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 "wolf howl" in Dungeon Master 2 that was a human imitating a wolf. :wub:
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.
I tried to play one of the earlier Fable games and wanted to jump out a window after like an hour. :yuk:
Quote from: Caliga on February 19, 2013, 04:45:35 PM
I tried to play one of the earlier Fable games and wanted to jump out a window after like an hour. :yuk:
You would think we would have known better than to play a Molyneux game.
He was good in his day.
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.
Dungeon Siege?
Quote from: Queequeg on February 19, 2013, 04:51:01 PM
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.
Quote from: garbon on February 19, 2013, 04:59:49 PM
Quote from: Queequeg on February 19, 2013, 04:51:01 PM
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.
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. :mad:
Quote from: Valmy on February 19, 2013, 05:01:10 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 19, 2013, 04:59:49 PM
Quote from: Queequeg on February 19, 2013, 04:51:01 PM
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:
QuoteDespite 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.
I liked FO3/NV voice acting. Some of the Super mutants were hilarious too.
Quote from: Caliga on February 19, 2013, 05:06:27 PM
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. :mad:
I was a deprived child and played it a lot.
Looking at screenshots, I did manage to avoid Black & White 2. :showoff:
Grand Theft Auto III and LA Noire spring to mind. Both are universally excellent, with some extremely strong work done by the leads.
Quote from: Caliga on February 19, 2013, 05:06:27 PM
Black and White I played for maybe 15 minutes,
Was that the one where the monster dude crapped on the peasants?
Quote from: Ed Anger on February 19, 2013, 05:58:37 PM
Quote from: Caliga on February 19, 2013, 05:06:27 PM
Black and White I played for maybe 15 minutes,
Was that the one where the monster dude crapped on the peasants?
Yes. -_-
I'm not keen on getting a big name film actor for a video game. You can get three or four Maurice LaMarches for the same cost and they can do five different characters apiece. Thinking back a game that really impressed me with it's voice acting was Company of Heroes. Just the unit chatter was great
"Volksgrenadiers ready... for what's worth."
"When it's clicking like that you have to reload".
Just in general, Company of Heroes was astonishing. Probably one of the best RTS games ever made. I'd argue the best.
Also, my pants are uber dairy factory over Company of Heroes II. :secret:
BioShock was extremely strong. Andrew Ryan in particular.
Baldur's Gate II. :wub:
Quote from: Habbaku on February 19, 2013, 08:27:58 PM
Baldur's Gate II. :wub:
Can't believe I forgot to mention this. Irenicus is the best baddie voice acting ever.
Arcanum is also really, really good.
Quote from: Queequeg on February 19, 2013, 08:28:59 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on February 19, 2013, 08:27:58 PM
Baldur's Gate II. :wub:
Can't believe I forgot to mention this. Irenicus is the best baddie voice acting ever.
He's what I thought of first, aye, but the other stuff is delightful as well. I can't think of a single bad voice acting job in the whole game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk0sOGVSAP4
:wub:
I think Arcanum's acting was at least as good. Aaronax and Kerghan were amazing. [spoiler]The final reveal-that Kerghan is the villain, who wants to end life so that they all end up in an afterlife that's virtually identical to Nirvana-is one of the greatest endings in any game ever.[/spoiler]
If I recall Baldur's Gate was released before every line of dialogue was spoken was the norm. So got only a little voice acting in those games.
Oh and you're right Psellus, CoH was probably the best RTS ever released. At least the best in the last decade. I was really disappointed by Dawn of War II (which wasn't really an RTS). Hopefully CoH will be good.
I don't know if Bioshock had good voice acting or just great writing. I even forgave the mediocre shooting and the silly cliche about the characters leaving the Dictaphones everywhere for me to find piece by piece it was so good.
To be fair, Ken Levine kind of started the stupid cliche with System Shock 1 and 2, though IIRC Marathon did something similar.
Quote from: Queequeg on February 19, 2013, 10:34:23 PM
To be fair, Ken Levine kind of started the stupid cliche with System Shock 1 and 2, though IIRC Marathon did something similar.
It makes a little more sense in an age of where recording devices are easy to use and common. Those old reel-to-reel machines would have been a bitch to carry around. Still the alternative is to have a huge info dump when you find a computer or diary. I like the the idea of the Apocalypse diary, where you find the last words and recordings of some doomed group of people. It's just normally poorly done. Worst offenders were Alien Vs Predator (the most recent one), and Doom 3 (where you have about 50 people who record that they heard weird sounds before demons from hell kill everyone).
Pretty sure the records in BioShock were on relatively compact tape-like devices.
