Sometimes a great game is made by the voice acting. I have mentioned previously about badly acted cut scenes, ones so laughably bad that they can ruin a game. However here we will look at some of the best, the height of video game voices.
There are famous voice actors; they do great work in bringing our favourite characters to life, but sometimes it’s nice to have the A List voice a character, their Real Life faces are easy to recognize in the characters and we can compare them to our favourite TV and Movie Characters.
12: Claudia Christian
Babylon 5 favourite Claudia is well known to fans of Skyrim, she voices Adrianne Avenicci, Aela the Huntress, Bryling, Laila Law-Giver, Legate Rikke, Sorli the Builder and Wolf-Queen Potema, amongst others. She also appeared in Pizza Morgana, Darksiders 2 and Guild Wars 2.
11: Elijah Wood
Besides voicing Frodo in the various Lord of the Rings games, Mr Wood also had the chance to voice another tiny cute fictional character, this time Spyro in A New Beginning, The Eternal Night and Dawn of the Dragon. He also starred as Deimos in God of War III.
10: Eliza Dushku
Joss Whedon darling Dushku voiced the character of Shaundi in Saints Row 2, Yumi in Yakuza and Rubi in WET amongst others. She has also voiced her Buffy the Vampire Slayer character Faith in the game Chaos Bleeds and Megan McQueen in Fight Night Champion.
9: Seth Green
Whether he is playing cute musician werewolves or overweight cartoons Seth Green is pint sized awesomeness, and can you believe he is nearly 40?! Video Game wise he is best known for voicing Joker in Mass Effect; he has appeared in all 3 films as the Flight Lieutenant, as well as voicing his Family Guy character Chris Griffin in both Family Guy Games.
8: Ron Perlman
We can next hear Perlman’s chilling tone as the supervillian assassin Deathstroke in Arkham Origins, but prior to this the Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy star has appeared in Halo 2 and 3 as Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood and narrated the intro movies to the Fallout series.
7: Felicia Day
Other Joss Whedon darling, and a fellow geek chic original Felicia Day has been in four games to date. While her role in Fallout: New Vegas as Veronica Santangelo is one of the best known, she has also appeared in Rock of the Dead, Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin and Guild Wars 2.
6: Liam Neeson
Qui-Gon Jinn managed to play the lost father in Fallout 3. The role, which was written for him, involves the persons on Vault 101 and Liam Neeson’s son looking for him after he has gone missing. Not to spoil the game for anyone I will leave it at that, but bonus – if your character is African American you can see Liam Neeson as such.
5: Mark Hamill
We all know he is the Joker in the Arkham games, but as well as Luke Skywalker his voice will always reverberate down the years through the many many games he has worked on. He worked on three Wing Commander Games, he voiced Wolverine in X-Men 2: Wolverine’s Revenge (shocking right?), and I will always remember him in Crash Bandicoot as Py-Ro the Fire Elemental and Znu.
His work as the Joker in the Arkham games is equally terrifying and amazing and it won him the 2011 British Academy Video Game Award for Best Performer.
4: Patrick Stewart OBE
He’s Jean Luc Picard, he’s Xavier, he is a LEGEND! Having briefly met him a few years ago I can say he is somewhat stoic in real life (although we may have caught him in an off moment) he is still amazing.
His turn in the many Star Trek games aside, he has voiced work in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone and Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos.
For his turn in Oblivion he won a Spike TV Video Game Award.
Made of Awesome.
3: Martin Sheen
This man is a legend, the head of an acting dynasty and quite possibly the best Fictional President of the United States ever. Okay, I love him, he is awesome.
In games he lent his voice and likeness to The Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2 and 3, and known to few the voice of Nozdormu/Murozond in WoW: Cataclysm.
2: Samuel L Jackson
Not only has he appeared in over 100 films and is the highest grossing film actor of all time but the legend that is Samuel L. has found time to appear in a few games as well. Most of them are tie-in’s to his film and TV work, but he also starred in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as Officer Frank Tenpenny. His role won him the Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Male.
1: John DiMaggio
He will always be Bender Rodriguez, simple; but for a lot of people he will forever be Marcus Fenix in Gears of War. His list of video game voice over work goes back 18 years and includes titles in the Final Fantasy, Marvel, Halo, Disney and DC universes. Frankly the guy is awesome, and in almost everything.
