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Post by countlieberkuhn on Dec 10, 2011 20:05:01 GMT -8
Hey there, just stumbled across this on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. Dena, a reviewer who specialises in Survival Horror games, conducts a rather long interview with James' voice actor. I haven't watched it all yet, but I figured you guys might be interested. A lot of the discussion is based around the HD collection controversy with the VAs. thatguywiththeglasses.com/podcasts/horrorcast/33451-special-interview-with-guy-cihi-part-1FYI, Silent Hill 2's HD remake will allow you to choose to have either the old VAs or the new ones, but the one for Silent Hill 3 won't. Finished watching both parts now, it gets very interesting in part 2 where Guy Cihi is asked what ending he believes to be canon, and goes in-depth about how he viewed the character when playing him and James' predicament leading up to Mary's death. You can tell that Guy really cares about James as a character. |
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Post by Fleck on Dec 14, 2011 16:35:37 GMT -8
Okay, finally got around to listening to this (damn you, Count, for using the verb "watching" and thus getting my hopes up that I'd see some sexy, sexy James action! No, once again I must be content with merely imagining some sexy, sexy James action. Sigh). All in all a pretty good interview, and it should definitely be checked out by all SH fans. I wish they'd gone a little deeper into Guy's interpretations of plot elements, since it seemed pretty clear that he knew what he was talking about and could have gone deeper if they'd pressed him.
Two points I want to bring up:
One, now I really dislike Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. I loved her has Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell and I couldn't possibly imagine anyone else in that role, but I've never felt that MEM ever fit in with the SH series. She was introduced in SH3 and added a more melancholy, vocals-driven soundtrack to the game, which ultimately went a long way towards distinguishing it from SH2 and SH1. A good thing, to be sure. But with every iteration, McGlynn gets more and more creative control and she cocks it up more and more, and the soundtracks to more recent SH's have been too overpowering and song-y. Instead of accompanying and enhancing the dialog, the songs seem written to be listened to independently, which is total crap. But okay, that's fine. But for McGlynn to then speak poorly of Guy Cihi, even if it was, as Guy claims, probably a case of misinformation, is still a dick move. And it's hard for a girl to do a dick move. They lack the proper parts. And yet she manages it. Considering that the SH soundtracks get measurably worse as her creative control over the soundtracks grows, she doesn't really have much ground to stand on when she tries to criticize one of the original cast members for any reason.
Two, I'm surprised that Guy considers the Leave ending to be canon, but the more I think about it, the more I realize he's probably right. Given the depressing nature of the game and the hopelessness of James' future, I always assumed that his journey of self-punishment would inevitably end in death--the only true escape he would ever have from his torment. But, as Guy put it, James killed Mary in order to save his own life. I don't think Mary was as evil or as manipulative as Guy claims, but her illness and the mental strain it placed on James was very trying on him, and it was killing him. Even James himself admits, "I wanted you out of the way. I wanted my life back" (possibly paraphrased, I'm not sure). Given the fact that James has already committed murder to save his own life, it seems unreasonable that he'd then immediately turn around and end his life, no matter how rough things got. I also like the idea that Laura gives James someone to love, and a new focus for the rest of his life. So, kudos, Guy. I concede this round to your better judgment.
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Post by countlieberkuhn on Dec 14, 2011 17:13:56 GMT -8
Yeah, I think Guy was being a bit harsh towards Mary on the whole - there's not much to say that Mary was manipulative before she got ill, and after the illness came it was probably more out of desperation to keep him around for what remained of her life without considering the effect it had on him. Guy mentioned he'd had a messy divorce shortly before auditioning the role, so he probably projected some of his feelings towards his ex-wife onto Mary. And yes, my choice of verb was poor, but it's still worth a listen! Guy goes into pretty great detail when answering the questions he has, so that's good. It's interesting how the actors all had to perform the scenes on a stage for 3 months before doing voice recording for purposes of motion capture too. Not many games do that these days, although the Uncharted games come to mind. All of their scenes are performed with mo-cap and the vocals they recorded during the live-action is used in the in-game cutscenes, which I think helps add to the realism. Speaking of Uncharted, the developers of the Uncharted series have announced a new, heavily story-driven game called The Last of Us, about a father and daughter who are some of the last survivors of humanity after the Cordyceps fungus evolved a version that targetted humans. Don't know what Cordyceps are? Watch this video and find out! It's pretty creepy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8Based on the excellent quality of the Uncharted series, I am excited by this title! |
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Post by Fleck on Dec 14, 2011 20:02:12 GMT -8
Yes, a messy divorce will definitely cloud your judgment concerning women.  And as for the Cordyceps fungus... I'll let this Youtube clip do that talking: |
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Post by countlieberkuhn on Dec 15, 2011 2:45:31 GMT -8
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! Although what impresses me is the fact that the ants understand what's happening to the infected ants, and carry them far away from the colony so that they are at less risk of being infected when the fungus breaks out. That and a lot of other things about ants I've read (just read the wikipedia article on ants - bloody fascinating) makes me think that they're not too far behind humans in terms of intellectual capacity. My interest in them sounds a bit nerdy/creepy though. All I need now is a radioactive ant to bite me and I'm pretty much a generic superhero origin story. |
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Post by Fleck on Dec 15, 2011 8:19:56 GMT -8
Dude, if ants could make movies, then the Cordyceps fungus would be their zombie movie.
"He's infected! Get away from us!"
"No, no! The spores didn't hit me! I'm fine! Look!"
"I saw him get hit! It's only a matter of time before he turns!"
"I'm fine, I swear! I'm frrrrrrggghhhh"
"AH RUN AWAY!"
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Post by Fleck on Dec 15, 2011 19:09:27 GMT -8
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Post by countlieberkuhn on Dec 15, 2011 19:22:44 GMT -8
It's ok, he didn't finish her off yet. He needs to at least do that before we get our very own James Sullivan. A darker part of me wishes this would actually happen |
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