By John Walker on August 28th, 2009 at 10:32 am.
BioWare has been peculiarly tight-lipped about the voice cast for the soon-to-arrive Dragon Age, until now. A decision which became more than a little silly at E3 when they played a scene with the voice of a famous actor, and then refused to agree that she was in it. As we reported at the time, Kate Mulgrew (famous for being the guinea pig-voiced captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager) was providing the voice of a witch known as Flemeth. Yesterday BioWare announced that Kate Mulgrew (famous for being the guinea pig-voiced captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager) is providing the voice of a witch known as Flemeth. However, there’s many more famous names announced, and people: one of them’s Tim Curry. Footage below.
Other names revealed include Tim “Tuvok off of Voyager” Russ, Claudia “Aeryn off of Farscape” Black and Steve “Nigel off of Crossing Jordan” Valentine .
However, the two bigguns are certainly Mulgrew and Curry. BioWare describes Mulgrew’s Flemeth as “a powerful witch who maintains her immortality through the darkest of means, and who plays a pivotal role in the player’s survival.” Certainly in the clips shown at E3, she put in a superb performance. Everyone’s favourite Tim Curry, meanwhile, provides the snarling tones (we can only assume) of baddie Arl Rendon Howe. He, BioWare explains, “is the calculating villain, cultured and charming, with an insatiable lust for power who never hesitates to harm anyone who gets in his way.”
The story of Dragon Age takes place in the city of Ferelden, telling of the Grey Wardens and their preparations to battle against the Blight, an invasion of an enemy known as the Darkspawn. There’s a surprising amount of information on the FAQ of the official Dragon Age site, which is well worth ploughing through for extra info. The game is due in early November.
So, take a look at the actors at work:
Oh, and clearly:
Still with the Marilyn Manson at the end… sigh.
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Must… resist… urge to hum “Sweet Transvestite!”
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Tim Curry looks like a giant turtle. I didn’t realise he got so old.
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I’m currently playing through Red Alert 3 in co-op with a friend, and I can only see him as the silly, over-acting scheming Soviet Premier now. Love him though.
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Thats a pretty solid cast list. Will be interesting to hear how they do.
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Personally I’m not so hot on the pause & play system. Fortunately this simply means that I don’t have to use it! I sure as heck didn’t use it in Mass Effect.
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Still don’t know what to think on this one, I was so keen, prior to the bizzare marketing decisions and book giving demonstrations. Cast list is promising, and I have lost of money left over from birthday. Tell me what to think John Walker! (Although frankly I know I’ll either cave and pre-order it, or otherwise run down to the shops shortly after release and then be annoyed that I’m paying £5 than I would online, but having decided that I want it I don’t want to wait for delivery. I’ll then either love it, or find it a bit meh.)
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@James G
I’ve felt the same as you (initial excitement slowly turned to puzzlement or even disgust) , but when I read the stuff the developers I’ve said what they aim for, I’ve decided to buy it after all.
The awful ad campaign which have scared away a lot of the long time PC RPG fans I’ve decided to put down to some pants-on-head retarded people in charge of marketing.
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I’m am confident that this is a misfire of message and that Dragon Age will be a formidable RPG. Terrible marketing does not necessarily equate to terrible game.
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I’m giving it a try, I still feel slightly annoyed at all that has happened (most likely to do with EA though).
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Me, I’m fine with DA as long as it doesnt feel like KOTOR with a palette swap (I’m looking at you Jade Empire, Mass Effect, NWN2…)
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I genuinely don’t know how to feel about Dragon Age. At first, when it was announced, I was very excited. I continued in that state for a while, and then the outright awful trailers hit, and for a while there I was so demoralized about the whole thing I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to try it out. I’ve started to feel a bit excited about it again, but I don’t want to get burnt if it’s terrible.
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This certainly raises the level of antici…….
……….
……….
……….pation
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Looks like they’re trying to hit all the nerd-bases with that cast. Couldn’t they get anyone from Babylon 5 and maybe an old Doctor Who, too?
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Rei: I’m sure they have the voice of K9 in there somewhere.
