Mass Effect Series

[Lex]

Matt Rhodes was a concept artist working on the Mass Effect series. In his blog he's just had a big update with all this concept art for earlier ideas through the trilogy, including what Tali's face might have looked like and a lot of other designs for new aliens, different designs for the current ones, the Shadow Broker etc.

Here, take a look.

It was a fun read.

Spoiler: Early human reaper designs:

Spoiler: Endgame choices:

Spoiler: Tali's face concepts:

Anyway, it's a really interested read with some very pretty artwork

 

[Carlie]

The second one for Tali's face looks really nice especially compared to the crappy, lazily photoshop they went with.

 

[AvecAloes]

The endgame choice concepts make it look so much more satisfying than it actually was.

/had to say it

 

[Lex]

The second one for Tali's face there is also my favourite, and it'd probably be everyone's favourite. And of course it's better than what we were eventually landed with. My problem with it is that it just looks a bit too human, and kind of ignores the parts of her eyes we can see through the mask.

 

[Mantichorus]

Agreed. I kinda imagined quarians as being somewhere in between the two designs. Both are pretty awesome, though.

 

[Ami]

Spoiler: Is it over yet? Can I open my eyes?

So, I just finished the game and I'm in a lot of tears right now. I chose merging organics and synthetics ending, and I knew I'd be crying regardless. Can finally see what the outrage was about when everyone was all RAEG about the ending(s). It just broke my heart with a few things:

a) YOU FUCKING DIE, REGARDLESS OF THE CHOICES. WHICH IS FUCKING ASDFGHJKL.
b) Kaidan. I cried when he said see you on the other side.
c) Anderson! What a powerful death.
d) Kaidan. I cried when Shepard said he'd always love him.
e) Which ending is canon?
f) Kaidan. WHEN HE PUT UP SHEPARD'S NAME UP ON THE NORMANDY. I LOST IT.
g) LEAVING EARTH ON THE CREDITS.
h) HOW THE FUCK CAN I PLAY THIS GAME ON INSANITY WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THIS HELL AGAIN.

Thank fuck I left Citadel to last. I can see now why everyone told me to do it after completing the main game. I'm so glad I listened. I'll play that and just pretend Shepard dying was a fluke. Also, that she ran away with Kaidan and their babies were smart AND beautiful!

Also, that post-credit scene. Could the little kid be the next protagonist? I know I'm sort of late into discussing the future, but whatevs.

Now, back to the tissues ...

 

[ForceStealer]

e) Which ending is canon?

The Citadel DLC.

 

[Lex]

There isn't a canon ending, just like there's not a canon choice for anything. They're all equally terrible

 

[Hisako]

Eh, I'm not fussed enough to quantify the ending anymore

STILL MY GOTY 2012

Also, anyone here doing PC multiplayer? I havent touched it in a while, but it's super fun and I'm looking to dive back into it

 

[null]

Spoiler

Shepard lives in Destroy if you have enough war assets. I can't remember the exact number but it's way lower w/ Extended Cut.

@ canon: seems like the shittiest choices always turns out to be the canon ones, so the less canon the better.

 

[Carlie]

The Citadel DLC.

This is what happens:

- Shep breaks

Spoiler

Kai Leng's little sword and kills him with the best renegade interrupt in the series.

- Shep then goes to sleep and has a horrible nightmare about the final mission on Earth, good thing it was only that a nightmare.

- Said nightmare prompts Shep to decide is time to party hard with everyone so much awesomeness and hilarity ensues.

- The end.

Spoiler

Shepard lives in Destroy if you have enough war assets. I can't remember the exact number but it's way lower w/ Extended Cut.

@ canon: seems like the shittiest choices always turns out to be the canon ones, so the less canon the better.

And by survive the game means

Spoiler

just a two second shot of Shep's N7 armor suddenly moving as they start to breathe inside the pile of cement, the magical cement on the Citadel never seen before.

 

[Hisako]

I know you still have a personal vendetta against the ending, but imposing "magical cement" on the game is a bit much.

 

[Carlie]

Yeah well the details of the endings have thankfully become rather fuzzy to me since they're not something I replay a lot or at all so the cement might be a figment of my imagination. Honestly I can't even remember the music the plays in the end credits.

Also no u satsu shun.

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm not still emotional over the endings, but their shittiness remains and I'll gladly rag on them just like TLS does about everything SE does.

And seriously, Citadel DLC is the ending. Don't let anyone play it before beating the game.

 

[wander]

can't wait to see how bad the movie will be.

 

[Carlie]

Spoiler: Lawl

 

[null]

Man, I miss when ME was brand new.

 

[Lex]

I know right?

I find myself needing moar. MOAR. Kinda want to replay the trilogy now. There have been a few Bioware staff tweets recently about the new Mass Effect saying it's coming along really well and "looks amazing" etc. I don't mind if they take their sweet sweet time with this one

 

[Carlie]

Go play DA instead Lex, you need that series in your life.

 

[Ami]

I second what Carlie said.

And those gifs were totally me when I was driving that blasted things.

 

[Hisako]

I still want moar exploration, more vehicle segments. The best parts of the Mako segments were when they were being integrated into the story and the level was designed around them (like Halo's level design, in a sense), as opposed to being mostly randomly generated terrain. Feros in particular was one of my favorite parts of ME1.

 

[Carlie]

I would be down with that if they give me a vehicle that actually works.

 

[Ami]

I'd be down, too. Can't wait for the next game in the series, though I'm with Lex on this. I would rather them take their time and make it as perfect as they can. Also wondering what ending is actually canon in relation to the future.

Spoiler

I'm presuming the one where synthetics and organics don't become one?

 

[Lex]

I don't think they can make a canon ending without pissing everyone off, but I also don't see how they can make a game that doesn't have a canon ending. The irony is they all have pretty drastically different outcomes, even though the lazy ass endings were just differences in colour.

 

[Hisako]

The irony is they all have pretty drastically different outcomes

This was pretty much the argument I was making during March-April, Shittiness aside people were simpliflying it to "IT'S ALL THE SAME EXCEPT IN DIFFERENT COLORS", while never actually considering the ramifications of what they did.