"I'm all for easy modes, please."
That's Jennifer English summing up her relationship with gaming's harder titles, and honestly? Relatable. English, best known for voicing Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3 and Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, sat down with Radio Times Gaming to talk about her history with games, and it turns out she's been on quite the journey from childhood PlayStation bans to full-blown roguelite devotion.
From Soul Blade bans to full-on gamer
English describes being "banned from the PlayStation" as a kid because she would play Soul Blade and "get really violent afterwards" with her sibling. She also credits Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, and The Sims as childhood staples, noting she would "hyperfocus for hours on end" on the latter and refuses to go back to it because she knows exactly what would happen.
After that early phase, she says she "just didn't really play" games for a long time. The thing that brought her back? Starring in them.
How BG3 and Expedition 33 became a gateway
Playing through both Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 acted as what English calls a "gateway drug" back into gaming. Now she's "trying different things" and loving the process, even when those things don't quite land for her.
Here's the thing, though: her taste in games has landed somewhere pretty specific. Hades has become a regular fixture. "It's been a big one for me recently, and a real comfort when I've been stressed," she told Radio Times Gaming, before immediately acknowledging the irony: "although it is quite stressful as a game."
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English also voices a character in Elden Ring, which sits firmly in the punishing-game category. So the line between games she can handle and games she can't is a bit more nuanced than raw difficulty.The Silksong problem
When it comes to Hollow Knight: Silksong, English is self-aware about where she stands. She singled it out directly, saying "looking at you" before admitting she's "too bad at it" to get into it properly.
What most players miss in this comment is the mild irony that English has already performed in Elden Ring, a game that has made grown adults put down their controllers permanently. The gap between "games I've voiced" and "games I can actually play" is apparently wide, and she's fine with that.
She wraps her gaming origin story with genuine warmth: “It's been such a joy to get into them again and I'm really grateful for Baldur's Gate 3 for that.” For more on the games that are keeping players hooked right now, make sure to check out more:
