Idris Elba: Actors in video games like Phantom Liberty is 'sign of the times'

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• Mantis_Toboggan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Kristen Bell was in Assassin’s Creed II and that was 14 years ago… Fuck I feel old.

  But still, it’s been slowly happening for quite a while

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  • Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There have been a lot of borderline stunt castings over the years. Patrick Stewart was in like 30 seconds of TES4 and Sean Bean was in about 10 minutes of it. Hell, Bruce Campbell was in all of Tachyon: The Fringe (which is like the fifth best space dogfighting game ever).

    But they were largely wasted. Kristen Bell… she is spectacular within a narrow range and “generic girl in the chair” is not it. And then there was the (alleged?) contract dispute that led to her being a baddy that gets killed off real fast. And that was largely the case. It was “get a b/c-tier actor/actress and find out that voice acting is very different than camera acting”

    In more recent years we started to see a big emphasis on VAs doing the motion cap as well and Christopher “Teal’c” Judge made Kratos “I moved to a non-extradition treaty pantheon” of Sparta into a woobie. And people very much underrate how good of a job Camilla Luddington and a few other performers have done over the years.

    But… we still have shit like Rosario Dawson in Dying Light 2 where “okay… she was there?”.

    For its many many many many many flaws and problematic aspects, I think CDPR did an amazing job with their “stunt casting” for Cyberpunk. Because Keanu knocked it out of the park (when he wasn’t just talking about his magnificent cock) and everything I have seen of Idris Elba’s performance is similar. And it kind of does mark a paradigm shift. Because it is no longer getting David Hyde Pierce to do a cameo as a camp gay counselor or a snooty over the top version of Niles. It is more like getting Ted Danson because you need a character who can simultaneously be a sleazy asshole and also the kind of person you just want to open up to and tell all your problems. It isn’t the kind of performance that you get for a single episode of sweeps week or to make people tune in even after your lead actor fucked off. It is the kind of performance you build a show/movie around.

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    • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Sean Bean also voices most of Civ 6 and it's glorious. Say what you will about it from a mechanical perspective but I can't find fault with his voice lines. He gets to read some of the greatest quotations from history and for the most part he nails it.

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    • nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      For some reason I often see people shit on Keanu Reeves for wooden acting, but I honestly thought he was great as Johnny. Knocked it out of the park imo

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  • state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sean Bean was in Oblivion, that’s even older.

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    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Patrick fuckin Stewart was in it as well but he dies in the tutorial.

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    • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Batman Begins (2005) had an all-star voice cast from the movies:

      • Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman
      • Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth
      • Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul
      • Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes
      • Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow
      • Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone
      • Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox
      • Tim Booth as Victor Zsasz
      • Mark Boone Junior as Detective Arnold Flass
      • Ken Watanabe as Ra’s al Ghul (decoy)

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    • Paradox@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      William Shatner was in TekWar in 1995

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    • plantedworld@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      He’s also in civ 6 but I know that’s newer. I just love his soothing voice

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  • scops@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Image

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    • usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There it is. This was a big deal at the time because it wasn’t just voice acting but a character built around his likeness too. The game was meh

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  • habanhero@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Matthew Perry was Benny from FO: New Vegas

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    • beefcat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Ron Perlman provided opening and closing narration for all the numbered Fallout games.

      And Fallout 1 was very much a “budget” title for Interplay, so it’s not like the studio was just splashing money around because they could.

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    • Wumbologist@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      And before that, Liam Neeson was the player character’s father in FO3.

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  • Davel23@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This kind of thing has been going on for at least 30 years. One of the earliest examples is Night Trap starring Dana Plato. You may not know who that is, but anyone who grew up watching Diff'rent Strokes certainly does. If you want a more mainstream example, look at Ripper from 1996 which features Christopher Walken, Paul Giamatti, Karen Allen, Burgess Meredith, David Patrick Kelly, Ossie Davis, and John Rhys-Davies.

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    • Flightbird386@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Wing Commander III a 1994 release had Mark Hammill, Malcolm McDowell , and Tim Curry. Video game actors , voice actors and mainstream actors have intertwined for many years.

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  • EfficientEffigy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    TIL!

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• Jaysyn@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  LOL, you mean like Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077?

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  • mihnt@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    coughKeith Davidcough

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    • EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I mean Keith David has been a huge voice actor for a long time.

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    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Keith Davids sultry tones will be welcome in any game no matter what the context.

