i think the most anoying voice i have heard is the girl on beyond atlantis 2, which is really part ,3, i think they used on broken sword 3 too,

I can't remember her voice but I can think of a few others! Most of the voice actors in Forever Worlds, the wife in The Watchmaker and most of the voice acting in The Chronicles of the Sword was so bad, especially the fairies, it was entertaining! - loved the game!

You loved the game because the voice acting was so bad?

I didn't phrase things too well did I!
I loved the game because of the story, despite the awful voices and the terrible accents which after a while I found amusing! From what I remember the graphics were pretty awful too!

BLACK MIRROR the main man.I forget his name now.
There just wasn't any life or feeling in his voice.

EVERY character in Watchmaker. YEECH. It was almost as thought they were being forced at gunpoint to record their lines.

Becky crosses The Chronicles of the Sword off of her "To Buy" list.

Wait, it was never there in the first place. Never mind.

Fairies with dreadful accents. Curious.

The police officer guarding the door to Eulemberg's bedroom in Martin Mystere--

I can usually just ignore bad voices--and often voices that bother others don't bother me--like Samuel in Black Mirror--but this guy drove me absolutely nuts.

The police officer in Martin Mystere and Mustavio in Keepsake.....aaarrrggghhhhh!

Mary

Mary, I have to agree--Mustavio made me nuts--I was glad not to have to deal with him too often.

I have to agree that Mustavio had an irritating voice but I though it fitted his character!

You just don't know what you're missing Becky!!! I would have included Chronicles of the Sword in Flotsam's list but it had a few action sequences -you could have had a cup of tea while you were doing them but they were there all the same!

Can you do them while closing your eyes?

Only while/instead of drinking the tea.

I have to get on the "Watchmaker" bandwagon. That was the worst voice acting I've ever heard in my life. The wife sounded like a junkie on the nod and the caretaker guy...you could barely understand him.

there was some other game I played recently...Niburu maybe? I can't quite remember...anyway, one of the villains couldn't quite get his nationality straight. He kept wandering around Europe, sometimes Scottish, sometimes German, sometimes Russian or Hungarian. Odd.

WW

My choice wont be popular with most here.

To me the voice of the lead in Keepsake. I have not played this game simply because of her voice.
I couldn't even finish the demo because it irritated me so much. Now thats bad.

Gabriel Knight himself, in "the beast within"

GreyFuss, have you tried the European version of keepsake? The 'American Lydia' grated on my nerves as well, the British was much better for me.

The Beast Within was very funny for me - all the supposedly German characters speaking grammatically wrong German with such a thick American accent!!

Wollmaus

European version? I didn't know there were two English versions. I wonder if there is someplace to hear a demo of a British voice.

Thanks I'll have to check that out.

Becky you sure know how to throw out straight lines ...must...not...make...joke....eerrggghhh! *runs*

While I have long considered Syberia a fine game, the kid named "Momo" (Spelling?) was awful. I've even wondered if all the other characters didn't sound pretty good simply because he was pretty bad.

The Haze

Momo didn't bother me. I used to work with People with Autism and other developmental disabilities and Momo was pretty high functioning!

WW

GreyFuss, sorry, I don't have the link for the demo of keepsake anymore . There is a demo of the English version - I am certain about that. Hope Becky might help...!!

Wollmaus

The demo of the English version is the one that irritated me.

Hi

Whilst I didn't "hate" the voice of Gabriel in GK2, I WAS terribly disappointed that it wasn't the lush, over the top tones of the delightful Mr. Curry

[Still trying to make my mind up about the worst voices I've ever heard - but the Watchmaker is looming large ]

Cheers.

Mad

Thank you Mag

Downloading English Keepsake demo.
Is that the European version?

Not the same actress at all. The voice actress in Beyond Atlantis 2 is actually a fairly well known actress, at least in Europe, Chiara Mastroianni. Nico in BS3 was voiced by Sarah Crook.

The worst I've heard was in Watchmaker and in Jazz and Faust. Other games may have corny cartoony accents or weird foreign accents or annoying voices, but for just plain flat out bad voice acting, nothing beats Watchmaker and Jazz and Faust (especially the ship captain Faust).

Greyfuss, I agree with you. She drove me nuts, too. An uninspiring acting job.

Worst voice has got to be Lydia in Keepsake. Voice acting in Watchmaker is really annoying too.

GreyFuss,

Try this site - European Keepsake info.

Now, I'm not sure if they removed the European demo or not.

I was just about to mention that! Yes, the voice acting was pretty bad, in that game.

oooh - I'm with the Keepsake group - played it with the sound off,because I hated ALL the voices !

Well my..........

vote for the

worst........

voicactinginagamehastogoto - Crime Stories. ..

The absolute worse speech I've ever heard.

Check Inferno's comments on the voice in her Crime Stories review, Inland.

one hated to so far in paradise all the shishing and the people that can't talk to you, not that i love alot of dialolog but it fun to interact, i am a huge fan of ben sokal, i love syberia1+2 and amerazone

Lydia in 'Keepsake'...

i have to say the dog too it sounds like casey casim on keepsake

This is an easy response for me: almost EVERY
adventure game I have played has had stilted
and unnatural voice acting. I'm guessing it's
where the developers (some of whom are likely the
voices themselves) saved the money.

The recent games tend to be better than the old
ones. The ones that fare the best with me are:
Indigo Prophecy, Still Life, most of the Myst/URU
series, and my personal best-of-show: Tomb Raider
Legend (the English actress that portrays Lara in
this recent game is the best you will hear in ANY
game you will ever play).

