Best Use of a Celebrity
This award is intended to recognize the year's most outstanding appearance of a popular actor, actress, or other star in a video game. In 2004, voice acting in video games went from being a complementary feature to a vital component of the overall play experience in many games. Thus, effective use of a real-life celebrity--and, on occasion, his or her likeness--can drive a good game over the top, just in the way a standout performance can grant a film immortality. In this category, we consider the placement of the celebrity in the game, as well as his or her voice acting, characterization, and overall presence. Here are the finalists:
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In a game filled with astronomically great celebrity performances, James Woods' turn as the mysterious Mike Toreno steals the show. The brainy actor appears to be a natural in the video game medium.
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Jean Reno, perhaps best known for his role in The Professional, has a certain rough-cut cachet that many Continental actors simply can't muster very effectively. His appearance as time-traveling French commando Jacques Blanc is a great fit in this game, even if he provides only his character's French dialogue.
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The corrupt law-enforcement officer is a classic crime-movie cliché, so it's no surprise that an illicit odyssey like San Andreas would have its own cop on the take. In his role as the smug, derisive Officer Tenpenny, Jackson proves that he is just as effective in character work as he is as a leading man.
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In the Hollywood annals, Dafoe is notorious for his ability to imbue a project with a really mean villain. In Everything or Nothing, Dafoe very convincingly brings a fairly generic Bond villain--ex-KGB agent Nikolai Diavolo--to life. The game wouldn't feel like a true-blue Bond movie without him.
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You couldn't ask for a better tough guy criminal antihero than Vin Diesel's Richard B. Riddick, who originated in a 1999 cult classic sci-fi horror movie, but seemed perfectly at home in this year's memorable action adventure game set in the galaxy's worst prison.
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And the Winner is...
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