Support NeoGAF

[Sendou]

How is it distracting if it's intentional?

You're supposed to be thinking about Nolan North and Nathan Drake while you're playing it, that's the point.

It can't be distrating and intentional at the same time? Incredible logic.

 

[Heart of Black]

What about him?

He sounds like Bender in EVERYTHING.

Loved him in Madworld (because he was pretty much just even more foul mothered Bender) but he was terrible as the Joker. And hearing him as random bad guys in Riddick is super distracting, he sounded like Xzibit mixed with Benger.

His work as Marcus Fenix is atrocious. That voice is all over the place.

 

[cramoss]

Dude, what?

Not at all.

 

[NullPointer]

You are? Yager wanted him to sound like Drake so people can think of Uncharted?

The way I understand it Nolan was in for Spec Ops before he was known as Nathan Drake. So any subconscious Drake sympathies were purely coincidental.

 

[antitrop]

You are? Yager wanted him to sound like Drake so people can think of Uncharted?

Not necessarily Uncharted specifically, but it is obviously included in the games that Spec Ops attempts to criticize. Whether it does so successfully or not is always up for lively debate, but thats definitely what Walt Williams was going for.

 

[antitrop]

The way I understand it Nolan was in for Spec Ops before he was known as Nathan Drake. So nay subconscious Drake sympathies were purely coincidental.

Not quite. If I'm remembering correctly he wasn't confirmed to be in the game until shortly after Uncharted 2 was released. Up for speculation how long he was working with Yager before that, maybe a year or two. The game was officially announced in 2009. Not important though, it is mostly a coincidence, but Uncharted and Nathan Drake are obvious influences for Walt Williams.

I would assume that much of the Uncharted 2 and 3 development cycles overlapped with Spec Ops: The Line.

 

[shinobi602]

Not necessarily Uncharted specifically, but it is obviously included in the games that Spec Ops attempts to criticize. Whether it does so successfully or not is always up for lively debate, but thats definitely what Walt Williams was going for.

I had no idea Spec Ops attempts to criticize any games? I thought it was meant more so to showcase the realities of war and the degradation of humanity due to it.

 

[antitrop]

I had no idea Spec Ops attempts to criticize any games? I thought it was meant more so to showcase the realities of war and the degradation of humanity due to it.

It criticizes standard game tropes, ludonarrative dissonance and all games that suffer from it, including Uncharted.

As I said before, whether it is successful or not will always be debated, but that's what it's going for. You should watch Walt William's talk from GDC last month, it was great. He talked about that.

Nolan North's involvement in the game is not a coincidence, he is very much the perfect actor to play the character since he is so much himself a representation of modern triple AAA action gaming that Spec Ops is attempting to criticize.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

I didn't even get that he was the Penguin

 

[AgentOtaku]

wow. I'm pretty shocked to see quite a few people say they didn't even notice... It's pretty blatant imo. I don't even play very many games anymore either.

Honestly I don't mind him most of the time, but I kind of agree with the OP here, he definitely stands out a little too much in Arkham City. Especially when hes the voice of literally EVERY thug in the game besides the times where it has two thugs talking to each other like that last video. annnnnnd considering every pack of thugs you run into in Arkham City are blabbing away constantly, every single pack has something to say, theres Nolan around every single corner in the game.

I wouldn't say it ruins it for me, but its almost like playing a GTA game and having Nolan being literally every npc voice in the game. Its a little too much. (oh god, as I say that I'm reminded about that Mafia 2 video posted above me lol)



But then again I was pretty shocked so few noticed Jennifer Hale in Bioshock Infinite.

exactly

 

[AgentOtaku]

the distracting thing about Arkham City's dialogue is every one calling Catwoman a variation of BITCH every 2 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADOk3K_lo-Y

Dini had issues with Rocksteady when it came to that, he didnt wanna do it

I agree as well

Pretty poor attempt at making their game sound more adult while still maintaining the Teen rating

 

[Itchy//Tasty]

Is op mad? Nolan North is fucking amazing as Penguin. High hopes for his return in Origins.

 

[Htown]

Nolan North's voice isn't nearly as immediately recognizable as Steve Blum's.

On June 5, 2012 he was awarded a Guinness World Record for being the most prolific video game voice actor, having 261 credited appearances on May 10.

Wolverines and Spike Spiegels everywhere

 

[DonMigs85]

Farthest thing from Nathan Drake

 

[Nealand Liquor]

Lol, we gamers will complain about anything.

 

[Alienous]

Nolan North's voice isn't nearly as immediately recognizable as Steve Blum's.

But he's voice is recognisable like Robert De Niro's face, rather than being the same/similar voice in every one of his appearances. You'd never be fooled it's not him, but you still wouldn't be distracted that it is.

 

[Zaventem]

Like 90% of the people i this thread are against OP.

 

[RadioHeadAche]

I remember Steve Blum the most.

 

[Xater]

Didn't even notice, so no?

 

[DonMigs85]

Wrong thread

 

[Melchiah]

You may know him from 75% of the games you've played in the last 6 years.

His most notable roles are Nathan Drake in Uncharted, Captain Martin Walker in Spec Ops: The Line, and Desmond Miles from Assassin's Creed, amongst... everything else.

