Appreciation of the whole BG3 cast

[Antimatter]

I know we have another thread about VO actors, but needed to get it off my chest, I've wanted to say this for some time.

What needs to be recognized on a bigger scale in the whole industry (IMHO) right now is this amazing event that has been going on for a while with the BG3 cast! Reaction videos, interviews, actors reading your horny tweets...

And now, also streaming Baldur's Gate 3 as an actor and putting your mark on everything. On top of that, with Devora Wilde (Lae'zel) for example, it's showing how the game succeeds in introducing DnD mechanics in a fun way for people who don't usually play videogames.

And each of them is fun! The actors are all just winning it. Neil Newbon romancing Astarion, Jennifer English romancing Lae'zel, Samantha Beart starting a Karlach playthrough, Tamaryn Payne (Mizora) planning to stream the game after years of not playing games.

An honorable mention for the Violet and Lulu stream by Amelia Tyler (the Narrator). How about a playthrough from the Narrator of the whole game with her using a totally different personality and voice... We, as fans, can't be luckier than that.

And ofc, we can't forget the cast's D&D session. Talk about superbly bringing fans' favorite characters to life! That funny friction between Shadowheart Lae'zel about Bing Bong the baby imp... This is what leading by example is. The BG3 cast is leading by a mile!

Some links for you:

Karlach playing as Karlach (age-restricted for some reason, compared to others)

And here is some wisdom from Samantha Beart herself:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1715363077183386082

IGN videos with horny tweets read by the BG3 cast:

Here, here, and here.

 

[Cahir]

It's very rare for me to play a game where the quality of voice acting is top tier for 99.9% of the game, even for the minor characters. It's usually a couple of characters that stand out, and the rest of the cast is either OK or not so OK.

BG3 is totally not the case. Every single one of your companion is amazingly voiced, some simply reached GRAMMY level of acting.

But not only that, it's the whole acting, as Samantha kindly reminded. The motion capture is equally stellar, with character's emotions just pouring from the screen. There is no other game when I wanted to hug my companions so often.

And it really shows the whole crew enjoyed working on the game, and enjoy each other company. This is so inspiring to watch.

And yep, I'm team Dev'zel

 

[Black Elk]

I honestly can't remember ever having seen this happen before, where the whole troupe just nailed it to such an extent! Like as entire ensemble. It's a trip! The Bit Players are so glorious in this one. Hopefully if they make an expansion or sequel they'll keep the cast together, cause it already has that sorta angle, like you know, if you watch a Christopher Guest flick or something and catch the regulars. Or any of the great filmmakers or showrunners who tap into that kind of broader synergy with all the players in the play. I really love how BG3 included pretty much every hair style from the Princess Bride lol. Such a winning plan! BG3 hair and makeup is solid. I think it could use a bit more wardrobe, and more headshots and reels and gestural animations for the custom Tavs, but the NPCs are definitely all red hot.

I love how Karlach totally smoked Zhalk with flare, and jacked him for his Everyburning blade! heheh Classic! Shadowbae and the whole Mocap magic dynamic duo with Bing Bong lol. The Narrator doing the Durge! NoBigNeil twice bitten hehe! Dev'zel just crushing it at all times! Clearly, they're all so great! Like roll out the red carpet there, for sure!

ps. Oh oh and in the Bow'ee stream when they prepare the Command spell! Basically the actors ended up making a pretty kickass prologue Tutorial for this game on the fly!

If you watch how they each approached the first part of the game, you see a different angle each time, and learn a bunch of stuff about the UI/basic mechanics just from checking out that stuff. Also the response in Character creation is always such a highlight! Spectacular

But yeah dude, grab that sword!!! So great!
hehehe

 

[Cahir]

I honestly can't remember ever having seen this happen before, where the whole troupe just nailed it to such an extent! Like as entire ensemble. It's a trip! The Bit Players are so glorious in this one. Hopefully if they make an expansion or sequel they'll keep the cast together, cause it already has that sorta angle, like you know, if you watch a Christopher Guest flick or something and catch the regulars. Or any of the great filmmakers or showrunners who tap into that kind of broader synergy with all the players in the play. I really love how BG3 included pretty much every hair style from the Princess Bride lol. Such a winning plan! BG3 hair and makeup is solid. I think it could use a bit more wardrobe, and more headshots and reels and gestural animations for the custom Tavs, but the NPCs are definitely all red hot.

