It's going to be very hard to get people to shake off the GTA preconceptions whenever they see a free-roaming driving game with story elements. The problem is, just because a game looks like GTA, it doesn't mean it isGTA. The Getaway wasn't, and Activision and Luxoflux's (they of Vigilante 8 fame) story-driven go-anywhere crime saga most certainly isn't. So dispel that notion now. True Crime is its own game, and from what we've seen so far, a very good one. And that was before any of the voice actors had recorded dialogue.



Of course, up until now, nobody really knew who the voice cast was (well, magazines knew for a while, but they were bade hush-hush over the whole thing). Finally, though, Activision has pulled the wraps off of one of the biggest celebrity casts this side of one of those car jack-titled games.



Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman and Michael Madsen lead a cast of impressive voice talent that will go into making True Crime's wealth of cinemas that much more impressive. While Activision hasn't revealed the actors' individual roles, it's not too tough to make educated guesses. The full cast is as follows.

Christopher Walken (The Prophecy, Blast from the Past, Sleepy Hollow)

Gary Oldman (JFK, Dracula, The Fifth Element, The Professional)

Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Donny Brasco)

Russell Wong (New Jack City, Romeo Must Die)

Michelle Rodriguez (Girlfight, Resident Evil, The Fast and the Furious)

Ron Perlman (Romeo is Bleeding, Blade II)

CCH Pounder (Benny & Joon, Face/Off, ER)

James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China, Tango & Cash, The Art of War)

Mako (The Streets of San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Bulletproof Monk)

Keone Young (Honeymoon in Vegas, Dr. Dolittle 2)

What's interesting about the cast is that the majority of them have already done some voice work, whether it was for cartoon shows in the past (Batman, G.I. Joe, and a dozen or so Disney cartoon series) or even video games (Mark of Kri, GTA III, Blade Runner, Fallout, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault – Spearhead). The cast is impressive in its own right, but having familiarity with voice work in the past means the voice acting will doubtlessly be that much better.

For those that don't yet have the skinny on True Crime (likely, since it's not really on anyone's radar… yet), the game chronicles the story of L.A.P.D. Detective Nick Kang, who's put on suspension for shall we say "questionable" extreme behavior. Now, a cop without a badge, Nick must get to the heart of the L.A. crime underground and put and end to the syndicates running Los Angeles' unseen pathogen. Nick can tap a Matrix-like effect called "Force" (no, not THE Force, just Force) to do things like slow the flow of time and target incredibly precise parts of multiple enemies bodies. The game has an interesting mix between free-roaming driving with an astonishingly true-to-life reproduction of an absolutely massive chunk of the L.A. area, hand-to-hand combat, and some Max Payne-style shooting elements. Through the whole mix is a storyline that promises to both paint scenes in a dramatic light, and move along the story.

We'll have more on True Crime at this year's E3.