I would take many good voice actors every time over overpaid big names.

Things suffer when a big name voices things most of the time. The big name actor is'nt good usually, the entire thing, even the characters appearance is focused round them sometimes.
It's a stupid thing to do.
One of the rare exceptions is Liam Neeson in Fallout 3. Great work, wasted on a moronic character. Most of the good ones are voice actors who gained fame and respect from being voice actors, not gimmicky big names.

I don't care who voices things, so long as they sound right! Pisses me off when they have some big name do a character, and they're crap, when a good voice actor would have been far, far better.

I'd prefer good voice actors, to "celebrity" names.


For ex: I never noticed Sean Bean in Oblivion. Or Neeson in FO3 (I had a vague sense of "I should recognize that" for McDowell, but that was it). Yeah, they were good voices, but they probably cost a good bit more than they needed to.

(and I've got to say - as much as I like Lynda Carter, she just didn't work in Skyrim. Among all those thick Nord accents, she just didn't work as "Ancient Nord Heroine". )

More personality, it makes conversing more entertaining

I just hope for their next game that they get totally new people to do all the voices. I'm really tired of hearing the same people in their games. And it's probably a lot to ask but man it would be nice if they were all unique voices. That Belethor guy voices a lot of characters in Skyrim and his voice is so easily recognizable that it get's kind of old hearing it all the time.

This.

I think they should bring in Mike Patton to cover the goblin/falmer style creatures as well as a few NPCs. The guys got a versatile voice!

Liam Neeson. [censored]. Yes.

I think that a few hundred amateurs would be a sound engineer's nightmare; where a dozen professionals would make it smooth sailing, and have far more usable takes per hour. I have seen (the results of) big name talent that was just not good at voice-only expression though... It does matter how adept they are at it. But there are men and women that can deliver their lines in several distinct voices each, and really know what's needed, and being asked of them.

** Another concern is line repetition. If a line will be repeated a lot... it almost needs to not stand out.

OOOoooo...Patrick Stewart! I love his voice. But, I enjoy the voices of any of the really good voice actors. I am a Thespian myself, and I really notice inflection and emphasis on certain words in a sentence.

I think the voice actors have plenty of personality. I think the problems is more the lack of animation with the character models than anything else. If the faces had better facial animation (for natural looking laughter, etc.), and the NPCs used more gestures when talking for example then the voices would not seem so out of place.

Anyway, to answer your original question: obviously personality is more important than a big name, however, why can't we have both? There are plenty of big names who have amazing personalities.

They had Sean Bean as Martin Septim in Oblivion. He's a fabulous actor but he kind of sounded silly in Oblivion... and it didn't help that Martin Septim was such a freakin' wimp who sent you on a million fetch quests that he should have done himself.

Some of the voice acting in Skyrim is annoying, like Sapphire at the Bee and Barb, when you're talking to her about extorting money from the young guy at the stables.

"All right, all right." That line is read like it's the first time she's ever encountered the phrase, and is reading it for the first time, having no idea what it's supposed to sound like. Just danged irritating. The actress has to be someone at Bethesda's girlfriend or wife.

Since when does big name = good? Plenty of big names aren't so great whereas plenty of nobodies are really good.

A personal favorite? Mr. House by René Auberjonois. Or Cass by Rachel Roswell.

Would I consider either of those "big named?" Not really. Seen them do other stuff, but they don't come to mind if I think "super famous." And yet they did excellent jobs.

More voice actors. I don't care if they're any good, as long as each and every NPC doesn't sound the same. Use your employees, seriously.

Can't you have both?

I really liked Christopher Plummer in Skyrim. He's a big name actor (finally received an Oscar for his talents) and he's one of the best voices in the game. I've also just started playing Fallout 3 for the first time ever and I really love Liam Neeson's performance in it.

Usually if someone becomes a big name it's because they're good at what they do. Voice Acting's a little more niche, but odds are if you know the voice actor's name, like Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, or Nolan North, it's because they're good at what they do (Although I really only like North as Penguin in Arkham City. The Uncharted series just doesn't do it for me).

Basically, a big A-list celebrity can do a beautiful job as a voice actor if they actually care about their performance and are putting a solid effort into things.

I agree that some characters' voice work is a little lacking (or really lacking sometimes) but I think that may be an issue of both that actor not giving a damn and the voice director not really doing their job either.

Big named actors and actresses cost a ridiculous amount of money.

I would rather a no name actor with great personality so they could spend the extra cash on other things this game needed like you know extra polish and bug testing.

I agree, they should have more different voice actors

Wait a minute... René Auberjonois? He's got 190 titles listed in his IMDB profile, and had a major role in a Star Trek series as well several other television series. I knew exactly who he was when I heard about him being in FO:NV; (and expected a good performance).

I notice stress and inflection of certain words in voices during normal dialogue with people. It's a great way of being able to tell if someone is lying or not. I do find that Patrick Stewart has a limited range of convincing emotions he can convey though, sadness isn't really one of them.

Besides, there are many small part actors who would jump at the chance. All have been trained in Drama schools etc but would be considerably less costly than a big name like Patrick Stewart. Most are very good and very convincing as far as voice goes, it's just that their body language lets them down for acting.

Linda Carter??? Personally, I think she's a terrible voice actor.

The voice acting in Skyrim is great. Much better than any of the previous Bethesda titles.
Of course Glarthir was awesome in Oblivion.

He does have range. He was a stage actor before he became Captain of the Enterprise.
I think that character demands steely lack of perceivable emotion.

Does anyone here imagine voices in their heads when they read a book? Personally I do, for example the TES novels, always had that Argonian voice in my head, anyway. That is the approach to voice acting I think the developers head toward. Can actor 'x' portray character 'y' as we have written him? There are always going to be some casting that fans may not agree with because someone else made that decision, not the fan.

As for my opinion, I think casting has been superb through all Beth games. Cicsero someone said is annoying, well then the actor did a good job, I always wish he would shut up, which is the point. Fallout 3 was one of the best casted games for me, Malcom McDowell, for those who dont know, Alex from A Clockwork orange, as the president. Only when I searched on IMDB did I realise who it was, it was so frustrating, I knew the voice and refused to give up and search it.

I get the point that then I keep thinking of the president singing "I'm siiiiiiiiiinging in the rain" but honestly I invest more in to that actors performance in this part rather than past performances.

I was lucky enough to go and see him in a production of tempest - he was fantastic.

Then again, my family would always go to a boxing day panto, and there is this guy who is a regular fixture as the dame. Anyway, I went to Shakespeare's Globe one summer, and he was in the play! Not only that, but he blew away an experienced Shakespearean cast too. Michael Bradshaw, keep an eye out for him. Amazing actor.

They should have let Stephen Russell do all the voices !
Including the female ones.
Would have been the best game evar !