LE Box art looks a million times better than the standard

Star-Studded Cast to Bring Mass Effect 2’s Cinematic Storyline to Life

Bioware and Electronic Arts today announced that Mass Effect 2 will feature the voices of numerous celebrities in addition to Seth Green, who will be returning to voice his role as Joker, the pilot of the SS Normandy. The other celebrity voices for the upcoming intergalactic epic will include Martin Sheen (The West Wing and Apocalypse Now), the stars of NBC’s Chuck, Yvonne Stahovski and Adam Baldwin, Emmy Award-winner Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Saddam), Keith David (Crash), Michael Dorn (Stark Trek: Deep Space Nine), Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix).

The star-studded cast will work with a huge script and a huge storyline that is going to span two DVDs worth of content. Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Bioware said in the press release, “Emotionally engaging narrative is a key design pillar for BioWare, and the top-notch voice talent in Mass Effect 2 helps drive this goal. Credible, powerful personalities are vital to delivering a compelling story experience in BioWare’s games, and we have assembled an amazing ensemble cast that surpasses the very high bar set in the original Mass Effect!”

Mass Effect was noted for its deep, engaging, and emotional storyline that spanned a galactic conflict. The sequel will find Commander Shepard gathering new squad members from all corners of the galaxy to tackle a new threat. Mass Effect 2 is aiming to be a darker story than that of the first, the Empire Strikes Back of the Mass Effect universe. It will find Commander Shepard on a mission “so challenging that it’s potentially suicidal.”

Martin Sheen will reportedly play the part of the Illusive Man who is in command of Cerberus, “a secretive paramilitary organization dedicated to protecting human interests in the galaxy.” Yvonne Strahovski will play the part of a Cerberus operative, Miranda Lawson, who “has been genetically engineered for superior mental and physical traits.” In addition to Seth Green’s return, Keith David will again play the part of Admiral Anderson. Rounding out the celebrity cast, Tricia Hefer will portray EDI, the “voice of the new Normandy”, Carrie-Ann Moss will be Aria T’Loak, who is the crime lord ruling the planet Omega, Shohreh Aghdashloo will portray Admiral Shala’Raan vas Tonbay, Michael Hogan will portray Captain Bailey, Michael Dorn will portray Gatatog Uvenk, and Adam Baldwin will tackle the role of Kal’Reegar.

Have you not seen the Tali trailer?, she seems to play the quarian Admiral of the Migrant fleet.

Chris Priestly
Community Coordinator


Joined: 17 Oct 2001
From: Behind an Evil desk in Marketing Posted: Thursday, 10 December 2009 05:12PM
It is true, we are going to be having a kick-butt Blur cinematic trailer debuting this weekend.

If you do not get the show in your area, or if you are outside North America, IGN will have the video up on their website immediately after the TV show airs. Make sure you check out the video THIS SATURDAY DECEMBER 12.

For a taste of what is to come, head over to the Mass Effect 2 screenshot gallery and get a look at Commander Shepard as he will appear in the video: http://masseffect.bioware.com/media/screenshots/

Yeah we're pretty psyched abotu it.

Jarrett Lee
Marketing Manager


Joined: 10 Mar 2005
From: Edmonton, AB Posted: Thursday, 10 December 2009 06:48PM
Hey guys,

Very excited for you to finally lay eyes on this. So with that said, let me give you some background:

I've wanted to do a trailer with Blur ever since I saw their trailer for the original Dawn of War RTS game. To me, that one is a classic.

So we actually kicked off work on this (along with Casey and the team) a long time ago. It probably goes back to last year that we actually inked a deal to do this (I had been talking to Blur off and on for 3-4 years lol). We had a modestly scoped (and modestly budgetted) video in mind, and had started working on it.

Then I saw the SWOTOR trailer at E3.

I remember walking out of the EA Press Conference rehearsal, and sending Blur an email saying "ok I want something like SWOTOR video, how do we make it happen".

Blur has been AMAZING to work with. They are, in my opinion, the best of the best.

One question that came up in discussions about the trailer (internally here) was: if the game is this gorgeous (it is) why would we do a Blur trailer? Basically my reasoning is that we wanted to find a way to explore this amazing universe, and these amazing characters, in ways that go beyond the game itself, that dont spoil the in-game content too much, and that approach movie quality. This is basically a 3 minute Mass Effect movie.

I say 3 minutes because the FOX trailer is actually a shorter "sneak peek" version (approx 90 seconds)of the full trailer. The full trailer (call it a Director's Cut) is currently slated to appear on Xbox Live on December 22nd in HD (if that changes we will let you know). It will be on Xbox.com for PC users not long after that. It will be a one week exclusive (including localized versions globally) and then it will be everywhere. In fact, the sneak peek is a bit more ESRB friendly because it was for TV. We were looking to have it on the VGAs but they primarily feature trailers for unannounced titles. That's what I'm told anyway.

The sneak peek should be on IGN's site after the show, and they have an exclusive on it until Dec 15th at 8 am EST. We'll have it on our site shortly after that (and other sites will receive it as well). We are also distributing localized (subtitled) versions for European sites etc.

As for what's in it: there aren't many spoilers, it's more of a "flavour piece". It explores the themes and characters of ME2, and touches on things you are already aware of but in a very cool way. There is one very small spoiler in it you will probably notice yourselves but it's really not a show-stopper and you have to see it. Really. Thane is in it too. What more need be said?

Oh and we can't even watch it in Canada (or at least not in Edmonton as far as I can tell), so I feel the pain of anyone who won't be able to see it on TV

Enjoy!

Regards,

Jarrett

Drools

Drooling right along with you. That is some major voice talent they've lined up for this game.

Keith David is back as Anderson and that's great. At least two of my Shepards put him on the Citadel Council so I hope that's where I find him when my game starts. With the rest of my Shepards he IS the Council, totally in charge of everything with Ambassador Udina.

Tricia Hefer as the EDI voice of the Normandy I guess means that she won't just be telling me things like "decontamination in progress" or "the commanding officer is on the deck". Should be very interesting.

I see no greatness in that list apart from kieth david

some of the other actors are quite good.

wow how late are you! yep two dvd's of pure mass effect goodness...

New Character voice over cast Video: http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/masseffect2work...

Oh and new Mako looks hot!

This game will own all before it!!!! :)

Whoah that is indeed the best lineup of talent i have seen in a video game period!

I know! This game is going to be so hot!