Best Voice Acting?

[Queequeg]

Recently went through Fable III.  The game isn't that great-the combat is repetitive and easy, the awful motion blur ruins the graphics, and the main plot is a bit cliched. 

However, I though the approach to voice acting was interesting, partially because the choices seemed to be either entirely correct or wrong-headed.  Stephen Fry and John Cleese are just about perfect for their roles.  Ben Kingsley as the Welsh-Gypsy-Cossack dwarf Sabine was probably the most memorable character in the game.  They both approach it with the right deal of camp, and Fry in particular just seems to be having a ton of fun with it.  Cleese was also great in small part in Jade Empire.  Michael Fassbender, one of my favorite actors, wasn't similarly impressive.  His character is also somewhat campy, but no one seems to have told Fassbender.  Naomie Harris has a similar problem, though there's very little character for her to work with.

I think Bethesda is remarkable for all the things they do wrong.  They'll hire two or three great actors with minimal voice acting experience, and then chose a bunch of DC locals who seem to all suffer from various personality disorders that limit the neurological ability to add emotion to daily speech.  Aela the Huntress was just about the worst-voiced character in any game I can remember.  Max von Sydow was a great choice, but why the hell they didn't just hire a bunch of Scandinavian, German and Russian actors for ALL of the Norse parts is beyond me. Nothing quite breaks the majesty of the surroundings like Aela's voicework. 

I think the first Dragon Age probably stands out from recent titles for it's consistently superior voice work.  Most of the actors weren't particularly well known, but a few of the performances-   Simon Templeman as Loghain, Claudia Black as Morrigan-strike just the right balance between drama and camp.  Fallout 1 was pretty great-Tony Shaloub and Ron Pearlman are examples of actors who can actually cross over to voice work, while Jim Cummings does the best work of his non-Winnie the Pooh career as The Master.  Portal 2 and 1 are both excellent.   

Anyone have any other titles in mind?

[The Brain]

The "wolf howl" in Dungeon Master 2 that was a human imitating a wolf.

[CountDeMoney]

I always liked Morgan Sheppard's (the opening narrator and General Trimble in Gettysburg) voiceover work in the early Medal of Honor WW2 and early Metal Gear Solid games on the original PlayStation.  Very distinctive voice.  Also did a lot of voiceover work in Gargoyles back in the day with the Deanna Troi chick.

[Caliga]

I tried to play one of the earlier Fable games and wanted to jump out a window after like an hour.

[garbon]

I tried to play one of the earlier Fable games and wanted to jump out a window after like an hour.

You would think we would have known better than to play a Molyneux game.

[The Brain]

He was good in his day.

[Queequeg]

Populous and Dungeon Siege are both classics, and I bet Fable was pretty good before all the useless bells and whistles. I payed only 12$ for it, so probably worth the money.

[The Brain]

Dungeon Siege?

[garbon]

Populous and Dungeon Siege are both classics, and I bet Fable was pretty good before all the useless bells and whistles. I payed only 12$ for it, so probably worth the money.

Fable is where he got the most abuse for his overhyping antics.

[Valmy]

Populous and Dungeon Siege are both classics, and I bet Fable was pretty good before all the useless bells and whistles. I payed only 12$ for it, so probably worth the money.

Fable is where he got the most abuse for his overhyping antics.

I thought that was Black and White.

[Caliga]

Black and White I played for maybe 15 minutes, so even worse than Fable.  I've never been angrier about buying a game before or since Black and White.

[garbon]

Populous and Dungeon Siege are both classics, and I bet Fable was pretty good before all the useless bells and whistles. I payed only 12$ for it, so probably worth the money.

Fable is where he got the most abuse for his overhyping antics.

I thought that was Black and White.

Well that was lambasted as crappy but I think Fable was the one where he was really like "This is a revolution in gaming."

Wiki agrees with me:

Despite the success of his games, both critical and financial, Molyneux has acquired a reputation for issuing over-enthusiastic descriptions of games under development, which are found to be somewhat less ambitious when released. This goes back to Black & White, though the most well-known case of this was with Fable, released in 2004 without many of the features talked about by Molyneux in press interviews during development. After the release, Molyneux publicly apologized for overhyping the game.

[11B4V]

I liked FO3/NV voice acting. Some of the Super mutants were hilarious too.

[garbon]

Black and White I played for maybe 15 minutes, so even worse than Fable.  I've never been angrier about buying a game before or since Black and White.

I was a deprived child and played it a lot.

[garbon]

Looking at screenshots, I did manage to avoid Black & White 2.