Mass Effect Series

[Alessa Gillespie]

U RIE I HAVE NEVER APPROVED OF AKISHEP'S LOOKS

 

[Joker]

Maybe I can't...the face creator lets me import Akishep, but I can't get a code for her. When I load her, then go to "customize appearance", there are a number of slight difference between Akishep and the new one - namely, I can tell that the eye color is different, and Akishep's neck isn't nearly as thick as the new one's. =/

But I took pictures with my phone :B

Spoiler: Gentlemen...BEHOLD! Aki Shepard!

Spoiler: Fullscreen

Spoiler: Left side only

Spoiler: Face only

 

[looneymoon]

i designed my femshep to look like me.

take that as you will

Hahaha I tried to, but none of the hairstyles were long enough. So I gave up and made a sexy ginger.

I always make my Femshep a redhead with that default short side swept cut.

ME TOO BB.

here are some screencaps.

Spoiler: Starbuck Shepard

Face-front she's like a model then in profile it's like holy caveman.

and damnit Kimba, your Shep IS pretty hot :\

 

[Joker]

AKISHEP USED TO WEAR THAT EXACT SAME ARMOR FOR ALMOST THE ENTIRE GAME

AND SO DID LIARA BECAUSE SHE HAD TO MATCH HER GF

 

[Splintered]

i designed my femshep to look like me.

take that as you will

I have, like, seven different Shepards...

Only two are male though. And those look like they've got severe downsyndrome.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

I have, like, seven different Shepards...

Only two are male though. And those look like they've got severe downsyndrome.

poor man shep, being hideous

So I guess the game secretly wants you to go for femshep amirite?

 

[Splintered]

Duh. I said it before and I'll say it again.

Femshep is canon. You can not convince me otherwise.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

Spoiler: Gentlemen...BEHOLD! Aki Shepard!

Spoiler: Fullscreen

Spoiler: Left side only

Spoiler: Face only

i rike it but idk if it looks like me MY EYES SHOULD BE MORE HUGER CAUSE MY EYES ARE FUCKING GIGANTIC GDSFSDFA

 

[Joker]

I kno but then she would have a permanent look of surprise/wonderment on her face >;

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

I kno but then she would have a permanent look of surprise/wonderment on her face >;

you mean i don't?

 

[Joker]

No, but that's because you can move your eyebrows.

Akishep cannot

 

[Hisako]

Yeah femshep's eyebrow ridge looks plain wonky. It's not noticeable most of the time but when she tries to frown her eyebrows just do this thing like a chimpanzee and the ridge above her nose twists around on itself

So instead of looking angry she looks like she is annoyed that an invisible hand is smushing up her forehead


EDIT: So okay I'm about 12 hours and 30 mins into Mass Effect 2, and I suppose I should be placing my little rant here into this thread rather than the... LTD thread,

Opinion? It's okay. But honestly like I said before the game hasn't made the best of transitions a sequel could have. They have the shooting aspect alright, I guess. I suppose that is what happens when they focus on it. A lot less RPG-ier and a lot more TPS-ier.


I mentioned my gripe with the Command HUD. Too many mouse rollover bits for my taste. Personally I like everything laid out for me, shown out to me for me to see all options and have everything clear. (from what I've heard from my more console-oriented friends this doesn't really apply to the console versions, as theirs uses a wheel to use abilities in the HUD). I could argue that it clutters the space there already is, and sweeps the mess under an expandable carpet rather than organising it better.
Why condense the HUD for the PC version anyway? Going into the thing freezes the combat, we can rotate the camera around the point of view anyway to observe the surroundings at our leisure. It doesn't make a huge difference from taking out the side menus just so we can check our peripherals.


Compared to the Mako sequences, scanning is a bore for me. Sure, it's not frustrating or making me pull my hair out while my Mako free-falls off the edge of a 3-minute climb, but now all I do is sit at a screen and shoot probes at a planet. It doesn't have the same feel as going down onto the surface of the planet and exploring the unknown. I said it before; I would have liked it better if they'd just improved the way the Mako handles (ala the DLC vehicle) and made the trips shorter. Instead, BioWare made it a habit in this game of improving faults from ME1 by simply removing the offending content.
And I know this won't apply to console versions, but holding down the right mouse button while dragging to scan and then clicking the left mouse button to launch a probe? And at the speed it scrolls? Seriously, what the fuck?

