Hollywood's Helping Hand - New Game Network

The first time I remember a mention of someone from the Hollywood glitterati stepping into the gaming arena was in Grand Theft Auto III for the PS2. I’d played the game thinking ‘don’t I recognise that guy’s voice from somewhere?’ As it turned out it was Michael Madsen from ‘he-just-cut-off-that-guy’s-ear!’ fame… also known as Reservoir Dogs for those who don’t get the reference—for shame.

From what I recall this wasn’t lauded on the box and wouldn’t have been something that would have propelled me to buy the game. It was a feature that after being told I would go ‘ahh’ and leave it at that.

Lots of games companies now enlist a member of Hollywood to give them helping hand in their game, the most noticeable being their voice acting. I think that for a consumer hearing a celebrity’s voice in what they’re playing doesn’t reinforce their purchasing decision. It’s not like we buy games for the actors enlisted, we buy it because we’re a fan of the series, the mechanics, whatever. The voice acting is just the icing on our desert metaphor.

The most prolific series with household actors lending their vocal cords would have to be the GTA series. As mentioned above the first iteration on the PS2 had the odd recognisable actor in it. When the game exploded the creators expanded their star rolodex and pulled in a whole cast for Vice City with Ray Liotta as the protagonist. There was of course a cavalcade of other ‘well-known’s’ but that’s what IMDB is for.

To say the least the voice acting in GTA was better than the monotone, staccato of say, Resident Evil’s ‘don’t open THAT door’. Still, Vice Cities credible list of actors didn’t change the fact the story was the equivalent of a children’s production of the Godfather/Scarface. Sure it’s cute; sure your son telling another person’s child if he doesn’t whack that guy he’s going to wake up with his cat Mittens’ head in his bed, but it’ll never win an Oscar. It’s just amusing if you switch your brain off and take it for what it is. With GTA however they weren’t gunning for it to be the Citizen Kane of the gaming world, more the Airplane which worked a treat.

At the other end of this we have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it has the voice talent and also the Hollywood writing talent. MW2’s story seemed too forced in the way that they tried to capture the emotional gravitas of the first. At times this came over a bit too: ‘If we all stick together we can end this skipping through a meadow, oh no, another protagonist died, are you weeping yet player, is it hard to kill terrorists because your tears are causing the controller to slip out of your hand?’

Still a great game though, and don’t get me wrong and the lines were well delivered, apart from when I was being told to ‘X to your Z Ramirez’ constantly. Good voice acting adds to a player’s suspension of disbelief, but this is a very fragile thing and can be broken any second. It’s hard work, like cooking a good meal for the three bears, you can’t have too much or too little, you need to get it just right. If it goes wrong they’ll rip your head off AND more importantly it won’t work, though I suppose you’ll probably have other more pressing matters to worry about.

A more recent involvement on the writing and acting side of games came from Enslaved: Journey to the West, starring ‘Golem\Smeagle’ actor Andy Serkis playing the, and I quote ‘strong, brutish loner’. On a side note, when games tag a character like that it gives me the impression that they will have as much dialogue as mute gorilla and a syllable capacity that maxes out a two. Obviously that’s not always the case but the description has as much flavour in it as the underside of a portable lavatory.

Enslaved was also one of the newer breed of games which actively promotes the fact that a Hollywood screen writer has had a hand in it. For Enslaved this obviously paid off and the game has received wide critical acclaim my online gripe was that some reviewers commented in surprise at how well the story held together. While this is obviously a positive thing in terms of games writing it could have an adverse effect on the industry.

It’s a double-edged sword because it could leave companies feeling that the only way to imbue credibility to their game’s story is by having a ‘Hollywoodian’ pen it. In turn this may not give the chance to those already in the industry who would be in a position of familiarity with all the other aspects of the development process. So yeh, they’re my concerns on the matter.

There’s also the more recent celebrity/game hybrid with Jack Black in Brutal Legend. I think that this kind of celebrity involvement in a game is something that on the whole is positive. The man in question is passionate about both games and music and in turn this had a positive effect on the game. We also can’t fail to mention the studio: Double Fine that dealt with its production who gained critical acclaim from Psychonauts. It was a marriage that worked.

In retrospect of the whole celebrity involvement quandary I believe that it’s like Schrodinger’s cat mixed with one of the puzzles where you have to move the stick with the ring on it through the wire maze. It shouldn’t be regarded as an elixir that cures a games problems but something that will reflect positively in the games production to be the best it can be.

You need the skill and foresight to figure out if having Hollywood involved will actually help and you’re not just doing it with the hope of enticing people. It’s the more thought out equivalent of using a female teen car wash service to rope in the saps. Yes, it may look nice from afar but when you’re up close, sat in your car with an erection and gazing through soapy glass at a burly man who appeared as if from nowhere you can’t help but thinking: ‘it looked like a good idea’.