Mass Effect 3

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by PsychoPere, Dec 10, 2010.

  1. HotRod

    HotRod Commodore Commodore

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    Sometimes I think I'm the only one out there who prefers Meer's Shepard over Hale's. Theres something about her voice I just can't stand. Almost like she is trying too hard to sound Butch. Whereas to me, Meer's Shepard always comes off as someone trying to sound brave and heroic. Maybe that's why whenever I play as a male I can't help but go full hero of the galaxy paragon, and whenever I play as a female I can't help but come off as a renegade butch bitch.
     
  2. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I'm with you, HotRod. The difference is especially noticeable when playing a Renegade Shepard. Mark Meer's Renegade delivery is suitably menacing and often hilarious (in a good way), while Hale's sounds very forced and overdone.
     
  3. LeadHead

    LeadHead Director of Comedy Premium Member

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    ^ I'm with you guys. Male Shepard sounds natural, while Female Shepard sounds forced. Nothing against the voice actress, she's awesome in other things, ME just isn't her best work.
     
  4. superdeluxe

    superdeluxe Captain Captain

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    Has there been discussion about after the ME3 wraps up, to continue with stories in the ME universe? I could totally see a ME universe game set up after the events in ME3..maybe like a Moo3/Galatic Civ style kind of game.
     
  5. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    ^Assuming ME3 isn't a commercial disaster, I think the chances of them continuing the franchise in some form is exceedingly high.

    The possibility of an MMO has been tossed around I think, but that might be a tricky proposition given that'd it'd be in direct competition with 'Old Republic.'

    Probably the safest route would simply be another RPG trilogy with a new central character, possibly set some years, decades or centuries after the "current" events.
     
  6. Saquist

    Saquist Commodore

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    At least I'm not the only one who noticed...Meer's acting in the first was incredible...this game just feel short of the last at least by that much and Hale did an incredible job...whether she's paragon or renegade the voice is hot.


    I felt I had to use the Cereberus crew ever time I was on a recruitment mission...our other people just seemed to stick out too much.

    His was boring but none of the other loyalty missions had anything to do with the plot of the game. Except for Legion because at least the Geth were working for the Reapers.
    The Thane/ Jacob rivalry occurred to me too.
     
  7. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Tali's loyalty mission took us to the Migrant fleet for the first time, gave us our first real look into quarrian culture and the possibility to sway opinion for or aginst a war with the geth. I'd say that's significant. Mordin's mission may also have very significant lasting repercussions. While the repercussions were strictly personal, Jack's mission served to remind the player just what kind of organization Cerberus is and just how many skeletons are lurking the the closet.

    Granted the loyalty missions for Miranda, Thane's, Garrus and Samara didn't have much of a connection the the rest of the game plotwise, but they all served to advance their respective character arcs and deepen our understand of them. What did we get out of Jacob? His father was an arsehole. Whoopie.

    With all the others you get a real sense that something in them has changed once they're "loyal." Either a weight has been lifted, or a new sense of purpose and meaning is found or a new perspective is gained. With Jacob you never get that there's anything dogging him (besides being Miranda's ex) until he the moment he mentions the distress beacon. What little angst he appeared to have seemed to be rooted in his frustration at Alliance and Citadel politics getting in the way what needs to be done. So some mission relating perhaps to his time as a corsair might have much easily addressed that. His daddy issues came out of nowhere and disappeared just as fast.
     
  8. Saquist

    Saquist Commodore

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    I enjoyed the Migrant fleet mission. I had always wanted to go there. I just love that girl and that was the mission that felt the most like I still playing the first Mass Effect. But it wasn't related with the story's plot of "Humans are disapearing". That's how the game was introduced in teaser and that's what the plot was. Will it all be linked...I'm sure they'll do something. ME2 was a big game but those loyalty missions were more about ME3 than ME2.

    I can sympathize with that though.
    I had a similar father until...
    Miranda: Didn't get that feeling. She still treated Jack badly ans she still had stick to be removed. I have this thing about people that treat the abused badly and she made that mistake too many times.

    Jack: I think it actually did dedicate Jack to you yes. Jack was the character I most drawn and repelled by. Jack definitely needed to blow that place up. And it was weird because I didn't want to take her there because I though I would alienate Cerberus in the process. So I delayed.

    Thane: I loved talking with him. His story was a mystery. I don't think I felt him any more loyalty to him than before he dedicated himself to me

    Zaeed: He was an idiot but what do expect from a Mercenary. He's a hired gun I felt the loyaltay bit for him was ridiculous.

    Mordin: I didn't get it. We rush there to save the day and don't save anyone.

    Tali: Felt REAL, the death of her father made that so much more powerful. It definitely developed Tali just as well as she was in the first game.

    Garrus: Seemed a bit on the superficial side. We need more anxiety on his part before hand to make the mission feel more like a release and I know they kept saying "you've changed" but I didn't see it much.

    Grunt: The Rutting thing was exciting and it really felt like Grunt got things clear in his head. This makes believe that it's the actors pulling this off and not just the story itself.

