Amazon and other retailers are updating their deals for the week as we enter the middle of the week. It is again a good week for gamers, with the long awaited release of Arkham Knight.
On Amazon, the 500GB PS4 Arkham Knight Limited Edition is back in stock. They also have an ongoing sale on Blizzard games, including Diablo III 50% off on all platforms. FF X/X2 Remaster Limited Edition is $39.99 on PS4.The PS Vita is 15% off at $169.99. The PSN has an ongoing 2K sale, with discounts on titles such as borderlands, Evolve, Bioshock Infinite...
The weekly deal on gog.com is 82% off a moto racer+ megarace bundle. The midweek madness deal on Steam is 50% off Massive Chalice. The Humble Bundle is a Borderlands special, pay what you want for $146 worth of games.
Check out more deals this week
They say there are only 7 types of story in the entirety of human creation (which is four up on types of video games - we have "shooting", "not shooting" and "sports"). No matter how hard we think, everything we do can be boiled down to basic plots, the animal instincts that drive us funneling our most enlightened thought.
It's much the same for trailers. Look through the annals of E3 history and you'll spot the same tricks popping up again and again, little pieces of shorthand that help direct the advertising we crave into our brains with utmost efficiency. That said, if this list proves anything, it's that trailers are literally twice as creative an endeavour than all human storytelling - here are 14 trailer types to watch out for this year.
Modern gaming's always looked to cinema for a little help - trailers are no exception. A big, grand voiceover groaning out meaningless wisdom, out-of-sequence clips bolted together for dramatic effect, some rousing music, maybe a weighty tagline to go along with the logo. This is the oldest trailer sequence in the book. And it works.
Here's the opposite end of the spectrum from the Hollywood. Your average indie game is, according to recent surveys, made by four men, with three jobs each, two hands, but only one finger on each of those hands. It's tough. That's why the indie trailers that sneak out around the main conferences tend to be pretty badly cut together, with weird little flourishes and miniature stories to follow. They become twice as intriguing than most AAA fare as a result.
The new kid on the trailer block, the Rockstar is named for the company that made it popular. Essentially, it treats us viewers like the vapid, easily-distracted cattle we are by using the voiceover portion to patiently explain every important facet of the game, while accompanying images show us exactly what it's talking about. It's basically a really, really positive preview.
Look, sometimes the game just isn't ready to be shown. Sometimes all you have are a bunch of assets, some sweet design documents with little doodles in the margins and a whole lot of hope. But then a publisher comes along as says you have to show off your game. In this case, you put together a stopgap - a CG proof-of-concept that proves your game exists, even if it shows absolutely nothing else. See you in four years!
A new, more accommodating form of the Stopgap, the Kickstarter fleshes out all that missing gameplay with talking heads, interviewing men and women more used to tweaking camera systems than sitting in front of a real one. The result is most often a stream of platitudes and half-explained features, presumably because a studio executive behind camera is controlling a teleprompter that just endlessly scrolls the words "if you break the non-disclosure agreement you signed, I will remove one of your eyeballs or children".
People love music. Just look at the way no one talks to each other in public anymore - we've all got headphones in because we literally cannot stop listening to the tunes we love. It's the trailer's greatest friend. Put a recognisable track over some nondescript footage and you've got yourself a winner. Even better, get an idiosyncratic cover of a famous track, and people won't even pay attention to the footage because they'll be so busy trying to work out what the song is.
This tends to go hand-in-hand with a Distractor, but it's become so popular that I'm willing to classify it as a genre all of its own. You know that thing where an advert starts putting sound effects in time with the beat of the backing music, and then you imagine a video editor in a tiny, hot room, crying their eyes out as Adobe Premiere crashes again and something inside of them, small but important, breaks forever? This is that, but in game trailers.
This is another Distractor breakaway most of the time, but not exclusively. It basically involves taking a game of one tone (usually wildly frenetic and macho) and presenting it as if it's got an entirely different emotional timbre (usually a bit sad). Everyone knows that their new shooting game won't make them cry or think about real life, but it's nice to pretend it might, for some reason. Just look at the Gears of War 'Mad World' trailer, that weepy Halo: Reach funeral one or, the king of them all, Dead Island, which duped everyone by making us think the game would be at all good. Genius.
