Believe it: Nathan Fillion can play video games

Two cult actors surprise us and take on Halo 4 at E3 2012

by Arthur Kotsopoulos

©2012 Arthur Kotsopoulos

I had the chance to attend a special Halo 4 VIP party last week during the chaotic events of E3.  For me this was a great chance to kick back, relax and enjoy the moment during the world’s biggest game convention.

I knew it couldn’t last.

I wasn’t expecting, however, that this moment would be interrupted the way it was.

I was about to start playing a session of Spartan Ops when out of the blue Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Castle fame and Alan Tudyk, also from Firefly and Dollhouse  seemingly magically materialized behind me.

‘You do kind of remind me of Hooch…’

They were at the show and apparently intrigued with what was happening on my screen.

In the blink of an eye Steve of Stevivor.com, who was playing with me, turned around and in typical fanboy fashion blurted “Holy Sh…” which perfectly summed up my own moment of disbelief.

Being from Australia, it is pretty rare to see big-name actors, cult figures really, never mind suddenly have them come watch you play a video game.

Jumping out of my seat to ask for a photo for visual proof that I indeed ‘met’ someone famous, Nathan Fillion managed to steal my console to enjoy Halo 4 himself.

He kindly explained that he would give me back the controller in a bit, to which I replied, “Dude you can take your time and enjoy the game… it’s an honour to watch you kick some alien butt.”  Or some such thing.

To my surprise, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk can seriously play.

These boys can play!

They were there on their own, not a ‘handler’, PR rep or bodyguard in sight; no managers, no paparazzi; completely free to do what they wanted to and enjoy the game in peace.

Well, except we were there with eyes like saucers.

It was a surprise to see that Nathan knew the lingo when explaining that he loved the hovering reticule on the Forerunner weaponry and seeing him pull off headshots on the Covenant Grunts and meleeing Elites once their shields were down.

Alan Tudyk didn’t disappoint either.  Not to be outdone, Alan got the hang of the game almost instantly and also started to kick some Covenant/Forerunner butt.

Not being selfish or greedy, both these actors would swap between observing and playing the game in stark contrast to what I was seeing with the plethora of media during E3, who were unashamedly greedy hogging all the hands-on.

Both these actors, who spend god knows how long sitting in chairs getting make up done, reading over scripts, shooting scenes for TV or movies or meeting up with directors, were actual gamers.

If you don’t watch television you would’ve mistaken them for another pair of media who just wanted to play the next Halo.

Something real

Apart from the extremely friendly hospitality of a few of the booths during E3, this was in my top five moments of E3 2012, and made the trip even more worth it.

Sure, there were brand new games to play and preview, and developers to meet and talk to; but, when you see a highly admired and famous actor having a good time playing a video game, you can’t help but have a smile on your face.

Of course, it may come to no surprise that both these actors lent their voices to Halo 3: ODST so it was fitting that they would make an appearance at a Halo 4 VIP event to check out Microsoft’s new juggernaut of an FPS shooter.

I’m sure they came away impressed, like any other gamer.

©2012 Arthur Kotsopoulos

Filed under: 1st Party Titles, Console gaming, E3 2012, Editorial, Events, New Xbox 360 Games, Oxcgn Special feature, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News, Xbox 3rd party exclusives, Xbox Community Network Tagged: | Alan Tudyk, Alan Tudyk video games, Dollhouse, Firefly, Halo 4, Halo ODST, Microsoft, Nathan Fillion, Nathan Fillion video games, Stevivor, Television