Angry Gaming 10.15.07: Acting Up
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 10.15.2007
Good voice acting is like a good hospital visit. It’s not exactly “good”.
Welcome to Angry Gaming, expensive divorce lawyer that drains the gaming industry of any potential alimony it would have received anyway. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I am absolutely sick of hearing kids beg for "help with achievements" on Xbox live free for all ranked matches. JUST PLAY THE STUPID GAME AND SHUT UP.
A quick feedback note: Chris Jacobs read last week's article and claims I have too much time on my hands. Chris Jacobs is very, very right.
Acting Up
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. There is no accounting for taste. One of the most unique things about people as individuals is that each person develops distinct preferences and tastes for no apparent reason that medical science can identify. You may hate spicy food, whereas your supposed "love of your life" soul mate won't touch anything with even a dash of pepper on it. You may listen to rap music while your own father grooves on guitar solos and bass lines. If you are like me, you love the original voice acting in the Xbox 360 version of Enchanted Arms… but then again, no one is like me.
I watch a lot of the G4 television network and I've noticed a pattern in that shows about video games love to cut out certain parts of cheesy or risqué video game cut scene voice acting and make a joke of it This particularly goes for bad voice acting, which is supposed to be overdramatic or often misspoken. Sometimes this happens due to translation issues or motion capture constraints in imported games. Other times, sound studios are too lazy or cheap to push the envelope looking for proper sound bytes. Or it's possible that some sound leads have the same problem I do: they just aren't hearing what the gamers are.
In video game media, we often hear jokes about how bad the voice acting in one game is or how good the voice acting in another game is. The problem for me personally is that all too often, I can't tell the difference between the good and the bad. For me, acting in a video game is by definition a very cheesy thing for a professional actor or actress to process and that feeling inevitably must carry over into their job. All voice acting in video games sounds cheesy, because the idea of speech in a video game IS cheesy. It's a tongue in cheek thing to say that you played a character who ran around shooting aliens in your kid's Nintendo game, and unfortunately for us end users, 99% of voice actors find themselves in that very awkward position when recording sound for a game.
Who exactly are the "good" voice actors? What lines did they deliver with such tenacity and boldness that gamers universally agreed that these were the games that got the sound right? More importantly, why am I not hearing what the rest of you are? Today, more for my own personal necessity than that of any readers, we are going to look at three voice talents in three video games who are universally considered to be good at their job. I want to say we will then figure out what sets them aside from the rest of the voice acting herd, but the truth is I'm probably just going to make fun of them to make myself feel better. Hey, at least I'm honest!
Linda Hunt – Gaia, God of War II
It was no accident that I mentioned G4 TV before. Morgan Webb, star of X Play, went on record over the network expressing amazement at the fact that Gears of War topped out Hunt's work in God of War II for best voice acting in their yearly video game awards polls. Hunt, having played a narrator for the original God of War and revealing a new character in this edition, is all over the entire series and possibly has the most lines of all the actors. After playing through said series, I'm left scratching my head as to what passes for an amazing job by Morgan Webb's standards.
You may have seen Hunt's work before. Not only has she done prominent voice acting in animated features like Pocahontas (with a character eerily similar to Gaia in God of War) but she has appeared personally in films such as Dune, Kindergarten Cop, The Relic and Stranger Than Fiction. Often typecast, Hunt usually is given roles that require airs of wisdom or authority, and speaking frankly, age. She has won an Oscar in the best supporting actress category, which is interesting considering at the time she was playing a male character.
The problem with Hunt's work in God of War is that it's too generic. While she does succeed in narrating the epic tale with reverence and a nice dramatic flair, she doesn't do much else. Whether as a character or as a narrator, Hunt's Gaia never really expresses much variety in terms of emotions despite being an active participant in the story. She issues warnings that sound like stories, and speeches that sound like, well, stories. The wrath of the titans is supposed to be great, but to hear Hunt say it, the wrath of the titans sounds like the wrath of old Mr. McDermott from up the block yelling at those young whipper snappers playing baseball in the middle of the neighborhood street.