This one works on a meta-trailer plane, spoofing other trailer styles to make its own. It's best explained using an example. Take Sunset Overdrive - it starts out as what looks like a Hollywood, then breaks kayfabe and becomes a Rockstar-Distractor hybrid, which in some ways makes it a Knowing Lie too. All of which is to say it looks like a serious gun game and is actually a silly gun game.
This is where the humble gameplay demo comes alive, and the oh-so drab world of "watching a game" gets catapulted into the rich, heady atmosphere of marketing. Sometimes, that gameplay looks a little too good to be believed in - it's in-engine, sure, but is it real? Can we trust that this game we're being shown is the game we're going to play? Can a version of a game that only exists for the purposes of its own gameplay trailer even be called a game at all? It is both game and un-game simultaneously, our minds left to ponder circuitously forever - or at least until the downgraded version with flat lighting and weird facial animations comes out.
Look, the chances of a live-action trailer being anything other than some sub-Syfy Channel business - where guys prance around in fibreglass chainmail and somehow look less realistic than game NPCs - are so slim that I struggle to understand why anyone still makes them. The hit-rate is decidedly low but, to be fair, can lead to some great things, like this still-wonderful Destiny spot. Unfortunately, it's so enjoyable that it makes me regret that the game is almost nothing like it in tone or action. So yeah, live-action stuff. Dodgy.
This has some of the same tonal problems as the Cosplay, but feels less adorably naff and more haughty and obnoxious. It tends to follow a single, prescriptive formula - start with what appears to be real-life news footage and slowly segue into gameplay exposition, establishing a timeline of events. This is presumably meant to make it all feel chillingly "authentic", but in reality lends it a sort of weird neediness, like the game's story couldn't hold up on its own without showing us the horror of Some People Rioting Once. Also, no one can ever make fake news channels look right, for some reason. I still quite like it, though, because it reminds me of the start of the new Mad Max.
These trailers are amazing. A combination of smart editing and neat storylines, subtly hinting at game systems as they go without the need to show gameplay. They whet your appetite for a game perfectly - and almost no game can live up to them. Usually, an Over-reach leads to a game damned by what it doesn't do - just look at Bioshock Infinite. Sometimes, however, an Over-reach is deadly. RI.P. Prey 2 - we barely knew thee, apart from the cool-looking weapon systems and hover boots.
This is the ultimate Stopgap, a rule unto itself. You have literally nothing to show, and can't corral anyone together for a Kickstarter. An Indie's out of the question, and you can't Switcheroo because there's no Roo to Switch to yet. Terrified of making an Over-reach you can't come back from, and a Cosplay you'll regret, there is only one action to take. Just put the logo on screen for a second. That'll do. Good work, everyone!
PSGamer: ZBrush is a tool used by some of the biggest and best game development studios in the world to prototype and design character models and objects. ZBrush was used to sculpt characters in some of the most iconic games of the last 5 years including The Last of Us, Assassins Creed, Bioshock Infinite, The Order: 1886 Street Fighter IV and Destiny.
There are some truly talented artists out there that create some ZBrush masterpieces and I have picked out a gallery of my personal favourites for your viewing pleasure.
Even though no new BioShock games have been announced, the franchise remains really important to publisher 2K Games, parent company Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said today.
There was a time when video game voice acting could've conceivably doubled as torture. Simply slap a pair of headphones on your primary suspect and proceed to bang out a 'best of the mid-'90s' VO playlist. I'll bet that by the time they reached Grandia, said villain would have been too busy contemplating the innumerable, illogical absurdities of the 'Jill sandwich' to put up too much of a struggle. Word to the wise - if they're muttering something about a wizard, the moon, and sucking on their thumb from the foetal position then you know you've gone too far.
Thankfully, in-game audio has come an awfully long way since then. For example, we now have actual professionals voicing our icons, as opposed to whichever member of the penal system didn't fancy stamping out license plates that day. Today's big list of stuff will attempt to acquaint you with some of the more prolific players in the modern industry. Particular attention has been paid to the most versatile stars therein, as opposed to folks like Keith David who're specifically contracted for their rich, silky speaking voices. Sorry about that Keith, but knowing that the same bloke voices both Batman and Sonic is just way teresting.
Who? Robin Atkin Downes is a film, television, theatre and video game voice actor, mo-cap performer and music producer. He also has experience in directing. Think of him as the Swiss army knife of this list. A Swiss army knife with great hair.
