The weekend of April 18th through the 20th brings the NY Comic-Con to the mean streets of Gotham City. That is if you want to call the streets around the Jacob Javits Center mean. The annual comic book convention brings together the triumvirate of geek culture with comic, movie and video games coming together in booth and panel form for the paying public.

If you happen to be going to the convention or just in the New York area and have some time and money to blow you may want to head over to the Activision booth (booth number 1048) as they have an interesting contest lined-up for their next Spider-Man game. For the three days they are there at the Javits Center they will be recording grunts, screams and your best irritated cabbie voice acting for the newest Marvel comic video game.

This may not be the most exciting proposition for the experienced professional voice over artist, but if you know someone who’s been thinking about getting into the industry this may be a fun starting point for them.

Video Game Highlights - NY Comic-Con

The fourth time since 2004 that Duty has been Called

Mix Magazine, a fine purveyor of professional audio topics, has just released their February issue chock full of excellent information on all aspects of video game audio. The following is a wrap-up of five of the featured articles highlighted in this months print issue.

Answering the Call of Duty
Infinity Ward’s fourth installment of the acclaimed Call of Duty series was released at the end of 2007 to much fanfare. Not only was the story-line intriguing, the graphics stunning and the controls butter smooth, but the audio was spectacular. To pull of such stunning sound effects the audio team atIW went out to the field to capture real-life audio from M1A Abraham and AK-47 and small arms. While this is not new to video game recording, their methods of multiple recording angles optimized for surround sound is.

The closest you’ll ever get to rock stardom

This being a voice over blog I can’t not talk about the over 170 hours spent recording for all the dialogue for the game. Not only is the game translated into six languages, but theIW team scoured the globe for authentic and professional Arabic and Russian voice over actors. With the teams focus on battle moment intensity to produce a lifelike experience to the player, these must have been some fun recording sessions.

Guitar Hero Rocks
WaveGroup Sound is the recording and production group responsible providing the music tracks for a majority of the Guitar Hero games. In this extensive write-upWaveGroup owner/president Will Littlejohn talks about the future plans of one of the most established video game audio recording studio in the business. The article chronicles the beginnings of the company and their methods all the way to the estimated 250 million Guitar Hero tracks thatWaveGroup has so graciously bestowed upon the gaming public.

RTS Games Still Going Strong
Big budget action/adventure and first person shooter games aren’t the game on the market. You can’t forget about the scrappy Real Time Strategy genre that has been around longer than just about any other genre type. DevinHurd, Audio Director of Big Huge Games, sure hasn’t forgotten about RTS’ and with the sounds that he brings to the games, we’re betting that you won’t forget about them or the RPG’s (role-playing games) that he works on. With over 10 years in the game audio business this article details the sights, sounds and technology thatHurd and Big Huge Games utilize to pull you in to the top-down world view of the Age of Empire series.

He’s actually a tender thoughtful man

Scoring Splinter Cell: Conviction
What is one of the best ways to get into the gaming industry, in every aspect of the field? Be a gamer yourself. That’s what Michael Nielsen and Kaveh Cohen are and after a seemingly lifetime-length audition process the two 33 year-old virtual new comers are scoring one of the most highly anticipated and epic games to released, the fifth installment in the Splinter Cell series, Conviction. The two themselves grew up playing the Splinter Cell games and use their intimate knowledge of the games to other an audio experience that rivals any other. If you only pick up one thing from this article it’s guaranteed to be a new found familiarization of layers.

Total Immersion Effects
Video games have gone next-gen. With graphics this means high-definition 1080p imagery. With audio this means shake-you-in-your-seat rumble 5.1 surround-sound. With the number of actual audio clippings used in games today it can be daunting and costly to recreate these sounds for each game. This is where high-def audio collection come into play and the final article in the video game edition of Mix Magazine chronicles some of the best of those collection for audio engineers to use in triple-A blockbuster titles. Or if you have the money, for use in your own home movies.

[h/t to Gregory Best]

The new voice of a Mustang

Poor Will Arnett. Two weeks before the debut of NBC’s movie/series pilot of the newly revamped Knight Rider a conflict of interest has forced him off the project. This after he has already recorded all his lines.

The issue boils down to this; The new K.I.T.T. is a Ford Mustang. Ford is pumping a ton of money into the new show with sponsorship and advert placements. Will Arnett has long been the voice of GMC Trucks in their commercials. A simple conflict of interest in which Arnett had this to say:

“I was very excited at the prospect of playing the part of KITT in the new ‘Knight Rider’ movie. However, because of a long relationship with General Motors as the voice of GMC Trucks, I had to respectfully withdraw from the project.”

So, who is going to be the new voice of the coolest gadget-tricked car this side of the Ghostbuster’s ECTO-1? As reported by Variety magazine it is Mr. Val Kilmer who will be trading in his Dark Knight status for that of the Knight Rider.

Let the rush begin to get all his dialogue swapped into the show in the next two weeks.

Read the Article

Barry Pepper, lending his voice to Prototype

Sierra Entertainment’s latest blockbuster game, Prototype, now has a voice for it’s protagonist and other characters. Barry Pepper (The Green Mile, 61*, Saving Private Ryan) will take the lead role as the genetically mutated Alex Mercer. Other voices confirmed in the game are those of Gordon Clapp (The Game Plan. Ghost Whisperer) and Paul Guilfoyle (CSI).

Prototype has been label as one of the must-watch games being released in 2008 by gaming magazine giant Electronic Gaming Monthly. In the game the player assumes the role of Alex Mercer, a shape-shifting doppelganger with amnesia, who needs to kill to fuel his powers. Prototype is currently scheduled for a summer 2008 release.

From Press Release

Stephanie at Vox Daily and Deirdre of the Voice Over Bulletin Board have collaborated on what can be the most important article for those looking to start voice acting in the lucrative video games industry. Play the games! They go into a little more detail about why you should be playing video games, but the main point is if you want to work in that industry you need to understand it. CLICK HERE for the story

Devil May Cry 4’s Dante voiced by Reuben Langdon

$500,000 for one voice over session. It sounds like a wonderful dream, doesn’t it? Well, that’s the payout that one unnamed film actor received for his work on a video game, also unnamed. That was just the precedent setting paycheck with another film actor requesting $750,000 for a one hour session on another game, but ultimately being denied.

Reuters has an article up regarding the raising of voice over rates and the infiltration of the out of work film actor in video games.

The video game industry is a prosperous emerging market for the voice over artist with $18 billion in sales in 2007. This has, of course, caught the eye of film actors wanting a piece of that money pie at the detriment of the voice actor.

But is it all bad?

While they may taking away jobs from voice over artists, they are also raising the base rates for these video game sessions. Depending on how you view it, a voice over actor can now make more money in this sector. But, at the expense of more readily available jobs.

Read the article

Voice Actor Michael Rosenbaum, better known as Lex Luthor on TV’s Smallville, has been tapped to voice Hayden Tenno in DP3A’s upcoming game Dark Sector. CLICK HERE for the story

Yet another posting of a Voice Over Times article, but hey, they know what they’re doing. This latest article runs down a few tips on how to land a gig at a local radio station. CLICK HERE for the story

Much like David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, United Artists has struck an interim deal with the Writers Guild of America to return to work. CLICK HERE for the full story

Voice Over Times has a great article up with 10 tips about utilizing Apple’s Garage Band software to make clean and professional podcasts and is worth a look. CLICK HERE for the story