During one of my embarrassingly customary dredges of Bioware's various websites for information on forthcoming products, I came across the above video showing off some of the nerd super-stars who will be providing voices for Mass Effect 2. Among them are Six from Battlestar Galactica, Tigh from Battlestar (and also from Clearcut and many other excellent Canadian films for a very different kind of nerd appeal), Trinity from the Matrix, Jayne from Firefly, Seth Green from All of Pop Culture and Martin Sheen from, uh, The West Wing.

Which is all well-and-good. In fact, I'm glad to see so many talented actors get so excited about a videogame, especially when it's a videogame I'm excited about myself. What gave me some pause while watching this, however, was how readily everyone references the geek-appealing cult projects they've worked on in the past. Adam Baldwin (Jayne) even goes so far as to say that the universe of Mass Effect is like "Bladerunner meets Serenity." Really, Adam Baldwin? Are you sure? Because to me, the first game seemed a lot like Star Trek sifted through the paperback-pulp filter. Of course, as those who've played the game know, the familiar setting (and plot, and characters...) doesn't dampen the appeal of playing, so that isn't necessarily a criticism. My only issue with Baldwin's comment, really, is that it just seems so coached.

The rest of the actors behave similarly, going out of their way to "casually" mention that, yes,  they did indeed play those beloved characters who the sort of people interested in Mass Effect 2 have probably already named a few kids after. Again, it's nice to see such great voice talent getting behind such great game design talent. I just they had the confidence to let the actors' presence remain incidental, and let the appeal they add occur more naturally. Like, y'know, how any other medium would.