3 Famous Actors You Didn’t Realise Were In Video Games

Thankfully, we seem to be getting more famous actors in our video games. Seeing as video games never really had the money to fork out on proper voice acting, we should be very grateful that the leading characters in our games are now voiced by veteran stars, like Liam Neeson and Samuel L Jackson. However, sometimes we are still so used to not having anyone interesting in our games, we totally miss famous people showing up. Below are three people I was shocked to find out I was spending time with in my daily gaming routine (yes, I have a daily gaming routine – shut up!)

3 – STANA KATIC – TALIA AL GHUL IN ARKHAM CITY

Stana Katic, fresh from the amazing Castle season, is actually in one of my all-time favourite games and I never realised. In fairness, I wasn’t converted to the Stana Katic fan group since the last time I played Arkham City, but I don’t think that I would have recognised her anyway. She puts on her Russian accent that we saw her show off in the first episode of the second season of Castle. As we can see from the clip above, there isn’t really much of a surprise that this one went right over our heads.

Although there is so much going on, Talia’s story kind of gets a little lost on the player, it is actually a crucial part of the canon for her character. Anyone that has played the game realises that Talia takes an interesting route and Katic is the actress worthy of playing the part. Sadly, as it is still a game, there isn’t too much character development on Talia’s part. She comes across as a sexualised Bond girl (the accent doesn’t help matters). However, if you have a bit of background knowledge of the character, then you will appreciate what Katic does with the role.

2 – NEIL PATRICK HARRIS – VETERAN CHILD IN SAINTS ROW

This one is a little easier to believe. As soon as you know that it is Neil Patrick Harris behind the character of the stoner DJ villain from Saints Row 2, then it seems so obvious. Of course, it is NPH behind that character. Again, Saints Row 2 was released way before we really suspected famous actors of chipping in with video games, so no one was looking out for him.

He does make a cameo in the latest Saints Row, but I couldn’t find a suitable clip from the game to show off NPH’s acting with it. There aren’t too many directions to take the character. This is a shame, because Neil Patrick Harris has a voice that really lends itself to video game acting and I would love to see him in more stuff. I hear people want him to play the Riddler in Batman, so maybe there will be a space opening in a future Arkham game.

1 – MATTHEW PERRY – BENNY IN FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS

Cut to 3:42 for the relevant bit of the cut-scene.

Yes, Chandler Bing from Friends plays the feared gangster and opening antagonist of Fallout: New Vegas. You can kind of hear the Matthew Perry voice hidden behind the gangster tone, but it is so far away from the comedy roles that we are used to the actor doing that we would never have suspected his involvement beforehand. Benny is an interesting character, as he is the kind of guy who is always trying to weasel the upper hand out of any situation and he nearly gets away with his diabolical plan.

I actually took mercy on the character, when I discovered that Matthew Perry was behind the character. As the clip above shows, he shoots you and leaves you for dead. The game revolves around your quest across the Mojave Desert to find and kill him. By the time I caught up to him, I discovered this little piece of trivia about Matthew Perry being the actor and I couldn’t bring myself to assassinate Chandler. I struck up a deal with him in his casino, willing to let bygones be bygones. And what happened? He sent three hitmen after me, shooting me mercilessly in the back. That’s what you get for trying to be ‘Friends’? I guess it wasn’t my day, my week, my month, or even my year!