Voice acting in games

As games get more and more cinematic and the intent is to make them more engaging, I think it's only natural that the acting involved should evolve as well. It seems to me that no matter how compelling the game may be, it can be hindered by annoying voice overs. Just a thought that I have been mulling around.

That being said, these are some of the best acted games that I have played:

Batman Arkham asylum
Mass Effect
L4D and L4D2 (minus coach)
Knights of the Old republic
Fallout 3

any thoughts?

I like the Saints Row voice over's as well as most of those you listed (especially Arkham Asylum)

Funnily enough when I started Mass Effect and heard David Anderson speak I was thinking about this, since I remember Keith David voicing Julius in Saint's Row. Don't get me wrong, he does a great job, but it's kinda a distraction (or maybe Julius is David Anderson's great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather?)

Uncharted has particularly good voice acting, I found - there's a great chemistry between the characters.

I would easily argue that voice acting is even more important in Video games than in actual films. Most video games to not feature great facial mimicry, and most emotions have to be portrayed almost exclusively through voice. Very much like actors on stage in a theater.

Film actors have the leisure of closeups and facial expressions.

That's a good point, I wonder with this new LA Noire game if anything will change. They claim it's going to be far more accurate to the actors facial expressions because you are going to have to read people to see if they are lying. I'm excited for the game either way.

Facial expressions already play a large part in games. Even engines as old as Half-Life 2's Source engine are able to emulate facial expressions well enough for anyone but the most socially inept to know what emotion is being hinted at.

But there are always subtleties that aren't simulated yet, or ones you really can't detect until you really get up in someones face. This is something a movie does, but not something that might happen when you're under attack in a game.

Because most games aren't about focussing on the emotions of those around you in a battle. The emotions that are displayed through face and body animations as well as voice acting are there to provide atmosphere and give an overall feel to the scene.

The only time that close-ups are anything of a necessity (and I use that word very lightly) in games are during cut-scenes, or scenes focussing on the emotion of a character and, in these scenes, most games manage to portray emotion exceptionally well.

Voice acting does play a slightly more central role in games, that is to be sure, but it isn't as big a difference as you said. I don't know about you but, for me, all the close-ups, facial expression and body language in the world can't make up for an actor who can't put the emotion they're portraying to me in their voice.

What the game's focus is, is completely irrelevant. Be it battle or love, it still doesn't change the fact that simulation does mimic facial expressions with great precision, just as an actor on the screen will not portray through body language what a person standing next to you might.

Sometimes you can tell somebody is feeling down just standing next to them, on the contrary in a film you need far more explicit signs of this emotion to catch on. In a game where you're looking at something closer to a doll than human being, you need even more aggressive vocal inflections to portray the same feeling as well as physical ones. Actors in movies and games are far more theatrical than in real life for this very reason. The same actor (assuming competence) who is doing the same thing on screen as is his digital copy will be far more convincing on film.

I'll assume you meant 'does not mimic'...

I'm not arguing that voice acting is not important, nor that it is emphasised in games/films, merely that the gap in the importance between facial expression and voice acting for portraying emotion in games is not so large that "emotions have to be portrayed almost exclusively through voice".

Modern game technology allows for very effective simulation of faces, be it through motion capture or through the sheer awesomeness of modern CGI. Voices have an edge because they are recorded directly from human beings, but so is motion capture, and the difference between CGI and reality is thinning at an astounding rate.

Considering the game industry is beating the film industry as of late I wonder what the trend will be like with the quality of actors. There already has been a trend of more well known actors for the past ten years, being a voice over actor is easy money and now it is good exposure. I also think it's interesting how many games have people smoking cigarettes now. They can't get away with it as much in hollywood, so they put it in the games. So Phillip Morris still gets the kids. I mentioned that before and everyone thought I was crazy. I already smoke so what do I care

Originally Posted by MyNameDidntFit

Modern game technology allows for very effective simulation of faces, be it through motion capture or through the sheer awesomeness of modern CGI. Voices have an edge because they are recorded directly from human beings, but so is motion capture, and the difference between CGI and reality is thinning at an astounding rate.

This is very true. I'm still a little stuck back in the years of Half-Life when I think of your average character model and what it can do with it's face.