character_lauren.png


:bounce:


In Morrowind, the hoarseness of the Dunmer voices added a lot to the atmosphere for me. Sounded like inhabitants of a harsh land swept by sandstorms are supposed to sound. For the same reason those face replacement mods that give them perfect skin are an abomination.
 

Xeon

Augur
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
1,858
Kreia from KOTOR2 has a pretty good voice.
Jon Irenicus's second dream is really good, I also kinda like his sister Bodhi's southern accent I think.
Icewind Dale has pretty good voice actors, like the Druid chief and DLC transferring guy and several others.
 

SarcasticUndertones

Prospernaut
Joined
Nov 24, 2014
Messages
472
I was surprised when I realised Mitch Pilleggi was a voice in PS:T.

I didn't know Clancy Brown and RDA did voices in Fallout though.. good catch.
 

AW8

Arcane
Joined
Mar 1, 2013
Messages
1,852
Location
North of Poland
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
OP, you forgot

David Warner

as Morpheus in Fallout!

So what's your favorite/the best collection of VO talent in a game?
Well, I would like to name-

>General RPG Discussion

...Bah, I don't give a damn what sub-forum we're in!

I would like to name the Batman: Arkham games, and Batman: Arkham City in particular. The voice cast is fantastic. Even though they cheated a bit by having the two most important roles filled by the same two guys who'd already voiced these characters for 20 years. :)


You've got:

Kevin Conroy as Batman

Mark Hamill as Joker

Tara Strong as Harley Quinn

Grey DeLisle as Catwoman

Troy Baker as Two-Face

Wally Wingert as Riddler

Nolan North as Penguin

Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Freeze

Martin Jarvis as Alfred

Kimberly Brooks as Oracle

Corey Burton as Hugo Strange

Peter MacNicol as Mad Hatter

Danny Jacobs as Victor Zsasz


These guys absolutely nail their characters.
 

Deadeye Dragoon

Scholar
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
105
Yeah, I seem to have a black hole on David Warner in my head. He was great as Irenicus, but imo Irenicus is a tool. Totally forgot him in FO.

Also agree on Azrael's gigantic post wall. A key to PS:T was selling the emotion for each stage and each dialogue and the actors really nailed it. Not mentioned (probably known by everyone) is that TNO was voiced by Michael T. Weiss who was star of the nice Pretender show.

Fallout has had a lot of good non-VO-career VO talent. Even Fallout: Tactics--had R. Lee Ermey and Kurtwood Smith as generals. And fellow Star Trek actor Dwight Schultz. Schultz was also in FO2 along with Worf. I mean Michael Dorn. And Picard in Oblivion. There are FOUR LIGHTS! Fuck you Irenicus.

octavius said:
Baldur's Gate 2 and Morrowind.
Voice acting was good and the game didn't treat you like an illiterate by voice every bloody line in the game like modern games do.

Hah, it really screws me up when they put the subtitles of every dialogue line onscreen. Makes me read it too quickly; or freak out in panic and not register anything.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Agree with what others have mentioned, but Sacrifice, Soul Reaver, and to a lesser degree Crimson Skies stand out the most to me. Without voice acting, I doubt any of them would've worked for me. With bad voice acting, they would've been terrible. But with the hammy delivery -- over the top but never belittling the writing -- those games shine. I think I'd also put the original Star Craft up there: mediocre writing elevated by very solid voice acting. And perhaps Beyond Good & Evil, too.
 

Ninjerk

Arcane
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
14,323
OP how do you leave out Jim Cummings


Start 6m14s (I can't get the timestamp to work).
 

LeStryfe79

President Spartacus
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Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Bender's also Jake from Adventure Time. I love Futurama but I really love Adventure Time.
 

Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
The Dungeon Keeper games have great voice acting. American McGee's Alice, Startopia and Thief spring to mind as well.

One could also easily list most if not all voiced classic Lucas games. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was the first talkie game I ever played and it still holds up very well to this day.
 
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