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I also prefer Rockstar's approach with relatively or totally unknown actors that happen to be a perfect cast for that very specific role. Works the same way for great movies or shows like The Sopranos with James Gandolfini.

 

[Zeeed]

Tbh its because of troy baker, i thought joel from tlou was an older nathan drake. So I thought it was a sequel or something. Like nathan drake older but with zombies.

The funny thing is Nathan Drake is played by Nolan North, who plays the bad guy in the first TLOU, David the cannibal.

 

[Calverz]

The funny thing is Nathan Drake is played by Nolan North, who plays the bad guy in the first TLOU, David the cannibal.

Hahaha shows how much i know then!

 

[Zeeed]

Here is my prediction, in the next year or two, we are going to see a lot more of the same voice actors in a lot of video games and other things.

Because of the ongoing pandemic, they don't ask Voice Actors to go into a professional sound studio anymore. They send them sound equipment to their home or ask them to set up the best that they can, a sound studio in their home (walk-in closet).
This might put finding new talents, and sending them equipment to set up a sound studio to be more trouble than to just fall back on tried and tested voice actor talents who has all the equipment and know-how of a home sound studio, etc.

Here is a video of the voice actor for Morgana in Persona 5 explaining Voice Acting in the age of the Pandemic:
How the Pandemic Changed Voiceover | Pro Voice Actor Talks Working From Home

 

[assurdum]

Hearing the same voices over and over again in so many games really breaks immersion.

Honestly, really just kind of sick of Troy Baker in general. He's a great VA, but instantly recognizable. That alone breaks immersion.

He's even the fuckin Maw in The Medium...

Yo look at this sick chase scene I hope Troy Baker doesn't catch me hahaha so fun

You always hear the same handful of famous voice actors in every single video game so it's a breath of fresh air to play RDR2 where relatively new voice actors get a chance and every single one of them does an outstanding job with their characters.

I play Arkham Knight occasionally to watch Laura Bailey and Troy Baker talk to themselves


Laura Bailey - IMDb

Troy Baker - IMDb

You should live in my country. Most of the videogames are dubbed from the same company (the less expensive of course). Excepts for Sony exclusive, you have to hear the same couples of actors voices every fucking single time. There are games as Skyrim which I heard the same voice actor used for ten characters as minimum. I stopped to play VG in my language for such reasons. The most annoying thing is there are games which can't even allow you to choose the audio language as in the same Skyrim.

 

[Braag]

If the acting is good, no it doesn't.
Same as in movies, it doesn't bother me to see the same actors as long as they fit the role.

 

[Exoil]

You should live in my country. Most of the videogames are dubbed from the same company (the less expensive of course). Excepts for Sony exclusive, you have to hear the same couples of actors voices every fucking single time. There are games as Skyrim which I heard the same voice actor used for ten characters as minimum. I stopped to play VG in my language for such reasons. The most annoying thing is there are games which can't even allow you to choose the audio language as in the same Skyrim.

I bet most people are glad they don't live in countries who feels the need to dub anything except kids shows to their language.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Nah, this is a bunch of nonsense OP. It's no different than any big actor that does a lot of movies, I've never had a problem seeing guys like Denzel Washington or Leo DiCaprio as any of the characters they played and I'd say it's even less of an issue in videogames because the characters they play look completely different. There's no doubt that Troy Baker is a top voice actor if not the top voice actor of the last decade. He always gives great performances so I don't mind hearing him a lot and he can make his voice sound quite different for certain roles like for Joel or Sam.

My first time hearing him was in 2008 when he voiced Yuri in Tales of Vesperia and I said to myself "wow, this guy is really good I hope he does more games I play in the future". He went on to be a big part of a lot of the big games I played: FF13, Bioshock Infinite, RE6, TLOU, CoD: Advanced Warfare, Uncharted 4, MGSV, Infamous SS and that's just off the top of my head.

I’m playing vesperia for the first time and thought I recognised his voice and smug vo, but wasn’t sure. You’ve ruined the game for me now, I hate Troy baker.