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  • transistor@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    How did they miss that!

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• mathematicalMagpie@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m not really a fan of real actors’ faces in games. Inspired by real faces? Sure. I know the term “immersion” is mocked a lot, but few things force me back to reality than seeing A-list Hollywood megastars in my fantasy world.

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  • ilickfrogs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I have to agree. I’ve always preferred an A class voice actor for a character that isn’t of celebrity likeness. Honestly hope this doesn’t become the norm.

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    • Powerpoint@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Pretty much this is how the metal gear series ended up losing my interest. I want a good voice actor rather than just celebrities. It’s enshittification.

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  • stardust@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yeah, what I’ve always liked about voice acting is that how the person looks or even what their original voice is like doesn’t matter. It’s purely about the voice which makes it much easier for the voice to take center stage, and it allows people to voice other genders, races, species, objects, etc.

    This real life person being present as themselves is not a trend I’ve liked. Good voice acting to me has been one where I am emotionally moved by the performance but don’t automatically recognize the voice due to how well and unique the performance is. Plus, I don’t like more regular voice actors being pushed aside by a listers.

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    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I know what you mean. I love JK Simmons voice, and he’s a great VA. But if I compare his role as Omni-Man in Invincible to Ketheric Thorm in Baldur’s Gate 3, I definitely enjoy Omni-Man more, even though Ketheric is modelled after his real face.

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  • gila@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’m curious if you feel the same way watching movies? It’s not as if Idris Elba’s live-action movie roles depict “reality”. What is it about the presence of a real actor which breaks your immersion in games but not movies, or do you just feel similarly about both?

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    • stardust@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      When it comes to live action I do greatly prefer it when a great performance is from an individual I don’t recognize from previous works. So I don’t see oh it’s blank from X. I only have the reference of seeing only the character, which sells the immersion so much more.

      And voice acting when it comes to animation and games has been an area like that where if a woman is voicing a boy, but the voice acting is good I only see the boy. Or someone voices a lovecraftian monster I only see that monster. Or someone who is a different race voices a different race it doesn’t matter because I only see the character and how well the voice suits the sculpted character like Kratos.

      The best voice acting performances to me have been ones where I don’t recognize the voice actor. I only see the character, and due to voice acting providing the opportunity where how you look or what your original voice is doesn’t matter. It gives actors the chance to really disappear into a role, but then just showing up as themselves it feels like a lost opportunity.

      Like one I think of is Kiefer Sutherland voicing Snake was something I like much more than Norman Reedus in Death Stranding. In MGSV I only saw the character of Snake not Kiefer Sutherland. In Death Stranding I just kept thinking oh hey it’s Daryl from Walking Dead, and I had to actively keep trying to disassociate the actor from the character.

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    • mathematicalMagpie@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s not unusual to have big stars in movies. There are movies full of nothing but A-listers. It’s been the norm since before any of us were born. However, I find there are some big actors where their presence overshadows their character (if that makes sense). I do tend to enjoy movies with smaller actors that I haven’t seen quite as many times already.

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    • XbSuper@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Not op, but I don’t look to be immersed in movies, they’re just something to pass time.

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  • quams69@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    For me it depends, if the game is a big bombastic hollywood esque block buster then cool, but I don’t see how Keanu benefitted 2077’s story in any way, no matter how much I love him

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    • dangblingus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      He didn’t. CDPR just knew that he had a lot of memes about how he’s a really nice and down to earth person, and they figured that that was the kind of good will they needed for their oft-delayed title that was earning them a lot of fury even before it launched.

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  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s also pretty big immersion break when the va changes between installments, so the character model changes. Between Halo War 1 and 2, Professor Anders changed not only the specific person, but the ethnicity of the character.

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  • scottywh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I feel like it generates interest and helps the medium gain more mainstream acceptance at a minimum.

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• BaronVonBort@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  That union vote came at just the right time then, huh.

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  • beefcat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    all of his work for the game would have been finished months ago by now

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• Paradox@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  sign of the times

  We’ve had actors in videogames for as long as there’s been the ability to play samples at a high enough quality. Hell, the 90s FMJ era was full of them. Some good, some not so good.

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  • dangblingus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Who starred in a 90s FMV game that was anywhere near as big as Keanu or Idris?

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    • khepri@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Shatner for one, who at the time was arguably still the most-recognizable name in sci-fi TV and movies.

