*Yawn*. Been a long day, no? Lots of GamesCom news. Time to hit the hay. But before we do, let's settle in and let the actual Commander Shepard, aka Jennifer Hale, read us all a story. A dramatic story.

There aren't that many "stars" in video game voice acting, but Jennifer Hale is certainly one of them. Despite the fact that she's played leading roles in everything from Metal Gear Solid to Knights of the Old Republic, it was really the Mass Effect series that pushed her over the top. These days, whether I'm hearing…

Many of us here at Kotaku like Mass Effect. And as people who like Mass Effect are wont to do, we really like to talk about its protagonist, Commander Shepard. Specifically, we like to talk about our Commander Shepard.

Get to know your Mass Effect 3 voice cast, which is a great deal like the Mass Effect 2 voice cast, only slightly older and just a tad bit more Chobot-y.

The folks at The Sneaky Zebra are making a short film based on the Mass Effect universe, and have sent along three new character trailers for the game. The one up top is for a renegade character named "Hale," which I would imagine (or at least hope!) is a reference to voice actor Jennifer Hale, who plays the female…

From Facebook beauty-contests for the character she plays to big New Yorker profiles to a hilarious case of mistaken Twitter identity, we've been talking a lot about Mass Effect 3's female lead Jennifer Hale lately. So when given the opportunity to chat with her one-on-one at PAX, I jumped at the chance.

It's pretty cool that Jennifer Hale was the subject of such a great New Yorker profile. Not just because she finally played Mass Effect while doing it, and not even because I totally have a quote in the article. No, it's cool because Jennifer Hale is the queen of voice acting, and she deserves the recognition.

Jennifer Hale, celebrated voice actor for the female version of Mass Effect lead Commander Shepard doesn't play video games. Writer Tom Bissell, who profiled Hale in this week's New Yorker magazine does and cajoled her to play Mass Effect 2 with him, just for a bit.

There's a great interview with Jennifer Hale, the voice of the female Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, where she talks about all kinds of cool stuff. Most poignant at this present time, though, are her thoughts on the vote for her character's new face.

I recently asked writer Tom Bissell whether voice actors might ever become celebrities in the video game world. I wondered whether they would ever be featured as headliners who could single-handedly amplify sales and excite major curiosity.