So if we were to get a life action TV series or movie series, would you rather see the aliens done in CG or live action make up/puppetry. Personally, I'd prefer Farscape style make up/puppetry.
^ A bit of both. Some aliens obviously work best as makeup/costuming (Asari, Quarians, Drell, Batarians), some may need slightly too extensive prosthetics (Salarians, Taurians), and others would need to either be an extensive puppet or completely CGI (Krogans).
Why would any studio go through the expense and trouble to do this? The default Shep has always been shown to be male> Players have the option of reshaping the base character to better reflect themselves or make someone new...but that never changed the fact that there was just one main Shep for use in the series...you know the one used in promotions etc.
Specifically this guy, although they did add a default female Shepard for Mass Effect 3. Unless someone just wants Vanderloo for their film star, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just have an open casting call regardless of race or gender. It's similar to what Dan O'Bannon wanted for Aliens, and it's something Star Trek has toyed with (male actors were considered for the role of Voyager's captain).
Actually i think this is overstated by fans when it comes to the movies. You can't influence the main storyline at all.. you can just influence cosmetic details surrounding the main story that deal with issues regarding a race (granted.. some of these are pretty life changing for some races) or a person but the main storyline will still progress like planned. The movies will most likely focus on the main storyline and have its hands full with it as it is.. i'd also guess they won't switch out nearly the entire team from movie to movie so the movies will bound to deviate significantly from the games. Of course fans will cry murder when their favorite scenes get omitted entirely but as comic fans have learned sometimes you have to sacrifice original material and change stuff because otherwise it wouldn't work onscreen.
If the Mass Effect 3 movie doesn't have Shepard loafing around at the Citadel mall for the next six months after Earth's been wiped out while other planets are falling left and right, then I'm boycotting.
How do you compress a 30 hour game into a 2 hour movie? I wouldn't have high hopes for this. If it happens (and I doubt it will) it's going to be another dreadful adaptation like all other game-to-movie projects. I don't think a single good movie was ever made out of a video game. They've pretty much all sucked and Mass Effect will be the same, in spite of the quality of the ME series. In fact, a TV series based in the ME universe (not necessarily about Shepard) would probably be a better idea than a standalone movie. It's about time we had a decent space-based TV series again and the ME universe would provide a lot of good material for an entertaining sci-fi series.
Well they could probably get away with it if they keep some of the sequel game squad mates in the sequels (honestly they could trim out the less interesting ones) and Mass Effect 3 has most of the original squad back anyway so it wouldn't be too much trouble there. Honestly as long as a film based on Mass Effect 2 has the same beats ie Shepard forced into basically going outlaw and working with terrorist organization Cerberus because none of governments want to get involved with the Collector attacks it should still work, of course I'm rather they still blew up the Normand SR-1 and replace it with the (in my opinion) better designed Normandy SR-2.
I'm a believer that scifi/games/VR/nanotech will eventually converge, it will be scifi, and will exist AS scifi. It will be a new storytelling medium. Having said that...............the current era of video games, while influential don't seem to be on the level of a good novel or movie/tv series. I tried playing Mass Effect 2 (I am not a gamer in any sense of the word) and it didn't really suck me in. I plan on returning to it to explore it further sometime. PS I started one of those threads mentioned in some of the op links that led to older links...I questioned if Mass Effect or Halo are this era's Star Trek or SW...I think the answer is a definitive yes...I see lots of kids that hardly seem to watch tv or movies much at all anymore, their only concern is for games. Its's cool that they're interactive I suppose, but I found the Halo 4 low budget movie more appealing than any of the game itself. I also liked the historical presentation from Halo Legends, it inspired me to buy two Halo novels by Greg Bear. I guess I'm old fashioned on this point.