Actor Mickey Rourke has had a hell of a career. He went from serious actor and matinée idol in the 80s to down-on-his-luck boxer and plastic surgery addict in the 90s to redemption in the role of Randy "The Ram" Robinson in sleeper hit The Wrestler in the 00s. That up and down career path was all leading to Rourke's greatest role(?): His appearance as the voice of Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko, an "irreverent, battle-tested  a real-life Navy SEAL and founder of the elite SEAL Team 6", in Bethesda Softworks upcoming first person shooter Rogue Warrior. Check out our first look at the game here.

“Mickey Rourke was our first choice to play Marcinko in Rogue Warrior,” said Todd Vaughn, Executive Producer of Rogue Warrior in a press release. “He absolutely, one-hundred percent captures Marcinko’s raw and gritty personality.”

The game is based on the real life adventures of Navy SEAL Marcinko, and concerns a clandestine operation to disrupt a suspected North Korean ballistic missile program. According to Bethesda, players will "uncover a conspiracy and must covertly enter the USSR to destroy a technology that could change the balance of geopolitical power." Okay, so the game probably stretches Marcinko a bit, but still, it sounds like a lot of fun.

With more and more "real" stars entering the video game world and lending their voices to various projects, I gotta wonder if it really matters. Surely the inclusion of stars like Jay Mohr and Carmen Electra didn't help sales or reviews of the latest Leisure Suit Larry game, and that's probably not an isolated incident. So why do game companies bother signing the checks for stars?  Do you care who does voice acting in a game?

Rogue Warrior is coming out this year for the PS3, PC and Xbox 360.