BioWare Announces Mass Effect 2 Cast

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Bersy

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Apr 7, 2008
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Ah ok, I guess they just picked people from several popular sci-fi series because y'know, their careers desperately needed it.

You don't fork out that kind of money if you don't think there's gonna be some serious payoff.

So yes, I was making a statement, and in the very next part which you conveniently failed to include, I said "which probably means..." <-there's your speculation.

What's more surprising to me is that you're getting riled up over it.
 
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dragonfliet

I write stuffs
Apr 24, 2006
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Ah ok, I guess they just picked people from several popular sci-fi series because y'know, their careers desperately needed it.

You don't fork out that kind of money if you don't think there's gonna be some serious payoff.

serious payoff like professional voice acting from talented people? I HATE when people do that. They should instead hire voice actors based on the actor needing help with their career.

I mean, honestly, they added 4 people who have been in sci-fi to the cast and some other names (the first had a decent smattering of big names as well, you might remember) and it's a projection that the movie won't be good?

I hated that WB hired a big name director as Christopher Nolan and name actors such as Christian Bale, Michael Cane, Ken Watanabi, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman to star in the batman movie. They're obviously trying to make the movie a success based on (cough) star power, which probably means the movie itself is less than (hack cough) stellar.

~Jason
 

Bersy

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There are plenty of voice talents out there who do only that for a living. That's why they're called voice actors. Since you mention it, yes, It seems to me, if the work goes to famous film actors (as is the increasing trend) then those who do only voice acting may as well find another job. It's pretty ironic that when the economy is not doing so well, companies respond by giving the work to those with millions in their pockets already - or outsourcing (not voices, but CG work etc) to china and india, rather than employing people in their own country, as another example.

Hollywood is hollywood, but must this culture filter out any sort of diversity in other forms of entertainment as well?

But I get your point, the first one had (some) well known names too. It isn't that I particularily dislike these actors either, Still it's my opinion that it's a kind of cheap ploy, you're entitled to your own.
 
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Sjosz

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Dec 31, 2003
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Ah ok, I guess they just picked people from several popular sci-fi series because y'know, their careers desperately needed it.

You don't fork out that kind of money if you don't think there's gonna be some serious payoff.

So yes, I was making a statement, and in the very next part which you conveniently failed to include, I said "which probably means..." <-there's your speculation.

What's more surprising to me is that you're getting riled up over it.

As far as I know, they casted the voices because the voices fit the characters. Kind of strange to do that instead of giving hand-outs to people who need it, I know, but sometimes you just want quality work.
The main reason I take offense at your shortsighted reasoning for speculation is that by doing so you pretty much insult all my co-workers' and my own hard work on this game. And it's extra aggravating for someone who normally makes reasonable posts of opinion to go and base their speculation off of a single voice cast trailer and not also the myriad of combat improvement and character class videos that have been floating around longer.
 

Bersy

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Apr 7, 2008
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So is this the part where I take my foot out of my mouth? ;)
I don't typically set out to put down anyone else's hard work, but I can sometimes be opinionated enough to make an ass of myself, as seen here.

I guess though, that this makes us even, though I had no idea you were involved until you said so, you might recall a certain occasion on these very forums not so long ago where you pretty much ripped on my own voice acting. ;)

Incidentally, that has little to do with my voice acting rant in case you were wondering, since that is only a side interest of mine. I also don't equate experience acting in a sci-fi show to experience or quality in a game. I wasn't blown away by the voice acting in that video, but it wasn't terrible. I still think it's mainly the names, as much as it is the "quality". Or are you suggesting professional voice actors, who are undoubtedly cheaper, are somehow lower quality just because they are less known?
 
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Sjosz

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I'm sure the sci-fi backgrounds may have had to do with initially approaching people (remember, I don't actually deal with that side of development, so I don't know the exact reasoning), but I can tell from hearing the stuff ingame that these people fitted their characters in the game really well, and I'm sure that that has had to be the most important reason for getting those actors.
We have professional voice actors as well as well known 'celebrity' type actors who did the voices, and all of them sound pretty damn good. Showcasing those that people are most likely to be familiar with (again, not my field of expertise) from TV or film only seems logical for a trailer type thing.

As far as that voice thing went, I didn't know whose voice that was, and was honestly going by what I heard. I didn't exactly have half a dozen or more other pieces of information I could've formed my opinion on. But sure, let's call it even.
You're still more than welcome to speculate, here's more info.
 

JaFO

bugs are features too ...
Nov 5, 2000
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Who reads sigs these days ? ;)
// ---
It must be bad for (some) actors to be only remembered as the one that played Worf/Trinity/<their most (in)famous role> in a tv-series/film.

Showcasing the talent is something the marketing-droids decide, so you can't really blame the developers for that bit. And IIRC they did something similar for the first game when they introduced the stars behind some of the characters.

It shouldn't matter who they've picked as long as the endresult is convincing in the game.

A pessimist might say that showcasing talent like this is proof that the game doesn't have anything worth showing.
An optimist might say that this was done because they want to keep the story as much a surprise as possible.

Worth noting that Michael Dorn isn't the only Star Trek actor to appear in this series.
 

Bersy

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Apr 7, 2008
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All good points, and as much as I may never hear the end of it for what I said, I'm not that big a pessimist in reality about it. I agree that it doesn't matter who they picked, as long as the quality of the game is up to snuff. Mass Effect is one of the nicer titles I've seen actually, it made an impression on me, so I ought to have given them the benefit of the doubt - I am weary of the state of modern games and films in general and thus my rant, but I'm glad I got called on it, because I can take this as a lesson, instead of being one of the whiners I should focus on doing positive things to change that. Also, since I never really apologized per se, sorry to those whose work I spoke rudely of. I look forward to being proven wrong :)
 

shletten

Shletten
Jul 16, 2008
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Wow! Amazing cast! I love it. Although, I'm surprised that there are two actors from TV show 'Chuck', which I love by the way. ;)

I'm kind of disappointed by the lack of improvements in facial animation though... :(
 
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Mclogenog

I put the lol in philology
I can see how actors and actresses experienced with sci-fi would be a benefit. I imagine it would be pretty hard not to crack up when reading some lines unless you were really in character.

Martin Sheen, however, is just Martin Sheen, which is awesome.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
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well that's beside the point.

people put all kinds of links in their sigs.
just because he linked to Bioware, that doesn't automatically assume he works there.
Why would a fan of a BioWare game link to the main Bioware web page instead of the game they like or something?

Personally, I just knew Sjosz was in the industry, so the assumption was obvious. Still, I don't see a lot of sigs with links to company front pages on here :)
 

Sjosz

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Dec 31, 2003
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Even if I didn't work there, I would've probably spoken up on this point, as there's way more stuff to form educated (as far as educated goes) opinions on.