 

[Great Hair]

Yes

Spoiler

 

[Rheon]

I feel the same way but with Laura Bailey.

I'm playing Gears 5 right now and every time I hear Kait talk, it just sounds like Laura Bailey to me.

 

[AJUMP23]

I don’t care. The only time any voice actor has stood out to me is when I was doing a re watch of the original true grit and the actor who voices Winnie the Pooh’s piglet is in the film. It took me out immediately and I went down a piglet rabbit hole.

 

[Hudo]

I don't mind voice actors but I hate, HATE famous celebrity faces in games.

This. Voices don't bother me unless the writing itself is shit. But seeing a celebrity lending their likeness to a game character is pretty off putting to me.
That's why I think it's a cool decision by IO Interactive that they'll go for their own Bond with the new 007 game instead of using Daniel Craig or so.

 

[Fbh]

Can't really say it bothers me. It's like watching a movie with a famous actor.

I find stuff like movie celebrities in games or Peter Parker having a completely different face in the next game more immersion breaking .

 

[RPSleon]

Its like watching any film with certain actors that cant act in more than one way.

 

[Kadayi]

 

[GreyHorace]

I'm more irritated by Nolan North to be honest. I'm sick of hearing his voice everywhere from Assassin's Creed to Uncharted.

I was impressed though when he played David in The Last of Us. Had no idea it was him.

 

[JSoup]

I feel the same with Steve Blum or Cree Summer.

 

[Corgi1985]

Every game uses the same 3 voice actors b/c AAA gaming has no imagination

 

[Revolutionary]

Depends. In Immortals Fenyx Rising, there's a character voiced by Adam Jensen and I couldn't help but picture him everytime he spoke in that fake Greek accent lol

 

[Carna]

Does a Souls game need to have Troy Baker? No, because Hidetaka Miyazaki doesn't let voice acting companies boss him around, like they do with other companies. Hidetaka EARNED the right to choose the voice actors, he personally wants.

 

[YCoCg]

I'm more irritated by Nolan North to be honest. I'm sick of hearing his voice everywhere from Assassin's Creed to Uncharted

Is this post from 10 years ago?

 

[brian0057]

Troy Baker is like Ben Affleck every time I know he's in something.
I don't see (or hear) the character, I just see Ben Affleck or hear Troy.

 

[smart_brazileiro]

No, because I typically play with the sound off anyway.

 

[M1chl]

Does a Souls game need to have Troy Baker? No, because Hidetaka Miyazaki doesn't let voice acting companies boss him around, like they do with other companies. Hidetaka EARNED the right to choose the voice actors, he personally wants.

So?

 

[Mr. PlayStation]

I don't mind voice actors but I hate, HATE famous celebrity faces in games.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Troy Baker is like Ben Affleck every time I know he's in something.
I don't see (or hear) the character, I just see Ben Affleck or hear Troy.

Please don’t compare the two.

affleck is the bomb; baker is the bum.

 

[Diddy X]

Sometimes, mostly when it's the actor playing the almost same role or looking the same as in every movie e.g. Owen Wilson.

Edit: oops, gaming forum
But still I speak spanish as first languaje and it's way worse with having every hollywood movie and series dubbed.

Here in Spain I would recognize like 6 or 7 characters that have Bart or Homer Simpson's voices.

 

[driqe]

 

[namekuseijin]

immersion-breaking is having no VR

 

[Karak]

No if they are good., For example Anthony Ingruber or other mimics can pass for someone else. If they are phoning it in, many times the audio directors fault, than sure

 

[EverydayBeast]

It’s one of those things you don’t notice.

 

[Captain Toad]

If knowing Troy Baker is in a game breaks your immersion, you aren't going to be immersed in very many games.

 

[tommycronin]

Nevermind these cunts OP you're absolutely right. You're right in the fact that Troy in the last few years has been really phoning it in so when you hear his voice now you pretty much know where his character is gonna go and how his mannerisms are gonna be before the game even starts. See Bruce Banner and Miles Morales villain. So fucking mediocre.