Who else? Downes portrays Metal Gear Solid's Kaz Miller, Just Cause's Rico Rodriguez, Uncharted 2's Tenzin, Ratchet and Clank's Captain Slag, Team Fortress 2's Medic and Gear of War's Locust Kantus - among others.
Who? Jennifer Hale is the veritable 'first lady' of video game voice acting, though she's also appeared in several live action productions. Last year Hale engaged in a spirited 8-week hot-air balloon race, vying against Tara Strong for the opportunity to call 'dibs' on all of 2015's best roles. Of course, none of that actually happened, but it should've done.
Who else? Hale is the woman behind Bioshock Infinite's Rosalind Lutece, MGS2's Emma Emmerich, Metroid Prime's Samus Aran, Halo 4's Sarah Palmer and Mass Effect's female rendering of Shepard. She also provided the voicework for both versions of Metal Gear Solid's Naomi Hunter (both the early British and later American incarnations).
Who? Mike Patton is the uber eclectic frontman of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and about a dozen other bands. He began voice acting in 2007, and is typically tasked with providing gruesome monster noises.
.
Who else? Patton has provided the pipes behind Portal 2's Anger Core, Left 4 Dead's Infected (including the Smoker Hunter variants) as well as The Darkness' titular nasties. Oh, and he's also responsible for Bionic Commando 09's gritty, cheeseball hero.
Who? Tara Strong is a well known voice over artist and television actress. Her distinctive surname was bestowed upon her by the old gods after witnessing Tara's completion of the 12 labours of Hercules. Of the 12, Tara counts the Lernaean Hydra as being the single most challenging foe.
Who else? Strong has voiced Batman: Arkham's Harley Quinn, Mortal Kombat's Ferra, Metal Gear's Paz, Jak Daxter's Keira and Final Fantasy X's Rikku. Plus a boatload more.
Who? Armin Shimerman is a film and television actor best known for playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Principal Snyder and Star Trek: Deep Space 9's Quark. Fun fact: Shimerman came up with the design for Quark's face while bashing a catcher's mitt with a baseball bat? No, not really, but he might as well have done.
Who else? Shimerman has appeared as Mass Effect's Salarian Councillor, Ratchet and Clank's Dr. Nefarious and Bioshock's Andrew Ryan.
Who? Grey DeLisle is a singer, voice actress and occasional stand-up comic. She also goes by the pseudonym of 'Grey Griffin', which probably comes in really handy during live action role-playing.
Who else? DeLisle has voiced Jeanne from the Bayonetta series, Catwoman in Batman: Arkham, Sly Cooper's Carmelita Fox and Amanda from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
Who? Nolan North is a professional actor and voice over artist/bona fide gaming institution. Little known fact: both he and Troy Baker are immortal Highlanders simultaneously attempting to corner the voice over market, because of course 'there can only be one'.
Who else? North voices everyone from DOTA 2's squealing Gyrocopter pilot to the CoD franchise's zombie-mad Richtofen. Other characters include Uncharted's Nathan Drake, Injustice's General Zod, Batman's Oswald Cobblepot and Portal 2's Space, Adventure and Fact Cores.
Who? Ellen McLain is an opera singer and voice actress who regularly contributes to Valve Corp. video games. Her husband is similarly involved with the company, having provided the voice of the Sniper in Team Fortress 2. And no, they didn't meet up while screaming robotic threats into a microphone. Shame.
Who else? McLain's work includes stints as DOTA 2's Broodmother, Left 4 Dead's Witch monster, Half-Life 2's Overwatch speaker and - most famously of all - Portal's array of talkative turrets and the evil A.I. GLaDOS.
Who? James Arnold Taylor is a professional cartoon and video game voice actor. Long-term exposure to the man's unique brand of laughter has been known to cause ferocious irritation in viewers.
Who else? Taylor's most notable roles include Ratchet from the Ratchet and Clank series, the Clone Wars' Obi-Wan Kenobi (both in video games and TV) as well as Final Fantasy X's boisterous lead character Tidus. He also does a rather good Jack Sparrow impression.
Who? Lani Minella is a professional voice actress specialising in video games. I wonder how many people accidentally call her Liza Minnelli on a daily basis?
Who else? Lani voices the female infected in The Last of Us, Sheeva from Mortal Kombat 9, Ivy in SoulCalibur, the Koopa kids from the Mario franchise, and the female fighters in the Worms series.
