This is going to be old for a lot of you but I hadn’t actually seen it until it was posted in a NeoGAF thread about bad voice acting. Chaos Wars, a game which mashed up a bunch of obscure RPGs including Shadow Hearts, was dubbed over by the family of the publisher’s CEO. That’s the kind of cheap bastardry that almost deserves applause.
Stuff like this is hilarious on one level, but somewhat depressing on another. Bad voice acting can ruin a game’s story and characters, sometimes mutating its context beyond all recognition. In the case of the above scene, it actually becomes difficult to ascertain if Nicola and Uru are friends or enemies until the dialog catches up and fills you in.
This is depressing because it serves to highlight perfectly just how little some publishers and developers care for the creativity they hold in their hands. They will find the cheapest voice actors on the market, with zero talent and no interest in the job whatsoever, then squirt the end product onto store shelves as quickly as possible. They don’t care that, in the process, they have ruined the game’s creative aspects. What matters is that it has the bare minimum requirements to constitute as a videogame. A game with bad voice acting is a game that is missing a lot of love from its publisher.
On the subject of games, we played some this week. Hit the jump to see.
Dyson: Mega Man 9 and …… Yep. That’s about it.
Nick: This week I done played: Baja (360), Pure (360), Saint’s Row 2 (PS3/360), Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, WipEout HD, Shaun the Sheep (DS), The Price is Right (Wii), and through all of Rush’s Moving Pictures in Rock Band 2.
Colette: Mega Man 9 in one hour increments (after that I get horribly frustrated and have to take a break), Mega Man 2, Dragon Quest IV, Time Hollow and just a little bit of Rock Band 2 as I work my way towards the quest for expert vocals.
Niero: After having my ass handed to me in Mega Man 9 I spent 3 hours in therapy playing through most of Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES to recover. This week I enjoyed a serving of Metal Gear Solid 4, not enough Symphony of the Night, too much Final Fantasy IV DS, and finished Mega Man 2. After reading Johnathan’s impromptu review of Mega Man 4 I may just have to replay that, if only just to decimate Frog Man out of spite before I go back to the punishment of 9. I’m also proud to announce that I’m 1 mothership and 2 guns away from 100% in Earth Defense Force and saving money to get a PAL PS2 just to play the previous installments that never came stateside. I’m also saving musou for Dynasty Warriors 6, another mindless grind fest that I can’t wait to jump into. Also, Amagon.
Justin: I got Spore on Thursday and have been playing it pretty much non-stop. The game certainly has its faults [add negative comments about stupid DRM here] and frustrating moments, but that hasn’t kept it from being such a huge time sink.
Samit: I headed out to Los Angeles for dinner with [a few members of] Dtoid Los Angeles, and while in California, I also played some Midnight Club: Los Angeles (360/PS3; the event had the game running on 360s). Here’s a brief preview of my upcoming…preview: it’s Burnout Paradise, but set in a real city instead of a fictional one. Oh, and I took a stomach-churning two-lap ride around a sharply meandering racetrack in an Audi R8. Stomach-churning, but very fun.
Also, keep an eye out for future previews of two Atari games I checked out on Friday, Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (PC) and Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World (PS2). Otherwise, I haven’t really done any gaming on my own PS3 — aside from, of course, the requisite bunches of NHL 09 demo playthroughs — though I did download the PSN demos for NBA 09 The Inside, NBA Live 09, and Mega Man 9 (I haven’t actually tried any of them).
Chad: Nick, I can’t believe you played The Price is Right for the Wii and had nothing sassy to say about it. Did you get to play Plinko? Oh, God, Mr. Chester tell me you got to play Plinko! Or at the very least the game with the little mountain climber that yodels up the side of the mountain.
This week really was the best week EVER! Mega Man 9, Mega Man 3, Super Dodge Ball, Vectorman, the highly underrated Tales of Vesperia, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and Rock Band 2. I wish I had multiple paragraphs to explain to you my love for all things Mega Man 9. That game makes me feel like a kid again (without the “being thrown in the bushes by a girl bully” part).
Jim: I have mostly been playing DS games for review. In fact I bought Dragon Quest DS last week but have been far too busy to play it. Instead I am working through review copies of Sonic Chronicles and Lock’s Quest. Chronicles starts out awfully but suddenly becomes quite fun. Like, the change is almost schizoid. As for Lock’s Quest … I don’t want to spoil the review, but I am shocked THQ kept such a fine little title as quiet as it did. Seriously track it down.
Also, Duke Nukem 3D, which I was going to review until I questioned the point of it too much.
Conrad: I’ve played a good bit of Mega Man 9, finally finishing the game Friday night and then immediately turning right around and playing start-to-finish a second time in the same night. Also played much LEGO Batman and a quick round of the XBLA Ticket to Ride using the Europe expansion.
Topher: My mainichi dose of Mainichi Issho, and then some Rhythm Tengoku Gold, Gokujou Parodious, Mega Man 9, and thanks to Gravity’s Plaything, Twinklestar Sprites: La Petite Princesse for the PS2.
