3. No Celebs
Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda and James Woods are just a few of the film stars that have lent their vocals to past GTAs, and although its nice see Hollywood talent finally taking notice of videogames, the results have been mixed. Firstly, the presence of movie stars is a novelty that doesn't wear off; for all the work gone into Rockstars dialogue, its hard to separate the actors from their characters. As such, its difficult to lose yourself in the fiction, but on the bright side, you get to punch Danny Dyer. The other problem is getting A-list actors to take videogame roles seriously. According to David Kuchners book
Jacked: The Outlaw Story of the Grand Theft Auto Games, plenty of the stars contracted to GTA have been difficult to work with. Burt Reynolds proved
particularly awkward whilst working on Vice City; one very famous black comedian had to be fired from San Andreas. So by 2008, Rockstar had given up on Hollywood. As such, GTA IV has an enormous cast of unknown voice actors, and it works perfectly. Characterisation across the board is absolutely rock solid: From their sweeping monologues to their off-hand, in-game patter, every character in GTA IV is totally believable, all thanks to the voice talent of hundreds of non-celebs. And with relative unknown Ned Luke set to play the lead in GTA V, lets hope Rockstar have learned to steer clear of big-name stars.