Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 1 Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 2 Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 3

The title for an interview with a great voice actor.

I got a chance to have a short interview with one of the gaming industry’s best voice actors, James Arnold Taylor. Although you may not know his name, but he is the voice of some of Sony’s best video game heroes. Currently the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Plo Koon in Cartoon Network’s Star Wars Clone Wars, James Arnold Taylor is also the voice behind the interstellar hero Ratchet (Ratchet and Clank Series) as well as Tidus (Final Fantasy X).

Me: This seems to be a bit of an obvious question, but do you play the video games that you voice the characters of? If so, which is your favorite?

JAT: Well it’s not necessarily an obvious question. It is a good question, because a lot of times you hear from actors when they do a film they say, “Oh, I never watch any of my work.” Or “I never watch myself on TV.”. Well I am a bit of a ham; I enjoy hearing what I have done. I do enjoy it because, I love to act. I love to be a part of the whole thing. But I also love getting to hear what other actors have done and how it all comes together. Plus I just enjoy all of this entertainment; I think it is all good fun. And I truly try to pick roles and projects that I would want to watch or be a part of. In that I definitely play the video games that I am in. I always love the Clone Wars games, and the Ratchet and Clank games and Final Fantasy. I am looking through my window in my booth, and on a shelf I have many or the games I have been in. I love Spiderman Friend or Foe I loved being Spiderman as well as many of the characters in the Shrek games. If I was to choose a favorite, which is a tough one it is like children I can’t pick a favorite. I really do love the Ratchet and Clank series. It is such a great series and has grown. So many things end up, as they go sequel after sequel after sequel and it gets old. But these are getting better and better, and I am so amazed at the work by all the people at Insomniac Games. The writers and harnessing the storyline before going and putting it out there it is sort of the way that Pixar seems to work.

Me: You have been the voice behind characters in over 50 video games, are there any that are more or less your favorite?

JAT: Well like I said before it is very hard to choose a favorite. I do love playing Ratchet and I love playing as Obi-Wan. But I would have to say an overall favorite, or one that I owe so much of my video game career to, would be the voice of Tidus from Final Fantasy X and the sequel to it. But yes, I would say that it is one of my favorites.

Me: You have been with the Developer Insomniac quite a bit; you have been the voice of Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank since Going Commando. How do you view Ratchet as a hero? Can you relate to him on a down to earth, personal level?

JAT: I absolutely can relate to him on a personal level. I think he is someone, like most of us that wants to be a good guy. He wants to be the hero, he wants to be the good guy but also is trying to balance that out with, “I want to be myself and hang out with my buddy.” and be relaxed and not have to save the world all the time. I relate to him on that level, I can relate to his great kinship to his buddy Clank. I love the relationship David (David Kaye) and I have been able to pull out of this, because he and I have only met a couple of times. Ratchet and Clank are just great characters, and I am so blessed to be a part of that. I am so happy that Insomniac has asked me to be a part of that and I will be involved with this as long as I have to.

Me: There is a new game coming out soon called, “Heroes on the Move”, which features Ratchet and Clank among other Platforming stars. Will you return to be the voice for Ratchet?

JAT: Yes I do believe it is safe to say I am returning as the voice of Ratchet. I have actually already voiced it and I had a blast doing it.

Me: How did you prepare for the role of Tidus? Can you compare to him in any way that gives you a more personal connection rather than it being a job?

JAT: Well absolutely, when I first was approached to play the role of Tidus, I was in the process of recording a show call Atlantis: The Lost Empire based on the Disney film taking the role of Milo Thatch. I was recording in the same building as they were recording the Final Fantasy film, Spirits Within. And at the time Jack Fletcher, the director was also going to be directing Final Fantasy X. So we became friends after hanging out some, and he said, “You know I really want you to read for this part.” So I got to read for it and I was amazed at how much Tidus and I have in common. *Chuckles* Not in the athletic realm at all, Tidus is an amazing athlete. But he has a lot of family issues that I can relate to. Coming from a divorced family, coming from a place where I didn’t really know my father. I could have had a lot of resentment towards that and have anger and frustration with just wanting that acceptance from a father figure. I certainly can relate to that, and sort of like Ratchet he is this reluctant hero and he really wants to do the right thing and he really does want to save his friends and family and the world if he can. I think we all have that desire to be seen and to be known and Tidus definitely has that. I am sure I portray Tidus differently than my Japanese counterpart; I think Tidus is a young teenage man that is searching for himself his identity. And we try to counterbalance that with “Listen to my story”, you know, the narration parts where he had an older more controlled sound. So it makes the audience wonder, “Well is he telling the story from later in time?”. Of course if you have played the game you will know what happens to him in the end. So I really tried to take it from those different aspects of his life and how he grows. You know, he first starts of cocky and sure of himself because he is a champion Blitzball player. And as his journey goes he gets more controlled, and when you play through the game you will notice how his voice changes. And we tried our best in doing that, as well as, still having to deal with a game that already has been done in another language. Particularly with the Japanese language, such a beautiful and so different from our American English language in ways of speaking, to convey information comes out so differently. So they would add words or take out words then time crunch it to make it match up and make it work. It is amazing it is almost been ten years since Final Fantasy X came out and I still get email about it, and I am just so touched by my involvement with it.

