Six of the best celebrity performances in games

From silver screen to cutscene: the film stars who got game

As games now rival films in their ability to whip up a shrieking whirlwind of hard cash and column inches, celebrities treat them less like a spoddy hobby and more like serious star vehicles. No more grainy mid-90s FMV with Mark Hamill nowadays were talking hi-def double bills with Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. Even ol' Kevin Spacey has gotten in on the action. These are six of the most complete celebrity facial and vocal performances. Total dedication to the craft is all we accept. Recognise!

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007: Everything or Nothing

007 games entered original territory after The World is Not Enough. This 2004 outing got Brosnans face and voice for the first and last time, though both Connery and Craig had a pop later.

Enter The Matrix

Shinys 2003 tie-in sidestepped Keanu to hook us up with Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and Ghost. Ropey game, but with script, direction and new footage from the Wachowskis, it was a real game/film love-in landmark.

Escape from Butcher Bay

Vin Diesel revisited Richard B Riddick for this game-only prequel to Pitch Black. Jails and necks were merrily broken as Starbreeze Studios effort blew away the Riddick film released the same year.

Apocalypse

Bruce Willis as a trigger-happy nanophysicist trying to stop the Four Horsemen from kicking civilisation in the nutsack? Sign us up. A star of Brucies stature going all-in on brand new game IP was big news in 98, and Neversofts game wasnt bad either.

Onimusha: Warlords

Only Samanosuke has led the demon-gimping charge more than once in this 2001 original and again in no 3 with gloomy Jean Reno. Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) gave him a face and, in Japan, the voice too.

Stranglehold

2007 sequel to Hong Kong classic Hard Boiled with Chow Yun-Fat back as Tequila, fan of Mexican standoffs, banisters and bruises. The slo-mo diving felt indebted to Max Payne, but repaying Remedys own John Woo tribute made sense.