Should famous or relatively famous tv and movie actors be in games

I find them mostly distracting. e.g. Samuel L Jackson in SA. Likewise with Jean Luc Picard in Oblivion and Taken in Fallout 3.

On the other hand lesser known actors like Christopher Plummer as the Grey Beard was pretty great.

Why not? They are using actors for motion capturing anyway, so why not get the best and take their likelyness as well?

If it's good for the role sure, but there's a difference between acting and voice acting. Dishonored, for example, had an all-star cast and really flat performances from great actors. It's usually better to stick with voice actors.

There was Ellen Page and William Dafoe in Beyond: Two Souls. And that game was great.

As long as they have the budget for it, that's fine. Make sure every other department is fully funded first though. Don't go casting Hollywood A-listers, and then release a buggy mess of a game.

I don't have much issue with actors being involved in video games. The only time it's a problem for me is when the actor is shoehorned for purposes of marketing or mass appeal. There are times when an actor can fit a role of a game character and there are times when they are just there to be there and it becomes distracting.

In my experience, the best cases of actors playing a character/voice in a game are those when I do not notice it was an actor voicing the role.

i dont really care if they are famous, just that they are good. Most famous ones suck ass at voice acting and sounds like they are just reading lines. Real voice actors are superior picks usually because they need to work and take it seriously

i forgot yvonne strahovski aka miranda lawson in mass effect 2, best game of the entire series coincidentally, but again even she was not that well known when she was cast.

I have no issue with relatively famous actors being in video games if they deliver a good performance. In some games it is apparent when an actor seems uninterested in the character they are portraying, giving a flat performance, but that is as much the fault of the voice director as the actor, in my view. The director should be pushing for more emotional delivery of lines.

Strangely I also would not mind seeing the likeness of more actors in games. For example, Rutger Hauer's likeness in the recent game Observer is not at all jarring, in my view. I'm not sure about the legal ramifications, but it might also be interesting to see the likeness of iconic past classical actors who are now deceased. I'm probably one of the few who applauded them using the likeness of Peter Cushing for Tarkin in the film Rogue One, because he made that character his own - and for movie tie-ins especially, I would have no issue with games doing the same thing.

It would certainly serve to get away from the often generic look of many characters in video games.

I say no. Because high profile actors will demand a bigger pay for the roles they play and imo thats a huge waste of game development budget. If I were a game developer I would hire only upstarting actors with good voices, because they will willingly accept the starter salary provided to them and will do their best in order to show off their talent, then whatever money that would have been wasted on famous actors (and their egos) can be put into improving game development.

I don't mind either way but it's kinda cool to see some AAA actors in our games.

Kevin Spacey in Call of Duty was great.

Yes and no.

Adding "star power" to your game lends a certain attractiveness; hearing a familiar, famous voice or seeing their face scanned into a game and then playing as them, with them, or against them (playing against Little Finger Aiden Gillen in Quantum Break was probably one of the few nice things in that game...).

But at the same time, I like giving relative unknowns, minor actors, or other folks a chance; Jennifer Hale (best known as Commander Shepard of Mass Effect) has made an amazing career voicing some of the best video game characters for well over two decades.

And while Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice might have a dash of overacting by normal standards, I think it is appropriate in the context, and incredibly impressive given the fact that both the physical actress/model and voice actress are the same person and a complete noob at the job (she was a visual arts person or something for the developer and was a stand-in before being asked to act). I thought that was pretty cool.

Shit, if I was a famous actor, and I got to my prime and was getting to retirement age, hell...I'd ask to be cast in games. They wouldn't have to pay me much. "Shit, you're making Half-Life 3 finally? Can I be in it? Pay? How about a sandwich each day? Cool glad that works for you, Gabe Jr"