Me: Final Fantasy X is the first Final Fantasy to showcase voice acting, what was it like to be a part of a game that broke out of its shell like that?

JAT: It was amazing to be the first, kind of lead character in this series where there was going to be voice.  And I don’t think I knew at first how much of a big deal it was. I looked at it like, I knew the series and I knew the games and I knew the importance of the characters in the games. But I did not realize at the time how history making it would be. And, would that have made a difference if I knew? I don’t know probably not. I am still very pleased with the performance, would I have changed things? Of course I would. Have I had the opportunity to change them? Yes I have when we do different version of the game. Even in the Dissidia game we were still bound by the language barrier so you still lose some of the emotional aspects you get to do when you are an actor. When you are voicing a video game normally you will go in and get the script and here is the scene. They play it out for you, and the director is leading the other characters because you are always voicing alone. But normally when you go in and voice a video game you are still allowed to have more of a voice, more emotion. But when you do a dub such as the final fantasy games you have to fit it in and work with the confinements or that and still try to get the emotions and hope it allows players to get the emotion. It is tougher work than going in and voicing a character like Ratchet and Clank or the Ninja Turtle games or Shrek games.

Me: What is it like to be a voice actor? How do you prepare for huge roles like being the voice of characters like Obi-Wan in Clone Wars and other Star Wars games?

JAT: Well it is great, for Obi-Wan they are of course doing the Clone Wars TV series, on Cartoon Network that is always great to do because I get to be a main character as well as Plo Koon, In the Star Wars games I am always voicing Plo Koon and Obi-Wan. Usually their scenes are together so I always have to keep that in mind. Both are british, and you have to know that they are always talking to each other. And I will always concentrate to make sure they are different, I try to give them both different accents. The way I prepare for them is the way I prepare for anything. I study the script, if I have it. With video games you generally don’t get the scripts ahead of time. You get the script when you step into the booth, so you are reading most of your lines cold. There is no prep time beforehand. Recently Obi-Wan has been the exposition, the guy that tells the player what to do. He is always doing these narration bits, *As Obi-Wan* “Hold the Command Key and push ALT and Tab”. So when you are reading those things you just have to go cold. So you prepare by not being prepared, if that makes any sense at all. Because you never know what’s being thrown at you. You just do it the best you can. Voice actors are very different “breed” than on screen actors. We are ready to give you any emotion you want at any point in time. We are always there and ready to perform and to the best of our ability on the drop of a hat. So they will say, “Ok James now you are falling, now do one with your arms flailing. And now give us a laugh.” If you want to be a voice actor you have to know you are always in the spotlight and you just have to be able to do it. Don’t be embarrassed ashamed you just have to do it. I love being a voice actor, I am blessed to do it.

Me: You also lent your vocal talents to the game Kingdom Hearts 2 as the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow and Timon. Were you nervous to be the voice of such iconic characters?

JAT: Well being the voice of Fred Flintstone *As Fred* “Yabba Dabba Do” or Johnny Test *As Johnny* WOAH! Johnny Test is amazing!” or Obi-Wan or Master Plo Koon or Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, or Ratchet. These characters have become so iconic that when I get up I get on my knees and I am so thankful to be able to bring life to these characters in whatever way I can. It is a great honor to voice double and I just hope people will know how much we voice actors appreciate doing what we do.

Me: Is being the voice actor in a video game any different than in a movie or TV show?

