Shroud of the Avatar: The (Voice of the) Guardian Returns!
There is, of course, plenty of news to be found in the latest Update of the Avatar posted to the Shroud of the Avatar website. Notable among the news items, however, is confirmation that Bill Jonhson, who voice-acted the Guardian in all of the Age of Armageddon Ultimas, will be doing voice work for Shroud of the Avatar.
Last night we did our first voice recording for Shroud of the Avatar. We taped voice overs for our upcoming promotional trailer which we will use at E3, as well as a first pass at our intro cinematic. Our actor was none other than Bill Johnson who was the voice of The Guardian in Ultima as well as the narrator for Ultima Online’s intro. Since Origin was one of the very first companies to ever use voice in their games Bill is one of the very first voice actors in our industry. Bill is probably more famous for his role as Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2! You can learn more about Bill over at his Facebook page. As a teaser here’s the closing line from the upcoming promo:
So that’s cool. And they even got him to say…
…albeit indirectly.
Huh ? Are they sure about Bill Johnson doing the narration of the UO Intro ? This doesn’t sound at all like Bill Johnson – it always sounded to me like Ev Lunning (aka Hawkind the Tutorial and Lord British in Ultima IX) was doing the voice.
Bill Johnson’s “normal” voice sounds like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hIkZYDIdk
Not that it’s a big deal but it’s puzzling me 😛
This is great news. I have his speech from the Ultima 8 intro burned into my mind. I also loved the taunts throughout the game to remind you of your quest.
I hope his voice will also be used for a character in game, not only the intro cinematic. Perhaps they could have the taunts luring you away from the virtuous path every so often. Kind of like the evil side of your conscience.