Development Info Malcolm McDowell plays the bad guy in Fallout 3

[Rat Keeng]

I'll not have a bad word said about the villain from Tank Girl.

Seriously though, he's got a great voice. Pity it's so recognisable you'll be going "hey, I'm about to launch barbie doll heads at Malcolm McDowell", but that's just Bethesda for ya. Besides, anyone playing Fallout 3 wont be old enough to remember him as anything, other than that old guy from Heroes.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Bad show, Truth. Bad show.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I have to say, that is the single best news I've heard about FO3 thus far. Not that there's much competition for that title. I don't place that much faith in celebrity voice-actors - frankly I'd much rather see the roles go to professional voice/animation actors. I don't want to claim 'special expertise' here or any crap like that, but I've known and worked with a moderate amount of professional actors (don't get me wrong - I mean as a pitifully minor stage actor doing minor professional roles in a small city that very very occasionally would cross paths with a 'name' actor who is the crowd-pulling 'ring-in' for the show, before I got older and had to get a real job). 98% of the time you're better off taking an actor that specialises in - or at the very least has specialist training in - the type of acting that you're after. Voice acting, stage and film are 3 different, albeit interrelated, arts, and the best voice actors aren't the best film or stage actors. For the same price as a C-grade celebrity film actor, game companies can get the cream-of-the-crop A++ animation/voice actors, who will not only give a better performance, but they'll do it more time-efficiently (in my town, at least, professional voice-actors can wrap up a radio ad in literally 2 minutes, whereas it would take a professional tv star about half an hour for the same job - tv/film/stage actors aren't used to being told 'ok, can you do this paragraph in 14 seconds, the next one in 12 seconds' etc - that's an exclusively voice-actor skill.

BUT having said that, malcolm mcdowall rocks It has been one of my longest-running curiousities as to why a guy who was so damn awesome in 'A clockwork orange' could crash so badly afterwards. It wasn't like he just gave a pretty-boy act - that was a darn good performance with some of the best screen monologues in the latter half of the 20th century. And when I've seen him since then, he frankly hasn't sucked - it's just that the films he's been in have been truly awful! Even in Heroes, his first decent gig in decades, the guy resonated.

So that's one more reason to be upset with FO3 - yet another producer suckers Malcolm McDowell into slumming himself for a gig that isn't worth his talent

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I would say that getting him probably took away the budget from about 5 normal NPCs in which Hines will have to voice over. Liam Neilson probably took like 20.

 

[Brother None]

Are there any other famous actors in FO3? I only know about Liam Neeson and the guy above.

And Ron Perlman.

I think the difference between Perlman and Malcolm McDowell compared to Liam Neeson is that the first two are experienced and really good voice actors with distinctive voices and - in case of McDowell - ways of acting with the voice.

Liam Neeson is just a bad choice. McDowell is cool, he'd fit right in with the list of voice talent Fallout 1 had.

 

[MetalCraze]

I would say that getting him probably took away the budget from about 5 normal NPCs in which Hines will have to voice over. Liam Neilson probably took like 20.

some web-magazine actually wrote that they had a feeling that Fallout 3 had the same amount of voice-actors as Oblivion. this even was in the news on the Codex.

 

[Micmu]

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/405/Pip.html

He sounds good as a narrator.

 

[suleo]

He was also the baddie in a Wing Commander installment. I think it was #4---the price of freedom.

Of course, he wasn't just voiceacting there, since every WC after #3 was full of FMV.

 

[psycojester]

Well, his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange was genius. Not that I can recall any other movie he played in...

He played Caligula in Caligula.... the poor bastard his career never quite recovered from that fucking hideous dog of a movie.

 

[Zomg]

It's nice that classic Bethesda celebrity-driven VA casting, which has no interest in any quality other than marketing, managed to hit on a guy that's gotten a few years of VA experience under his belt.

 

[Gragt]

Liam Neeson is just a bad choice.

He wasn't so bad voicing Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Personally I'd love to hear that they've booked a respected writer to write the dialogue all these famous actors are going to read.

 

[Gragt]

"War. War never changes."

 

[MetalCraze]

Personally I'd love to hear that they've booked a respected writer to write the dialogue all these famous actors are going to read.

no retarded console kiddie will care about the good writer's name. they just want more big hollywood names.
the "wow this game has that guy who played Qui-Gonn Jin in that super cool Star Wars Episode One, the game will rock!" way

 

[WalterKinde]

Knowing our luck he'll only have like 4 mins of in game dialogue before the npc he voices dies via in game scripting like The Emperor in Oblivion.
LOL :D

 

[Jabbapop]

i just hope they get jake lloyd to voice the vault dweller at 13!

 

[Gragt]

Not a bad idea if your character took the "bland" trait, even better if you also took the "as emotional as a cucumber" trait as well.

 

[Section8]

Yippee!

 

[The Internets]

I'm betting they'll use many of the same voice actors as Oblivion, and what a shame that will be. Way to recognizable.

 

[Jeff Graw]

I might just pirate the game just for this. Admiral Tolywn FTW.

 

[feta]

for the infidels saying "who is mcdowll, oh... X?", may you forever play oblivion AND LIKE IT.

As for bethesda, another fuck you for starring actors that I actually like in shitty brown diarrhea crap games.

 

[Txiasaeia]

Bethesda critically missed and loses its next turn. "I'm going to feed you to my pet iguana!"

 

[Gnidrologist]

McDowell is badass. The reason he's being mostly low profile in his career is probably his own. I doubt he failed to meet some criteria. Maybe he doesn't like stardom. And he probably has big cock.

But then again, i thought Bienn is a badass actor too. Whenever i had to hear that exalted faggy voice of teh ''heir'' i felt like breaking my display device.
Things Beth do for love.

 

[sportforredneck]

And he probably has big cock.

One rumor in the film industry is that Liam Neeson has a huge cock. So it would be quite the meeting of dickery, McDowell and Neeson.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

I'm expecting one or two more big names to be announced.

Remember, Oblivion scored the Geeky Voice Actor Trifecta by covering all bases
-Prof X/Capt. Picard for the Comic Book/Trekkie crowd
-Boromir for the LoTR crowd
-and Gen. Zod of Superman to round things out.

The way Fallout 3 is going we have the Star Wars demographic pandered to. Now all they need is that guy that does Cobra Commander/Starscream and maybe Gil Gerard from the old Buck Rogers series to get the fanboy hattrick.

edit:
Caligula
what a fucking cinematic trainwreck. You'd think the porn aspect would've redeemed it, but even the porn is crap.