JAT:  Yes it is, as I mentioned before we are in a room with just ourselves the directors the writers the producers and we just record. And with most animated TV shows you are all together as a cast. You get to joke around and play off each other’s lines. In movies it can be a mixed bag, sometimes you are alone sometimes you are with other actors. When we first recorded TMNT all four of us got to record together. But then later when Weinstien bought the movie and rewrote everything we ended up ADR-ing, which means Audio Dialogue Replacement and replacing every line that we previously did. But with a video game we have that freedom to just go for it. With video games it is very much based on time, like we have 1.5 seconds to get this line etc. And other times you are just recording isolated with not too much interaction with others, besides the director. Video game directors are coming into their own now. They are able to give a story rather than just catching the grunts and groans. They are telling stories that go far greater than films today have. They are getting it and the writers as well. They are coming up with great storylines. It is harder with video games because you are just concentrated by yourself. You know, you are in the booth for 4 hours just hitting every line and jumping from character to character depending on the game. Usually when I am doing Ratchet and Clank I am just ratchet so they go out and book 4 hours and we take our time and enjoy ourselves. We go through the story and really get it into my head. If there are games that I am doing multiple characters that can get very strenuous. And it is very different from TV or movie work. If someone does want to be a voice actor, take care of it and learn all aspects of their own voice before going out and trying to be 10 different, or 100 different voices, or 1000 different voices. If you can do your voice great then you can do any one you and it will all fall into place.

One of the five games in the deal: Penumbra Overture

In a world where videogames have become more costly, it’s difficult to feed the addiction.  Even more so in this economy (though the White House claims the recession is over, I personally have yet to see proof).  Capcom did us all a favor (and rightly so) by releasing the pseudo-new SSFIV at a reduced price.  The Humble Indie Bundle, as they are called, takes this about seventeen steps further:  five games (a combined retail value of about eighty bucks), pay your own price.  No, I’m serious.

The titles include World of Goo, Penumbra Overture, Aquaria, Gish, and Lugaru HD.  On their website is a funny little jingle to inform you about what they’re doing, and how to pay.  But, here’s the skinny:  games are for Mac, PC, or Linux.  The money you donate can go directly to the developers, or to one of the charities supported by the program.  Once you download them, they’re yours, so no silly stuff like needing to have an internet connection to play.  And, of course, pay your own price.  Only five days left on this offer, though.  Shoot, I’m usually a console-based player, but the recognition some of these games have received over the years, combined with the sweet payment deal make me want to check these out.

She's days away from taking over your life...

It’s still not too late to pre-order your copy of Final Fantasy XIII.  And, in perfect Biblical fashion, Amazon is making sure even the stragglers get rewarded.

Rewarded with a ten-dollar credit!  There’s also a Release Date Delivery option, guaranteed to get the game to your doorstep or mailbox (or your drug dealer’s aunt’s P.O. Box) by March 9, which is the official North American release date.  Same deal as last time:  the credit applies to any game you buy after this, so you can’t use it for FFXIII.  ‘Tis the season for great games, though, and a ten-dollar credit might be just what you needed.  Especially if the IRS thought it was a good idea to strip you naked of your hard earned money, and grab a billiards stick to see how much more they can poke out of you.

EA either really loves their fans, or they’ve run out of promotional ideas, because as an early Valentine’s Day gift, EA is giving away free downloads of C&C Tiberian Sun and its expansion Firestorm.

EA did this before with the original C&C and Red Alert games to promote the releases of Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3, respectively, both of which are still available along with Tiberian Sun at this link.

You’ll want to check this one out if you have never played Tiberian Sun and don’t already own The First 10 Years set of Command & Conquer games, which is still an astounding value (even with 3 of the games included being made free). This download is definitely worth looking into if only for the classic full motion video cutscenes between the levels. You play as Michael Biehn for crying out loud! James Earl Jones is your general! If that doesn’t convince you, you must either automatically hate things that are awesome or have no soul.

This Valentines day why not do something awesome with that special someone, like snuggle up on the couch and play a custom level in Little Big Planet.

Media Molecule has just released a new Valentines Day level kit which is available for download at the Playstation Store.

This romantic little download contains hearts, flowers, chocolate, kittens, roses, and other fuzzy heart warming things to plaster the walls of your new side scroller with. Your Sackboy will be lovestruck with all the goodies he can romp through.

So, if you are a Little Big Planet lover (like me) head on over to PS store, because the kit is only available for one week.

For those who have not experienced Little Big Planet, do so immediately. I would explain all the joyous pros of this game, but my fingers would get tired.

