voice acting
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Breakfast Topic: That voice you can't get out of your head
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. The Lion King is one of those movies that everybody ought to see before they die. One of the strongest films from the Disney renaissance, it features some of the best voice acting in animation history. Who could forget James Earl Jones' deep voice imparting within Simba the need to reclaim his place as king? Or Jeremy Irons' cold, cunning, and manipulative growl with every word Scar spoke? Voice acting can make or break films, and games are no different. As WoW has grown older, voice acting has become far more commonplace. All bosses now come with accompanying quotes. In Cataclysm, a great number of quests feature voice acting. We're surrounded on all sides by a world that is now living, breathing, and speaking. Players have certainly caught on and appear to love the voice acting. In Wrath, several bosses went viral thanks to their memorable quotes. From Thorim's deep voice recalling meeting players "In the mountains ..." to the juvenile XT-002 lamenting the death of his toys, voices made these bosses come to life at a previously unseen level. Which voices in the World of Warcraft are the most memorable for you, and how have they enhanced your experience?
Telltale showcases the new voice of Back to the Future's Marty McFly
Are you ready to hear one of the most startling things you'll hear this month? Listen to the new voice actor for Marty McFly in Telltale's upcoming Back to the Future adventure games, one A.J. Locascio. As far as we know, he's capable of channeling Michael J. Fox's voice using dark voodoo magicks.
DC Universe Online gets even more super voice actors
Sure, you could get your superheroic missions from timeless characters in DC Universe Online through boring text discussions -- but it seems Sony Online Entertainment is doing its darndest to fill the game with real human voices. Authentic voices too: For instance, Arleen Sorkin will reprise her role of Harley Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series, while super prolific voice actor Corey Burton will provide the pipes for Brainiac. Dwight Schultz, of The A-Team and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, will add another notch to his voiceover belt by speaking for The Flash. Rounding out the list of actors is Wil Wheaton, who recently voiced the Blue Beetle in Batman: The Brave and the Bold -- though, this time around, he'll be doing vox for Robin, who is sometimes called Boy Wonder, but never to his face.
Fable 3 developer diary features a star-studded voice cast
The Fable franchise has always prided itself on its clever, engrossing writing -- but even if the entirety of Fable 3's dialogue was written by baby rhesus monkeys, we're pretty sure the game's voice cast could make it sound incredible. The actors therein include seasoned VO veterans like Stephen Fry and Zoe Wanamaker, as well as relative newcomers Simon Pegg and Sir Ben Kingsley, who totally has an Oscar. Check out these master thespians' thoughts on Lionhead's upcoming action-RPG in the developer diary posted after the jump. Make sure you stick around for Fry's inspiring advice at the end of the clip. Don't forget: Just be yourselves, friends.
Breakfast Topic: I am the lucid dream
Recently, I was talking to Matticus and Kinaesthesia on one of our podcasts about Ruby Sanctum. Toward the end of the discussion, Kina mentioned how much he loved Halion's voice actor, Matthew Mercer (granted, we didn't know that was his name at the time.) We agreed his voice acting was excellent, and Kina suggested Blizzard ought to keep bringing him back for more parts. To date, Mercer also has done the voice of General Vezax in Ulduar and Overthane Balargarde in Icecrown. Anyway, some days later while we priests were tossing the PoM around, the subject came up again, and Kina quoted the line Halion says when you enter phase 2: "You will find only suffering in the realm of twilight. Enter if you dare." He gushed at the inflection on the word "suffering," while I stated my preference for the way he taunts you with, "Enter if you dare." Our talk led to other memorable lines from Wrath. I immediately brought up Sara from Ulduar and quoted her haunting, "I am the lucid dream." Plus, who could forget a first visit to Ulduar? I remember my sleepy raid's wandering into the Antechamber around 1 a.m. the first night that patch 3.1 went live. After accidentally completing Crazy Cat Lady and distributing loot, we stood around deciding where to go next. Vent had gone quiet while we all tabbed out to read up on Hodir until a deafening scream cut through the silence of the Observation Ring. Everyone on Vent promptly freaked out: "What the hell was that!?!" I loved it.
