Best and Worst voice acting in video games

ourchair said:
A good example would be Tobey Maguire in any and all Spider-Man games, where he sounds like he's been smoking pot and recording his lines from a Lazyboy.
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Completely disagree. Maguire injected all of the humour into the games that was absent in the movies and it works so well. The funniest line (and this is taken into consideration the hours of hilarity to be found in the GTA franchise), I've ever heard in a game was from Spider-Man 2 where Maguire says:

"A secret door...hidden behind a BOOKCASE?! Mysterio...you brilliant fiend!"

I laughed for a solid minute after that.

But I've never played the game you speak of, so I'll take your word for it.
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Batman Begins' voice acting was good. Nothing spectacular about it, just all of the actors doing their jobs. Bale really goes to town on his particular 'raspy Batman voice' and gets some great corny lines. Caine sounds like he's really enjoying himself throughout the game and it's really funny when he has to say the lines that show that an American writer was trying to write what an Englishman would sound like (can't think of any examples, I just remember this in particular). Freeman wasn't great and Oldman wasn't even in it. Katie Holmes was in it for about two unnecessary lines, if memory serves.

Too bad the music in that game was really crappy. Why is it that licensed games never seem to bother putting the original source music in them? Even if the score doesn't neccessarily work in the context of the game, there's no reason why they couldn't fit some of the basic themes of the movie into the game. The music for the games of Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Superman Returns and Batman Begins all sucked.
 
Gothamite said:
Completely disagree. Maguire injected all of the humour into the games that was absent in the movies and it works so well. The funniest line (and this is taken into consideration the hours of hilarity to be found in the GTA franchise), I've ever heard in a game was from Spider-Man 2 where Maguire says:

"A secret door...hidden behind a BOOKCASE?! Mysterio...you brilliant fiend!"

I laughed for a solid minute after that.
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There was a lot of humor in those games that the movies lacked, I'll admit. But see, that's writing.

There is this one scene in the first game in which he calls Shocker the worst chiropractor, which would've been funny if Maguire didn't sound so dazed & confused.

I'll acquiesce and admit that the next two games had significantly better voice acting. The first game is probably the worst offender that stays in my mind.

Gothamite said:
Caine sounds like he's really enjoying himself throughout the game and it's really funny when he has to say the lines that show that an American writer was trying to write what an Englishman would sound like (can't think of any examples, I just remember this in particular).
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I'm beginning to notice that non-American actors tend to have more fun doing videogame work more than anyone else.

Just look at Ian McKellen in the LOTR games. It's fairly obvious he wouldn't know what to do with a game controller, but he certainly seems to put as much resolute self-seriousness in the games that the movie gets. It's almost like the notion of 'it's just a video game' doesn't exist in his head.

John Rhys-Davies is the same. He's done about ten videogames for the past thirteen years, and about four of them involved live-action performances. I distinctly recall an article in which he became supremely addicted to Wing Commander and feigned mock upset when after standing up to do interviews at a presscon, a reporter sat down and started continuing the same game he was playing.

Are the younger American actors alienated by the way they fragment their performances into little chunks for a player-controlled non-linear experience? Or are they too damn self-serious to be able to consider videogames as legitimate extensions of their craft?
 
Best: Odin Sphere, Rule of Rose, Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma


Worst: La Pucelle Tactics, Spidey Movie games, Ultimate Alliance
 
not to stray too off topic, but what's the deal with ninja gaiden pulling street fighter 2 deal on us? how many versions of the same game are gonna come out before they move the story? i do have to agree though, the voicing in that game was good. i sucked at it, hard. that's what she said. but the voicing and cut scenes were cool.
 
Best: God of War 1 and 2, especially Linda Hunt. And the spidey games were good, especially Bruce Campbell wisecracking through the tutorials.

Worst: I loves me some PS1 generation FMV acting and voices. That first resident evil is gloriously badly done and cheesy. And has anyone played the original Warhawk for the ps1? AWESOMELY bad sci-fi fmv cutscenes.
 
also i'd like to add Tales of Symphonia. Great OVA scenes, i think that's what it was, and the gameplay was fun dynamite. never beat it, never planned to, but a fun game with good voicing.
 
You know what's kinda fun about video game voice acting? The fact that voice actors who normally just voice G-rated cartoons also provide the voices for the various M-rate games. A voice actor could provide voices for a kids show on PBS and a game where you play a assassin on the same day. Its funny, in a twisted sort of way.
 
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Hibiki said:
not to stray too off topic, but what's the deal with ninja gaiden pulling street fighter 2 deal on us? how many versions of the same game are gonna come out before they move the story? i do have to agree though, the voicing in that game was good. i sucked at it, hard. that's what she said. but the voicing and cut scenes were cool.
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Actually, the difference between NG Black and Sigma are what console it's for. Black is 360, Sigma is PS3
 
Hibiki said:
also i'd like to add Tales of Symphonia. Great OVA scenes, i think that's what it was, and the gameplay was fun dynamite. never beat it, never planned to, but a fun game with good voicing.
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Why do you play a game you dont plan beating?
 
The Overlord said:
You know what's kinda fun about video game voice acting? The fact that voice actors who normally just voice G-rated cartoons also provide the voices for the various M-rate games. A voice actor could provide voices for a kids show on PBS and a game where you play a assassin on the same day. Its funny, in a twisted sort of way.
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And on that note, I cannot take Clancy Brown on Carnivale seriously because of Spongebob Squarepants.
 
I don't actually own the game, but I briefly saw my friend playing Rome: Total War and from what I could hear, the voice-acting was atrocious. Twenty-something Americans trying to do classical English accents. Peh.
 
Don't know if this counts, but the cut-scenes in Command & Conquer (not sure which one it is. I think it's Tiberian Sun) are friggin' hilarious. The acting is diabolically bad (and it's weird, because it's James Earl Jones and Michael Biehn acting). I remember my friend was trying to show me how cool this game was and then Biehn's character just said "Let's kick some ***," and I couldn't even try to take the game seriously after that.

There's some videos of it on YouTube. I'll try to find it.
 
Gothamite said:
Don't know if this counts, but the cut-scenes in Command & Conquer (not sure which one it is. I think it's Tiberian Sun) are friggin' hilarious. The acting is diabolically bad (and it's weird, because it's James Earl Jones and Michael Biehn acting). I remember my friend was trying to show me how cool this game was and then Biehn's character just said "Let's kick some ***," and I couldn't even try to take the game seriously after that.

There's some videos of it on YouTube. I'll try to find it.
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I'm no fan of Command & Conquer, but I think the terrible-ness of the acting in those games is so widely agreed among gamers and critics that only the DUMB fans think it's any good.
 
ourchair said:
I'm no fan of Command & Conquer, but I think the terrible-ness of the acting in those games is so widely agreed among gamers and critics that only the DUMB fans think it's any good.
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Counterstrike has the best voices.

Sector Clear.



ICON!!!!!!!
 
Hibiki said:
Counterstrike has the best voices.

Sector Clear.
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Not in the Philippines, where they were all modded to speak in Tagalog and play a clip from Linkin Park everytime you made a kill.

I'm not kidding.
 
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Here is a site that has a good selection of the worst voice acting in video games:

http://www.audioatrocities.com/

Also speaking of Tomb Raider from way back o the first page, we can at least say the VO in the 2007 remake of TR was better then in the 96 game.
 
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