"No _____, No Sale!"

This is a sad mentality that a lot of people have.  It has been popping up a lot this year with David Hayter not reprising his role as Snake, Michael Ironside not being Sam Fisher, and now with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill not returning as Batman and The Joker.  People seem to can't get over a voice actor change and therefore decide to not even play a series that they enjoy - even when the change is totally fine!

For instance

Troy Baker has been doing some strong work in video game voice acting lately.  When he was announced to play The Joker in the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins game, all anyone could do was complain it wasn't Hamill.  Even though Roger Craig Smith is doing a fine Batman, there are people out there saying "No Conroy, no buy!"  When Baker showed up with his Killing Joke monologue, he reassured a lot of people that he was the man for the job, and even though he was blowing people away, there are some who are hellbent on never having the change.  These two guys are doing a very good job of making their voices fit within this series, and make it even seem believable that they are the younger counterparts of the story in the Arkham games.

In the case of Sam Fisher, they did things a little differently.  We kinda got used to "half drunk" sounding Ironside with his old man scary voice.  It made the character.  It's hard to have a younger guy playing the role of Fisher when the story takes place after all of the Ironside games, and it was hard at first to here Eric Johnson play the role.  However, what they did was smart; they changed the character up to fit the new actor all the while keeping the Sam Fisher parts in tact.  The way he said things, the way he was presented was different, fitting for the new guy, but you still felt like it was Sam.  The best way it was described to me once was saying it's like a James Bond film.  New Bond actor, playing the roles different for each guy, but still Bond. (and we don't get up in arms about this nearly as much)  It's also the best Splinter Cell yet I think, so people are missing out on a solid game.

With Snake and case of Sutherland, the verdict is still kind of out.  While I'm getting used to him in the role with some of the stuff I hear in the latest videos, they do the opposite of Splinter Cell: Blacklist and try to get sutherland to do iconic lines and such that they had David Hayter do, that really only fit when you here it from him.  It's hard to here Sutherland say "kept you waiting, huh?" when it's been such a Hayter thing.  However, I think that given time, it will sound more natural and also hearing him in game and moving him around as Sutherland, it might fit - it took me until actually playing a bit of Blacklist to feel that way with Eric Johnson.

Even Doug, who is the biggest Metal Gear fan I will ever know, who HATES Sutherland in the role, is going to buy Metal Gear Solid V.  You wan't to know why?  Because he likes Metal Gear!  Even though the voice actor has changed, and arguably is not as good as Hayter, what remains is still that crazy sifi Metal Gear crazyness that we want to play.

Long Story short here, actors can't play the roles forever.  Either someone wants a different take (Splinter Cell), the actor doesn't want to do it anymore (The Joker), or whatever other reason (MGSV). Why would you not play a video game, if it's a great game, just because the voice is different?

-Eddie