Ali Hillis is a bit of an up-and-coming name in the world of video game voice acting. She hadn't been a voice actress for games at all until taking on the role of Liara T'Soni in Bioware's Mass Effect, and then in 2010 she's had two massive roles - returning as Liara in Mass Effect 2, but even bigger playing leading lady Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII.
To celebrate the launch of Final Fantasy XIII and Liara's return to Shepard's squad in the new Mass Effect 2 downloadable content "Lair of the Shadow Broker", RPG Site spent a couple of hours chatting to Ali about her acting career, her charity work, how you too can get into voice acting, and what it's like to be two of gaming's biggest leading ladies this generation.
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Not only glorious jank, but the idea that the story can completely change depending on what you do, or say, or side with, makes it one of the most forward thinking games ever. The amount of story permutation is the equivalent of a Hitman level but in Story Form. And it wasn't just that the story changed, no, it was that you met completely new characters, or missed them, depending on your choices. Made Mass Effect feel static in comparison.
Alpha Protocol was absolutely glorious, indeed. And it was, and still is, more Next Gen than most anything out there these days. In this regard at least.
Pity.
Earlier this year, BioWare was hit with layoffs as part of a downsizing of parent company Electronic Arts, but fans have been reassured that the next Mass Effect game hasn’t been impacted. Likewise, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s development is still churning along, with BioWare putting it at the forefront of its focus and rumors suggesting that it could launch sometime later this year. Fans might be getting another look at the long-in-development Dragon Age: Dreadwolf at the Summer Game Fest in June.
If the recently posted job offering for a temporary development manager is any indication, BioWare could have yet another surprise up its sleeve for when Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf are nearing completion. This mystery BioWare video game could truly be anything, from another spin-off of its two major properties to something entirely new. All there is to go on at the moment is a vague mention in the job posting, and it might still be some time before BioWare is ready to confirm any new games in its pipeline.
So a studio that spent years on anthem then this dragon age thing is now also working on another ip along with mass effect,
You think they would be worried that there brand has been on 3 major screw ups
Dragon age 3 launched broken with the frostbite engine yes its a good game but you can see in the late game how rough it was
anthem......
Mass effect 4 well that dev team was fired so yeah.....
They should make sure this new dragon age is a goat instead of putting more work on the table
Bioware today is like 150 poeple i dont see how they are seemingly working on all these projects at the same time.
Inquisition wasn't broken, it just had some flaws and on the contrary it also had some strengths. If you call inquisition a major screw up then idk what to say.
That said with what happened to the study since then and now, I'm not really confident that their next game will be any good.
If you played it fully to get plat like me back in its novemeber launch window you had that castle with empty area's endgame missions not there or working and a mp that was made around loot box grind like the mass effect mp.
Its hard to explain to those that played it years later after they tossed out the dlc/patch's
entitled much? I played it at launch too. Why you even platted it if it was a "major screw up"?
It was good enough for you to sink 100 hours in but also a complete fuckup at the same time, make up your mind.
So either you like shitty games or you're just talking out of your ass.
Well just wanna say, Archetype Entertainment is the new BioWare, composed of mainly ex-BioWare vets.
And they're developing Exodus (starring Matthew McConaughey), a new sci-fi RPG (spiritual successor to Mass Effect, dare I say?)
They're owned by EA. What makes you think that they wouldn't publish for PS5? Shoot, if your fridge could connect to your bank account EA would try to release it for that if they could!
How about they focus on those games and not over extend themselves? We don't need another Anthem.
Bioware died after Inquisition (some would even argue after ME3). They are no longer the same company.
Today Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson provided a look into his ideas for the use of generative AI in the company's development processes.
I wonder what the next buzz word they'll slap in front of AI to make it sound exciting next? "Generative" as if it's creating its own content. Lol.
i have a better idea .. why the whole exec team doesn't get replaced by chat bots ?