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Tim Curry is Stratos (sacrifice) more than anything else to me. Charnel might have had the best lines but Stratos have a real sense of clinical amorality without ever stepping into pantomime, which of course Tim himself did(step into panto).
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I see the terrible marketing as a massive endorsement for the quality of the game because if the game was going to be crap they would have hired a marketing team with at least one functioning braincell between them to hide the fact but because they knew it was going to be superb they have decided to let a bunch of poo throwing monkey’s do the marketing to save a bit of cash.
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@Heliocentric: Never knew Tim Curry was my favorite deity in Sacrifice (which is my favorite game of all time)! Good to know!
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“SIT! … or stand… whatever you desire of course.”
Legend, classic.
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I have to say that The Colour of Magic was Tim Curry’s finest hour in recent years.
*sigh.* I want more Discworld movies with David Jason and Tim Curry in them.
I’d be more interested in Dragon Age if it had David Jason.
…
Anyway, on a more serious note, another big selling point for Dragon Age is is voice talent? I’ve seen others complain about this with The Old Republic.
Nothing more to say, really.
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I don’t get all the issues people have with the game’s marketing. RPGs having a sweeping orchestral soundtrack is a big cliche, so why not use rock at least in the marketing campaign. I see nothing wrong with gratuitous amounts of sex and violence as long as the world building justifies it.
I miss the times when people discussed the game AFTER it was out. Still, it is not guaranteed that Dragon Age will be a brilliant game. But at least chances are it will be well written and acted.
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@ raguklemenso
Because a) Marilyn Manson is shitballs and b) Bioware are woeful at doing sex and romances.
“It’s so cooooooold in my tent all aloooone”
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Isn’t the meaning of ‘candid’ the opposite of how you’re using it?
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Stevo – yes indeed. My brain went quite mad for a word there. Cheers.
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@raguklemenso
“RPGs having a sweeping orchestral soundtrack is a big cliche, so why not use rock at least in the marketing campaign. ”
My issue with that is that rock music is also a big cliche, there are many other, more appropriate, musical genres.
>”I see nothing wrong with gratuitous amounts of sex and violence as long as the world building justifies it.”
But it were rather worrying when gratuitous sex and violence were the ONLY thing the marketing revolved around, especially since it was initially promised that this would be a mature PC centric title (titties=adult, not mature) with deep characters and plot, for grown up fans who remembered Baldur’s Gate fondly.
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Perhaps the problem is that hip marketing dudes are at a loss as to how to sell a trad fantasy RPG.
“Use the rawk!”
“Or the sex!”
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I think that’s the idea really.
They’re assuming fans of fantasy RPGs will buy the game anyway, at least if it gets good reviews/word of mouth.
The question they are struggling with is how to sell it to other people. Action and sex is the path they went down, seeing as those two traditionally sell quite well to “gamers” as a whole.
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Not bad, but would’ve preferred David Warner…
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Tim Curry? Now I don’t know what to think.
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Yay Janeway and Tuvok! :) I could do without Nigel though, although it’s just because I hate Crossing Jordan so much porridge starts pumping from my nostrils.
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My god, they certainly tried to put up the worst looking possible photo of Tim Curry.
Also, yay for Farscape, and fuck Bonnie Hammer. Yeah, still bitter.
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@Edgar – SAY IT! (Thank You!)
I keep hoping this game will turn out well and the marketing gimmick is due to the fact the game IS so hardcore and twelve shades of old school RPG awesomesauce that EA got scared just how old school it is. I’ve been put off by the extreme binary direction Bioware has gone to as of this last decade (ye olde save a puppy / slaughter an orphanage concept) but I’m hoping since we are playing Grey Wardens we have more shades of grey to play with. Some of the stuff I’ve read really seems that that’s the case and long term repercussions are felt installments later. A fully pausable (Turn Based if possible) Witcher with a party is what I’m hoping for here.
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@rei: I’d love to see (hear) some of the Babylon 5 actors in a game. Mira Furlan would make any game character pure awesome.
I’m really looking forward to Dragon’s Age, despite the stupid marketing. I’m really afraid that EA’s going to pull some nasty DRM stunt though, and I’ll be forced to boycott it. Any word yet about the DRM planned for DA?