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• Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Big, well known actors in video games have been a thing for a long time now?

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  • Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It makes sense for those who are big enough in the Game Industry (which is now several times the size of the Movie Industry in terms of revenue) to try and do the same as movies and leverage that sweet brand recognition of celebrity actors to sell more copies of the game.

    However I suspect it doesn’t work quite the same as the “main character in the story” in games is almost invariably the player him/herself and those famous names will never be more than secondary characters with limite interaction possibilities.

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    • Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They could do the cyberpunk or fallout 4 thing. Have Keanu Reeves in your head, or get someone known to voice the protagonist (only unlike fo4 in that the PC VAs are otherwise unknown afaik).

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  • bookmeat@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Exqueese me? I thought he was great in bg3.

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    • Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It felt a bit flat. Especially having played the original game and getting this as your introduction to him: m.youtube.com/watch?v=hoSqDtky0pU

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• leave_it_blank@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m playing Toonstruck at the moment. Christopher Lloyd was one of the early pioneers acting in computer games, and he gives everything! The game is so much fun!

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  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Tim Curry in Red Alert 2 will always be the classic though

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    • crypticthree@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      SPACE

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    • inanna@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      3*

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• holiday@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Started a fresh playthrough on the 21st and man the time they put in shows. Really wish companies like CDPR would go the Larian route of funding big projects like this instead of going public. Shareholders ruined CP2077 launch. It should have been delayed a year or two from its original launch. Instead it was rushed and then after launch they had to fix the rushed product before making/finishing the game they wanted to make. If CP2077 released as it is now or even slightly less polished, it would be considered a top 5 game of all time.

  Lessons are there to be learned by other studios. Hopefully they are paying attention. Gamers will wait for a great game.

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  • Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I like how people still try to blame investors to this day

    Despite numerous accounts and evidence clearly saying cdpr fucking lied to them too

    Dont give them even a single microinch

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    • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Just because they were lied to doesn’t mean investors don’t have demands.

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    • Defaced@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You know what’s really funny? CDPR only had one big AAA game release without any major problems, the Witcher 3. Thronebreaker was a small scale game based on something already made and I don’t feel that one counts.

      The Witcher 1 and the Witcher 2 were bad enough at launch that they had to release an “enhanced edition” of both games to fix the problems. If you don’t believe me, then just look at the piss poor Linux “port” of the Witcher 2.

      The only reason the Witcher 3 wasn’t in such a bad state was because it was delayed like 4 or 5 times and released a year and a half later then it was intended. Cyberpunk 2077 has followed the same development path as the Witcher 1 and 2, but for some stupid reason people thought CDPR was immune to bad releases.

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  • brightpants@lemmy.eco.br ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I mean, it would be nice of course, but lets not forget Larian almost went bankrupt in the process. I mean this as in Larian is the exception. And they made a gigantic gamble which could’ve been their ruin had it not turned out so good.

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• jantin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’d prefer them to converge from Baldur’s Gate 3 direction. Cast more or less established voice actors and give them the hype and marketing space usually found among movie/tv stars. “films and games converge” yea, when we treat a 200hour computer game the way we treat a long tv series and acknowledge the actors’ contribution on the same level.

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  • CitizenKong@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I absolutely agree. Every single voice actor from the main party was stellar (including the narrator), while J.K. Simmons seemed to be bored while recording his lines and Jason Isaacs was good as Gortash but nothing extraordinary.

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• quams69@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Liam Neeson was in Fallout 3

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  • Pirky@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Patrick Stewart was in Oblivion. And I think Sean Bean, too?

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    • baronvonj@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Luke Skywalker, Biff Tannen, Caligula, Sark, Gimli, and Ginger Lynn were in Wing Commander 3.

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• Poggervania@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Idk if I like this. Wouldn’t having big famous Hollywood actors and actresses screw over the industry for a lot of people? Which sucks because just because they’re actors, it doesn’t mean they can voice act - Megan Fox has did a character in the new Mortal Kombat and she gave the most wooden performance in recent memory; Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077 was kind of odd at times, but it was still okay.

  I just don’t want these big names invading a space that’s already hard to compete in, and then taking all the jobs because of star power and not their actual talent.

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  • nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think Keanu Reeves is great in Cyberpunk 2077

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    • fishy195@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yeah for real. I think Johnny Silverhand is my favorite Keanu role of all time

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  • snooggums@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Eh, actors and actresses have been in games foe decades just like they have done voices in animated films for decades. Both cases tend to only attract big names to a few games and this reads like the usual ebb and flow of interest from a limited number of people and gaming companies.

