When fandoms collide
Courtesy of PSU, who in turn seem to have stolen it from GameInformer: Claudia Black to voice lead female character in 'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' (Dec 11th, 2008). That's my headline, of course - the actual headline is to do with something that only Playstation fanboys would care about. (The article mentions that she used to be in 'Fargate' so I suspect they have no idea who she is.)
I think what surprises me most about this news is that it's taken me this long to find out about it - I liked the first game (Uncharted: Drake's Fortune) a lot, even if I did have a few issues with it, so was already pretty excited just to know that it was getting a sequel. Though in a way it does make me wary, for two reasons.
Firstly, I quite liked Elena (the lead female... actually, the ONLY female, and therefore inevitable love-interest) from the first game so I'm a bit disappointed by the implication that she's gone. She was nice because she wasn't some idiot damsel-in-distress character who got in the way of shooting people - instead, she was reasonably practical and actually helped with the shooting. Although she did have an irritating and near-suicidal attachment to her video camera, but I suppose that was meant to reflect the must-get-the-story part of her being a video journalist.
The second reason for my wariness is that generally speaking, female characters in video games aren't well-written - even when the designers have allowed them a full set of clothing, which is sadly rare in video-games land. Although I said earlier that I quite liked Elena she still wasn't necessarily well-written, she just wasn't a bad as most female game characters seem to be and was therefore comparatively likeable. I worry a bit that if 'Chloe Frazer' ends up falling into any of the three standard female video game character cliches (phrased best by Yahtzee, in relation to a completely different game, as "fragile flower, sardonic tease and humourless austerity") I'm going to sit there shouting "but you can do so much better!" at the TV, because wasted talent makes me sad.
(Though on the other hand I have to admit that I kind of hope Chloe ends up being a bit snarky and critical, because my video game performance will probably improve when it feels like I'm personally being shouted at by Aeryn.)
Anyway, for those who want to know what her character is going to look like, I suspect this concept art is a pretty good clue. Hopefully they'll lose the vacant look when they do the in-game character rendering.
I think what surprises me most about this news is that it's taken me this long to find out about it - I liked the first game (Uncharted: Drake's Fortune) a lot, even if I did have a few issues with it, so was already pretty excited just to know that it was getting a sequel. Though in a way it does make me wary, for two reasons.
Firstly, I quite liked Elena (the lead female... actually, the ONLY female, and therefore inevitable love-interest) from the first game so I'm a bit disappointed by the implication that she's gone. She was nice because she wasn't some idiot damsel-in-distress character who got in the way of shooting people - instead, she was reasonably practical and actually helped with the shooting. Although she did have an irritating and near-suicidal attachment to her video camera, but I suppose that was meant to reflect the must-get-the-story part of her being a video journalist.
The second reason for my wariness is that generally speaking, female characters in video games aren't well-written - even when the designers have allowed them a full set of clothing, which is sadly rare in video-games land. Although I said earlier that I quite liked Elena she still wasn't necessarily well-written, she just wasn't a bad as most female game characters seem to be and was therefore comparatively likeable. I worry a bit that if 'Chloe Frazer' ends up falling into any of the three standard female video game character cliches (phrased best by Yahtzee, in relation to a completely different game, as "fragile flower, sardonic tease and humourless austerity") I'm going to sit there shouting "but you can do so much better!" at the TV, because wasted talent makes me sad.
(Though on the other hand I have to admit that I kind of hope Chloe ends up being a bit snarky and critical, because my video game performance will probably improve when it feels like I'm personally being shouted at by Aeryn.)
Anyway, for those who want to know what her character is going to look like, I suspect this concept art is a pretty good clue. Hopefully they'll lose the vacant look when they do the in-game character rendering.