Your favourite Voice Over Actors and Actresses in games

[Antimatter]

Why not have a thread to celebrate amazing video games voices we simp (or at least admire) for? I'll open with an unusual choice - as I've stumbled across this just today.

Tim Curry as Arl Howe in Dragon Age: Origins. Yes, you've heard that right. Timothy James Curry is an English actor and singer, famous for his portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This role got Tim nominated for the Supporting Performance in a Drama (NAVGTR Award). No wonder I hated Arl Howe so much-- that's the level of his performance!

 

[Cahir]

Pretty much everyone in Read Dead Redemption 2. Voice acting there is just INSANE.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Why not have a thread to celebrate amazing video games voices we simp (or at least admire) for? I'll open with an unusual choice - as I've stumbled across this just today.

Tim Curry as Arl Howe in Dragon Age: Origins. Yes, you've heard that right. Timothy James Curry is an English actor and singer, famous for his portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This role got Tim nominated for the Supporting Performance in a Drama (NAVGTR Award). No wonder I hated Arl Howe so much-- that's the level of his performance!

Woah, yes, Arl Howe... few people in a game made me want to stab them in the eye in plain daylight so much. Hateful man, and if you can hate him so much, it means he's very well done.

Me, I'm a sucker for the rather obvious ones:

Jennifer Hale, especially as FemShep in Mass Effect. Simply awesome, such a badass, such a personality and such high level performance. I couldn't find a good video that does her justice, if anyone knows one and shares it, I'll be grateful.

Steve Valentine as Alistair in Dragon Age: Origins.

That soft voice with the faint trace of Scotland in it, combined with Alistair's well-written personality and humour? I could listen for hours.

 

[Antimatter]

To celebrate this International Women's Day, let's listen to some of the best female VO in gaming.

Cherami Leigh. I was blown away by the quality of her VO work in Cyberpunk 2077. She definitely made a custom main character sound spectacular like a real person.

Melissanthi Mahut. She made Kassandra in Assassin's Creed Odyssey sound so badass.

Courtney Hope. What can I say other than she absolutely took control (she voiced Jesse Faden in Control)?

Jennifer Hale. FemShep. Dynaheir. This is my favourite VO on the Citadel!

Ashly Burch. Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn, Tiny Tina in Borderlands 2 and Parvati Holcomb in The Outer Worlds. What a talent she has!

 

[Antimatter]

Alix Wilton Regan. The Weaver of Time (Divinity: Original Sin 1), Sebille (Divinity: Original Sin 2), female Inquisitor (Dragon Age: Inquisition), Samantha Traynor (Mass Effect series). I LOVE her voice!

Amelia Tyler. Mama Malady, of course! The Narrator in Baldur's Gate 3. And a secret romance option in Pathfinder: Kingmaker!

Ellen Mclane. The voice of GLaDOS from Portal. She's a treasure!

Laura Bailey. Abby from The Last of Us 2. A living legend!

Emily O'Brien. My recent discovery. She voiced Kjamira in The Elder Scrolls Online. Purrrr!

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

These are all great, thanks for sharing!

To pick out a few:

I already said before that Jennifer Hale is one of my favourites, but Mellisanthi Mahut definitely makes me look forward to playing Assassins Creed: Odyssey even more than I would otherwise. Love it when women in games can be total badass and not just for decoration purposes. And she sounds like someone who can kick ass and be a good friend at the same time.

Strangely I didn't like "Mama Malady" right away, she gave me the creeps at first because I didn't trust her at all when I first met her in Divinity: Original Sin 2. And maybe I also didn't want to admit I could find her voice attractive .

Also, my goodness, Alix Wilton Regan! Such an awesome voice, but I also really needed a laugh today and her spitting water thing definitely did the trick.

 

[Cahir]

Alex McKenna as Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption 2. I'm in love

 

[Antimatter]

Strangely I didn't like "Mama Malady" right away, she gave me the creeps at first because I didn't trust her at all when I first met her in Divinity: Original Sin 2. And maybe I also didn't want to admit I could find her voice attractive .

I know, right. She sounds very sexy. To the point that some BG3 players find it too much, lol... https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=757049&page=1 But I LOVE her voice.

Same with Alix Wilton Regan! Just imagine: DA: Inquisition has her as the female Inquisitor and Red Prince's VO actor (Harry Hadden-Paton) as the male Inquisitor. That room where they were recorded should have been really hot.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

You know, there's really no account for taste. Apparently there are actually people who dislike Fane's voice in Divinity: Original Sin 2, or who think he doesn't fit the role.
I think the voice over actor Christopher Bonwell is doing a great job here.

I like Fane a lot, and the voice fits him very well. He's not an ancient evil lich lord straight from the family crypt. He comes across as slightly arrogant at first, but he's a very intelligent and educated man, a scholar, scientist, driven by the need to understand things, and also very thoughtful once you get to know him.

Probably people were disappointed who expected a sound like Christopher Lee, not a young man.

 

[Antimatter]

Interesting. I think it's another drop into the debate "English VO" vs "American VO". Dragon Age: Inquisition had 2 choices for the main character (British English and American English) for a reason I guess. I prefer British voices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/lvgdw8
https://www.reddit.com/r/DivinityOriginalSin/comments/3qhquj
https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/31nrbt
https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/4gwq7m
https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/5nn4v4
https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2ol5x7/best_inquisitor_voice_actor/

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/p9ygrh/no_spoilers_am_i_the_only_one_who_prefers_the/

 

[mlnevese]

I really don't get what people have against British accent...

