Voiceovers
Looking back at the old LA games and Revolution games it got me thinking about voiceovers. Here's a couple of questions:
1) What where peoples favourite games in terms of voice casting? 2) Which voice captured what you thought of the character?
3) Do yoy think Bone should have a voice element or simply text?
For me
1) Broken Sword - George Stobbart is just cool as is his partner in crime
2) Can't seperate them its Sam & Max
3) I must admit I lean a little toward just text. Certainly I'd imagine those that have read the comics will have their own voices for the characters and it will be hard to do them justice.
1) What where peoples favourite games in terms of voice casting? 2) Which voice captured what you thought of the character?
3) Do yoy think Bone should have a voice element or simply text?
For me
1) Broken Sword - George Stobbart is just cool as is his partner in crime
2) Can't seperate them its Sam & Max
3) I must admit I lean a little toward just text. Certainly I'd imagine those that have read the comics will have their own voices for the characters and it will be hard to do them justice.
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Comments
I agree on both points
2) Roy Conrad as Ben in Full Throttle. Ben's voice, to me, is what makes or breaks his character--what keeps him from falling into the "biker" stereotype or the "tough guy" stereotype or just into the realm of a character the player wouldn't want to associate with--and Roy Conrad did an amazing, astoundingly perfect job.
3) Voice element. Although cost might be an issue, I can't imagine the game would earn good reviews with the press if there wasn't a voice element.
Right, I think it would cost them more in lost sales if they didn't have voiceovers in the game. They don't need to have high-priced Hollywood talent, either, though (like Gabriel Knight and such).
Telltale started voice recording
If Telltale are going to go to the "trouble" of hiring voice actors for their Poker game, of course they're going to hire voice actors for BONE.
Now, can anyone confirm if Wendy Tremont King (at the microphone in the above image), was used in Telltale Texas Hold'em? Cause if not, that means they've already recoded dialogue for anothe game. Though I suspect Wendy will be the voice of the "Grandma" in Hold'em.
Also note they're using students at an arts college to record the dialogue, giving the students valuable experience and also (probably) meaning they're getting a very good deal on the use of the studio facilities.
She is the voice of Grandma. Says so in the credits.
2) Guybrush, exactly what I thought he would sound!
3) Voice element. But if it costs too much (cuz they'll be probably need more than for a game like Texas Hold-Em) I'll settle for text. Maybe with a special sound for every character when they talk like in Banjo Kazooie.
But realistically, there's no way that Telltale will omit voices.
Yes, but they obviously have a much bigger production and marketing budget (and sales target) for BONE that Hold'em. And if they can afford voice actors for a little 'trial game' like Hold'em, of course they can afford voice actors for their first big licensed product.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/14/news_6122298.html
Some bits from it:
Online trade magazine reports negotiations between SAG and game publishers to renew voice-acting contract "could go either way."
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However, the vocal marriage between actors and games may be silenced. According to online trade Web site Variety.com (registration required), the contract between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists with game publishers expires tomorrow
A-list tallent lends it's self well to games too. Take the latest GTA game. Samuel l Jackson did a great job with tenpenny as well as everyone else who put their voice into the game.
You guys do know that most professional voice actors are in the screen actors guild, right? Including most of the memorable voice actors you've cited in this thread.
I'm not saying that popular actor=bad performance or that an unknown is sure to be some hidden gem of a voice actor, but I think a lot of shortsided decisions have been made to hire a talent based on their star status rather than their ability to voice their game character properly. At the last minute, the original voice actors (whose work can still be partially heard in the demo) of LucasArts' The Dig were replaced with more well-known names (they weren't what I'd call A-List stars, but compare their resumes and you get the point). I don't think it's coincidental that The Dig featured, in my opinion, the most wooden voice acting of the company's adventure games. That admittedly isn't much of an insult as every other LucasArts game has featured what I consider the best game voice acting ever, but yeah - let's just say it was the only voice acting in a LucasArts game that I didn't think was incredible.
Also, SAG means nothing to me in terms of the quality of the actor, especially when you're talking about video games.
When I said "professional voice actors," I meant "people who do voice acting for a living." I wasn't at all referring to "celebrity voices." At least not necesarilly. There might be some celebrities who do voice acting for a living, but I couldn't name one.
What artwking4 said. Looking at what Wile_E said from the other side, one could say that ("celebrity voice!") Ray Liotta had the perfect voice to play Tommy Verceti in GTA: Vice City, but that doesn't make his line delivery any less horrible and bland. The important part is making sure you get someone who can give a good performance thats true to the character. If that's someone in your office, awesome. If it's some crazy hollywood celebrity, awesome too. As long as it's good.