It was quite bad - and I do believe she nailed the reasons (I'm also glad I'm not the only one that thinks it could have been better).

Nice review by the way - I liked it.

I actually liked the sound of her voice in Atlantis 3, but she was just so bored. So in that respect it was pretty ordinary acting.
Some accents are particularly annoying, Mustavio among them and the Aussie thug in Dreamfall. Like some others I am not at all enamoured of the Keepsake voices.
All the voice acting in Gothos was so bad it was hilarious.

The voice acting in most games is just fine to me - maybe I should get out more. The only one that really bothered me was The Watchmaker.

Oh, yeah! Jazz and Faust--I had forgotten.

"I am Faust, Captain of the Invincible, and I'm too dumb to live!"

I also was annoyed w/Tim Curry in GK3. In GK1, Gabe sounded really kind of sophisticated AND he had no problem with the occasional French and German. But in GK3 he's a total dork who can barely speak English, much less any foreign language. I think that was bad directing, tho'.

WW

The voices that threw me off the most were in Atlantis-The Lost Tales.

Here were all these stalwart, half dressed Egyptian gaurds strutting around, and out pops these off the wall cockney, scottish, lower London, and other strange accents. Really startled me right out of the game world.

I have to agree about The Watchmaker. I almost stopped playing because I had to go back to the wife so many times. It never made my replay list.
I actually quite liked Tim Curry in GK3 because that was the first of the series I played. He was definitely much more urbane and sophisticated in the first one, I think I smiled through all the dialogue in that game.

I simply Have to jump in with my 2 cents in defence of Tim Curry in GK3. I thought that he ACTED like a Dork in order to glean more info if the others thought he was clueless. I Loved, Loved all the Gabe Knight Games.
I also thought the voice of the Caretakers Wife in The Watchmaker was the absolute worst ever and her clothes were at match to her voice.

Bee

I totally agree! I just finished Black Mirror with monotone Samuel and started Nibiru with Martin and what a difference. It's nice to work with a character that has some inflection in his voice!

I am SO glad to find that others find some voices annoying too! Mine would have to be Samuel from Black Mirror (could he BE more monotone?), and Celeste's father from Keepsake. When I listened to his voice-over I was stunned by just how bad he was.
Others would be Lydia and Mustavio (also from Keepsake).

(I'm sensing a theme here....)

Cat, tossing in her two cents

Do you think the game developers are "listening in" on our conversation and taking notes? :hopeful:

I'm probably on my own with this one . . . but I really didn't like Delaware St. John's voice. Kind of monotone and for someone who's supposed to be creeped out by his psychic abilities, he doesn't even change the pitch of his voice.

That's ok Tina, I think I must be really on my own when I say I LIKED Samuel's voice from Black Mirror.

Nope, you're not on your own . . . I liked him too! Maybe I'm a sucker for bad english accents!

You can add my mark under the Keepsake column.

Actually I thought Celest's father was the worst character voice I've ever heard. Not that any of them were very good.

Zak was ok I guess.

joe

Then I'm in fine company, Tina!

I don't get why so many people were turned off by the voice acting in Keepsake. It just didn't strike me one way or the other--as particularly good or particularly bad. I mean, just NOT like the horror of The Watchmaker!!

WW

Have to agree with you there WW - I was surprised to see Keepsake mentioned - Mustavio aside! I thought the voices were okay!

I thought Mustavio's music was more annoying than his voice. The first few hundred times I heard it I thought it was cute. The next few hundred times, though...

WW

I'm in complete agreement. Watchmaker is the absolute worst for bad voice acting IMO. A lot of people had problems with the voices going out, but in the case of Watchmaker it was a blessing.

Haven't played Watchmaker WW.


joe

I also have to go with Black Mirror...the main character. I couldn't finish that game because of it.

Also, the minitaurs...I think that's what they're called...the guardian bull things in Keepsake...anyway, they talked so excruciatingly slow! Had to keep forwarding thru that, but sometimes the characters just stood there silent for the time that it took for them to talk anyway, it didn't help to forward thru. Very annoying.

I agree with you Jenny100, Chrissie and WW - funny how some voices can really bother people, and other people think they're just fine. I haven't seen anyone come out in defense of Watchmaker though.

Definitely Lydia from Keepsake.She just ruined a beautiful game.Also, the other actors from the same game, with a small exception of Celeste's voice...

You have not experienced bad voice acting until you've played the Watchmaker. (Is that like saying, "Arrgh, this stinks! here, smell it!") The game as a whole was okay, though.

WW

Just have to add a new most irritating voice.

Played 5 minutes of the new Al Emmo Demo and Al has to be placed in the top ten annoying voices for sure. Didn't care for the game, I can't imagine playing it and listening to that voice every day. And the game hasn't even been released.

Good luck with this one. Not my cup of tea.

I didn't like Al Emmo's voice either but as nothing is as bad as The Watchmaker it's starting to annoy me less. Hope to get used to it when I have the full game.

I have to agree with Al's voice- I get that they are going for nerdy but that doesn't have to equate to annoying. Wasn't bowled over by the demo either.

challis

Have you guys ever played Drascula? If not, go play it, come back, and then tell me that is not the worst voice acting ever.

I never could get the voices on that to work, Hammer. Maybe that's a good thing?

Well, you are missing the laughs when some of the dialog comes out in Spanish instead of English

All voices in watchmaker & the main guy in Black Mirror.

I don't know about worst, and I haven't played Watchmaker, Keepsake, or Black Mirror, but for most annoying I'd have to say the parrot in Starship Titanic. I wanted to throttle that bird!