Brutal Legend & Afro Samurai

My wife posted just before me, so you ladies can skip this for the next post about babies.

Gaming is a multibillion dollar industry. In the three years since its release, Microsoft has sold more than 28 million units of the Xbox 360; the earnings on Xbox live in that time—buying subscriptions, gamer-pictures, downloadable games, etc—has topped $1 billion. This year was their biggest yet. The number of 360 units sold outstrips the Playstation 3 by 8 million worldwide.

Playing video games has become as ubiquitous to American life as watching movies: at least, for those of us who have been born since 1970. Movies have been considered for their artistry and depth for some time, and now video games are taking on some of those same characteristics. The artistic quality and technical effort put into video games has skyrocketed since the release of the original Sony Playstation in 1994; and with the development of the "Next Generation" systems (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii), the only limit on what game makers can do is their imagination. These systems are capable of absurd realism and visual effects that match Hollywood.

Therefore, gaming has become the cutting-edge of cultural expression. Though there has been artistry and astounding creativity in making games for quite some time, the world of gaming has seen continual growth in artistic expression, especially in recent years. 

This trend took its first giant leap when companies like Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) and Capcom began hiring gifted composers to do scores and soundtracks for their games, notably Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy series), and for Capcom, Yasuaki Fujita (Mega Man 3–4, Metal Slug), and began producing games with deeper and more complex stories. The role-playing genre brought gaming to a new level: it insisted that there be a story, and a character with a history. Few games succeed without them; those that do, succeed solely due to their immediate gameplay value, such as racing games, puzzle games, and fighting games.

Formulaic games—with the same basic plot, characters, and action—are becoming less and less likely to succeed; along with them are games based on movies. Innovation is the name of the game, and game developers are being forced to take risks. In the past year, the games that have succeeded, and that have won the gaming awards, have been the games that have done something different.

These successful games, such as Bioshock, Fallout 3, and Grand Theft Auto 4, have a cinematic quality to them. Cinematic concerns like lighting, setting, sound, and music are breathtaking and create a believable and dramatic world in these games. Their plot lines are deep, and the twists and turns are sometimes jaw-dropping. Character depth and development take an 

unprecedented turn for the profound; Grand Theft Auto—which some have said to be the best game of all time— traces the story of Niko Belic, an immigrant who follows the promise of work from his cousin in America, as he finds himself entangled in the underworld of Liberty City; as the story develops and Niko digs himself deeper and deeper into the world of crime, the player can see and feel the sickening of Niko's heart as he becomes a darker and more foreboding character.

And now I finally get to the point of this post: I am excited to see this movement towards depth and artistry continue. I am most excited to see the use of voice actors for NextGen games. Already announced is Brütal Legend, an action-adventure journey through the world of heavy metal album art featuring Jack Black as the voice of protagonist Eddie Riggs—this looks to be an awesome game in its own right, when the design process consists of "What do you think of this creature? Would you see it on an album cover?" 

Also in the works is the Batman game, Arkham Asylum, which will be voiced by several actors from The Animated Series, including Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Mark Hamill as The Joker. Not only that, Samuel L. Jackson is voicing the lead for Afro Samurai, which will be released on the 27th. Of course, Ghostbusters: The Video Game will have the original actors doing voices, including Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd.

Games that already have been released using voice actors, and I just found this out: Liam Neeson plays the role of the protagonist's father in Fallout 3; and, Keifer Sutherland plays the role of Sgt. Roebuck, and Gary Oldman plays Sgt. Reznov in Call of Duty: World at War.