Ask Lemmy

Cave Johnson.. Love J.K Simmons work overall but Cave was perfect.

Some of my favorites:

• GLaDOS from Portal 1+2: Ellen McClain did such a fantastic job balancing a monotonous robotic tone with human emotions and adding subtle glitches to show not everything was 100% alright. She defined what a female robot voice should sound like for that decade. I saw that Stephen Merchant was mentioned and while his performance was good and Wheatley's character was hilarious, I think McLain's performance as GLaDOS was more original and memorable.
• Narrator from The Stanley Parable: Kevan Brighting was arguably the protagonist of the game and the player was the annoying mob to him. As the only chacter with dialogue in the entire walking sim game, he had to carry almost the entire game's story, personality, and charm all through his voice. And it's honestly so fun how disappointed, annoyed, and exasperated he gets when the player refuses to listen.
• The Joker from Batman Arkham Asylum: This one is cheating cause Mark Hamill has played The Joker in almost every modern animated medium available. Still, there's a reason his version is so iconic. It's just so bittersweet that he refuses to ever voice The Joker again since Kevin Conroy, the VA for his Batman passed away.

Edit: After reviewing my list, it seems like I like offscreen narrators who insult the player. How funny

How has Baldur's Gate 3 not been mentioned in this thread yet? Huge cast and everyone is going for it. Even the narrator. Especially the narrator.

The narrator in The Stanley Parable made me lose it so many times.

The whole cast of Team Fortress 2.

I haven't played that game in over a decade, yet if I read any of the lines from the game, I'll still hear their voices loud as day. Even just seeing the word "medic" and I hear Demoman screaming it.

I quite like the work in Max Payne, whoever did it.

Arthur Morgan in Red Dead 2

Stephen Merchant and JK Simmons do a great job in Portal 2

The voice acting in Hellblade always gives me chills.

One of the best villains I can remember from a game, Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2. Maybe he was just written so well, but he was amazing.

I gotta say David Hayter was the first video game voice actor I ever heard of and that’s because of a metal gear solid. I still think solid snake is my favourite game voice acting. Especially if you look at the subtle difference in Snake’s voice depending on the game. It was a complete travesty to have snake voiced by anyone else in 5, but in canon it makes sense i guess

Vaas from Far Cry 3.

This scene is always such a treat: https://youtu.be/rKMMCPeiQoc

Also ~~Alan Tudyk~~ Stephen Merchant in Portal 2.

Edit: Was just recently watching something with Alan in it and got them mixed up 😅

The special zombies in left 4 dead 1 & 2

I know it's super obscure, but there are some YouTube videos compiling each special zombie and it's like god tier sound. I bet they had fun doing it, too.

To this day, I still hype myself up to do weird sounds by listening to those because they're so good.

Every single line in the Soul Reaver trilogy is a masterpiece.

Here, see for yourself. The intro alone will pull you in and never let go.

The original Resident Evil

Final Fantasy 3/6. Kefka's laugh will forever be the best evil laugh.

Narrator in Bastion. Just glorious.

CURSE YOU BAYLE! I HEREBY VOW YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY! BEHOLD, A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR, AND I, IGON! YOUR FEARS MADE FLESH! SOLID OF SCALE YOU MIGHT BE, FOUL DRAGON, BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE! WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS, WITH EVERY LAST DROP OF MY BEING!

Dionysus in hades. Dude amps me up so well I pick him over boons I like better.

I think Hades is the best overall, which has been mentioned here. Everything from Supergiant Games is great. I've seen Disco Elysium mentioned too, which is also great.

But I think one game that is underappreciated and not mentioned here is Horizon: Zero Dawn. Ashley Burch won several awards for her performance as Aloy. I think part of the reason it gets forgotten is that the facial animations in cutscenes are bad, at least in the main game, which led to people just not liking the cutscenes very much. The DLC's animations are pretty good though.

Troy Baker & Ashley Johnson in Last of Us will stay with me for life.

Leonard Nimoy - Civilization 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE7uiKsfpVE

The first new Wolfenstein was amazing. They got actual German actors to play the nazis and it made a huge difference.

Recency bias because I'm currently playing it, but Cherami Leigh, Keanu Reeves, and Idris Elba — and a ton of others — in Cyberpunk 2077. If you like sci-fi and fantasy, you're covered. Asuna from Sword Art Online. Neo from The Matrix. And Roland from The Dark Tower. The fact that the latter two actors have their characters modeled after them make it more than just voice acting, though. Johnny Silverhand moves like Keanu Reeves in addition to looking like him. And Solomon Reed moves like Idris Elba. That hulking walk he did in Luther? It's all over the Reed character. As for Cherami Leigh, well, you can make V look like whatever you want. You can even make her male, in whole or in part (trans/non-binary characters are possible, they even have a male voice actor).

I'm seeing a ton of great answers in the comments though. Shout-out to the person who said Portal. Ellen McLain has a role in Cyberpunk as well. Early on, in your garage, your car is struck by a robotaxi. The robotaxi's AI owner invites you to come to their facility for a tour as well as repayment as a way of apology, and he also has a mission for you. This AI has "children" that have been acting crazy (and, one of them hit your car) and he wants you to bring them back in. One of them is voiced by Ellen McLain. In her GLaDOS voice and with lines from Portal. It's amazing. They had to have gotten permission from Valve for that little stunt. If you like Portal, it's probably gonna be one of your favorite parts of Cyberpunk.

Disco Elysium

Cpt. Janeway as Flemeth in the Dragon Age series (especially Origins).

I can't think of any game at the moment that was particularly notable across the board, but I can think of a few specific performances.

Kazuhiro Nakaya as Nishiki and later Ichiban in the Yakuza/Like a dragon series. He is fantastic at getting the character's personality across just in general scenes, and the emotional moments genuinely stick with me.

Rene Zagger as Emet Selch in FFXIV. That game has some fantastic performances but Emet Selch's is honestly one of my favorites. Every one of his lines is delivered perfectly. The arrogance theatrics that later tive way to genuine anger and sadness at what he's gone through. Along with more specifics I won't get into. 100%, A+ Performance.

Though, actually... Now that I think about it... The Persona 3 Reload dub is probably one of the best English dubs for a Japanese game in a looooong time. And generally they're pretty good these days. But that one nails it.

Halo master fucking chief! Hell yeah brother