    Samara: extremely tanget. Most of the loyalty missions...(if not all ) are just to coincidental for my taste. This is one of them and its too often family related. While the mission was kewl and unique it felt forced. At least we were running and gunning through another loyalty mission again.

    Kasumi: I thought her mission should have been the first mission we did instead of straight up combat...it would have been nice to string together a little intrigue between the illusive man and her bad guy. I didn't get the feeling she was more at ease...it was just another mission to me.
    And I understand that it was supposed to be out of the blue but it felt uh...boring.

    For some reason I feel Jack's Tali's and Liara's mission were the most profound and potentially most important. The game should have ended on the Liar of the shadow broker. Jack blowing up the Cerberus installation should have come just before that leading to a break away from Cerberus and Kasumi's first with Jack's following.

    Grunt would have been a necessary side mission like picking up Jack after payment. It would have been a shorter game but it also would have made a bit more sense and then you could pick up the other characters directly by payment...(the point of resource hunting) . There missions would have been there but there would be no loyalty factor....
     
  9. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Just noticed a new "N7 Ops" section on the official website. Nothing huge but there's what looks like the codex entry for Thessia (the Asari homeworld), a Cerberus trooper, a new assault rifle (with built in grenade launcher if I'm reading it right) and some odd little mini-game.
     
  10. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Sorry for the double post, but this looks interesting. Looks like Bioware is offering fans (the ones with facebook accounts at least) the opportunity to vote which new FemShep concept they like the best. If I had an account I'd be voting for #1 myself. Mainly because I want to steal that hairstyle for me Infiltrator FemShep. ;)

    The others are all pretty interesting except #4 who looks WAY too much like a glamour model to be believable as a soldier.
     
  11. Saquist

    Saquist Commodore

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    Yeah I've already seen it. The black hair one is awesome.
    Blond is winning with 10,000
    Black hair is at 4096
     
  12. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    Oh God this is so hard to pick just one!

    I'm a sucker for short haircuts with women, so my first pick would #1.

    Blond is awesome too, though.
     
  13. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I'd say the blone one would be my second choice. Sort of Starbuck meets The Boss (from MGS3.) I have to say I'm surprised that one is leading the pack. Looking at the ME faces database, blonde Shepards (male or female) seem to be few and far between.

    Of course whichever one wins, let's hope Bioware will put out a patch for the previous two games, adding that face to the presents....yeah I know, fat chance! ;)
     
  14. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    ^ Oh don't worry, the community will pick up the slack and have a Youtube how-to guide for the editor up in no time ;)
     
  15. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I actually like FemShep #3 the best, but I like FemShep #5 too, and I'm not surprised she's winning. I don't know why BioWare didn't have a high-quality default face for FemShep like they had for ManShep from the beginning, though.

    SPCTRE, I think it's going to be impossible to recreate this face on the editor, just like it's impossible to recreate the Sheploo face.
     
  16. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    ^ Well, I also thought it would be impossible to re-create Gillian Anderson's face with the ME character editor - I was proven wrong :D

    You may be right of course, but at least an approximation might be feasible.
     
  17. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    I think up until now FemShep has on the whole been something of an afterthought and I think in a way that's been a real strength. By sheer practical necessity, 99% of character interactions are the same regardless of Shepard's gender. The net result being a strong female character with out the self consciousness or overcompensation of the more common "tough chick" type personalities. She's a battle hardened marine and naval officer who just so happens to be female. *climbs off soap box*

    Plus I think the marketing people probably just assumed that consistently sticking with a "safe" looking protagonist would be a better way to promote the games. They're probably right too as I gather the vast majority of players pick the soldier male Shepard, at least for the first play through.

    I think Skywalker is right, just looking at it I can tell the face editors for ME 1&2 aren't nearly flexible enough to recreate *that* particular face shape (to say nothing of the hair.) Right off the bat I can see that the bridge of the nose is too wide, the eyes too big and the

    The face creator in the Dragon Age games for example has a lot more options (but then it is a fantasy game) but neither have anywhere near the likes of Saints Row 2. Now *THAT* is what I call a face creator.
     
  18. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I don't know if it's really been a strength. They never even bothered to program the FemShep model with appropriate female movements and positions until the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, if I remember right. :lol:

    And I'm not going to comment on the latter part of your post, except to say that I disagree about FemShep not being overcompensating. Hale's vocal performance is the very definition of overcompensating. :p

    I just think it was kind of short-sighted of BioWare. They know they have a strong female fanbase, unlike many other gaming companies out there. It just seems weird that they would treat FemShep as sort of an afterthought in the first two games, considering the amount of female fans they have.
     
  19. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    I don't think BioWare was short-sighted, at least not in that way. I'd wager one month's salary that most FemShep proponents/fans are actually male.
    You know what pissed me off most about DA2's editor? That I couldn't have that blood-smear thingy on my nose with a custom FemHawke :lol:
     
  20. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    You're probably right. I guess I'm just basing my opinion about the situation on a female friend of mine, who is a big BioWare fan, prefers FemShep over ManShep, and was annoyed at how BioWare always seemed to be giving preferential treatment to the male Shepard over the female one.