Why do people care about Voice Acting in games so much.

It doesn't bother me at all, that is even if i notice, it is a game not a movie, who cares.

Just Cause 2 supposibly has terrible voice acting and i never notice, i buy games for games not movies.

I don't see why people focus on voice acting so much in a review?

Same here, it's really annoying when a voice is made bad or absolutely unfitting to a character, sometimes it makes them plain ridicolus.

First time I ever really noticed it was in the old PS2 game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, in the german version a big old guy smoking a pipe with a grey mustache sits in the bar and his voice is the voice of a 17 year old teen guy o.O

Talking about crashing atmosphere...

games and movies are not the same? well yess when you compare ...i don't know space invaders to a movie maybe>?

People have just come to expect quality from voice acting as games have become more cinematic and budgets have grown. Bioware, Valve and Sony (L4D2 notwithstanding) deserve a lot of credit for this.

Older games with dodgy voice-acting such as Castlevania: SotN and Shenmue will never lose their charm, but when I play a modern game such as Heavy Rain which is so extremely narrative driven, the poor voice-acting and ruins the experience for me. And even in more 'gamey' games such as Left 4 Dead 2, because of the sheer repetition of dialogue, the annoying characters can really grate.

because right now the industry is trying to be as cinematic as possible.

Just Cause is supposed to be a B movie type game so yeah it should be poorly acted, I think if a good game is not getting the quality voicing it deserves it would be better to not even bother and just make us read (Nintendo proved with MoM why they don't voice over Zelda).

Go play Star Ocean 4. Get Lymle on your team......then tell voice acting doesnt matter.

Or Spiderman Web of Shadows....awful, just flat out awful voice acting.

It doesn't bother me at all, that is even if i notice, it is a game not a movie, who cares.

Just Cause 2 supposibly has terrible voice acting and i never notice, i buy games for games not movies.

I don't see why people focus on voice acting so much in a review?

ps3gameplayer

Voice acting doesn't mean a thing to me.

But it depends on what kind of game I'm playing. For an RPG, I actually turn the voices off if I have the option and go with subs instead.
For action/adventure games like Resident Evil 6 I think it's a more natural fit.

Alot of devs are going overboard these days and trying for a Hollywood presentation with too much voice acting. In an RPG it murders the personal connection to your character and makes the experience feel like an interactive movie. That's why I love Bethesda RPGs, they understand this.

To me the voices in a game make the game. Especially in a game where voice-over's make up so much of the game like White Knight Chronicles. Bad voice-over's ruin the games atmosphere. To me only a really good game can be compared to a movie, excellent graphics and audio teamed with a great storyline.

I like the Just Cause 2 voice acting because it's what they were going for and it's reflected in the over-the-topness of the entire game.

Now, I played the demo of The Cursed Crusade and could barely get through the intro cinematic because the voice acting was incredibly bad (they didn't even have accents like they should have, they sounded like some of the bad actors from a syfy original movie, but worse). Granted, the gameplay part of the demo was rather poor, but still it started off with a horrible impression.

Considering games are getting more and more advanced as the years go on it's only natural that the voice acting should as well (sadly the stories of games still can be rather weak so the voice acting goes to waste far more than it should). However, when a game has a solid (even if not amazing story) it is great fun to be able to really get into the world and characters (such as the Bioshock games and especially after watching the behind the scenes voice work of the new Bioshock).

Overall, it just makes for a very well rounded experience.

Granted, if it's a sort of B movie type game (like JC2) then there can be poorer vocie acting since it adds to the awesomeness of the game (like Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddan, bad voice work for a not so good but at the same time awesome game).

Sometimes the voice acting is very bad that you cannot help notice orsay WTF!

I could careless about voice acting in a game thats Action/Adventure or RPGs, unless if its a FPS, Action/Stealth/Shooters, or Fighting Games then I'm alright with it.

Because I get angry when I hear voice actors that I could do a better job than.

See Arma 2. Great game, but the terrible acting definitely took away from the immersion.

Personally, I do not care about voice acting. In the case of JRPGs, I've found it to be a liability (more focus on cinematics than exploration and adventure).

These days for me it makes the cut-scenes more convinient to view. Instead of tiring my eyes reading wall after wall of text. Like a plug 'n play feature, convinient to have but not an experience-breaking feature.

(...)First time I ever really noticed it was in the old PS2 game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, in the german version a big old guy smoking a pipe with a grey mustache sits in the bar and his voice is the voice of a 17 year old teen guy o.O

Talking about crashing atmosphere...

Justforvisit

Sure you dont need voice acting for a puzzle game, where would games like max payne, mgs, mass effect, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc be without proper voice acting? Surely not as good.

But try to play them on mute while you listen to some tunes on your music player and let us know if you still think voice acting is not a big deal.

This feels like a troll topic, but w/e...

Good voice acting in a game is just as important a good actor in a movie. You want to feel immersed in the game and you want the characters to be likeable. Do you want Commander Shepard to sound like Justin Bieber, TC? Or Solid Snake to sound like Jessica Alba? I didn't think so...

It scares me how so many people compare games to movies in terms of needing voice acting. Looks like imagination is a thing of the past. *Goes back to legacy system forum.*

Good voice acting immerses you in the game world and makes everything more believable. Bad voice acting, well, does the opposite.

It doesn't bother me at all, that is even if i notice, it is a game not a movie, who cares.

Just Cause 2 supposibly has terrible voice acting and i never notice, i buy games for games not movies.

I don't see why people focus on voice acting so much in a review?

ps3gameplayer

This feels like a troll topic, but w/e...

Good voice acting in a game is just as important a good actor in a movie. You want to feel immersed in the game and you want the characters to be likeable. Do you want Commander Shepard to sound like Justin Bieber, TC? Or Solid Snake to sound like Jessica Alba? I didn't think so...

KamuiFei

[QUOTE="ps3gameplayer"]

It doesn't bother me at all, that is even if i notice, it is a game not a movie, who cares.

Just Cause 2 supposibly has terrible voice acting and i never notice, i buy games for games not movies.

I don't see why people focus on voice acting so much in a review?

Warriorboy1990

[QUOTE="KamuiFei"]

This feels like a troll topic, but w/e...

Good voice acting in a game is just as important a good actor in a movie. You want to feel immersed in the game and you want the characters to be likeable. Do you want Commander Shepard to sound like Justin Bieber, TC? Or Solid Snake to sound like Jessica Alba? I didn't think so...

ps3gameplayer

voice acting gives more colorto a games narative...and a bad one brings down the value of the story.

It's like getting your favorite toppings on a pizza....and the pizza is uncooked and you still have to eat it.

Because, it gets you more into the game. I hate annoying voices.

Okay lets end this thread here, I thank you for your contirbutions.
After playing some Just Cause 2 and then some Uncharted 2, i can really see why people care about it, thankfully Just Cause 2 doesn't have an engaging story.

Voice acting helps draw a player into the experience, and poor acting can actually make a player feel differently toward a game, such as the game was not immersive enough. For me, I loved the voice acting in Skyrim, but hearing the guards talking about their knee related injuries, and the lack of common sense to purchase knee armor, kinda took alittle from the game, so I avoided them...