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True Crime: New York City Voice Cast Announced

by Robert Graves - September 19, 2005, 9:11 am EDT
Total comments: 4 Source: Activision Press Release

Yes, they are talking to you.

An Arresting Line Up of Voiceover Talent Brings Activision's True Crime®: New York City to Life


SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept 19, 2005: Further bringing True Crime®: New York City's authentic cop drama to life, Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) has signed on a cast of seasoned actors to lend their distinct voice talents to the game's main characters. The cast includes Christopher Walken as FBI field agent Gabriel Whitting; Laurence Fishburne as drug kingpin Isaiah "The King" Reed; Mariska Hargitay as New York Police Lieutenant Deena Dixon; Mickey Rourke as New York Police Detective Terrence Higgins; Esai Morales as New York Police Organized Crime Unit chief Victor Navarro; Traci Lords as madam Cassandra Hartz; and up and coming actor Avery Waddell as former gangster turned cop Marcus Reed, the game's main character and Isaiah Reed's son.


"With a voice talent roster of this caliber, we are bringing drama to videogames on an unprecedented level that is on par with movies and television shows," said Will Kassoy, vice president of global brand management, Activision Publishing. "True Crime: New York City was developed with the help of two former New York cops who advised us on real-life police scenarios which were then brought to life through the rich characters portrayed by the voiceover talent."


Former policemen Bill Clark, who also served as the executive producer of "NYPD Blue," and Tom Walker, author of "Ford Apache: The Bronx," consulted on the storyline for True Crime: New York City which puts players in the role of Marcus Reed, former gang member turned cop. Through the game, players use and abuse their authority to hunt down the murderer of Marcus' mentor while also cleaning up Manhattan neighborhoods from Harlem to Chinatown. Undercover investigations weave players through a murderous web of gangs and deceit as they battle crooks, Marcus' past and everything else the city throws at them.


True Crime: New York City will be available this fall for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft and the Nintendo GameCubeTM and has been rated "M" ("Mature" - Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs) by the ESRB.


Talkback

ArtimusSeptember 19, 2005

It baffles me why this is necessary. Who actually buys a game because it has a good voice cast?

tForceSeptember 19, 2005

^^^ don't knock them for putting out the effort. People rip on games for their cheesy dialogue and horrible voice casts. It's good to start seeing companies use real actors (or at least, better ones) for the voiceovers. The heirarchy of importance for gaming goes 1) gameplay, 2) graphics, 3) sound. If any of the 3 suffer, then the game suffers... but only to the degree of their rank.

KDR_11kSeptember 19, 2005

Expensive actor != good voice acting. Many an expensive actor has delivered an awful performance when it comes to games.

ArtimusSeptember 19, 2005

With game costs skyrocketing this is unjustifiable. There are a ton of very cheap actors capable of giving good voice performances. Heck, a lot of the best in recent years are producers and such.

Blizzard often has fantastic voice acting (and often is purely fantastic situations) and they never use uber-stars.

This just drives game costs up further and further, which leads to less originality, more sequels, less developer control and high prices.

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