None of this is Hunt's fault though! God of War II just so happens to be a two disc set including a behind the scenes DVD that not only interviews Hunt but shows her recording sessions in detail. We can clearly see her reading her lines and asking to be corrected and for extra readings, wondering whether or not she actually is bringing the right tone to her character. The game's developers and studio direction promptly wave her off and assure her that everything is fine as if they are all just hoping to get home in time to watch prime time television. Hunt even admits that she doesn't know anything about the character of Gaia, because they haven't told her. Yeah, like telling Linda fucking Hunt who her character is warrants too much security risk to say anything. Somehow, I don't see Linda being the weak link to go home and spoil the hidden plot of a goddamn video game to her kids. Maybe next time we can toss Linda a clue and add some life to her character?
John DiMaggio: Marcus Fenix, Gears of War
John DiMaggio is a former standup comedian turned prominent voice actor. You can't possibly have missed DiMaggio's work. He's appeared in everything, from playing Golgo 13 in Queen Bee to the popular Bender in Futurama. As Marcus Fenix in Gears of War, DiMaggio plays the stereotypical marine both respected and despised by superiors and subordinates alike, adding a loud rasp into his voice for every line spoken over gunfire and a low grumble during quieter moments.
DiMaggio gets the nod for having the most lines in the game easily, and his dialogue is widely varied from conversations about the abilities of his squad to wise cracks about friends that owe him money. Both DiMaggio's voice and number of script lines get oddly thin when the game thrusts Fenix into an old mansion overrun by brutal violent enemies; the same mansion he just happened to live in for most of his natural life. The game offers no suggestion that seeing his own house torn to shreds might be affecting Marcus just a tad, nor does DiMaggio's voice work.' But we'll ignore all that simply on the basis that I've brought it up far too many times already.
DiMaggio plays Fenix as the ultimate bad ass: frustrated and unimpressed with everything he sees and only cracking slightly in times of camaraderie with his band of brothers under fire. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, Gears of War does suffer from a somewhat lackluster speech script and DiMaggio could have gone the extra mile to do a lot more with what he had. As it stands, Fenix sounds quite happy to be in the middle of a horrific war and only seems to want it to stop in time for him to get some sleep (which, give the opportunity, he does not do). I'm not certain who gets the blame for this one, but hopefully the inevitable sequel will show John DiMaggio trying a little tenderness in his Marcus Fenix.
Steve Downes: Master Chief, Halo 3
Steve Downes is a morning disc jockey on 97.1 WDRV "The Drive" in Chicago, Illinois. More importantly, Downes is the voice of one of the most popular video game characters of all time, Master Chief of the Halo series. While I am absolutely certain that Downes is a nice guy as well as talented and entertaining, the simple fact is the man benefits from one of the greatest injustices I have ever seen in my entire life. He voices one of the most popular video game characters ever, and god help me, he barely says more than ten lines in every game!
Nobody deserves this kind of payday for this little work! I understand that Master Chief is supposed to be a quiet badass who lets his actions speak louder than his words, but fuck all, I don't even think he needs to speak in order to communicate half of the things he does say in the Halo series! Downes doesn't even have a lengthy history of voice acting outside of Halo itself. Wikipedia says that it was Martin O'Donnell who recognized Downes' work and gave him the role. CURSE YOU MARTIN O'DONNELL! For all his popularity, the voice work for Master Chief does little to add to the Halo experience, and I can think of fewer jobs that require nearly no effort and have a huge profit margin as that of voicing Halo's main character. This guy basically hit the lottery of jobs. Congrats, you bastard.
The Anger
Am I tone deaf? Or is there actually something to the whole voice acting skill range that I am just not seeing? Acting in video games and some animated features still does not appear to garner the same level of professionalism that live action movies done, and this is somewhat warranted in that live acting requires body and facial motions to go along with the line delivery. But voice acting is a skill in its own right, and requires a specialized talent. As gamers, our ears listen not only for the sound of enemies and rockets coming from behind us, but for the storylines in games and the empathy of their characters to come forward in voice acting. The bar is set high already for those who dare attempt to get over it. Until they do, embrace the hatred.
