Best / worst videogame voices

[videot76]

I am certain there must have been posts like this before, but since I absolutely can't find them I thought I could just as well start a new one. We haven't had one for a while, at the very least.
Replaying the Sly Cooper games made me want to discuss voices, since I have never, ever in my life been so annoyed at/hated a voice as much as Bentley's in Sly 2. It sounds like they went through the office to find the guy with the weediest, nerdiest, most grating voice and then forcibly blocked both his nostrils and made him read the lines at gunpoint. And the character NEVER SHUTS UP, from overlong briefings to in-mission comments.
To be fair, he is not as bad in part 3 - sounds like they at least unblocked his nose I can live with that version.

For the best voice, I would go for Jennifer Hale's tour-de-force as the female Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. A LOT of dialogue with basically three different roles, baked seamlessly into one for the player to switch between at a whim. The male version isn't bad, but sounds almost bland in comparison, because it has less inflections and overall, well, ACTING. I was amazed and satisfied throughout the game - normally voicing doesn't add to my RPG enjoyment, but this one did.


Honorable (good) mentions: TC Carson as Kratos in GoW, Max Casella as Daxter (Jak 2 and onward, the first one was annoying), Tony Jay/Cary Elwes as the Narrator/the Bard in Bard's Tale, and I've always had a soft spot for Heidi Shannon as Jaheira in BGII...

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

Bentley is a cartoon character. A bespectacled, nerdy cartoon turtle. His voice is perfect for the character. Not quite as awesome as The Murray, but then, what is?

Best:
Smiling Jack in V:TMB. So badass, he makes even the hokiest dialog seem believable.

Honourable mention:
The Prince, from Sands of time. Only Sands of time.

Worst:
Otacon from Metal Gear. Sorry, folks; weedy, grating voices are acceptable for cartoon characters, but not for "realistic" ones. I feel for the character, but that voice performance is just awful. There have been worse performances, but that one really detracts from what could otherwise have been a great character, and for that reason, I rate it the worst.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Best:
John DiMaggio - Bender / Marcus Phoenix
Stephen Russell - Garrett (Thief)
Jennifer Hale - too many to mention but most notably IMO Bastilla Shan and Ashley Williams
The woman who voiced Buffy in the Buffy game for the Xbox.

Worst:
I tend to forget the worst ones.

 

[meatloaf231]

Best: whoever did the vortigaunts in Half Life 2. They have a perfect voice.

Worst: everyone in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

 

[Rodyille]

lol I remember getting the extra disc in the RE4 game cube edition Leon Kennedy's voice acting there was terrible and the dialouge...

RE 4 improved on that lol but not much...

Oh and the voice on the soul calibur games that introduces the arena or the characters or what ever it damn well is it doesnt make a lick of sense to me and many of the characters some are okay like Nightmare or Mitsurugi (both my best characters) But Kilik oh man.

Good voice acting urmm some of the voice acting on tales of symphonia (as much as I shudeer to say taht game's name) Is Actually really good.

 

[shadow_pirate22]

Best: probably Bioshock, or maybe conker: live and reloaded.

Worst: Nights: Journey of Dreams (still get nightmares)

 

[Arntor]

Even though I only have a vague understanding of what he is saying (Two year Japanese student) Eddie [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW2juC5Fp54] from Guilty Gear XX has one fucking wicked entrancing voice. His VA is Takehito Koyasu and if you've watched a fair amount of anime you may have heard his voice at one point.

 

[SimuLord]

I've played so few games with voice acting in them that I can fairly say I dislike voice acting in general (the LUNAR games for the PS1 were horrid in their vocal incompetence).

That said, I liked Wes Johnson's work in Oblivion, too bad I heard him in every nook and cranny of every city.

 

[Screeling]

This may be kind of a lame one, but I thought GLaDOS's voice was pretty good. Fit the mood of the game perfectly.

 

[unholy vagrant]

Best
Tony Plana- Grim Fandango
Ellen Mclain- Portal

Worst
Everyone from Baten Kaitos

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Why is it that almost every thread where something is the best I can only think of this game [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YLMk1E41kE&feature=related]. The voice still creeps the hell out of me.

Terri Brosius did the voice of SHODAN for System Shock 2. (If her name seems familiar, it's because she's married to Eric Brosius, who did the music for the System Shock and Thief series, amongst other games.) And yes, her voice work was beyond excellent as SHODAN- as was Ellen McLain's, who performed the voice of the Overwatch dispatcher in Half-Life 2 and its episodes, as well as GLaDOS and the turrets in Portal. It's frightening to wonder what sort of conversation SHODAN and GLaDOS would have....

My nomination for the best AND worst voice acting in a single character would have to be Jack Walters in Dark Corners of the Earth. When Jack starts to "lose it", some of his frightened mumbling is so convincing that I start to seriously worry about him- but then he'll come upon a corpse or some other horrific occurence and deliver a clinical-sounding report on it in the most deadpan voice possible. It's almost jarring going back and forth, and if the voice actor had been consistent in regards to quality, it would've moved the believability factor up quite a bit.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Best-whoever did Sam Fisher from splintercell

Worst cortana annoys the heck out of me

 

[Whobajube]

Ever played Musashi: Samurai Legend? EVERY VOICE in that game was terrible... just awful... haha

 

[Whobajube]

Andy Serkis as Lord Bohan in Heavenly Sword? Pretty friggin awesome, haha.

 

[drummond13]

Best:

Jennifer Hale - too many to mention but most notably IMO Bastilla Shan and Ashley Williams

I love Jennifer Hale too, particularly in Eternal Darkness. But she played Shephard in ME, not Ashley.

 

[Graustein]

Casavir from Neverwinter Nights 2 has the most appalling voice I've ever heard. I also despise Pit's English voice (I don't mind his Japanese one) and Pokemon Trainer's. It's SO retarded.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Best:

Jennifer Hale - too many to mention but most notably IMO Bastilla Shan and Ashley Williams

I love Jennifer Hale too, particularly in Eternal Darkness. But she played Shephard in ME, not Ashley.

Oops, I got confused. Thanks for clarifying.

And I also forgot to add Michael Ironside, the voice of Sam Fisher. 100% bad ass!