(I've basically circumvented this silly practice by just rapidly tapping the right mouse button while i'm dragging it, meaning I take scans at small intervals rather than just checking the entire space while fusing my fingers with the mouse and fusing the mouse to the mousepad.)


So yeah, I get the vibe that everything has been simplified. I get the feeling that the ideas people went and sat down and said, "you know what? We need to make this game more streamlined. We need to stop them worrying about stats, and levels, and items, and let them focus on the important things, like getting behind cover Gears-style, shooting things and blowing them up with easy spell-casting."

I don't want to say that they dumbed it down, per se. The writing is still top-notch, the characters are still so engaging, and the story is just so fun to roll along with. Shepard is given the potential to absolutely bloom as a character, and whatever the choices are he/she is never a cardboard cutout hero/anti-hero. I'm actually tending to choose Renegade dialogue without feeling like my character is being a spiteful dick.
But there are mechanics here and there, elements of the gameplay that my opinion finds fault with. Compared to the first game, it doesn't feel as much of an RPG as it possibly could, and it places itself more firmly in the shooter genre. It leaves whatever RPG elements still there - the items, the levelling and the Command HUD, as well as the Charm/Intimidate aspects - oddly out of place, and uncomfortably simplistic. Not by much. But there's a feeling I have about it.
The big question I'm asking myself at the moment is, though, is why this shift? We all know how well the shooter/RPG hybrid works. The first Mass Effect game revelled in it.


EDIT x2: Reading over the wikipedia article, I only realised now that the game no longer uses elevator shafts to disguise loading screens, slow is me. Again, I'm intrigued as to why they changed that. It's an ingenious idea. I'd much rather watch my characters make small talk and listen to news reports rather than stare at a looping animation for a few seconds.

 

[Max Payne]

But there are mechanics here and there, elements of the gameplay that my opinion finds fault with. Compared to the first game, it doesn't feel as much of an RPG as it possibly could, and it places itself more firmly in the shooter genre. It leaves whatever RPG elements still there - the items, the levelling and the Command HUD, as well as the Charm/Intimidate aspects - oddly out of place, and uncomfortably simplistic. Not by much. But there's a feeling I have about it.
The big question I'm asking myself at the moment is, though, is why this shift? We all know how well the shooter/RPG hybrid works. The first Mass Effect game revelled in it.

guess you missed the exploring towns/huge amount of conversation options and character interaction that largely places the game still in RPG territory. Not to mention the giant focus on plot. ME2 is just as much an RPG as the first game was, which is quite a bit.

I don't care what anyone says though, I miss the Mako

We got a little factsheet card in the mail today titled "Fun Facts About Mass Effect 2". Surprisingly enough, it states that only 18% of all players chose a female Shepard while 82% played as a male Shepard. It didn't say whether or not that includes multiple playthroughs.
But even if it does, that's still a very small percentage of people who got to hear Jennifer Hale's (best) version of Commander Shepard. I guess a lot of Mass Effect 2 players are male and don't want to play as a woman. Or perhaps they never even bothered to do a second playthrough as a completely different character. How many of you chose a female redhead Renegade Shepard on their second run?
83% of players created their own face for Shepard. A whopping 65% of Mass Effect 2 players chose the Soldier class for our hero with the many favorite stores on the Citadel. I made some minor edits in the full list for those of you who are still waiting for the PS3 release.

• 83% of players created their own face for Shepard
• 82% play as male Shepard, 18% as female Shepard
• The Soldier class is far and away the most popular class at 65%
• <Archangel> was among the most popular squad members selected for missions
• 10% of players never let <The Krogan> out of <his/her thing>
• Only 50% of players have fully upgraded the <Ship> by the end of the game
• 14% of squad members die in the end-game, on average
• 36% of players chose the <Renegade choice> in the end-game

Mass Effect producer Casey Hudson spoke with IGN in September and mentiond that most of the data is gathered from "events" (player choices and actions). Here is a list of statistics that were released back then.