DC Universe Online voice cast revealed, studded with stars
Who would have thought that one of the strongest voice cast lineups we've seen in a good, long time would come from an MMORPG? Check out some of the talent Sony Online Entertainment managed to wrangle for its upcoming superpowered outing, DC Universe Online: Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy will reprise their frequent roles of The Joker and Batman, respectively. You may remember the sounds of their pipes from Arkham Asylum, as well as any other animated Batman project from the past 15 years. Former Firefly stars Gina Torres and Adam Baldwin will voice Wonder Woman and Superman, respectively. Though you probably didn't need that "respectively" bit, due to your understanding of gender. James Marsters will voice balding mastermind Lex Luthor. After playing Spike in Buffy, Brainiac in Smallville, Captain John in Torchwood and Piccolo in the recent Dragon Ball movie, this should be a nice notch in his nerd-fame belt. Wonder Woman's adversary, Circe, will be voiced by Michelle Forbes, who provided the voice for Dr. Mossman in Half-Life 2. She's also been in every sci-fi show ever made. All of them. Seriously.
Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage includes both English and Japanese voice
Chances are, if you're interested in playing Tecmo Koei's Fist of the North Star game, you aren't just tolerant of Japanese voices in video games, you prefer them. The company is aware of anime fans' preference for Japanese audio, and told Eurogamer that it will retain the original voice track in the North American and European releases of the Dynasty Warriors-alike. You'll be able to hear "ATATATATATATATATA" in the original Japanese. In order to satisfy both the audience who craves authenticity and the audience who likes knowing what the characters are saying, Tecmo Koei is also including a full English voice track. That way, you won't have to have your screen filled with subtitles reading "ATATATATATATATATA." %Gallery-94946%
Meet Arc Rise Fantasia's summons, voice actors
The latest media released for image epoch's WIi RPG Arc Rise Fantasia introduces "Rogress," the game's summoned creatures. They act as powerful attacks, of course, but also apparently as the source of the "Ray" energy that powers the game's cities and vehicles. The trailer above shows the game's first Rogress, Simmah, merging its power and wisdom with the protagonist. We'd like to tell you more about what happens in the game, but we're distracted by the voice acting. Much like Infinite Space, all we can say about it in this game is that it is present and audible. %Gallery-93821%
Breakfast Topic: Suffer mortals, as your pathetic eardrums betray you
I hate Sindragosa. It's not the fight -- sure, the stacks of Permeating Chill are annoying as a mutilate rogue, but you can cloak them away. The Ice Tombs are even kind of fun, especially if you can /dance with her before getting frozen -- see what kind of crazy contortionist positions you can get stuck in! The Blistering Cold isn't that hard to book it out of if you keep your camera facing whatever direction you have to run, just hold down both mouse buttons when she pulls you in and you're out like lightning. No, it's none of the above. It's her voice. It's that awful, rasping, screeching bellow. It's the way she draws out the word 'betray' that wasn't so bad the first time I heard it but let me tell you three wipes in and I was ready to turn off the sound effects entirely. I want to kill her every week not because there is loot to be had, but so that I do not have to listen to her anymore. On the other hand, back in the days of Blackwing Lair I begged my raid leader to let me trigger the Nefarian event, just because I really wanted to hear him talk. I forget the exact number of times we wiped on Nefarian before finally killing him for the first time, but the silky way in which he said "Let the games begin" made it a little easier to take. There are other bosses and encounter voices I love -- nobody can forget Millhouse Manastorm, he of the infamous "I'm gonna light you up, sweet cheeks!" I always loved the voice of C'thun. The first time I stepped foot into AQ40 and heard that eerie, low voice from out of nowhere, politely informing me that my friends would abandon me and that I would die, I nearly yelped aloud. But Sindragosa. Ah, Sindragosa, you have reached a level of irritation with me that rivals even Jaina Proudmoore's incessant sobbing or Kael'thas' never ending bantering in Magister's Terrace -- which now takes longer to listen to than it takes to kill him. So how about you guys -- who's tops on the voice acting in your opinion? Who do you love to hear every time you kill them? Whose voice makes you reach for the mute button?
Nolan North believes voice acting royalties 'unfair' to expect in gaming
By now, you should be familiar with one of gaming's most prolific actors, Nolan North, made famous by his role as Uncharted's Nathan Drake. In an interview with GamePro, the actor talks about his meteoric rise in gaming. "There's no pressure when going in for an audition now, since I've worked on such big games," North told the site. With the actor seemingly guaranteed work, it's no surprise that Giant Bomb dedicated an entire award to him: The Northies, for the Best Performance by Nolan North. "I'm humbled by all this. I feel blessed." Of course, not all voice actors have been as lucky as Nolan North to get work with such regularity. Salaries for actors have always been a point of contention, especially with regards to royalties. In 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV's Michael Hollick slammed the industry for not providing better compensation for titles that go on to sell millions of units. North seems to disagree with that sentiment. "In all fairness, hundreds of people are working 12 hour days for several years to make a game, so it's unfair for me to expect residuals, given the amount of work I contribute." Perhaps it's that attitude that continues to provide North a steady lineup of gigs, including the upcoming Alpha Protocol and Dark Void. With Uncharted 3 and a new Assassin's Creed in the works, it's clear that Nolan can expect a few more paychecks in the immediate future.