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Tim Curry is bloody awesome in my books. :D
Still undecided about this game, though.
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Tim Currys not being type cast then.
Anyway that voice actors list is like a science-fiction nerd(i.e me) wet dream really, all those voices together in one. And i do have to agree Tim Curry was great in The Colour of Magic.
If your on the fence I would read the previews that are coming out now, to me it sounds pretty sweet and going to be a hardcore RPG. It does look like the marketing people are scared that there may not be an audience for that so there going for the sex, rock, and action route. Its a shame that market men have to do that really. Were not allowed hardcore PGs anymore it seems.
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Everyone seems to be missing just how brilliant the marketing has been. It shifted discussion away from the delay of almost a year for the PC version. Clever, those guys.
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It seems that you can’t release a AAA game without at least one former Star Trek actor in the voice cast these days. I for one wholeheartedly approve.
At the risk of sounding like a mean nerd, I always found Janeway’s voice slightly irritating, but Tuvok should be fantastic. There’s a bigger pool of talent out there though folks, someone needs to hire Rene Auberjonois (Odo) or Robert Picardo (The Doctor).
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Fucking Janeway. The Doctor clearly carried that show.
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Speaking of Trek actors, weird that this looks like the first Bioware game in ages without Armin Shimerman. Unless they just didn’t mention him.
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I hate Voyager! I utterly hate Voyager! The worst Trek series ever! If it wasn’t for the doctor and my love for all things Trek I would’ve never watched it… I’ll never forgive you Berman and Braga!! It isn’t even Mulgrew’s fault, though she wasn’t captain material. Maybe if Michelle Forbes hadn’t been casted as Ro Laren before we could’ve had a super-cool Starfleet woman captain.
On topic though, nice voice cast. Maybe the game won’t be so bland as it seems to be destined to be (this coming from a BioWare hardcore fan).
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Excitement hasn’t wavered for this one. Not watching game trailers has its advantages!
Think it will be a great RPG in which no-one will force me to behave like a twit towards women.
/crosses fingers
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Did you ever catch Star Trek: Enterprise?
Um, Seven of Nine?
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I prefer to think of Enterprise as one very long episode of Quantum Leap.
And that’s the story I’m sticking to.
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Quantum Leap was awesome.
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Why pay for A list (well C list) stars for voice over when you won’t even know it’s them? It seems you’re paying three times the price over pro VA’s just for an extra tick in the features box.
Good old EA.
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I just wanted to say thank you for choosing to reference Farscape over SG-1 for Claudia Black. Farscape never gets enough love.
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Alas, maykael, it was not to be. She was approached to be a series regular on DS9 and turned the job down (which led them to create the character of Kira). Do you think she would have accepted a role on Voyager?
Anyway, I think Tim Russ’ best performance was in Spaceballs.
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I love Startrek Voager, was my favorite series and I think Janeway was the best captain out of any of the star trek series (with Picard playing a close second) Ive seen ever single episode of the series at least twice unlike any of the other series which I’ve never watched all the way through (I don’t believe the other series actually have an ending episode but I could be wrong) I don’t get why you’re calling her guinea pig-voiced maybe that is a British thing :P As far as I know in the US guinea pigs don’t have a voice.
Also agreed wtih those above, I didn’t realize Tim Curry was getting so extremely old :( Maybe can do the time warp and regain his youth?
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Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m surprised that no one brought up the other Trek actor from a recent Bioware game. Marina Sirtis was the worst voice actor in the entirety of Mass Effect.
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Mariana wasn’t a very good actor on Star Trek either Alex, I think her body carried her through most of it and without that to help her out it isn’t any wonder that her voice acting fell flat is it ? : )
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Heh heh. Genius!
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I’ve noticed Armin Shimerman showing up in a lot of Bioware games too. Hell, I’ve noticed Armin Shimerman showing up in a lot of video games, period.
I know it’s old news, but I’m still baffled by the fact that Andrew Ryan was Quark.
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I was a little taken aback when the dude that players Sawyer on lost was in my Command and Conquers 3 lol
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One of the things that does dissapoint me with this is that its supposed to be advertised as Dark Fantasy by the devs but everything I’ve seen seems to be just generic High Fantasy. High fanatsy is not dark fantasy.
