The voice cast of Dishonored has been announced in a http://www.bethblog.com/2012/08/03/quakecon-2012-dishonored-voice-cast-and-composer-announced/ by Bethesda today.

Completely blown away after learning Dishonored will feature some of my all time favorite actors.

Well we know [censored] is going to literally love this game thanks to Chloe. Good cast and amazing if not the best choice for the sound design in this case.

Interview clips with the cast: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/48474681#48474681

That is so amazing! And the interesting thing is there will be more info upcoming over the next weeks.

I practically scratched my corneas reading the list as I was just rubbing the vestiges of sleep away. This game! And the way it casually reveals everything, so cool. Going to listen to the interview.

Just when you think there's no way it could get better, BAM! We get this news.

Hollywood has come to Dunwall.

I am actually more interested in the first stage of the game before the murder of the empress. It actually looks pretty darn amazing.

"I don't always talk about my VAs, but when I do, I'm super cool. Stay thirsty my friends."

Good voice cast.

I'm a bit worried that most of them don't have much voice acting experience, there's a balance you need to strike between letting the emotion come through in your voice, and not coming off as hammy. Who's the voice director working on this?

It would have been more ideal to do mocap in conjunction with securing their voices since it would allow Sarandon and co. to act with their bodies as well. Obviously they wouldn't go the full Uncharted route since they have their own conceptions of what the characters need to look like. On the positive side it already sounds better than any of the delivery in Bethesda proper games, like FO3.

Oh, so many things to say about this!

1. That guy's face is horribly greenscreened.
2. Please don't kill me, but I only know two of these people (John Slattery and Chloe Grace Moretz).
3. They all sound awesome in the game! Arkane did a great job casting.
4. Admiral Havelock is quite badly animated.

If you've seen any of the Chucky movies, you know Brad Dourif. He's probably the most experienced of the bunch for VA from that alone. Lena Headey is Cersei on GoT. She also voiced a character in the first Risen, so she is no stranger to VA in games. Carrie Fisher is the mutha[censored] Princess Leia! Actually she didn't do any fornicating with mothers but c'mon! Michael Madsen was the bouncer in Kill Bill (good movies). He was also the action dude in the first Species. I mean you know about imdb. These are primo actors. Between this and Sleeping Dogs, it's a banner year for videogames and VA.

Can't argue about the Admiral. It did look a little rough.

Edit: Madsen obviously did more in KB (lol) but if you haven't seen it I don't want to spoil it.

I haven't seen any Chucky movies (I'm terribly scared of horror movies, although everyone tells me Chucky is more funny than scary), I've only seen one episode of GoT, I've never played Risen, okay, now I know who Carrie Fisher is, and I only saw the last half-hour-ish of one of the Kill Bill movies.

The Outsider is http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1312073/, from Generation Kill, Black Donnellys, etc.

Dishonored really needs an imdb page...

Billy Lush is a good choice for him. He has a very calm voice and his tone is...wow. I like that choice probably most of all.

That one we've already known for a while. Also known is that April Stewart voices the Empress.

Not that I have anything against the actors themselves, I myself am a huge fan of Star Wars and Carrie Fisher.

But, as a voice actor myself, I'm a bit "dishonored" by Bethesda going the celebrity route yet again. Do they always feel the need to brush diamond in the rough and legitimate voice actors aside to make way for celebrities and waste their budget on things that could be spent on the gameplay, writing, or adding in more quests/missions? I mean think about it Bethesda did the same thing in Fallout 3 with Liam Neeson (who did do a good job in my opinion nothing against him but still had very little in terms of spoken dialogue) and Patrick Stewart in Oblivion (again very little spoken dialogue and while I love Stewart not the best casting choice). Thankfully Obsidian knew how to make a good voice cast in New Vegas because they actually have experience making good casting choices (Alpha Protocol, Knights of the Old Republic 2, and their old Interplay/Black Isle titles) but Bethesda however doesn't know jack squat when it comes to assembling a voice cast based on good casting choices instead of trying to maximize sales. What happens is these legitimate actors that just aren't popular either get brushed aside for the celebrities or B list actors or are only ever given small/side parts.

Prime example, how many people even knew who David Hayter was before Metal Gear Solid? Now he's become legendary in a sense for voicing arguably gaming's biggest protagonist Solid Snake and doing it better than anyone else could. And after that he's now voiced in a lot of things and has gotten work as a screenwriter as well. If Bethesda had done that dub, who know's how that game would've ended up.

Just my honest opinion as an actor. I know many talented people that at least deserve a shot at something such as getting an audition for this because as Garrus would say "I had the talent, but they had the popularity."

Yeah but see they don't sound bad or arbitrary. You know, actually if I didn't know who they were I would just call them "good". I am not too concerned about them. (Kill them off in the beginning)

Where can I hear your work lovebad?

Mainly its just been flashes and stuff but I have gotten positive feedback by those in the industry.

