Ashly Burch – The Outer Worlds
Ashly Burch is renowned her voice acting work in the gaming industry and this year she provided the voice of Parvati Holcomb in The Outer Worlds. This character is one of a kind and Burch’s performance as Parvati really sells it. The quirky and hilarious companion is introduced as an engineer working for Spacer’s Choice in the town of Edgewater but that all changes when she joins the player character. When she first meets other characters, she’s shy and asks the player character to speak on her behalf, but she won’t shut up if she’s comfortable with someone. Her lines of dialogue left us rolling on the floor laughing at times and this wouldn’t have been possible without Ashly Burch’s fun and quirky personality behind them. There are people that swear Parvati is the best character in gaming and after seeing Ashly Burch’s performance unfold, we lean further towards agreeing with those people. Parvati Holcomb is an unforgettable character and Ashly Burch had an unforgettable performance in The Outer Worlds.
Laura Bailey – Gears 5
Laura Bailey is a voice acting extraordinaire with roles in titles such as Street Fighter, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Age. She’s been a figurehead in voice acting for games since 1999 and it’s no surprise she holds a place on our best performances of the year list of 2019. With the Gears of War franchise starting fresh with a new protagonist named Kate Diaz voiced by Laura Bailey herself. When we discovered Bailey was going to be in a lead role in Gears 5, we were immediately enthusiastic because of her history of stellar performances in games; she did not disappoint. Alongside the tremendous and authentic voice acting came visually impressive facial expressions generated using the Unreal Engine 4 graphics engine that significantly complimented Bailey’s performance. Xbox Games Studios set out to create a credible female hero for the Gears franchise and Kate Diaz is a hero we’re fully behind as the series moves forward.
Matthew Porretta – Control
Matthew Porretta has experience in the film industry with credits from films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Kate’s Addiction but he also has a history of performances in video games. Porretta most notably voiced Alan Wake in every title the titular hero appears in, as well as the local population in many Rockstar titles and additional voices in the X-COM series. In Control, Porretta plays Dr. Casper Darling to perfection as the former Head of Research of the Federal Bureau of Control. Dr. Casper Darling is responsible for supervising a variety of paranatural phenomena and is a strong driving force for Jesse Faden to explore the Bureau in Control. Though not exactly an antagonist or a hero of the title, Dr. Casper Darling is a bit of an anti-hero as his motivations are mostly valid but the execution of them leaves much to be desired. Matthew Porretta does an excellent job of riding that thin line of good and evil which is what earns him a spot on our best performances of the year list.
Cameron Monaghan – Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Yes, we’re a little saddened to put Cameron Monaghan so low on our list of best performances in 2019 as well but this year has been stacked with stellar performances. Monaghan put on an amazing first gaming performance as the protagonist of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal Kestis. Although the actor has been in films such as Adam Sandler’s Click, Brothers in Arms and Amityville: The Awakening, he also has experience working as a model. He’s been on television shows like Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Batman origin story Gotham and Shameless but Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order acts as Monaghan’s first foray in the gaming market. As far as firsts go, we couldn’t have asked for a much better performance but familiar names such as Laura Bailey and the shockingly accurate translation of Mads Mikkelson’s villainous persona translated to videogames made 2019 a tough year for Monaghan to get credit he’d otherwise deserve. Although he’s our last accredited actor on this list, Cameron Monaghan should doubtlessly be proud of his work with Star