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 includingShadow 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 9and …… 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’sMoving PicturesinRock Band 2.
Colette:Mega Man 9in one hour increments (after that I get horribly frustrated and have to take a break),Mega Man 2,Dragon Quest IV,Time Hollowand just a little bit ofRock Band 2as I work my way towards the quest for expert vocals.
Niero:After having my ass handed to me inMega Man 9I spent 3 hours in therapy playing through most ofLegend of the Mystical Ninjaon the SNES to recover. This week I enjoyed a serving ofMetal Gear Solid 4,not enoughSymphony of the Night,too muchFinal Fantasy IV DS, and finishedMega Man 2.After reading Johnathan’s impromptu review ofMega Man 4I 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% inEarth Defense Forceand saving money to get a PAL PS2 just to play the previous installments that never came stateside. I’m also saving musou forDynasty Warriors 6, another mindless grind fest that I can’t wait to jump into. Also,Amagon.
Justin:I gotSporeon 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 someMidnight Club: Los Angeles(360/PS3; the event had the game running on 360s). Here’s a brief preview of my upcoming…preview: it’sBurnout 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, butveryfun.
Also, keep an eye out for future previews of two Atari games I checked out on Friday,Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir(PC) andDragon Ball Z: Infinite World(PS2). Otherwise, I haven’t really done any gaming on my own PS3 — aside from, of course, the requisite bunches ofNHL 09demo playthroughs — though I did download the PSN demos forNBA 09 The Inside,NBA Live 09, andMega Man 9(I haven’t actually tried any of them).
Chad:Nick, I can’t believe you playedThe Price is Rightfor 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, thehighly underratedTales of Vesperia,Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2andRock Band 2. I wish I had multiple paragraphs to explain to you my love for all thingsMega 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 boughtDragon QuestDS last week but have been far too busy to play it. Instead I am working through review copies ofSonic ChroniclesandLock’s Quest.Chroniclesstarts out awfully but suddenly becomes quite fun. Like, the change is almost schizoid. As forLock’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 ofMega 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 muchLEGO Batmanand a quick round of the XBLATicket to Rideusing the Europe expansion.
Topher:My mainichi dose ofMainichi Issho, and then someRhythm Tengoku Gold,Gokujou Parodious,Mega Man 9, and thanks toGravity’s Plaything,Twinklestar Sprites: La Petite Princessefor the PS2.
