Board 8 > What's the most famous voice performance in gaming?

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Ellen McLain as GLaDOS and TF2 Administrator

Steve Downes as Master Chief.

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StealThisSheen posted...

The NBA Jam guy. "Boomshakalaka!" and "He's on fire!" got to be everywhere and still are used today.

My first thought as well.

LeonhartFour posted...

men generally prefer to play as men

sure

but the console playing male audience isn't ~88%

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James Arnold Taylor as Tidus

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Duke Nukem was only mentioned once but it's a good answer as well. it's out of fashion now but i'd sooner take that over Nathan Drake.

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TheCodeisBosco posted...

First thought was Charles Martinet as Mario. First thought after the caveats was GlaDOS.

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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

James Arnold Taylor as Tidus

His vlogs are good too

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I'm gonna throw my vote to

Ellen McLain as GLaDOS

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I suspect it's because Male shep was on the cover of me1. people generally tend to prefer playing the presumedly canon option in games

Although if I'm not wrong (i probably am), femshep became so popular among the dev team that they declared shep canonically female

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Steve Richie in Mortal Kombat II

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Does John Madden (a bunch of Madden games) count?

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Feel like its a multiplayer game if we arent counting Martinet or Links Hiyaaaahs

League, Halo, or Starcraft would be my guesses on the games and what I thought of in each order

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It mainly depends what is meant by "famous."

If it's more... What's most well-received in the gaming community, then it opens up a lot of possibilities.

If it's what's most widely known overall, it's gonna be stuff that was more sound-bitey and permeated pop culture, like the NBA Jam announcer or the Mortal Kombat guy.

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My brother is the Casual of the Casual. He has not played a game seriously since the PS1 era. I asked him this question and gave him the limitation of no Mario. He admitted he was going to say that. Next he said he thought of haggar and his voice clips from the original final fight. And the Mortal Kombat announcer.

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Paratroopa1 posted...

Ellen McLain as GLaDOS and I would need a damn good counterexample

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banananor posted...

I suspect it's because Male shep was on the cover of me1. people generally tend to prefer playing the presumedly canon option in games

Although if I'm not wrong (i probably am), femshep became so popular among the dev team that they declared shep canonically female

there is no canon Shepard

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I played as female Shepard. Dont think I even know what the male one sounds like

Master Chief saying I need a weapon

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I want to say someone from the gears of War cast but I wonder if that's just not big enough

Whoops got caught up in the conversation that seemed to be just good voice acting in games and not a famous performance, so ignore that one

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A line that could be in contention though is "EA Sports- it's in the game."

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azuarc posted...

I'm assuming that:
1) You want a fine example of voice acting across a game, and not an isolated sound effect that's memorable.
2) That the work itself is famous and not the person doing the voicework.

Therefore:

This is what I assumed too, I took performance to mean like, a full on *performance* and not just a handful of sound bytes. You could read into it different ways but that was how I interpreted this

Well, the main examples are Mario and Solid Snake, so it seems like it could be either one.

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I'd honestly go so far as to say that Halo's multiplayer announcer is the most iconic voice in the franchise, and he has to be up there as far as the medium as a whole once we discount Snake, Mario, etc.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Steve Downes as Master Chief.

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Fastbreak posted...

A line that could be in contention though is "EA Sports- it's in the game."

And along the same lines...SEGA

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If it's a bunch of soundbytes, the Unreal Tournament announcer is up there. When you're so memorable you get stolen for one of the biggest games in the world, well, that's pretty indicative I'd say.

If we're talking an actual performance...really, is there any other choice but Dracula in Castlevania: SotN (or possibly, Richter)? "WHAT IS A MAN?! A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS!" is so iconic people who never played that game are aware of it.

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The no-names in SotN

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Waluigi is known by all

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Captain_Sorzo posted...

I'd honestly go so far as to say that Halo's multiplayer announcer is the most iconic voice in the franchise, and he has to be up there as far as the medium as a whole once we discount Snake, Mario, etc.

lost the lead

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KanzarisKelshen posted...

If we're talking an actual performance...really, is there any other choice but Dracula in Castlevania: SotN (or possibly, Richter)? "WHAT IS A MAN?! A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS!" is so iconic people who never played that game are aware of it.

They are aware of the line, not necessarily the voice acting itself.

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Paratroopa1 posted...

Ellen McLain as GLaDOS and I would need a damn good counterexample

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iiicon posted...

In what specifically? She's as prolific as it gets.

If it's ME, MaleShep had a play rate of 8:1 over her, which is baffling to me because she's incredible in those games

I never understood this take. Both voice actors were fine, it's just a lot easier to believe a galaxy saving badass is a man.

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The last metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.

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zen's spicy take: i do not like Jennifer Hale as Femshep because she is just doing the Jennifer Hale voice, I do not think Jen Hale has great range because every time I hear her in anything I'm just like "oh it's Jennifer Hale." Completely took me out of it for the few runs where I did femshep.

I don't think that Mark Meer does a great job with Male Shepard either but at least I don't know any other Mark Meer performances. Jennifer Hale is definitely a better actor than him.

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ZenOfThunder posted...

zen's spicy take: i do not like Jennifer Hale as Femshep because she is just doing the Jennifer Hale voice, I do not think Jen Hale has great range because every time I hear her in anything I'm just like "oh it's Jennifer Hale." Completely took me out of it for the few runs where I did femshep.

I don't think that Mark Meer does a great job with Male Shepard either but at least I don't know any other Mark Meer performances. Jennifer Hale is definitely a better actor than him.

I actually agree with this. Jennifer Hale gives a great performance, but its so recognizable I cant see it as my Shepard as easily

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I think Mark Meer is a fantastic Paragon from the start, and his Renegade gets better as the series goes along.

The one time I can say Mark Meer is definitively better than Jennifer Hale is the Citadel DLC in ME3 because he leans hard into the silliness while Hale still mostly plays it straight.

ZenOfThunder posted...

I don't think that Mark Meer does a great job with Male Shepard either but at least I don't know any other Mark Meer performances.

Mark Meer plays a lot of the random characters in Mass Effect (and most BioWare games, in fact), like all the vorcha and the elcor.

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Leonhart4 posted...

They are aware of the line, not necessarily the voice acting itself.

I had no idea what this actually sounded like until a week ago

TomNook posted...

The last metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.

I have no idea what this sounds like

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

I never understood this take. Both voice actors were fine, it's just a lot easier to believe a galaxy saving badass is a man.

This is a direct result of people actually believing those dumb surveys that say "females are 50% of gamers" and not realizing it just means "women play candy crush on their phones sometimes"

Probably 10x as many men as women played Mass Effect so the ratio roughly makes sense.

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