And hanging out with rock stars

Jun 23, 2009 17:01 GMT  ·  By

Brutal Legend is one of the most interesting new titles coming this fall, promising to take players on a heavy metal-themed ride through a fantasy world filled with icons and symbols of the popular music genre.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game is that it features a lot of famous voice actors, especially in terms of internationally renowned rock stars like Motorhead's Lemmy, Rob Halford or Ozzy Osbourne.

The game's creator, Tim Schafer, recently talked about the experience of recording with such famous rock stars and how he collaborated with actor and musician Jack Black, who is also the main source of inspiration for the lead character of the game, Eddie Riggs.

“I don't know if [Jack Black] was out looking for a game,” said Schafer. “We were out looking for him, because we were inspired a lot by the work he'd done in the past, his over-the-top characters, his life-long love of rock with his heart and soul. So we contacted him and found out that he played and liked Psychonauts. And he wanted to do it, just because he likes rock, likes metal. We did it mostly in person. He has almost two thousand lines of dialogue in the game, hours and hours of stuff. He's really funny, and really fun to hang out with.”

The game creator went on to elaborate on how much the actors liked video games. “Guys like Jack Black play a lot of video games. He finishes more games than I do, like, he played through Mass Effect twice. So he knows exactly what we're talking about. And Lemmy knew all about video games. I think in the old days, in the 90s, I didn't like to use any sort of 'celebrity talent' because it wasn't often you'd find one that actually played video games. But more and more, as the industry ages, they know what you're talking about. More often than not now, they're game fans themselves.”

It's nice to hear that even celebrities like video games and play them during their spare time. Also, with famous rock stars and actors lending their voices to video games more often, the industry will certainly grow and become even more popular in the future.