Who? Troy Baker is a musician, mo-cap actor and award-winning voice over artist specialising in video games. He spends much of his time coated in brightly coloured ping-pong balls trying not to laugh.
Who else? Baker's work includes appearances as Batman: Arkham's Two-Face, Metal Gear Solid V's Ocelot, The Last of Us' Joel, Far Cry 4's Pagin Min and Arkham Origins' Joker.
Who? Jen Taylor is a professional voicework and theatre actress, contracted to the Halo franchise for the next 187,000 instalments, or the complete heat death of the universe - whichever comes first.
Who else? Taylor's impressive C.V. boasts several big name gigs, including those of Princess Peach and Halo's Cortana. Other notable performances include No One Lives Forever's Cate Archer, Left 4 Dead's Zoey and DOTA 2's Medusa.
Who? Fred Tatasciore is a prolific voice actor appearing in film, television and video games. He once voiced one of Jar Jar Binks' annoying Gungan buddies, and probably felt really terrible about it afterwards. We forgive you Fred, you couldn't have known.
Who else? Tatasciore has voiced Baird from Gears of War, Zeratul (Starcraft 2), Bane (Arkham City), Mario (Assassin's Creed 2), both the Tank and Boomer monsters from Left 4 Dead, and Mass Effect's Saren Arterius.
Who? Terrence Carson is an acclaimed stage actor, tv performer and vocalist. Fun fact: Carson was also betrayed by almighty Zeus. He was pretty chilled about it though.
Who else? Carson has portrayed God of War's vengeful Spartan Kratos, the Saints Row series' Big Tony and Star Wars' own Mace Windu.
Who? Quinton Flynn is a video game voice actor and writer. Fun fact: the name Quinton Flynn would also suit a restaurant critic and/or a wealthy teenaged adventurer.
Who else? Flynn voices Sonic's Silver the Hedgehog, Metal Gear's Raiden, Henry from the No More Heroes games, and Crash Bandicoot's Dr. N. Gin.
Who? Mark Hamill is a professional acto… - y'know what, forget it, the man's Luke Skywalker, LUKE SKYWALKER damn it! Oh and he was in all those Wing Commander games too…
Who else? Hamill has provided the voice behind CoD 2's old-timey narrator, X2's Wolverine and of course Arkham's main-series iteration of the Joker.
Who? Matthew Mercer is an anime and video game voice actor. His name is also an anagram for 'Mew Meth Carter', which in the context of the Pokémon franchise would certainly explain a lot…
Who else? Mercer provides the pipes behind Street Fighter 4's Fei Long, Arkham Origins' Anarky, Resi 6's Leon, and Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell's Blackbeard.
Who? Roger Craig Smith is a professional voice actor specialising in anime, video game and cartoon-based voicework. Since winning the role of Batman in Arkham Origins, Smith has received numerous lewd phone calls from a man referring to himself only as 'Conroy Kevin'. Police are baffled. And of course, none of that actually happened.
Who else? Smith lends his considerable talents to a wide array of gaming icons, including Ezio Auditore (Assassin's Creed 2), Chris Redfield (Resident Evil 5), Batman/Bruce Wayne (Batman: Arkham Origins) and err… Sonic the Hedgehog. That's quite the range.
Who? Steve Blum is a professional voice actor specialising in anime, cartoons and video games. Fun fact about Steve: he was only one botched birth certificate away from being called 'Steve Bum'.
Who else? Blum has voiced Sub-Zero and Reptile in Mortal Kombat X, Wolverine from the X-Men franchise, Killer Croc in the Batman: Arkham series, Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy Type-0's Cid, and Grayson Hunt from Bulletstorm. Also, about .
There was a time when video game voice acting could've conceivably doubled as torture. Simply slap a pair of headphones on your primary suspect and proceed to bang out a 'best of the mid-'90s' VO playlist. I'll bet that by the time they reached Grandia, said villain would have been too busy contemplating the innumerable, illogical absurdities of the 'Jill sandwich' to put up too much of a struggle. Word to the wise - if they're muttering something about a wizard, the moon, and sucking on their thumb from the foetal position then you know you've gone too far.