Why are so many people playing the game wrong?

;P

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

Why would you play a soldier when headshotting as an infiltrator is so much more fun? And why would you play with maleshep's pussy voice when you can sound like a real badass with femshep?

 

[looneymoon]

Yeah, I just started my game and even I thought Soldier was the most boring cookie-cutter class of the lot.

Infiltrator ftw

 

[ForceStealer]

In these kinds of RPGs I tend to try to make myself on my first playthrough. So I probably would have picked male Shepard too, if I played it originally. Obviously now that I know of the gap in acting quality when I get around to playing it I'll be the girl.

 

[Max Payne]

I wouldn't mind playing maleshep if his voice wasn't so fucking nasally and annoying to my ears.

 

[Hisako]

guess you missed the exploring towns/huge amount of conversation options and character interaction that largely places the game still in RPG territory. Not to mention the giant focus on plot. ME2 is just as much an RPG as the first game was, which is quite a bit.

I agree with most of that except that I'd have to say the first game was more of an RPG than the 2nd was. I'm not saying that ME2 wasn't an RPG, but compared to ME1 replacing all the little detailed bits of the inventory system, the points-based levelling system and cutting down on the upgrades and weaponry (or for that matter, items in general) is a big step away from the first game.

My favorite kill so far as Infiltrator is flanking using a tactical cloak, shield breaking with a point-blank sniper rifle to the back of the enemy's head and a melee follow-up. :3

Femshep should be the standard for proper videogame heroine voice acting.

The one thing I enjoyed most aside from the sniper rifle is the renegade options. I just kept getting this vibe from the first game the difference between Paragon and Renegade was the difference between being a pacifist and being a societal dick, but in the 2nd game the boundaries are blurred and some of the being-a-dick options are kinda justified,

 

[Joker]

Femshep is probably one of, if not the, best female VA I've seen ina a game.

(best male goes to Simon Templeman, btw - who happens to feature in ME2, lulz)

But yeah, people apparently play this game so very, very incorrectly. Maleshep is shit, let's be honest. He's good for seeing the romances, but that's it. Femshep has the better acting, and better modeling that doesn't almost always look like the missing link.

Soldier = booooring. INFILTRATOR MOTHERFUCKERS (although I am going to do additional ME1+2 playthroughs for every class)

The Mako was fucking shit and made me wish I didn't have hands.

I liked a lot of the customization from ME1, but glad that some left in ME2 - I like the upgrade system more than the management of gun levels, although I would have probably preferred that ammo powers be done a bit differently (I hate wasting a power slot). It IS nice that Decryption/Electronics aren't relevant anymore, and I like the way the lines between the guns have been more clearly drawn.

I wish I could have gotten Wrex back...I don't care for Grunt, so far.

I've just finished Horizon, and I must say, the story is pretty good. ESPECIALLY a little tiny bit that TIM dropped when discussing what happened on Horizon: "another way to lure them in" and all that. I was like YOU SNEAKY SON OF A BITCH. +10 awesome points to the guy for being all crafty an' shit.

I also just fought the first boss fight that actually whipped my ass multiple times. FUCKING LOVE IT MAN

Also: I love Garrus as much as the next guy, but...ME1, I stopped using him after getting Liara. I ran with Wrex and Liara the entire game (mostly for an achievement LOL) and loved it. Next playthrough will be Liara and Garrus (I didn't get Liara's achievement RAGE), and I really don't want to ever use Kaiden or Ashley. I will have trouble fitting Tali into a party, which sucks because I LOVE Tali ;.;

ME2, I'd been using Jacob/Miranda for a bit, even after recruiting Zaeed (biotic + tech on the one and Pull on the other > assault rifle). However, the last two missions, I've used Kasumi and Jack. Awesome choice. >:3

I actually sat and made out plans for my other characters, what gender to play them as, what morality, what to name them, what abilities to work with them. And I gotta say, I think I'm most looking forward to running an Adept with Tali and Zaeed >;D

PS: FUCK GRUNT
PPS: YAY LIARA
PPPS: CAN I LESBO WITH KASUMI HNNNNNNNGH

 

[Hisako]

Goddamn it's probably a trick of the eye but Samara's tits are huge







But anyway I would really like to see a variety of weapons in the next ME installment. Maybe not so mahoosive as the selection from the first game what with its Different-companies-slash-Roman-numeral-ranking becoming irrelevant after Spectre gear VII+, but really the weapons selection in ME2 didn't feel like anything if not severely restricted. At the moment I don't really have much to choose from every time I get a new-and-better option like I did in the first game, so the weaponry in ME2 feels more like a levelling system. Oh, look! a new sniper rifle! Do I have any reason to use any previous incarnation that might have something useful for it that this new one does not? Not really. Level up - sniper rifle!