Though i agree the ai thing is already in other forms of media there have been ai translations/scripts/voice over and even full ai commercials aired on tv. Ubisoft has created a ai game creator story/vo/music except the building of the game
The new unreal engine has auto terrain creation tools
In the world of greed in which it is winning without any major blow back ai is our future.
everyone want's biden dead on the mic or a criminal instead of a woman and now we are getting ai everything because no one will stop watching/playing ai created media.
Exactly EA are just pure evil. When they are beating Bank of America to be voted the worst company to work for that’s saying a lot
Good thing I don’t buy their games day one and wait for deep deep sale years after launch (the select few games I am actually interested in)
Gaming is making so much money yet the greed of these companies is never ending
CEO’s and people on board making millions yet cutting jobs to those who are actually making the products
EA is still a shady shitty company even with or without the help of Skynet. All they will use AI for is new ways to milk loot boxes and come up with the same sports title with a different year on the label. They are one company I truly do hate with a passion. They single handedly ruined some great franchise with their death touch. ME, Dead Space, Alice Returns, Dante's Inferno.
All that is already been happening
https://www.gamespot.com/ar...
https://mobilesyrup.com/201...
https://www.ign.com/article...
https://www.spglobal.com/ma...
EA layoffs followed by 'Generative AI to Drive Monetization'
I knew it. Wonder what AI salary looks like? Nothing.
I having a feeling that most of the layoffs in the industry are based on the idea that AI will do the same job for less.
Very likely, yes.
Made worse by the fact that the execs aren't changing their compensations.
My deepest fear at this point is that we are now in the capitalism endgame.
At this point, we really should just burn AI to the ground. Executives cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
How are those people expected to support families if everything gets automated?
And take away creativity, and people's jobs as we've been seeing. Got it.
No thanks. I want my games created by people, not AI.
Exactly. If or when games start becoming more AI than people, im done with gaming. AI and companies like EA can suck donkey d***k.
Though i agree remember this is no ps3/360 era were we got up to 3 games in one generation from on developer like gears/halo/bioware/sony/ms
The people today are pro esg/sweet baby for the most part AAA gaming is imploding right now.
We should be stepping back re evaluate everything as a whole this year xmen 97 written/directed by a woman that is nuts and its also being made by a group reshaping bodies to be less sexual like wtf. A dam famous cartoon from the 90's is being rebuilt with millions spent to be worse in everyway.
Gaming/movies/tv shows made today are worse than what we had 7years ago ai won't change this but that ai is also being made by these groups so either way we are screwed.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Don't be of afraid of women. Sexy characters in games and movies still exist. Got my Stellar Blade on preorder!!! Everything all the time doesn't need to be sexual...that's stupid, childish and dull.
EA doesn't want to lose their title of worst gaming company ever, always trying their best to remain the champs!
What's sad is that they have so much potential to be a decent publisher.
SSX Tricky / SSX 3
Def Jam Vendetta / Fight for New York
NBA Street
NFL Steet
Mirror's Edge
Bad Company
Burnout 3 / 4 / 5
Remember when EA used to be awesome? It's all over with now. Unpolished, if not out-right broken games these days. Endless monetization and gambling in their sports games, and let's not forget wasting hours of your life trying to unlock characters or equipment using "surprise boxes!"
She's absolutely lovely and polite and such. :)
Great interview. I loved the job she did as Lightning and she seems to have a very real enthusiasm for voice acting.
Lady's clearly got a lot of diversity. Never realised these characters were voiced by the same person.
Well if I got a chance to hit that, I'd make her use the Lightning voice (shifty eyes).
I love her honesty. There is no pretending that she loves games more than the reality just because she thinks that's what the reader wants to hear. If it's for the paycheck then she says so (but in the nicest possible way).
Edit: Since when was FFXIII-2 official?
"FFXIII-2 was recording while I was recording, so no. There are so many people that are going to be disappointed and I feel terrible about that. I’m sure it will be great, but no, Lightning’s not in it, none of the same characters are in it."
Have I missed this?