Hollywood voice actors in videogames are all the rage these days, and for good reason. Big name stars tend to lend an intangible something to the character, even in videogame form, and it's easy press to announce their shacking up with the next big title. In this case, it happens to be the now unimonikered DRIV3R (see, there's a three where the e should be; the Atari marketing guys are so l33t).



The boys and girls over at Reflections once ruled the drive-anywhere roost with the release of the first Driver back on the PlayStation many moons ago. Since then, games like GTAIII and even the recent release of True Crime have stolen quite a bit of the UK developer's thunder and the house that Demolition Derby built aims to settle back into things real proper-like with the release of their third Driver game.



To ensure that there's a proper voice presence, Atari has signed a number of Hollywood actors to donate original parts to the game. Michael Madsen, having lent his voice to a couple video game characters already (mobster Tony Cipriani in GTAIII and cop Don Rafferty in True Crime: Streets of LA) will finally give a voice to Driver series star Tanner. Ving Rhames (who also donated his voice to the digital version of his character Luther in the upcoming Mission: Impossible Operation Surma) will sit in as Tanner's partner Tobias Jones. Bad boy Mickey Rourke will play crime kingpin and singularly named all-around bad guy Jericho, and Michelle Rodriguez, fresh off her stint with Madsen on True Crime, will play Calita, leader of a Miami car theft ring.



"DRIV3R recreates the excitement of a Hollywood-style blockbuster action film and combines it with the adrenaline rush of an action-adventure video game full of sinister criminals, nail-biting car chases and international crime syndicates," said Steve Allison, vice president of marketing in Atari Inc.'s Los Angeles studio. "By casting the game with top Hollywood talent, DRIV3R truly solidifies the look and feel of an interactive movie. Atari is well known for pushing the envelope of collaboration between the video game industry and Hollywood, and DRIV3R will once again raise the bar for what gamers will come to expect from interactive entertainment."



With the love/hate relationship that Stuntman spawned and the fact that nobody even wants to acknowledge that Driver 2 even happened, there are more than a few doubters that believe Reflections can't bring the series back from the brink. Let's hope they're wrong.