Nolan North is probably best known for playing Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series of games, and in that role he took a character that could have been little more than a bundle of Indiana Jones jokes and brought it to life. North as Drake is always a pleasure to listen to, and is a large part of the appeal of the Uncharted titles... but then he became the go-to guy when you needed a hero or character who sounded like Nolan North, or Nathan Drake. It's a problem.

It's not that North isn't a talented voice-over artist, because he is. It's not that he doesn't deserve work, because he does. The problem is that his voice sticks out like a sore thumb, and it can be found in so many games that, at this point, it doesn't aid immersion as much as it actively pulls you out of a game.

The dashing hero to be played by the dashing hero

North's credits are extensive: Nathan Drake in Uncharted, Will Grey in Dark Void, the narrator in Lost Planet, the Prince in Prince of Persia, Steven Heck in Alpha Protocol, Jason Fleming in Shadow Complex... and that's only scratching the surface. North is who you go to when you want a Nathan Fillion type, or when you want your character to have the same charm you fell in love with when you played Uncharted for the first time. The problem comes from the fact that every game seems to need a Nathan Fillion type.

North also provides the voice for background characters in many games; he isn't always the hero. If you have good ears you'll hear him popping up all over the place, and his ubiquity has never been more apparent or annoying than in Mafia 2. You see, you can actually make it so that two Nolan North-voiced characters talk to each other.

If you're a fan of movies, you may remember the first time you heard the "Wilhelm Scream." It has become something of an in-joke when it comes to sound design in films; everyone wants to hide that scream somewhere. That damnable scream is in seemingly every action movie, and many of us are so aware of it that our suspension of disbelief is killed the instant we hear it. If you're listening for it, the Wilhlem is like a big sign that screams "This isn't happening—you are watching a movie and someone thought they were being cute!" Nolan North has become the gaming equivalent of the Wilhelm, a sound you hear all too often, and it reminds you in a painfully obvious way that you're playing a video game.

In contrast, go play Red Dead Redemption. Do you recognize any of those voices? Are any of them less than perfect for the characters? Voice actors aren't hard to find, even good ones, and using the same guy over and over is just laziness. Do people buy games based on who voices the characters? Is working with the guy who voiced Nathan Drake worth the distraction it causes gamers to hear that voice. One. More. Time?

I don't think so, but maybe I'm crazy and everyone else can't get enough of the North. Why don't we just remember him at his prime, and move on for a bit so we can get him out of our collective systems? Let's remember him at his peak, playing Nathan Drake, not as the guy who takes us out of the moment in every game since.