Matrix Online locks in voice talent

Give the movie guys credit. The boys from Warner Bros. are doing all they can to send the upcoming Matrix game, The Matrix Online, into the world with some solid legs under it.

In announcing that Lawrence "Morpheus" Fishburne would participate in the game by lending his voice-acting skills, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment senior vice president Jason Hall said, "Since The Matrix Online is the legitimate continuation of The Matrix storyline, we felt that it was imperative to preserve character continuity between this game and the films as much as possible."

To that end, and in the spirit of "capturing the authenticity of the Matrix films," gamers can expect the likenesses and voices of most of the trilogy's cast to surface in the game: Lawrence Fishburne appears as Morpheus, Monica Bellucci as Persephone, Mary Alice as The Oracle, Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, Harold Perrineau Jr. as Link, Harry Lennix as Locke, Nona Gaye as Zee, Collin Chou as Seraph, and Tanveer Atwal as Sati.

In addition to pulling from The Matrix trilogy's acting ranks, Warner also snared Don Davis, who composed all three films' scores, to compose the music for the game.

With so much firepower, will The Matrix Online be a surefire hit? Gamers will find out on January 18, 2005, when the massively multiplayer role-playing game hits retail.