I was offered a live action acting role once but had a broken leg when offered the part, and sadly was unable to do it. I did get to go to the cast party and meet the cast and crew though which was great.

I can see how that must be very frustrating, lovebad. Ideally, Dishonored as a game would be enough of a draw for people and it could have been a breeding ground for new talent like David Hayter had in the MGS series. It's not though. A big reveal like this was needed for an additional push. My excitement for the stars involved is for that reason---it draws people in and more people will be interested. It won't matter as once I get to play, I'm not going to be thinking "Granny Rags is Susan Sarandon," or Tom Wilkinson as an inspector in Sleeping Dogs. That's part of why a new Legacy of Kain series sounds like an awful idea. The VA talent in that series just hasn't been matched in anything I've ever played and won't be again. I agree with you about Obsidian and their casting acumen.

I'm sorry though if anything that I'm saying is trivializing your feelings.

I understand your position and am not bothered by it Calrab. And I know you're just being honest, because what you're saying also has truth to it.

But it happens in almost every facet of the voice industry now and it didn't used to be that way. Sadly, Disney with their big name films in the 90s started the trend honestly. And even though these films were great and had great performances, they ultimately set the tone and others followed the trend because they saw it as a successful formula to make money, not assembling the best cast they can. And I believe that primarily to be because many of those actors Disney used back then had stage/theatrical experience, or were industry veterans that knew how to create the character they got cast as and knew what they were doing, such as Robin Williams as the Genie. Nowadays to attain celebrity status is so easy that it can be based off of some stupid gimmick and talentless performers like Justin Bieber can get an acting gig on CSI because of it.

Kinda like how Final Fantasy VII was an excellent game, and did so much for the world of RPGs, but many blame it for the eventual downfall of RPGs despite its greatness.

I just wish at some point actual voice actors were the ones that would draw in the crowds to buy a game or see a movie instead of only celebrities and those who are recognizable by the average person on the street. Its very competitive but not only that voice actors seldom can make a living off of just voice acting and many times have to have side jobs to pay for the higher standard of living where the work is at, movie/tv show actors can usually easily make a living doing just that, movies and tv shows. This also makes it for anyone of a younger age interested in getting into the business very difficult to do regardless of talent, because getting steady work is almost reliant on your popularity or having some sort of gimmick.

In virtually every other part of the game industry, there's at least some remedies to this entry-level problems. If you're dedicated enough and have the talent, you can find coding tools and make mods or missions based off free source kits to demonstrate your work. Make portfolios if you're an artist or graphic designer. With voice acting though---I don't see how to make that same impact. I guess if you're lucky enough to have friends who do animation or other complementary skills, you could create your own reel of work and that would be your card that you leave at the desk. How do you approach trying to get into the front door besides, I would think, a traditional resume? I imagine it has to be harder than trying for a cold-read for what'll eventually be a live performance or rather one that'll be fully bodied.

I apologize again for a different reason: my connection is worse than ever so any response becomes delayed triple.

Case in point: my posts will reproduce sometimes in a surge of connectivity.

Well having a resume is a good start as with any job, people will want to know you're capable of doing what you say you're capable of doing and have a body of work to prove it.

One thing I keep hearing is that having a quality voice demo is generally most important and helps you get "clients" to hire you, whoever they may be. In those cases it may be hard to choose what you can voice in because you have to take what you can get. A demo also lets people know what you can do, but needs to be updated often enough to show your current range and many people like myself who record at their home don't have the high quality equipment to make a demo with quality on par with that of a pro or semi pro. And renting space at a recording studio to record a demo can cost a pretty penny too, so no money for a good mic or a stand to go with it, then no voice acting cus desktop mics or headsets don't really cut it with serious projects these days.

The problem with the entry level positions is just that for voice acting, there aren't any really. There are websites that are free to register at like Voice Acting Club or Voice Acting Alliance that, in rare cases can be the foot in the door for up and comers but only in VERY few cases like Kira Buckland or someone. Part of it has to do with the fact that with no entry level jobs that really provide pay, you can't work with people in person the same way those who work in studios can, taking direction and trying to audition for characters is tough when you're not there talking with someone, and finding time that is noise free to record in a home makes it even tougher on guys like me when I have neighbors in my apartment building. The hardest part is not being able to work with people directly like in school theatre which is usually the starting point for many of the voice actors in the world of acting.

So simply put, unless you're part of a talent agency of some sort or are already part of the "in" crowd, its difficult to find legit projects to act for that actually materialize into anything. I've gotten parts for a thing or two before, and while I thought I did a great job and had fun with the role, and was looking forward to seeing my performance, the project never materialized into what the creator said it would which is disappointing on another level.

Acting is tons of fun and I love doing it, and those are the things that keep me going with acting not the hopes of being paid big money, I care more about just being able to get work and perform than getting money. But even then its impossible for many because of capitalism, the goal is for them to make money, and cut down on costs to save money. This is why voice actors that do get a lot of work are generally underpaid and have to voice in a million things like Steve Blum or Nolan North, because they want stability and pay.