I love how Karlach totally smoked Zhalk with flare, and jacked him for his Everyburning blade! heheh Classic! Shadowbae and the whole Mocap magic dynamic duo with Bing Bong lol. The Narrator doing the Durge! NoBigNeil twice bitten hehe! Dev'zel just crushing it at all times! Clearly, they're all so great! Like roll out the red carpet there, for sure!

ps. Oh oh and in the Bow'ee stream when they prepare the Command spell! Basically the actors ended up making a pretty kickass prologue Tutorial for this game on the fly!

If you watch how they each approached the first part of the game, you see a different angle each time, and learn a bunch of stuff about the UI/basic mechanics just from checking out that stuff. Also the response in Character creation is always such a highlight! Spectacular

But yeah dude, grab that sword!!! So great!
hehehe

Yeah, this is the next level of involvement in post-release activities by all the cast. I can't recall this coordinated game support from actors involved in recordings. Even if at the beginning this may have seen as Larian's marketing strategy, now it genuinely looks like it had grown on its own. It's wonderful to see this, and I very much hope Larian will leverage their activity to deliver some additional content, be it a DLC, Definitive Edition or simply bringing back the cut content.

 

[Black Elk]

Yeah, it's a big part of the enthusiasm surrounding the full release for me, just seeing some of that after-action in action hehe.

Like part of what sold me on this thing I'd already bought was witnessing that kind of enthusiasm and labor of love from the people who made it. I'd love to get a full on Industrial Light and Magic style documentary that goes behind all the scenes in bringing something like this to life, or like the multi-volume art book that goes into all the deets there.

Also, I still think the wildest thing of all is how this all came together during the plague times, which lends it a weight and deliberative quality, that makes it all the more impressive. Like what we got was a real triumph of spirit against that sort of backdrop.

These are the game credits for the Early Access... (reprinted at moby)

Baldur's Gate III credits (Windows, 2020) - MobyGames

The official game credits for Baldur's Gate III released on Windows in 2020. The credits include 2,944 people.

www.mobygames.com

If we scan down the credits we see it's hundreds and hundreds of people, and I'd love to hear more about every single one of them hehe. The best though is the big block "Words from the Staff" at the end. That might be the best wall of text ever read! And the remembrances will just break your heart before you start. It's really endearing.

Oh and watching those Bow'ee streams, with the weekly special guests, you can tell that Neil totally did everyone a solid by ice breaking it like that. Like they did it on a lark, but warbled their way into something pretty special as everyone flew in to check out the tune and followed those cues. Astarion did some real heavy lifting and I'm sure made it a lot easier for others to dive in once they had a taste heheh.

It's fucking rad! Makes me happy to see this stuff

 

[Antimatter]

What a bunch of lovely people (from here)! Can't wait to see them at the Game Awards in December!

 

[Antimatter]

 

[Black Elk]

This was pretty legit! Catching the spirit! haha

I dig it!

The Blade rides at last

 

[Antimatter]

Alexa Ray Corriea chatted with Neil Newbon (Astarion) about his life, work, BG3, and other topics before the BAFTA Game Awards on Thursday, which he (and Karlach's actor Samantha Beart) are nominated for.

 

[Antimatter]

YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!

Performer in a Supporting Role​

• Andrew Wincott as Raphael in Baldur's Gate 3 – WINNER

BAFTA Games Awards 2024 | Full winners list as Baldur’s Gate 3 wins big | Radio Times

The BAFTA Games Awards 2024 winners have been revealed. Here are the games that are considered the best of 2023.

www.radiotimes.com

Those who haven't played BG3 until Act 3 are missing certain something that was one of the biggest highlights of the game for me.

Here is a pic of the whole Larian crew at BAFTA:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1778689940303303016