Is it because most big console games of the time were made by Japanese studios who only had access to like z-tier Canadian anime dub actors or the first three gaijins that walked past their offices?
Fallout 2 had fucking :warf-wtf: in it, not to mention numerous other examples of sci fi and horror convention regulars you'd see pop up in PC games of the era
IIRC one of the classic "bad voice acting" games had its voice cast picked by physical resemblance to the ingame models, maybe it was Shenmue?