Larian should have all characters with an Australian accent to comply with these requests

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

It's alright to have choices, and to have different tastes.
I too prefer the British accents, (generally and in the particular case of the DA inquisitor) and since Larian are European, I don't see why they should be obliged to use voices from other continents. You wouldn't be upset with a Nigerian studio for not using a voice over actor with an accent from India. They could, if they wanted to, but it's their choice.

Some people seem to find that British accents sound more arrogant, though.

Whatever it is, more player choice is good, but other voices, be it the narrator or companions or NPCs, are up to the creators of the game, and you can take it or leave it.

I think we can count ourselves very lucky that so many games are fully voiced nowadays. It gives so much more life to the characters, and I definitely pay a lot of attention to how a person sounds. I believe that I already mentioned in another thread how I just love to lean back and listen, even if it's just fully voiced codex entries.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

https://www.pcgamer.com/pippins-act...s-joins-the-cast-of-the-elder-scrolls-online/

Billy Boyd (Pippin "Fool of a Took!") now as a wood elf instead of a hobbit! Here's the video for anyone who doesn't care about the article around it.

And yes, I like Scottish accents.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

So. Many. Goosebumps.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

By the way, that line voiced by male and then female Shepard, about the defining characteristics of organic life, is spot on and the precise reason why I just couldn't

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3 ending

choose Synthesis. Losing EDI and the Geth hurt a lot and made me feel very guilty, but taking away choice, forcing harmony, where's the difference to indoctrination? Aren't EDI and the Geth the best examples that organics and synthetics can learn to live together naturally, and isn't taking away that choice treating everyone like mindless machines? And do I want to trust the judgement of the Catalyst child, an entity that thought creating the Reapers was a great idea to preserve civilizations? I think there are no right answers here, and I can absolutely understand anyone who would choose Synthesis as the perfect solution, because how can you sacrifice your friends? But the free will to think and make their own decisions is what made EDI and Legion people instead of machines in the first place, and I just didn't feel it was right to take that away from them and everyone else.

 

[Antimatter]

By the way, that line voiced by male and then female Shepard, about the defining characteristics of organic life, is spot on and the precise reason why I just couldn't

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3 ending

choose Synthesis. Losing EDI and the Geth hurt a lot and made me feel very guilty, but taking away choice, forcing harmony, where's the difference to indoctrination? Aren't EDI and the Geth the best examples that organics and synthetics can learn to live together naturally, and isn't taking away that choice treating everyone like mindless machines? And do I want to trust the judgement of the Catalyst child, an entity that thought creating the Reapers was a great idea to preserve civilizations? I think there are no right answers here, and I can absolutely understand anyone who would choose Synthesis as the perfect solution, because how can you sacrifice your friends? But the free will to think and make their own decisions is what made EDI and Legion people instead of machines in the first place, and I just didn't feel it was right to take that away from them and everyone else.

Right, the endings are "not perfect", no matter what you pick, unfortunately. One of the saddest aspects of the whole franchise. But the video is !

 

[mlnevese]

One of my biggest problems with the endings is that they completely ignore your choices during the game... You can bring harmony through synthesis after betraying the Geth or destroy every synth after being friendly to them the entire game. In a game where all your choices mattered it was quite a blow to see nothing really had any importance in the end. The first time I got close to the end of the game I refused to finish it after learning about the endings.

 

[Nimran]

Jamieson Price is one VA that comes to mind. Deep voices seem a little hard to come by these days, and he’s one of the best in my opinion, though he seems to only do work for Japanese games and anime.

Most people would his voice as Sojiro Sakura from Persona 5, but my favorite performance of his was when he voiced Captain Malik in Tales of Graces F. In a game where the story was meh, Malik’s sense of humor in his voice made it just a lot better.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

I kept recognizing this guy's voice in Elder Scrolls Online. He plays various random quest NPC's, but I kept hearing Jowan from Dragon Age: Origins. Lo and behold, my ear was right, it was him. I confirmed the post below with Desmond Askew's Imdb and Wikipedia pages.

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/25xtz8
I have to automatically like any of his ESO characters, because I keep thinking, "C'mon, it's my childhood buddy, Jowan." The effect is even more poignant if he's playing somebody doing something wrong, because Jowan was also a deeply flawed character I wanted to redeem in Dragon Age: Origins.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

So I was listening to this guy in ESO, and it was Minsc. I've thought I heard him before, but this time, Jim Cummings was pretty much just doing Minsc again. Who knew Minsc was a Nord?

Now that I know he's in ESO, I'm hearing him all over the place, because he did a bunch of characters. He's the sixth up from the bottom on this cast link:

Voice Cast (Online)

The following is a list of voice actors and actresses who are credited in The Elder Scrolls Online. There are about 77 voice actors for the game. Andrew Pifko - Jurisreeve Soravil/Clavicus Vile/Ashur April Stewart – Ulliceta gra-Kogg/Josajeh/Glardir Audrey Wasilewski - Jurisreeve Lorne/Courtier...

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