I honestly can barely tolerate Steve Blum

[ULTRA]

This game is just amazing, probably among the best immersive sims out there. It's certainly at least as good as Arx Fatalis was. But I can't ♥♥♥♥ing stand Steve Blum. I was having myself a good time, and I must be like 80% through the game, and I was telling everyone I know what a great game this was (because for some reason none of them know or care about it really), and I even bragged that it didn't have Steve Blum! But then Dahl showed up and spoke one line. It's that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Steve Blum. How many times can I listen to that voice? It was old like 10 years ago minimum. I remember talking to that first guy in Dead Island and not being certain if I would be able to finish the game. And Grunt... What was this Digimon doing in Mass Effect 2?

This dude is even worse at masking his voice than Jim Cummings. He's like the second coming of Tony Jay, except that guy's voice was awesome and he mainly voiced kids' stuff so I didn't have to think about it too much. Steve Blum's voice acting is just embarrassing and I promise I could be a perfect replacement in one take.

Please tell me I'm not alone. Also, is there some way to mod out his voice? Like maybe replace it with my cat meowing or something?

Edit: BTW I have the game on Xbox Game Pass for PC, but since Microsoft are failures their app has barely any features and indeed is barely functional, hence I'm here. Uh, I guess that answers my question of whether I can mod it or not. But what if I got the Steam version?

[ULTRA]

Also LMAO how do I get out of this elevator in the main lobby? There's like an entire army outside the door and I have about 8 shotgun shells - pure human build btw

Edit: Just ran my pro athlete buns up the stairs to my office, haha there's literally a weaver, a telepath, at least one phantom and the nightmare just outside now bumping around

I have now beaten the game and flown into the sunset with my boyfriend Steve Blum, but he did not come to my graduation party at the end :~(

I assume my newgame+ will be full of me just easily demolishing everything like the Dark Messiah rebirth mod

[Chuck P]

This is the most baffling post I've ever read. Why do you hate the guy so much? did he ♥♥♥♥ your dog and kill your wife?

[ULTRA]

Because off the top of my head I played Jericho, Empire at War, Dead Island, Hard Reset, Bulletstorm, Shadow Warrior 2, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock Infinite, Company of Heroes... uhhh the list goes on; this guy sounds precisely the same in everything and probably doesn't belong in something categorized as, "immersion-" anything

every time I go to play any game and just sit back and be engrossed in the story, Spike Spiegel is there

his German accent was painful

Edit: haha that reminds me I played the hell out of Titan Quest also, you should hear his "Greek accent"

[Revalopod]

Dahl's voice acting isn't great but it's not thaaaaaat bad

[Fear2288]

Why does he show up in everything and sound the same? Because he's got a perfect voice for casting directors who want that raspy, gritty, "grizzled-veteran" voice. That's what they hire him to do, so that's what he does.

He must be pretty good at it too because he shows up in everything, and you can't blame the guy for taking the work. From what I hear being a voice actor isn't very lucrative unless you already have star power behind you like Mark Hamil.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Steve Blum is a hack and he shouldn't be allowed near anything you care about. He basically does Spike from CowBoy Bebop in different ways. I immediately heard Russian Spike when Dahl started talking. He's a horrible, horrible voice actor and it infuriates me to hear his voice. There are literally thousands of voice actors scrambling for the work, and for some reason they pick people who sound exactly the same in every job they do, like that's a plus.

[ULTRA]

Originally posted by Agent Pothead:

Steve Blum is a hack and he shouldn't be allowed near anything you care about. He basically does Spike from CowBoy Bebop in different ways. I immediately heard Russian Spike when Dahl started talking. He's a horrible, horrible voice actor and it infuriates me to hear his voice. There are literally thousands of voice actors scrambling for the work, and for some reason they pick people who sound exactly the same in every job they do, like that's a plus.

Praise Allah I found someone who agrees with me so I can mark it as the answer as though it's the authoritative majority answer. And I couldn't have said it better

BTW was that Stephen Russell voicing the scientist at the start? Bellamy? I thought I detected his voice. Sometimes it's hard to tell but he's starting to overstay his welcome too. I know he's got other voices in him to the point where I can't say for certain (see Xerxes from SS 2 for example).

[Android Vageta]

This post is hella old but just wanted to add my distaste for Steve Blum.

It's not just because he's mediocre or that he sounds the same in everything (I thoroughly enjoyed Big O) but it's because he's in EVERYTHING.

I remember play The Last of Us years ago for the first time ever and thought to myself when I got to the hydropower plant, "I just realized there hasn't been any Steve Blum in this game!" then, I swear, a second later, "Hey guys it's me, Steve Blum sounding the exact same playing this random character. Thought you were going to escape me, didn't ya?!?!".

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[ULTRA]

I guess I should have seen it coming, since the game basically started with Benedict Wong who is always Hardboiled Man in everything, then they had Stephen Russell doing his Bethesda/Belethor (effete obnoxious loudmouth) voice, etc etc. Those guys are somewhat more tolerable though because I haven't seen or heard them in literally hundreds of things, and what they were in was mostly enjoyable or good (except that Black Mirror episode with Wong, that was awful).

On the other hand, Blum's German accent was shockingly bad and I LOLled two years ago when that poster thought it was supposed to be Russian. I ended up buying the complete edition of the game on Steam as well as the only other Arkane game I had missed, Dishonored 2.

[RCMidas]

This is the sort of thing that makes me what to hear the guy in more stuff just to know that you lot will be upset by it.

[ULTRA]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

This is the sort of thing that makes me what to hear the guy in more stuff just to know that you lot will be upset by it.

Well I have good news for you then, because he's done the Steve Blum voice in literally 99 projects since Prey came out

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0089710/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XemkzKA_5sk

The king of one-take performances, ladies and gentlemen

[GAMING_Alligator]

Who the f*ck is Steve Blum??

Anyhow, you're not meant to like Dahl, he's the bad guy. If you want him to stop talking just find him and kill him, problem solved.

[|$m0k!n|-Mr. 4HyDe-]

Originally posted by Bookworm:

Who the f*ck is Steve Blum??

+1.

Apart from that, I think he's the only highlight in this jawbreakingly yawnsome game.

[Android Vageta]

Originally posted by Anarchist Jurisdictor:

The king of one-take performances, ladies and gentlemen

Jesus Covid Christ!!! Please shoot me.

[lPaladinl]

Originally posted by Funky Bigery:

Steve Blum is a hack and he shouldn't be allowed near anything you care about. He basically does Spike from CowBoy Bebop in different ways. I immediately heard Russian Spike when Dahl started talking. He's a horrible, horrible voice actor and it infuriates me to hear his voice. There are literally thousands of voice actors scrambling for the work, and for some reason they pick people who sound exactly the same in every job they do, like that's a plus.

It's not that he's a hack, it's that he's paid to do the same voice over and over again because that's what he's known for.

I also get tired of Steve Blum but it's not his fault. It's a combination of the curse of him being hired into so many roles, which is great for him and he is a good voice actor, but then not being given the opportunity to do other voices. So like you said we just get Spike but more gravelly or with fake accents thrown on top.