Mark Hamill talks about game voice acting, Batman role
Mark Hamill has made a name for himself over the years with his game work, with high-profile roles in games like Full Throttle and Wing Commander 3. Not to mention his legendary performance as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, which he reprised for Arkham Asylum. But Mark Hamill already had a name, and it was "Luke Skywalker." An interview with CVG suggests that the move was intentional. Hamill described the attitudes he faced when he started working in games. "I'm sure there's a range of opinions, from 'You're slumming it', or 'Can't you get more legitimate work?'," he said. "But that snobbishness comes with the business." He relished the opportunity to merge his animation and game careers with a return to Joker's smarmy mania. "I thought this will be one last chance to play Joker. And it was so much fun to play a character who is clearly insane." Here's a surprise: the reason Hamill hasn't performed Luke Skywalker's voice in one of about a million Star Wars games isn't because he's not interested in reprising the role (though he isn't): nobody ever asked him to. How has that never happened? So many games have been made based on the three movies that an established video game voice actor starred in, and it just never came up?
Meet Trauma Team's voice team
The floodgates for Trauma Team publicity are open, starting with the screenshots and now continuing with promotional videos. Atlus takes us behind the scenes of Trauma Team -- wisely choosing to feature the game's voice recording over, say, the medical research the team did. In the first of two videos (above), Atlus offers a tour of PCB Productions, the company producing the voice work for the multidisciplinary medical adventure. In the second (after the break), we meet a few of the actors portraying the quirky medical team, allowing us to put different faces to the voices behind the cartoon characters. Trauma Team is currently scheduled for an April 20 release date.
Bitmob explores the world of video game voice acting
Bitmob's Aaron Thomas was recently offered the chance to record some crowd chatter for Major League Baseball 2K10, and he used the opportunity to describe the process of recording video game voice over. Reading his lines off of a television screen, and given situational prompts for each line -- bases loaded, etc. -- Thomas screamed around 300 lines for the game. As an added bonus, 2K sent samples of Thomas' work mixed with ambient crowd noise, giving us all the opportunity to see what the final product sounds like. It's a neat look into the world of video game voice acting, as well as sound production in general. If you've ever been curious about how it's done, take a look. Just don't expect Thomas to be putting Nolan North out of a job anytime soon.
Tricia Helfer, Martin Sheen talk up their voice roles in Mass Effect 2
Okay, you've probably heard by now that Mass Effect 2 has a lot of big-name voice talent. But have you SEEN them? This video trailer for BioWare's upcoming space opera features the all-star cast talking about their roles, and what it is about sci-fi (and not SyFy) that gets them so excited.
Mass Effect 2 cast bolstered by Battlestar, Star Trek actors
Mass Effect 2 is bound to have some recognizable actors, what with 90 actors voicing 546 characters with 31,000 lines of dialogue. EA revealed today that the cast includes ... oh, by Grabthar's hammer, here's the list: Martin Sheen (Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez's dad) -- Illusive Man commanding Cerberus Shohreh Adhdashloo (sexy voice lady from FlashForward) -- Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay Seth Green (hand in your geek card if you don't know) -- Joker Yvonne Strahovski (wiener lady, lust of Chuck) -- Miranda Lawson Adam Baldwin (a man named Jayne... or the man they call Jayne) -- Kal 'Reegar David Keith Keith David (Halo's Arbiter) -- Admiral David Anderson Michael Dorn (Star Trek TNG's Worf) -- Gatatog Uvenk Tricia Helfer (2020 Oscar winner after people stop treating her like meat) -- EDI, voice of the "new Normandy" Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh) -- Captain Bailey Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity from The Matrix, singular, no sequels exist -- especially not Revolutions) -- Aria T'Loak We also can't forget Jennifer Hale, who is reprising her role as the real Commander Shepard, nor Mark Meer, the male Shepard and known expert at cutting the council off at weird times.
Tales of Vesperia voice actor says game is coming to Wii [update: Oops! He meant Tales of Graces!]
