The upcoming futuristic video game Fallout: New Vegas takes place after a nuclear war with China decimates the USA. But Wayne Newton— "Mr. Las Vegas" — survives as the voice of a DJ programmed centuries earlier.
That his essence endures such desolation suggests Newton's spirit "could almost survive anything," says the entertainer, 68, a Vegas fixture for more than 40 years, whose show goes to the MGM Grand this fall.
"Even in the post-apocalypse, there's still Wayne Newton," says the game's producer, Jason Bergman of Bethesda Softworks. "I think he got a kick out of that."
In the latest title in the hit franchise (out Oct. 19, $60 for PS3 and Xbox 360, $50 for PCs, ages 17-up), players hear from "Mr. New Vegas" as they explore the irradiated Strip. (In Fallout's story line, it's 2280, more than 200 years after a nuclear holocaust.)
- Newton joins a marquee cast that includes Matthew Perry (Friends), Zach Levi (Chuck), Kris Kristofferson, Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Felicia Day (The Guild). Ron Perlman (Hellboy) serves as the game's narrator, a role he has played in several Fallout games, including the 1997 original.
The quips delivered by Mr. New Vegas include suggestions to listeners to keep "living the dream." The character, Newton says, "has a perverted sense of humor."
The designers created the role for Newton "because he is Las Vegas," Bergman says. "He really brings that extra touch of Vegas class to the game. ... And whether he's reading news stories about super mutants or introducing a Dean Martin song, his personality comes through."
"I have never been in a video game before and, frankly, have never played, simply because I have been working my whole life," Newton says.
Newton says he'd read the dialogue — one-liners in some cases, two or three lines in others — and "do them just a little bit different, each one, until we hit on what it was the guys wanted ... where it is Wayne Newton, but it's not Wayne Newton, you know?"
In the real world, Newton has been asked to participate in a Vegas citizens' catastrophe response committee with the U.S. departments of Defense and Homeland Security. "I accepted it readily, because in this day and time I think one has to take those possibilities in consideration and take it seriously," he says.
Should he ever be asked to record one message for posterity, Newton says it would be to "never give in and never give up. I think it is that message people need today."
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This could be pretty awesome.
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