Thankfully, in-game audio has come an awfully long way since then. For example, we now have actual professionals voicing our icons, as opposed to whichever member of the penal system didn't fancy stamping out license plates that day. Today's big list of stuff will attempt to acquaint you with some of the more prolific players in the modern industry. Particular attention has been paid to the most versatile stars therein, as opposed to folks like Keith David who're specifically contracted for their rich, silky speaking voices. Sorry about that Keith, but knowing that the same bloke voices both Batman and Sonic is just way teresting.
Who? Robin Atkin Downes is a film, television, theatre and video game voice actor, mo-cap performer and music producer. He also has experience in directing. Think of him as the Swiss army knife of this list. A Swiss army knife with great hair.
Who else? Downes portrays Metal Gear Solid's Kaz Miller, Just Cause's Rico Rodriguez, Uncharted 2's Tenzin, Ratchet and Clank's Captain Slag, Team Fortress 2's Medic and Gear of War's Locust Kantus - among others.
Who? Jennifer Hale is the veritable 'first lady' of video game voice acting, though she's also appeared in several live action productions. Last year Hale engaged in a spirited 8-week hot-air balloon race, vying against Tara Strong for the opportunity to call 'dibs' on all of 2015's best roles. Of course, none of that actually happened, but it should've done.
Who else? Hale is the woman behind Bioshock Infinite's Rosalind Lutece, MGS2's Emma Emmerich, Metroid Prime's Samus Aran, Halo 4's Sarah Palmer and Mass Effect's female rendering of Shepard. She also provided the voicework for both versions of Metal Gear Solid's Naomi Hunter (both the early British and later American incarnations).
Who? Mike Patton is the uber eclectic frontman of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and about a dozen other bands. He began voice acting in 2007, and is typically tasked with providing gruesome monster noises.
.
Who else? Patton has provided the pipes behind Portal 2's Anger Core, Left 4 Dead's Infected (including the Smoker Hunter variants) as well as The Darkness' titular nasties. Oh, and he's also responsible for Bionic Commando 09's gritty, cheeseball hero.
Who? Tara Strong is a well known voice over artist and television actress. Her distinctive surname was bestowed upon her by the old gods after witnessing Tara's completion of the 12 labours of Hercules. Of the 12, Tara counts the Lernaean Hydra as being the single most challenging foe.
Who else? Strong has voiced Batman: Arkham's Harley Quinn, Mortal Kombat's Ferra, Metal Gear's Paz, Jak Daxter's Keira and Final Fantasy X's Rikku. Plus a boatload more.
Who? Armin Shimerman is a film and television actor best known for playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Principal Snyder and Star Trek: Deep Space 9's Quark. Fun fact: Shimerman came up with the design for Quark's face while bashing a catcher's mitt with a baseball bat? No, not really, but he might as well have done.
Who else? Shimerman has appeared as Mass Effect's Salarian Councillor, Ratchet and Clank's Dr. Nefarious and Bioshock's Andrew Ryan.
Who? Grey DeLisle is a singer, voice actress and occasional stand-up comic. She also goes by the pseudonym of 'Grey Griffin', which probably comes in really handy during live action role-playing.
Who else? DeLisle has voiced Jeanne from the Bayonetta series, Catwoman in Batman: Arkham, Sly Cooper's Carmelita Fox and Amanda from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
Who? Nolan North is a professional actor and voice over artist/bona fide gaming institution. Little known fact: both he and Troy Baker are immortal Highlanders simultaneously attempting to corner the voice over market, because of course 'there can only be one'.
Who else? North voices everyone from DOTA 2's squealing Gyrocopter pilot to the CoD franchise's zombie-mad Richtofen. Other characters include Uncharted's Nathan Drake, Injustice's General Zod, Batman's Oswald Cobblepot and Portal 2's Space, Adventure and Fact Cores.
Who? Ellen McLain is an opera singer and voice actress who regularly contributes to Valve Corp. video games. Her husband is similarly involved with the company, having provided the voice of the Sniper in Team Fortress 2. And no, they didn't meet up while screaming robotic threats into a microphone. Shame.
Who else? McLain's work includes stints as DOTA 2's Broodmother, Left 4 Dead's Witch monster, Half-Life 2's Overwatch speaker and - most famously of all - Portal's array of talkative turrets and the evil A.I. GLaDOS.
Who? James Arnold Taylor is a professional cartoon and video game voice actor. Long-term exposure to the man's unique brand of laughter has been known to cause ferocious irritation in viewers.