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“Why pay for A list (well C list) stars for voice over when you won’t even know it’s them? ”
1)You’re telling me you wouldn’t recognize Curry’s voice?
2)I’m still waiting for the day, when Bioware wises up, and just hires the entire Legacy of Kain cast, along with the writers.
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Except for Tony Jay.
Because he’s dead ;_;
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Rene Auberjonois has been the voice of Janos Alderin in three Legacy of Kain games now. It’s just a shame they’ve been nowt but horseshite since Soul Reaver 1.
My failure to notice Armin Shimerman puzzled me but his Wikipedia page says he only did Mass Effect and Jade Empire, two BioWare games I haven’t played.
Regarding the marketing, Jim might have a point: Ocarina of Time played to an audience that wouldn’t be interested in Legend of Zelda whilst at the same time pissin off the feminists(“rescue the girl or play like one”). Heh, wimmin innit.
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@Psychopomp
Right on both counts. Curry’s great, his voice work in Sacrifice was brilliant (to take a pertinent game-related example).
And yes, everyone involved with Legacy of Kain’s voice cast was genius. I wish they’d make another one of those, I adore that series.
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Kate Mulgrew is a great actress. Her portrayal of evil Janeway was simply awesome (shame star trek does not look like that) Add to this her portrayal of some 20th century woman and her regular Janeway and it is safe to say that anyone claiming that she is anything but great has really no idea what acting is.
the best captain was Shaf… Sisko. Punching God to the face and shooting down spaceships like flies was badass :)
on topic:
I am very curious about this game. i don’t let hype to affect me in anyway but i have great hopes for this game especially since we found out that ME2 won’t be really an RPG but just another shooter.
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@Lintman: It’s DRM free! Same for Mass Effect!
Also, I might hyperventilate if they had David Warner as a VA as well
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Sisko was a commander not a captain, for the most part ;P Of course when he captain when he was onboard the Defiance ;P He was awesome regardless.
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“Tim Curry is Stratos (sacrifice) more than anything else to me. Charnel might have had the best lines but Stratos have a real sense of clinical amorality without ever stepping into pantomime, which of course Tim himself did(step into panto).”
I’m with you here. Whenever anyone mentioned Curry in a video game, I always remembered a certain floating balloon head God..
Also, isn’t “guinea pig-voiced…” implying she’s a, err, certain racist slang ‘pig voiced’ person? Hahaha.
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I loved how each God in Sacrifice was utterly unique and I think the voice actors went a long way to create that feeling.
It should be mentioned that I first learned of Tim through movies then voice acting and various things THEN Years latter I watched Rocky Horror and was stunned when I saw WHO was in it (not just Tim Curry but the other actors as well)
I just noticed that he’s also voice acted in almost every cartoon I watched as a kid as at least one character so ;P His voice is iconic to say the least.
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So are the darkspawn all part of some over elaborate plan to get revenge on duckman(Sorry I just rewatched a whole lot of episodes and couldn’t help myself)?
And I am going to add my voice to the adoration of the Legacy of Kain series both for the story and its excellent presentation(visual and audio both). On that note isn’t Simon Templeman voicing the adviser/regent/uncle or whoever that Curry’s character is reporting to in the trailer? I seem to recall hearing Kain during one of the earlier trailers(and instantly assuming that the adviser was going to end up backstabbing the prince as a result).
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Yep, that’s definitely Simon Templeman as the twerpy king’s second in commmand. And Bioware have used Michael Bell (Raziel) before in both Baldur’s Gate 2 (Haer’dalis) and NWN (random voices), would be nice if they got him for Dragon Age. I see from IMDB that he will be in Alpha Protocol though.
No sign of Jennifer Hale in Dragon Age? I thought she was contractually obliged to be in every video game ever :D
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Actually, Railick, Sisko was promoted in the season three finale, so he was a captain in rank for the majority of the show’s run.
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Curry seems too old now to play Gabriel Knight ever again :(
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Wait.
So Tim Curry did Stratos’ voice in Sacrifice?
…
His awesomeness rose to stratospheric levels.
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