The only thing that I've had to switch back to at the moment is that Collector beam gun, and only because the Collectors and their ridiculous minions all throw up barriers like crazy. Aside from that, once I find new guns, they're generally always better than the previous ones I find and make them obsolete.

So I would personally like, perhaps not a giant list of weapons like BioWare usually does. In hindsight having a giant list of differently branded items was overkill, but it'd be nice to have some variety and make us think more carefully about our guns, rather than pick up the next fresh thing and use it until we find the next fresh thing that's inevitably better.


On my ME1 playthrough I'd actually found a use for... well, pretty much everyone except for Wrex (umad, you ask and yes imad) and Kaiden. Wrex because... I dunno, and Kaiden, because I had Liara Generally for every mission I did in the first game there was always something each of the characters could help with. And almost always, I found any of the characters that had Electronics or Decryption to be useful.

ME2, restricting the abilities of characters somewhat, I've formed more of a pattern when it comes to missions, but I've been sticking to Garrus and Miranda an awful lot. Garrus is pretty much a constant in my team. Garrus/Miranda is fantastic against geth.

 

[Joker]

No, it's not a trick of the eyes.

Now stop motorboating and save the galaxy pls

 

[Max Payne]

They are perky and firm however.

 

[Hisako]

They are perky and firm however.

Honestly to me the asari are just the Twi'leks of the Mass Effect galaxy,

Except with colossal lifespans and unusually high sex appeal even in old age

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

I couldn't have been the only person who didn't enjoy mass effect 1's inventory, right? I generally forgot to sell all my shit (too busy slappin garrus around and telling him to straighten up and fly right as well as telling ashley to stop being so xenophobic). I mean yeah, I suppose it gave you more options, but once you got spectre gear did it really matter? I do wish there was more planet exploration, because I did enjoy that in ME1, but I am fine without the five hundred thousand things you get for inventory.

Also, ME1 was terrible when you wanted to actually try and level things up evenly: you could never properly hold a sniper until your level in it got sufficiently high. You could never expect your team mates to actually seek cover, I remember how Wrex was just standing in a doorway because I was standing behind the door and he got killed I don't know how many times. Also, minor thing, but I hate that you needed to have your weapon out to seek cover. Like Shepard has no idea how to duck and hide unless they have a gun in their hands, herpy derp.

Generally, I liked ME2 and I felt that it was just as RPGish as ME1, I just wish there were more exploration missions.But I do like the condensed weapons and the armor customization options. I feel like it's a great improvement over the omnigel humping glee that was ME1, especially cause there's no stupid phoenix armor.

 

[Joker]

ME1's inventory management was utter garbage.

ME2 doesn't HAVE an inventory to manage. =/

Also lolphoenixarmor.

I really wish there was more room for armor customization in ME2 tho, specifically the color options. I like messing around with it, but it would have been nice to have more total control over the appearance of both Shep and the squad. Example: ME1 letter you toggle the helmet - I always left it off, because I want to see Shep's face when she's talking. ME2 doesn't have that option, unleashed you forego the stat bonus. I Luke the stripe, but it isn't on most of the arm choices - I'm more or less using the default armor because I can't control the appearance to my satisfaction otherwise.

Same foes for the squad. I like Garrus and Jack's alternate costumes, but I don't like those retarded glasses Jack wears, and I don't like Garrus having an orange visor. I want more customization of appearance, basically, for all characters.

On the other hand, shortcuttimg squad member abilities was a great choice. I just wish it borrowed a bit from Dragon Age and gave you shortcut commands for the controls/secondary shortcuts.