As anyone who's been following Portal 2 will know though out the game will be joined by not only the constant hilarious yet threatening presence of GLaDOS, but a personality core know as Wheatley. Most of you will have seen his original video and fallen in love with his dialogue; whether you well in love with his voice actor is a different matter.
In these original clips Wheatley is not voiced by a professional but by one of ValvEs animators, the British born Richard Lord. It was made clear that Richard was only used as a stand in until a professional took over.
Time has passed and since then we have received new clips of Wheatley and news of his replacement.
In this clip the voice work of Wheatley has been taking over by Stephen Merchant, all round funny bloke, comedian and actor often found working along side Ricky Gervais in shows such as the Office and Extras.
Since this change I've seen much strife upon the interwebs. Many people are refusing to except the new sounding Wheatley and have fought back in the useless ways nerds do (petitions). I just wondered if this is just isolated to the Portal 2 forums and a couple of other places.
Personally I haven't heard enough to give a definitive answer. I was impressed by Richard Lord when I heard he wasn't a voice actor by profession, but you can definitely hear it in his tone. Nice voice, bad acting. He speaks like a childrens tv presentor or primary school teacher, like he's talking to an idiot. I personally think Stephen Merchant did a better job up until the section with GLaDOS which is pretty poorly done, though this may be because the animations don't match his tone.
Either way I think it was a poor decision by ValvE to show any clips of Wheatley before the final cut was made.
EDIT: Poll has failed for some odd reason. Just state in your posts.
In these original clips Wheatley is not voiced by a professional but by one of ValvEs animators, the British born Richard Lord. It was made clear that Richard was only used as a stand in until a professional took over.
Time has passed and since then we have received new clips of Wheatley and news of his replacement.
In this clip the voice work of Wheatley has been taking over by Stephen Merchant, all round funny bloke, comedian and actor often found working along side Ricky Gervais in shows such as the Office and Extras.
Since this change I've seen much strife upon the interwebs. Many people are refusing to except the new sounding Wheatley and have fought back in the useless ways nerds do (petitions). I just wondered if this is just isolated to the Portal 2 forums and a couple of other places.
Personally I haven't heard enough to give a definitive answer. I was impressed by Richard Lord when I heard he wasn't a voice actor by profession, but you can definitely hear it in his tone. Nice voice, bad acting. He speaks like a childrens tv presentor or primary school teacher, like he's talking to an idiot. I personally think Stephen Merchant did a better job up until the section with GLaDOS which is pretty poorly done, though this may be because the animations don't match his tone.
Either way I think it was a poor decision by ValvE to show any clips of Wheatley before the final cut was made.
EDIT: Poll has failed for some odd reason. Just state in your posts.
