Bottom Gear

September 1, 2023 8:44 AM

Tonight: the Top Gear trio tackles their trickiest Dark Souls 2 challenge yet. Courtesy of YouTube gamer/prankster ymfah (previously) and some impressively-well-done script and AI-voice work, please enjoy three often-problematic middle-aged British men breaking a video game you may or may not care anything about.

Need a newbie's guide to Dark Souls? ymfah has that covered too.

posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted (7 comments total)

Using AI voice derived from the voices of people in place of actors or the actual personages is hot garbage. Maybe the script is funny (I don't wanna watch and by proxy endorse) but the mechanic is rotten.
posted by Philipschall at 9:12 AM on September 1, 2023 [5 favorites]

Hold on now, let's not be too hasty. Let's ask ourselves, does Jeremy Clarkson deserve to have autonomy over how his voice is used?
posted by Plutor at 10:21 AM on September 1, 2023 [6 favorites]

Hold on now, let's not be too hasty. Let's ask ourselves, does Jeremy Clarkson deserve to have autonomy over how his voice is used?

Jeremy Clarkson having his identity farmed for media consumption is pretty funny.
posted by srboisvert at 10:27 AM on September 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I'm sure we can discuss the ethics of AI generation and so on at some point, but if it's Jeremy Clarkson, I don't give a shit.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:33 AM on September 1, 2023

please enjoy three often-problematic middle-aged British men

this should be "two often-problematic middle-aged British men and James May, who is friends with them for some reason"
posted by mightygodking at 10:45 AM on September 1, 2023

I'd argue that this is renders James May problematic as well
posted by wotsac at 10:47 AM on September 1, 2023

There's a German saying, "If there are two bigoted assholes hosting a TV show, and James May hosts with them, you have three bigoted assholes hosting a TV show".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:49 AM on September 1, 2023 [1 favorite]