Level creation is fun and easy, and with all the content Media Molecule continues to release, this will probably be an ongoing thing (i.e. Halloween and Christmas level kits).

Best wishes to all the lovebirds who celebrate V-Day, and to those who don’t kudos for saving money.

America’s Army 3 is the latest in a series of games designed to provide the player with the most realistic look into the challenge of an american soldier. Upon creating your account, in previous versions, you would go through several training missions modelled after real-life bootcamp scenarios. From physical fitness tests, marksmanship ranges, and MOUT courses, you get to play through bootcamp in a virtual way.

In America’s Army 3 however, you can skip the training and jump right into the online action.

Some things I liked about AA3:

1. All new Rank System built on actions in-game.

2. Honor system upgrade, not points go to different categories depending on healing teamates, sniping targets, laying down cover fire, and even jumping on grenades for teamates!

3. All new player customization.

4. Healing system has been upgraded and is now more detailed and a bit challenging depending on how wounded your teamate is.

5. New game modes with new ways to accomplish old game mode objectives.

6. New overhaul of all maps, now with more clutter for sniper positions, cover, and to simulate an actual battleground.

Some things I didnt like:

1. Still glitchy. (I remember I had just neutralized a target and was forced to reload, when suddenly another target appears and when I tried to fire… safety had been turned on for no appearent reason.)

2. ROE’s (Rules of Engagement) Violations can come out of no where. (This might be attributed to glitches, see above).

3. So far, not many players are online.

Ok, so that isnt a long list, but to be fair the glitches I mentioned are pretty fatal.

It also seems the game is a bit top-heavy. Ranking up just to Private E-2 will take quite a bit of gameplay time, with players as Sergeants already extremely skilled.

Some things that I loved about this game really only appear in Modern Warfare 2.

For example, in running to cover a player can sprint and then press “C” and slide home-run style up into a crouch. This is excellent when sprinting from cover to cover while the enemy is laying down a hail of fire.

Also, the realism in getting hit, wounds, and even limping or losing accuracy depending on the body part in which you’ve been hit is excellent for a game like this. To me, it feels like surviving the match is a small victory as opposed to other games where you try to rack up kills. In a game where richocets can actually kill you and random bursts of fire from the light machine gun are unlikely to hit anything other than dirt, I feel more adrenaline pumping FEAR than I do for mindless running and gunning.

It’s a free download on such an amazing game, if you’re a big FPS fan and you don’t at least try it, I’d worry about your sanity.

http://www.americasarmy.com/

But this isn’t about TimeSplitters 2, or how innovative it was.  This is about the Successor to the Lucha Family’s Co-op Crown:  Borderlands.  More importantly, however, is that Borderlands could very well be the game that gets your special someone into gaming with you.

But lets be honest.  Fellas have a much harder time trying to convince their significant other to play games than the ladies do.  So I will mainly be speaking to the men.

There is really only one way to play Borderlands, despite what you may have read about online multiplayer or the single (lonely) player campaign.  That is the glorious experience of same couch, same T.V. Co-op greatness.  When it comes to the co-op experience, this game doesn’t falter.  If you are playing with your Lady (or guy), then this game has something for everyone.

For the gamer it has leveling, skill trees, and quest.  For the Non-gamer it is pretty, full of personality and there are a bazillion guns, all that go boom.

For the gamer it has 4 classes to choose from, each with their own special skill for you to level up in all sorts of interesting ways.  For the non-gamer (ladies) it has Lilith, the only female character and probably the main one your girl with gravitate to.  She is also realistically proportionate so you won’t have to deal with looks of disgust about that.

Me...

My experience with the Mrs. in this game may be different than yours, but here it is nonetheless:

I knew something was different about this game from the start.  The usual role of “Hang back and cover your ass” that I occupy was now taken over by her with the inevitable pick of Lilith as the Siren.  That left the role of “Shoot first, ask no questions later, until you are reviving me for the 8th time in a single gun fight” to me, playing as Brick, this time instead of her.  This was a major step outside of our gaming comfort zone.

There was a little bit of a learning curve, but nothing we couldn’t handle, having recently tackled Resident Evil 5 (a game I don’t recommend for 1st time Couple Co-op).  Soon enough we were off helping the many citizens of Pandora with little down time.  As the member of the team who loves leveling up and micro managing every last detail of our character, it was up to me (and you I am sure) to keep track of what quest was active and where we needed to go.  Good news was that no matter how long I spent in the menu she didn’t have to wait and watch me obsess over which skill got that very special point I got once I leveled up.  She was off to shoot anything she wanted.

