This Real-Life Fictional Stories post covers my work in Halo: Reach. But because this is the first installment of Real-Life Fictional Stories, I feel like I should explain a little about what is going on so we're all on the same page.
I, Jacob Williams, am a real-life fictional person who is attempting to make it in the world of video games. I am an actor. My best known role? The first guy you have the opportunity to kill in Modern Warfare 2. It was a pretty great opportunity, but I don't want it to define me.
I hope to keep moving up in the world, reaching the same level as Brandon Bonlet, Sarah Larivez, and Mark Richardson (other real-life fictional characters that in no way really exist) who you know as the lead characters in some of gaming's biggest games. I could list their credits here, but I know I don't need to, you know all three of them. And while "making it" in games as an actor is hard and most don't cut it, I am not going to let that stop me.
Real-Life Fictional Stories is going to be the place where I recount my trials and tribulations, from auditions, to rehearsals, to finished releases. I am going to recap my roles. Getting any acting gig in games is very competitive. I hope these posts will give me the motivation to keep plugging away. So without any further ado, this week's post about my real-life fictitious role in Bungie's upcoming blockbuster Halo: Reach.
I am super excited to finally talk about this game. My scenes wrapped last year, but I was under embargo and not able to talk about my role until other features like space combat, the changes to Firefight, and cooperative matchmaking were detailed. Man, was it hard to wait. But yeah, I played the role of "Marine 2,347." Here is the first official picture of me in action:
How awesome is that?!? You can totally see me there kicking butt. And while this picture of me is super sweet, not everything about working on the game was sunshine and lollipops. For one, I auditioned for a member of Noble Team. I think I crushed the audition too, but still didn't get the part, while Frank Smiterson did. Freaking Frank, he gets everything. And while Frank might be a great actor, he can be a real tool. We used to have the same agent, but then Frank... well, I should probably save that for another time, but Frank, freaking Frank got on Noble Team and not me. It still makes me mad. And now I learn Noble Team originally was going to have two more members. I am certain if they did not cut Tom, that role would have been mine.
But I guess I impressed the director and crew enough that they wanted to give me a role in the game. So that's cool. I actually heard they were only going to have 2,346 marines in the game and then just re-use some people to make it seem like there were more -- it is amazing what they can do with computers and special effects in games these days. But yeah, they decided to add one more marine and I got that part. And I got some combat scenes too, pretty cool, pretty cool. So yeah, I shouldn't complain that much, but still, freaking Frank.
The game itself is awesome; I know it. Seriously, I know it will be a huge hit, my work alone is worth the $60. I don't want to give too much away, but let me just say there is this one scene where the player is in this fight and down below there is a huge battle going on. I am down there and during the fight I just ad-libbed this little gun pause and melee attack. I acted like my gun was jammed and Christopher, the actor playing the Brute opposite me, just totally went with it and rushed me and then I was like BOOM, MELEE ATTACK SUCKA!
The director LOVED it and told us to keep it when we re-shot the scene. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And if the player, during that fight, looks down over the cliff and zooms in using a sniper rifle at just the right moment they can totally see me do that melee. I expect to get a lot of recognition based on that move alone. Hopefully that didn't spoil too much of the game or the fight for you guys, because I know some of you might have been thinking the Brute was going to get me, but nope, not then at least. ;)
I am so excited for you guys to get your hands on this game! When you do, be sure to let me know what you think of my role and be sure to look for "Marine 2,347" when you play. I don't want to say I "make" the entire game, but I do kind of steal every scene I am in.
Halo: Reach and I start kicking butt exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 14th.