Who else? Taylor's most notable roles include Ratchet from the Ratchet and Clank series, the Clone Wars' Obi-Wan Kenobi (both in video games and TV) as well as Final Fantasy X's boisterous lead character Tidus. He also does a rather good Jack Sparrow impression.
Who? Lani Minella is a professional voice actress specialising in video games. I wonder how many people accidentally call her Liza Minnelli on a daily basis?
Who else? Lani voices the female infected in The Last of Us, Sheeva from Mortal Kombat 9, Ivy in SoulCalibur, the Koopa kids from the Mario franchise, and the female fighters in the Worms series.
Who? Troy Baker is a musician, mo-cap actor and award-winning voice over artist specialising in video games. He spends much of his time coated in brightly coloured ping-pong balls trying not to laugh.
Who else? Baker's work includes appearances as Batman: Arkham's Two-Face, Metal Gear Solid V's Ocelot, The Last of Us' Joel, Far Cry 4's Pagin Min and Arkham Origins' Joker.
Who? Jen Taylor is a professional voicework and theatre actress, contracted to the Halo franchise for the next 187,000 instalments, or the complete heat death of the universe - whichever comes first.
Who else? Taylor's impressive C.V. boasts several big name gigs, including those of Princess Peach and Halo's Cortana. Other notable performances include No One Lives Forever's Cate Archer, Left 4 Dead's Zoey and DOTA 2's Medusa.
Who? Fred Tatasciore is a prolific voice actor appearing in film, television and video games. He once voiced one of Jar Jar Binks' annoying Gungan buddies, and probably felt really terrible about it afterwards. We forgive you Fred, you couldn't have known.
Who else? Tatasciore has voiced Baird from Gears of War, Zeratul (Starcraft 2), Bane (Arkham City), Mario (Assassin's Creed 2), both the Tank and Boomer monsters from Left 4 Dead, and Mass Effect's Saren Arterius.
Who? Terrence Carson is an acclaimed stage actor, tv performer and vocalist. Fun fact: Carson was also betrayed by almighty Zeus. He was pretty chilled about it though.
Who else? Carson has portrayed God of War's vengeful Spartan Kratos, the Saints Row series' Big Tony and Star Wars' own Mace Windu.
Who? Quinton Flynn is a video game voice actor and writer. Fun fact: the name Quinton Flynn would also suit a restaurant critic and/or a wealthy teenaged adventurer.
Who else? Flynn voices Sonic's Silver the Hedgehog, Metal Gear's Raiden, Henry from the No More Heroes games, and Crash Bandicoot's Dr. N. Gin.
Who? Mark Hamill is a professional acto… - y'know what, forget it, the man's Luke Skywalker, LUKE SKYWALKER damn it! Oh and he was in all those Wing Commander games too…
Who else? Hamill has provided the voice behind CoD 2's old-timey narrator, X2's Wolverine and of course Arkham's main-series iteration of the Joker.
Who? Matthew Mercer is an anime and video game voice actor. His name is also an anagram for 'Mew Meth Carter', which in the context of the Pokémon franchise would certainly explain a lot…
Who else? Mercer provides the pipes behind Street Fighter 4's Fei Long, Arkham Origins' Anarky, Resi 6's Leon, and Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell's Blackbeard.
Who? Roger Craig Smith is a professional voice actor specialising in anime, video game and cartoon-based voicework. Since winning the role of Batman in Arkham Origins, Smith has received numerous lewd phone calls from a man referring to himself only as 'Conroy Kevin'. Police are baffled. And of course, none of that actually happened.
Who else? Smith lends his considerable talents to a wide array of gaming icons, including Ezio Auditore (Assassin's Creed 2), Chris Redfield (Resident Evil 5), Batman/Bruce Wayne (Batman: Arkham Origins) and err… Sonic the Hedgehog. That's quite the range.
Who? Steve Blum is a professional voice actor specialising in anime, cartoons and video games. Fun fact about Steve: he was only one botched birth certificate away from being called 'Steve Bum'.
Who else? Blum has voiced Sub-Zero and Reptile in Mortal Kombat X, Wolverine from the X-Men franchise, Killer Croc in the Batman: Arkham series, Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy Type-0's Cid, and Grayson Hunt from Bulletstorm. Also, about .
