David Hayter returns to Metal Gear Solid once again.

In the form of boundary break ;)

Nice to hear him doing the voice once again though.

love boundary break

Likewise, been waiting for this episode for awhile.

Now if only Micheal Ironside could go back to Splinter Cell, that would be very cool as well

Hideo Kojima unceremoniously fired his ass because he wanted "real Hollywood actor".

Just as bad as Konami.

It only makes sense that Big Boss and Solid Snake should have two different voice actors. David Hayter will always be Solid Snake. But that doesn't mean he should also be Big Boss.

@Jag85: wasn’t the same actor used for the Japanese voice acting?

I must be one of the few that don't really care for David Hayter. I just hated him in MGS4.

I agree, maybe we should do a go fund me page to get him to voice Splinter Cell again, but we're really screwed because we will need a shit ton more money to get Ubi to make another Splinter Cell game :(

He was, but he was actually a real voice actor and had made a clear distinction between SS and BB all along. He had the range and talent to do so, it was his profession. Only time they ever brought in someone else for Big Boss in Japanese was for the end of MGS4. And they brought in his dad to play the role (his dad was a professional voice actor as well).

Hayters SS started out great of course, but started sounding more like some joke caricature of himself after a while. Both his SS and BB voice sounded the same, yet neither sounded nearly as good as his early work, which was a problem on both fronts. People assumed his Old Snake sounded as terrible as it did on purpose in MGS4, but even in PW it continued to sound just as horrible.

They really should have gotten a new actor way back in MGS3. And though it was jarring at first to have a switch in MGSV, I'm definitely glad they did. Even in the video posted in the OP, you can see he still can't pull off the Snake voice anymore. Just sounds like some bum pretending to be MGS1 Snake.

Yes, Akio Otsuka voices both Solid Snake and Big Boss. But do you know who else he voiced? Solidus Snake. In MGS2, Otsuka voiced both Solidus and Solid Snake. Yet in the English version, David Hayter only voiced Solid Snake, not Solidus. Just like the decision to give Solidus a different voice actor in English, a similar decision was made to give Big Boss a different voice actor.

didnt konami want to fire hayter so they could make a metal gear movie with the same actor?

I liked Kiefer way better :x

Hayter's solid snake kinda reminds of Christian Bale's batman with laryngitis.

This is ridiculous. David Hayter is by far the best Solid Snake.

lol pretty much man. I mean, he started out pretty great. Was always a bit goofy sounding, but a good kinda goofy. MGS1, MGS2, and a lot of MGS3 sounded fine.

But then you listen to this shit in Peace Walker -

And that coming off of how terrible he sounds in MGS4?

Yeah, the switch makes a lot of sense. And that's aside from the fact that they wanted to do facial mocap in MGSV.

That's cool man, I understand the sentimental value and the sway of nostalgia.

And if Hayter had been able to maintain his voice, then hell yeah man, right on. I'd be all about him sticking around.

But try listening to some voice clips from MGS1 and MGS2. Then listen to that PW vid I posed above. It speaks for itself really.

I listened to the Peace Walker video you posted and he sounded terrible. Why wasn't this mentioned in any of the reviews for MGS4 and PW?

Hayter revealed that, for MGS3, Kojima initially wanted Kurt Russell to play Big Boss, but Russell turned down the offer. Auditions were then held for the role of Big Boss, which Hayter auditioned for and got the role. Kojima wasn't too keen on casting him for Big Boss from the start, but the decision to cast Hayter for Big Boss ultimately came down to Konami's English localization team. This is when the rift began between Kojima and Hayter.

MGS3 is also when Hayter's voice started sounding more exaggerated, in an attempt to differentiate Big Boss from Solid Snake. This could've been due to the fact that he had to audition for the role, so he probably attempted to voice Big Boss differently to convince Konami that he could voice him differently from Solid Snake. Yet his Big Boss voice ended up sounding just like Solid Snake, but more exaggerated.

Honestly not sure if it was or wasn't lol.

I do remember a lot of people clearly noticing how bad it sounded in MGS4, but people figured that's just how he was supposed to sound, deteriorating quickly with the advanced aging and all that. And I've heard rumors that the English voice director did push him to sound that way.

But yeah, I think PW sealed the deal on him being canned as the voice of Snake.

Personally, I thought Kiefer sounded good, but if they wanted to spend the Hollywood bucks, they probably could've gotten someone better for a more mature Snake in MGSV. Like Liam Neeson or Bryan Cranston.

I'm pretty sure Christian Bale's Batman voice was inspired by David Hayter. Bale briefly mentioned one time that he's a Metal Gear Solid fan.

Oh man, Kurt Russel would've been amazing lol.

And yeah, I suppose that does make some sense, that even back then they wanted something different.

Because like you said, he sounds just like Solid, but exaggerated. To the point of sounding more like a comedy skit making fun of Snakes voice lol.

Hayter is a very talented guy in a few different fields, but seems he just didn't have the range for voice acting. Which isn't a knock against the guy at all, voice acting is a real hard earned skill on top of a natural talent.

@ConanTheStoner: Never played peacewalker, but yeah that shit is just cringeworthy lol.

@Jag85: It sounds like Solid snake prank calling someone pretending (badly) to be big boss.

Kurt Russell would've been fitting, since Snake Plissken was an inspiration for Metal Gear. Around the same time as MGS3, however, Namco were developing a rival Snake Plissken game starring Kurt Russell, so that could've been a reason for him turning down the Big Boss role.

To be fair, David Hayter did have some vocal range. He did a few anime dub roles where his voice sounds different from Solid Snake, with solid performances for Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (which were fitting roles, since Lupin III and Gundam were inspirations for Metal Gear). He had no issues changing his voice for a comic thief (Lupin III) or teenage pilot (Gundam 0080), but when it came to playing serious older characters in later MGS games, that's where you can hear him struggling, trying too hard to sound more gruff, but just coming off as exaggerated (whereas Akio Otsuka's deeper voice naturally suits those kinds of roles). Which kind of fits Kojima's explanation of wanting an actor better suited for an older, more subtle performance (though Kiefer Sutherland may not have been the best voice actor for that).

However, I think Hayter is better as a screenwriter than as a voice actor. He's written some solid scripts for movies like X-Men (which kick-started the superhero movie boom) and Watchmen (one of the most subversive superhero movies). But he hasn't been doing much as a screenwriter lately. That's something he might want to go back to doing.

LOL. Always preferred David Hayer but I'm definitely biased. 10+ years of MGS is hard to change.

@uninspiredcup said:

I agree with Hayter sounding weird in MGS3 and 4 at the time I figured I was just remembering the voice wrong.

@ConanTheStoner: I get ya, but people are talking how it makes sense to have a different BB and that would be true if there hasn't already been two entries with Hayter. But you know what? WHO CARES? Just like SC Blacklist having a different Fisher, it didn't make or break anything for me.