The Game Awards: Best Performance Prediction
The Game Awards are nearly upon us and we wanted to do a preview of some of the categories and give our own thoughts on who could walk away with the win. This year has been lined with stellar games developed by talented teams with amazing narratives. Each of those stories brought to life by a bevy of incredible voice talent, but only one can take home the award for best performance.
Ashley Burch as Parvati Holcomb (The Outer Worlds) – Ashley Burch is a big name in the industry and has voiced several fan favorite roles. She’s the voice of Tiny Tina in the Borderlands series, Chloe from the Life is Strange series, Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn and many others. Her performance as Parvati was welcoming, sincere and the first thing that made me fall in love with the Outer Worlds.
Courtney Hope as Jesse Faden (Control) – Courtney Hope has a long career in TV acting with Control being her first major voice role in a video game. From Grey’s Anatomy to CSI: Miami, NCIS or Criminal Minds, you’ve probably saw her on screen before. Her performance as Jesse Faden was strong and chilling, just the atmosphere of the game.
Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz (Gears 5) – Laura Bailey is one of the most recognizable names in the voice acting scene. From her performance as Lady Jaina Proudmoore in World of Warcraft to one of the main cast members of Critical Role, she’s known all around the nerd stratosphere. She takes the helm in Gears 5 as Kait Diaz and redefines what it means to tell a story in a game formerly dominated by Dude Bros.
Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff (Death Stranding) – This is Mads Mikkelsens second voice acting credit, the first being for the Quantum of Solace video game. He has more than 50 acting credits to his name. In Death Stranding, he plays the enigmatic Clifford Unger who’s story is peppered through the game in short cutscenes. He ebbs and flows between silent rage, grief, and eventually closure. All the while still delivering his peircing gaze which ports hauntingly well over to a video game.
Matthew Porretta as Dr. Casper Darling (Control) – Matthew Porretta’s performance as Dr. Darling is an interesting one for a video game as it wasn’t just a voice role. We actually got to see him on screen in various short videos. Everything that Control is as a game, the atmosphere, the story, the emotions is perfectly captured in Porretta’s depiction of Dr. Casper.
Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges (Death Stranding) – Perhaps best known as Daryl on the Walking Dead, Normas Reedus has a long history in film and television. Death Stranding wasn’t his first foray into video games, but it’s what he’ll likely best be known for. Through the game his attachment to BB, the baby literally connected to his chest, creates some of the most tense and sweet moments of the story. Reedus helps convey this through a very subtle softening of tone when referring to the baby, as well as his fierce protection of it. Writing and themes aside, Death Stranding is a font of some of the best mo-cap performances in all of video games.
Who Should Win? Everyone. There isn’t a single person on this list who didn’t deliver an absolutely knock-out performance. Any single frame of these games or clip of voice acting contains so much emotion and talent.
Who Will Win? Mads Mikkelsen. There is something undeniable about the presence that Mikkelsen exudes whenever he’s on screen, in the flesh or digitized. His voice is unmistakable and the fact that technology has come as far as is has to perfectly capture his facial expressions makes Death Stranding no different than seeing him on screen.
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