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    • stardust@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yes, but usually not as themselves, so they were hired on the quality of their voice performance. So lot of times you don’t recognize it is them, which is really what you want from a performance where you really just see the character and not the actor performing.

      But, with more of their actual likeness being put in games instead of an opportunity to truly disappear into a role it can lead to their presence overshadowing the character they are playing. Which is a shame to me since it’s a medium where an actors actual voice or appearance doesn’t have to matter like live action does.

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  • PoetSII@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I agree with your point but imo Johnny Silverhand is Keanu’s best work.

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  • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    E.G. the newfound celebrity of the BG3 VAs as they run around on social media.

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  • InisSieferI@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I agree. Plus it will make them even more expensive if they're full of star studded casts like all animation movies nowadays. Just let normal voice actors act.

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  • c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Back in 2007 Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from Star Trek TNG) did the most phoned-in performance for Mass Effect, meanwhile other VA’s were running circles around her.

    It’s been around for a bit.

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• Landericus@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Mark Hamill in Wing Commander III, released in 1994.

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• zecg@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Popular actors in cyberpunk 2077 are the worst part of it IMO, I’d much rather have those characters sport a face I haven’t seen a thousand times.

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• sevastapol@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I personally wouldn’t put much stock in his opinion since he seems to know very little about video games.

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  • Sylvartas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    He knows a fair bit about acting for big budget movies and acting for (AAA) videogames though.

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• stephenc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Games aren’t supposed to be films. Set up a setting where your game is taking place and a reason for you to do what you’re doing and then shut the fuck up. Original Doom. Old Mario games. So many classic, real games only care about the gameplay and not all this damn story that is a diversion these days from the actual gameplay. No wonder modern gaming is trash.

  You want a game that’s a movie? Just make a damn movie. Problem solved. Get overblown, intrusive story trash out of videogames.

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• qooqie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Seeing as the games industry makes more than movies I wouldn’t be surprised if more actors don’t exclusively go towards acting in games. It pays well I think and typically the work schedule is better I believe(someone confirm or deny this?). I’d love to see more actors on the games side and not as PR stunts.

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• dangblingus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Ehhh. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Case in point: everyone loves Patrick Stewart. He played a small yet memorable role in Oblivion. No issues. Everyone loves Keanu Reeves, but as soon as CDPR wheeled him out to hype up CP2077 in 2019, I rolled my eyes because it was an obvious attempt to capitalize on the meme-able goodwill that Keanu had from all of the posts about him riding the subway and his wife dying and how he’s a genuinely nice person.

  Idris Elba on the other hand, he’s a great actor, but he has the marketability of a tuna sandwich.

  Put famous actors in games when it makes sense to do so. Otherwise it comes off as hacky and you run the risk of severely dating your game in 10 years. Idris Elba is just in too many things these days to take him seriously.

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• Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Stop trying to be movies already for fucks sake, you where supposed to be better, hell the multitudes if days one can interact should make them so but nooooo All we got is this shit from the big guys

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• Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Gotta monetise to the max that personal brand recognition!

  (Whilst in a video game like that I do expect his work was proper acting rather than merelly being famous, he’s still the one there doing it for the bg $$$ rather than somebody else because of brand recognition, as in my personal experience there are tons of just as good actors in Britain who differ only in not being widelly known because that country has a massive thing for Theatre hence good schools and lots of people going into it).

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• buru5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  this reeks like Keanu’s unwashed hair; an exec’s “great idea: what if we put the famous dude in our game, AGAIN?” because we are so thoroughly unconfident in our game’s gameplay that flavor of the month/year/decade will surely make up for it.

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• GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  You game companies are using an actor’s credibility to shill their rushed trash. See Cyberpunk

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• GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Still can’t afford the damn base game 😅

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• Surp@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Bruh this is nothing new.

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• Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  If anything could be said about that is that’s most probably an event that happened in time.

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• RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This was already a thing back in the ‘90s. Several games had actors in them, it was a sign of the times because it hadn’t been done before. After the exuberance wore off we got more professional voice actors to do parts. Guess it’s back in style again.

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• TheBlue22@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  As long as they are good voice actors too, sure. Otherwise, we have a Mortal Kombat situation on our hands.

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