[Update: Abyssal Chronicles has updated their story, reporting that Mr. Koyama has updated his original blog post with the following clarification: "When I mentioned being on sale for the Wii, I meant Tales of Graces, and not Tales of Vesperia! I truly apologize to everyone for the misunderstanding!!!!" Well, we can see how that would be confusing. You'll find our original post below.] Lock the doors and board up the windows, folks. Considering the seismic backlash to the announcement that the (formerly) 360-exclusive Tales of Vesperia would be coming to the PS3, we fear for what might happen when this story gets out. Japanese voice actor Rikiya Koyama, who provided the voice for Vesperia's pseudo-antagonist Duke, recently mentioned on his blog that, "Tales of Vesperia is coming out on one thing after another: Xbox 360, then PS3, and now upcoming, goes on sale even on the Wii." While this may deeply excite RPG-loving Wii owners, keep in mind that it's entirely possible Koyama meant to say Tales of Graces, the franchise's next installment which is, in fact, coming to the Wii. Just think about that before you start snapping the pieces of your already-snapped 360 Vesperia disc in protest. Those edges can get pretty sharp. [Via Kotaku]
Uncharted's Amy Hennig 'thrilled' by Nolan North's newfound success
Chances are, you recognize Nolan North as Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series. However, ever since the debut of the first game in the franchise, North has gone on to play a number of leading men, including the titular Prince of Persia and Jason from Shadow Complex. Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig admits that she's "thrilled to see people recognizing Nolan's talent and to see him getting all of the work that he can get and all of the recognition he can get." However, she tells Bitmob that she's "a little possessive" of North because "we were the ones with Uncharted who tapped into that talent in a way that I don't think anyone had recognized and done yet."North will undoubtedly continue to find success as the charming "everyday" man (who happens to be gifted with extraordinary acrobatic prowess). Hennig admits that "Nolan's going to get typecast because that is his persona. He's a funny guy and has that easy-going, roguish charm." Yeah, charming -- until he throws you off a cliff.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker English voice cast announced
With fingers crossed, we turned to the latest Kojima Productions podcast, hoping beyond hope that the studio had taken our recommendation to refresh the voice of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's bearded protagonist. Our nominee for Solid Snake's new pipes? Bobcat Goldthwait. Sure, Mr. Goldthwait would likely take the series in an unexpected direction -- but what unsuspecting player wouldn't be swept up in an exploration of Snake's rarely discussed history as a rabid, nigh-incomprehensible stand-up comic? Now there's a 90-minute cutscene we can get behind. Alas, Konami's recently announced voice cast for Peace Walker is actually (gasp!) sans-Goldthwait. Of course David Hayter will reprise the role for, like, the hundredth time. The rest of the totally unsurprising list can be found after the jump -- but why not watch this beautiful excerpt of the Peace Walker that could have been instead? [Via Kotaku]
Stoic silence on the battlefield unless you install Dynasty Warriors 6 PSP data
Okay, a little background: Dynasty Warriors 6 is being ported to the PSP. The same Dynasty Warriors 6 that was the basis for Strikeforce, which came out on the PSP first and is now being ported to the Xbox 360 and PS3. This PSP version of DW6 includes elements of Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires. This isn't totally relevant to the news at hand, but it's really complicated and we're kind of proud of ourselves for (presumably) untangling it.This latest Dynasty Warriors 6, Dynasty Warriors 6 Special, won't require users to install data to the Memory Stick, but will have benefits for those who do. If you install the 260MB data, the speech in the game will be voiced. If you don't, your allies and enemies on the battlefield will communicate via text windows.Actually, now that we think about it, not having a thousand dudes yelling at you all the time seems a lot better. Thanks for the option, Koei!
AFTRA, SAG negotiate new contracts for video game voice actors
It's fairly unlikely that you, dear reader, have done voice acting in video games, or are a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild or the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. While this news might not directly apply to you, we thought we'd take a moment to celebrate the contracts these two unions recently negotiated with video game publishers to get better wages for their respective voice-acting members. The contracts will bump SAG members' wages up 3 percent upon ratification, bringing SAG wage hikes into parity of those offered by the AFTRA. On April 1, both groups will receive another 2.5 percent wage increase. Publishers are also now required to inform voice actors as to when they'll be doing "vocally stressful work." We're not exactly sure what that means, but we think it applies to any gravel-throated protagonist ever featured in a first-person shooter. All that gruffness is rough on the ol' pipes, dontchaknow? [Via Big Download]