Bioware usually has good voice acting on its big releases - I especially like Jennifer Hale when she plays tough soldier types (Fem-Shepard, Trooper in SWTOR, etc.). Though having Claudia Black in Dragon Age was also awesome. :wub:
Still, one of the best jobs recently has to be Spec Ops: The Line. The gameplay was mediocre, but the cast gave it their all in this descent into madness, especially Nolan North (of Uncharted fame) who drifts ever deeper into insanity, and arguably lifted the story up so you overlooked the gameplay flaws and were invested in the plot. The supporting cast (Bruce Boxleitner as Col. Konrad, Jake Busey as crazed radio host, Christopher Reid as tough black Sgt) also put in great performances.
Fable 3's voice acting was amazing. I love it when such big media is British and not Americanised. Just feels so much more real to me.
John Cleese seems to be doing a lot of voice work these days. Really cashing in on his geek respect to cover his divorce :D
Oh, honorable mention for Batman: Arkham Asylum which assembled a lot of the animated series' cast.
And I never could quite get into the Fable games. Something about them just felt out of place - one moment you have an attempt at a serious story, the next you run around naked through town, showing off your latest trophy. The solemn and the whimsy never quite meshed for me in those games.
Quote from: Queequeg on February 19, 2013, 11:26:36 PM
Pretty sure the records in BioShock were on relatively compact tape-like devices.
Relatively compact They still looked like they weighed 20 pounds.
They came in machines and were played in machines, actual tape was smaller than VHS.
Quote from: Queequeg on February 20, 2013, 02:13:57 AM
They came in machines and were played in machines, actual tape was smaller than VHS.
Yes and you find the whole machines. Often in strange places like under water or something.
I always loved Planescape: Torment voice acting: Hannah, Morte, Nordom, Ignus' voices are really good.
...but i always loved that game, so I can be a bit partial :P
The voice acting during the missions in X-COM: Enemy Unknown is very simple but pretty effective.
L.
Quote from: Tyr on February 20, 2013, 01:05:19 AM
Fable 3's voice acting was amazing. I love it when such big media is British and not Americanised. Just feels so much more real to me.
:hmm:
Quote from: Caliga on February 20, 2013, 08:55:55 PM
Quote from: Tyr on February 20, 2013, 01:05:19 AM
Fable 3's voice acting was amazing. I love it when such big media is British and not Americanised. Just feels so much more real to me.
:hmm:
He's a nazi. What else do you want?
Dragon Age: Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum/City are both top notch out of the ones brought up so far. I also enjoyed Starcraft's voiceovers and some of the old Wing Commander ones as well. Heck, on some level all of Blizzard's older games had at least amusing voiceovers in terms of RTS clicking. With my current job as a tour guide, I usually get asked if I do voice work a few times a day. I must admit that I think it would be a fun job, and something I'm considering looking into.
Baldur's Gate II
"All the world is blind to my passing..."
"You must gather your party before venturing forth!"
"The strength of the group is directly related to the honour of the group."
Today another game with excellent voice acting came to mind. Myth I and it's sequel. Each of the levels had a fairly well written diary entry read by an old and tired sounding narrator.
For a second, I thought you wrote Myst. :P
I'm surprised only Syt has made a (passing at that) mention to the Mass Effect series.
"How about goodbye!?"
"I'm Commander Shepherd, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel."
Come on, people. :glare:
Speaking of that, I've still not played ME3, and I decided to replay 2 as a Paragon and bang Liara since I couldn't do that the first time around (since I played it before Lair of the Shadow Broker was released). Once I'm done with that, I'll play ME3. Princesca is playing ME3 now.
Btw, the voice actor of Zaeed Massani who died recently will get an send off for ME3 with the next (final) DLC. Easily one of my favorite characters from ME2.
Also, with playing L.A. Noire I have to add this as one of the best voice acting games.
Quote from: Syt on February 25, 2013, 08:41:40 AM
Btw, the voice actor of Zaeed Massani who died recently will get an send off for ME3
"How about goodbye!?"
:ph34r:
Quote from: Razgovory on February 24, 2013, 06:42:17 PM
Today another game with excellent voice acting came to mind. Myth I and it's sequel. Each of the levels had a fairly well written diary entry read by an old and tired sounding narrator.
Too bad they ripped Glen Cook off.
LA Noire
Dragon Age
Dragon Age 2
The Mass Effect series (unless you hate Keith David and Rafael Sbarge, in which case, die in a fire)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The Thief series
Legacy of Kain series
Batman Arkham series
Fable III
Jade Empire
KOTOR and KOTOR II
Dishonored
FO:NV
Deus Ex? The whole Assassins Creed series has been on par with that.
I just thought of another one. Portal 1 and 2. J. K. Simmons is pretty good a comedy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i-nMWgBUp0