...and the Mrs.

There were a few tense moments, and some throwbacks to our rookie Co-op days (An area later in the game was full of the most annoying enemy in the game and a source of much frustration).  Once again, we were victorious.  Another notch in our gaming belt.

But, we wanted more.  If your girl doesn’t wanna play the game again, you can go through a 2nd play through with tougher enemies and start your track for those left over trophies.  Mrs. Lucha, however, was having none of that.  We started this together, we were gonna end it together.  Next stop: Platinum Trophy.

First there was a pit stop at the 1st DLC: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned.  We found a new enemy to hate (Defilers) and more fun to be had.

With “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot DLC” and the newly announced “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx” DLC, This is the game that seems to keep on giving.  Do you wanna know the best part?  After 40-50+ Hours of game play the game still manages to be something I feel a good number of games are missing.  Something that games used to be before all this Trophy and Achievement business.  Back when a little plumber breakin’ bricks was the greatest thing to a six year old.

Borderlands is just plain fun.  It is more fun with a co-op partner sitting with you.  Chuggin’ soda, and greasing up your 2nd community controller with potato chip hands.  And it is its absolute best when that partner is that special Girl or Guy you want to share everything with.

While I can’t coach you on how to approach your loved one to pick up the controller in the 1st place, I can offer you the best game out there to keep the controller in their hands.  So ditch your Wii Sports, and your Facebook games.  Keep your cool, and sit back and enjoy Borderlands how it was meant to be played.

Games.  Bringing couples together.

Are you a frequent user of the Care Package Glitch or an annoyed gamer of the people who do use it? Well no matter how you side, there is new info. Infinity Ward promised a patch for the glitch about two weeks ago saying it should be gone in two weeks…it’s still not gone. After realizing this, G4 interviewed Infinity Ward’s CEO, Vince Zampella to see what the problem was. It turns out, Zampella and his crew have delayed the patch because they love using it! Yeah, I know, it sounds ridiculous! Since the interview, they’ve gotten a metric Crap-ton of complaints so the deconstruction of the glitch is now scheduled for February 12-15, giving them some time to say their final good-byes to the glitch. So whether you love or despise it, the glitch will only be active for a little longer.

Pokemon has been around for a decade and a half and is one of the most played games in the world.One of the reasons is Pokemon’s persistent attitude to make new games. Heart Gold and Soul Silver are two new Pokemon games coming out March 14th(Pi Day). This new appendage of the saga brings us back to the well-known Johto region which was last played in Crystal Version for the Game Boy Color. Some new additions to the game are listed after the jump. 1. A Pokedometer–this way you can always be with one of your Pokemon at all times. While you walk, your Pokemon discover items, encounter wild Pokemon and become more friendly.

2. Pokemon always by your side–the first Pokemon in your party will always walk out of it’s pokeball with you.

So if you’re a big pokemon fan, these games might seem like better editions of the mobile Pokemon Franchise.

Holy shit, SEGA is back! Their comeback came out of nowhe--wait, WTF??

So what is it exactly? Well, to say it’s the love child of a Wii and Genesis is a bit too generous. The father is definitely the SEGA Genesis, as 20 of its launch titles are SEGA classics like Alex Kidd and Ecco the Dolphin, with the rest being crummy rip-offs of Wii Sports-type “games” for its motion controllers. But the mother is certainly not the Wii; yes, it may have a motion controller, but most of its genetic material comes from so-called wireless gaming systems. You know, those things that look like a cross between a sex toy and a router that you can find being sold for $80 near the cash registers of your local CVS, packed to the gills with shovelware that wouldn’t have passed muster fifteen years ago. The kind of thing ignorant, cheap, heartless bastards buy for their unfortunate children. Oh wait, that’s exactly what this thing is, except with the SEGA brand slapped on the side.

Honestly, I think it’s a cry for help. SEGA has finally been overwhelmed by the magnitude of its failure in recent years and has retreated into its memories of The Good Old Days, trying to pretend the world hasn’t moved on and left the doddering old fool wandering cluelessly around its porch, trying to keep its rheumy, paranoid eyes on the lookout for that young SNES whippersnapper. It’s really sad. Aren’t there any therapists out there for video game companies? Or maybe even retirement homes?