 

[TGO]

Nah seriously, Teal'c was Kratos before he was Kratos
Unrelated
But I do like to see my character, I tend to bond with them better and that gets me more invested into the game.

 

[Umbral]

Oh poor boy. Any more first world problem you wanna share?

Insightful.

Troy, he doesn’t hate you, he just wants to give someone else a chance.

U ok hun?

Twitter lingo is now a part of GAF?

“Sweetie, last I checked, maybe if you, news flash, person says what, ok sweaty, I don’t know if you know this, yaas queen.”

 

[brian0057]

Please don’t compare the two.

affleck is the bomb; baker is the bum.

I'm not comparing acting ability.
It's just that when I see them on screen (or hear, in the case of Baker), I just see them, not their characters.

 

[D.Final]

Nope

Unless you're a huge fan of the actor, maybe

 

[saintjules]

I also prefer Rockstar's approach with relatively or totally unknown actors that happen to be a perfect cast for that very specific role. Works the same way for great movies or shows like The Sopranos with James Gandolfini.

Not sure if it's really a collab on a game but

 

[22:22:22]

Mostly yes

 

[Valt7786]

Must admit I am getting a bit bored of the "Big 3", them being Baker, Bailey and Nolan. Yes, they're talented but they are overused a little. It kinda irked me a little that CoD Vanguard used Laura Bailey to play the Russian sniper lady, why not get an actual Russian actress?

 

[cireza]

I have no idea who Troy Baker is.

Every time you hear a male voice in a game, that's him.

 

[Tschumi]

I'm a developer's dream. I'm a master at suspending disbelief and just taking games as they come.. for all i know I've heard a million voices before but i will never actually pick them out.


That said, I would not be surprised if the guy who plays, er, Aloy's foster father in Horizon Zero Dawn is a pretty ubiquitous voice actor.

Also in kinda scarred by the knowledge that one guy does all the voices in Supergiant games.


Edit: oh! He's kanji in persona 4 Golden! I've got to pay him respects for that, he was my favourite character , mostly because of how he delivered his lines

 

[brian0057]

Every time you hear a male voice in a game, that's him.

It's a roll of the die if you get either Troy Baker, Steve Blum, or Nolan North.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I have noticed it at times. It was a bit bothersome to me in Fallen Order where I knew it was that kid from Shameless and the digital rendition seemed a little off to me.

 

[Fuz]

He's not even a real baker!

 

[Shut0wen]

Ive noticed it in some games but troys talented enough that in sone games i never knew it was him

 

[Astral Dog]

nah i like Troy

 

[Rest]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. When I hear Ray Liotta's voice in Vice City, I picture him in a vocal booth recording the lines. But Debra Wilson in Wolfenstein or Star Wars fits in perfectly.

My favorite voice actor is Tom Clark Hill, he was the Gladiator in the first Sacred, had a bunch of roles in games by Free Radical, and is now the voice of Karl Fairburne in the Sniper Elite series. I always like his performances, and his work always seems to enhance the characters he plays. He melds to the work and blends in, and it usually takes me a while to recognize him. Even after I do, it never takes me out of the game, his work fits so flawlessly that knowing who spoke the words has no effect on my immersion.

 

[Strider Highwind]

Not really, I've known who the guy was who played Snake, and the old lady who played a lot of DBZ Characters(And her husband) and never cared. I prefer watching Dragonball Z in Japanese and hearing her voice over the English dubs lol

 

[Ian Henry]

This is a pretty good topic actually. Just kinda disappointed of the responses but it's to be expected. I think alot of people don't really care about voice actors like that in the gaming realm.

For me, it's tiring hearing the big 3 in all the video games. I wish the devs took the time to find new and underground talent. The problem is that the Union is backed by them. Which is why we hear the Nolan North's, Troy Baker's, Travis Willingham's, Laura Bailey's, etc. Might as well call them the Banana Crew cause they always with each other lol.