Heh, I haven't played any of those games, which is probably why his voice never bothered me in Batman.

 

[Himself]

For me, Nolan's voice is Drake's voice. Couldn't get past it in Spec Ops.

 

[neojubei]

This Nolan north hate is getting pretty stupid. He was great in arkham city.

 

[Replicant]

So I finally went through OP's examples and the only time he sounds remotely like Drake is when he played one of the thugs. But Penguin? Nope. Doesn't sound like Drake at all. And I didn't even know he voiced Blackmask or whatever. Blackmask sounds weird.

I think the guy has serious range. Just saw the youtube vid of him playing that crazy robot. That's completely different too. I just wish the developers STOP asking him to make Drake voice. Yeah, yeah, we get it. It's the voice that made him famous but ffs, if you hire him don't hire him because you want him to mimic Drake's voice.

 

[RadioHeadAche]

Oh, Penguin was Nolan North? Huh. I thought he just voiced some random non-player characters.

 

[AgentOtaku]

This Nolan north hate is getting pretty stupid. He was great in arkham city.

I have NOTHING against him. It's more of a criticism against Rocksteady for not hiring more actors to voice the random people who CONSTANTLY talk throughout the city.

Nolan North is fine and yes, talented

 

[Synless]

I didn't even know he did voices other than the penguin, and even then I didn't know it was him until I someone mentioned it.

.

 

[SJRB]

Definately. Not only does he voice Penguin, he also voiced half the random thugs.

Especially in rooms where Penguin is yappin on the radio and there are several North-voiced thugs it gets insanely annoying.

Don't get me wrong, I really like Nolan North but Arkham City is like a North-overdose. The guy is literally everywhere I go. It only gets worse once you start paying attention to it.


But that being said - I feel that Arkham City uses way too little voice actors in general. I hear the same four voices everywhere.

 

[Assault]

Nolan is great.

 

[GavinGT]

I can tell when it's Troy Baker. But when North's putting on a voice I most often can't tell. Besides, I like the guy and his work.

 

[Alpende]

I didn't even know the dude did all those voices.

 

[ubersticky]

Didn't know until this post.

 

[Strax]

What about him?

He kinda used a Futurama voice for Mr. Freeze

 

[Maxwood]

His Penguin was great, and I'm just now learning that he did Black Mask (never saw him myself in the game), which also sounds great.

An aside, his voice acting of Drake is great-great, but his greatest performance is of the crazy robot in Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time. It's great.

Nolan North is great.

Edit: Fuckin' animated-film quality voice-acting here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-d8mJh8hLI

Sigmund from A Crack In Time is Nolan North?!
MIND = BLOWN

 

[bryanee]

Its hard not to notice him as many of the random thugs around the city but it didnt bother me.

As penguin and Black mask you cant even tell its him so I don't see how those voices are an issue.

 

[red731]

There was Nolan North?

 

[Strickland]

So I'm FINALLY making my way through Arkham City and didn't anyone think that this was a bit of a problem when putting this game together? It's fucking insane and incredibly distracting.

see here and here

...oh and here

Not to mention you CONSTANTLY here his voice throughout the game via random thug's radio chatter, only with slight variations of a semi-New Yorker and what not.
I also feel like Troy Baker is getting dangerously close of going full North as well.

Didn't even know he was in the game! He's that talented.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

It bugs me to death, too. I've expressed before that I find the small handful of game voice actors in every game very distracting. I also feel that even the very best game voice actors are still very weak in comparison to Hollywood voice actors and actors.

 

[Z3M0G]

He acted in Arkham City?

He acted in TMNT?!?! (Edit: Holy shit, as Raphael... He did a great job because when I play his voice in my head I sure as hell don't hear Nolan North...)

 

[Daingurse]

No, can't even tell he's the Penguin.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

That's like saying all his Dota2 heroes sound the same. I'm not sure why people seem to think he doesn't have any range.

 

[Goldenroad]

Didn't even know he was in the game...maybe I did, but I totally forgot until right now.

 

[BolognaSoup]

I noticed him big time as one of the thugs when rescuing Mr Freeze but didn't notice he was the Penguin.

 

[Cannon Goose]

Had no idea he was even in the game until I found out he was the Penguin. Didn't notice him as the thugs either.

 

[BurritoBushido]

I had no idea he was black mask

 

[NotLiquid]

I didn't even notice he was in Arkham City. Some rock I live under.

The man certainly has one hell of a range when he gets the opportunity, he's far more varied than I give him credit for. If there's any voice I hear everywhere and is almost never different its Troy Baker. Playing throughout Bioshock Infinite I always wondered why people didn't call him Vincent Brooks instead of Booker.

 

[Apoc29]

Distracting you from what? Being dead?

 

[velociraptor]

I expected to hear Nathan Drake in these videos.

 

[TheMink]

1:40 Nolan North is El Jefe

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=VdmuWk7o5Is&desktop_uri=/watch?v=VdmuWk7o5Is

Dude's talented.

 

[plainr_]

I completed this game 2 times and I never once noticed Nolan's voice. I now kinda feel ashamed for not recognizing his voice since I did platinum Uncharted 2 four times, U3 twice, and also Golden Abyss/U1 once.