Actors who voice game characters have long become one of my favorite topics related to the gaming industry. Who are these people who voiced the heroes I remember, whose voices I recognize in one game or another?? How do they manage to play characters so different from each other and still remain recognizable?? Or, unrecognizable – that’s how it goes.
All this prompted me to write a topic, but about our “heroes of the invisible front” – actors and actresses taking part in the localization of games into Russian. In the process of collecting material, I came across many articles of a similar nature on a variety of domestic resources. Some of them turned out to be so good that, as they say, “neither subtract nor add”. Therefore, I decided to go straight to the raisins themselves.
Today, I will tell you about the most notable and sought after, in my humble opinion, voice actors in the gaming industry at the moment. So fasten your seat belts, pour yourself a cup of something warm, heat up a pot of something delicious and pour yourself in!
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But before we move on to analyzing the personalities of all sorts of Nolan Norths and the like, I want to focus on one important point. As you probably know, the voicing of game characters, and in general, the process of introducing human traits to them, has undergone numerous changes in the process of the evolution of game design. In the 90s, graphics and gameplay satisfied the needs of most gamers, and the transition to 3D format made it possible to plunge into the world of interactive entertainment on a completely new level. The narrative in games became more and more complex, which meant that the characters’ personalities required proper development. It is not known for certain in which game the game characters first spoke: in those years, few companies could afford this, and those that could did not always cope with the task properly.
Everyone knows the example of the very first Resident Evil the quality of the voice acting was so bad that the game at one time received a mention in the Guinness Book of Records for the most terrible work of actors. Of course, this did not stop the game from becoming incredibly successful, but the aftertaste remained.
However, just a couple of years later, in the Resident Evil field, a game was released that made a real splash in the gaming industry and, not unimportantly, really showed the importance of high-quality and truly professional work by actors. Yes friends, I mean legendary Metal Gear Solid — stealth action game authored by the permanent Hideo Kojima, equally talented director and game designer. The main merit of the first MGS, which significantly distinguishes it from the games of that time, is the fantastic work on the characters and plot.
David Hayter voiced the main https://drueckglueckcasino.uk/mobile-app/ character, Solid Snake, at a level completely unattainable at that time. Hayter’s character almost immediately acquired cult status, and his deep and hoarse voice became Snake’s calling card. With his work on Snake, David inspired many voice actors who were mostly involved in cartoons and anime, opening the door for them to enter the gaming industry. The developers (as time has shown, not all of them) began to pay more attention to working on the plot and developing characters.
Progress did not stand still, and developers began to come up with new ways to make pixel people even more humane. Thus, MotionCapture has become widely used. It is used in work on CGI cartoons and directly in films of those genres where computer graphics are actively used. In games, this technology allows developers to create more accurate animation of characters’ movements and faces.
The developers placed special emphasis on this L.A. Noir focusing on creating realistic facial expressions of the characters, for which a unique MotionScan technology was created, which captures all the emotions on the actor’s face without the use of any markers or paint.
The developers from Team Boindi are not the only ones who rely heavily on the use of complex systems for conveying movements and facial expressions, combined with increased attention to acting. Competent direction and high-quality facial expressions make Quantic Dream’s projects as close to cinema as possible.
Now, it’s difficult to overestimate what the developers have achieved thanks to a competent combination of technology and talented acting, which sometimes surpasses even feature films in terms of performance. Such large projects as The Last Of Us series BioShock, Grand Theft Auto, Batman Arkham, Mass Effect, Uncharted and many others were remembered by the players, no less thanks to the images of the characters, written and played at a decent level. The industry is growing, more and more professional actors are being hired, including Hollywood stars. It is worth noting that for some “red carpet walkers” it is not so much a question of money, but rather a desire to try themselves in a new field.
The line between cinema and games is gradually blurring, allowing you to plunge into incredible stories not only with your head but also with other parts of your body…but more about that some other time, and now let’s move directly to the most seasoned knights of the um…microphone?
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This comrade rightfully deserves a separate article, so this time I will pay special attention to him.
Nolan Ramsey North was born in the wonderfully named city of New Haven, Connecticut. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina and even worked as a reporter for about a year in New Jersey before moving to New York with the goal of taking up stand-up comedy and trying his hand at acting. Nolan eventually moved to Hollywood, where he auditioned for a daytime soap opera (there should be a joke about Drake and soap, but I didn’t make it up, your options in the comments) Port Charles is a spin-off of another soap opera called General Hospital, which still runs on ABC to this day…in short, not without the participation of soap and a few towels, Nolan hooked up with one of the actresses of the TV show and in 1999 they got married. And while the soap series was slowly going to one, Nollan little by little began to voice and look closely at the gaming industry where he later found his calling.
This is the guy who should lead the industry forward. He personifies it better than anyone else.The Gurdian. May 12, 2012
Fact, Nolan North has voiced a huge number of roles both in games and in various cartoons, both main and supporting roles, and he is proud of it! Working on video games really gives him a lot of fun and creativity. To the whole world Most players know Nolan for his role as a swashbuckling treasure hunter Nathan Drake from the series Uncharted. Of the large number of roles, it is also worth highlighting the assassin’s descendant Desmond Miles, excellent performance Penguin both in the Man-Bat cartoons and in the games of the series Batman Arkham. Nolan didn’t disappoint Marvel either, where he voiced a chatty pancake lover Deadpool, (one of his craziest and funniest works in my opinion). I consider his small but extremely memorable role to be the icing on the cake of his work in the gaming industry David from The Last of Us
Nolan’s services to the gaming industry can hardly be overestimated, although many lower-ranking voice actors, from whom Nolan took away many roles in his time, may disagree with this. But in recent years, North’s dominance has been shaken by one very vocal and determined striped sock enthusiast. Myself Troy Baker praises Nolan and, with a twinkle in his eye, talks about how Nolan’s Drake inspired him to take up voice acting with particular zeal.
What is the real relationship between them?? Mentor and student? Sworn rivals? I’m inclined to think that they’re just a couple of funny guys who excelled at scoring video games, equally well. And I somehow doubt that there could be a role that they could not do.
Next year we will see the result of their collaboration in Uncharted 4: Thief’s End. And it will be cool. Very cool. In the meantime, I advise you to watch their joint panel with Sac Anime Summer 2013.
