Mass Effect 2

[bullethead]

Better question is, why would the Quarians hold a trial in English?

The codex has an entry that says everybody uses universal translators to ease communication with other species. The game salesman mentions it when he talks about batarians not using autotranslate during games.

 

[firehawk12]

Ah, the cheap Star Trek solution.

At least it's not silly where sometimes Klingons sometimes speak in Klingon and sometimes they speak in Human.

Shepard, this is the trial of Pahblahgaaack and the four Sheematacks of the fleet must preside over it. Or did they actually do that? I can't remember now.

 

[bullethead]

Ah, the cheap Star Trek solution.

At least it's not silly where sometimes Klingons sometimes speak in Klingon and sometimes they speak in Human.

Shepard, this is the trial of Pahblahgaaack and the four Sheematacks of the fleet must preside over it. Or did they actually do that? I can't remember now.

I don't mind it myself. The only times where stuff doesn't translate are when aliens use alien curse words and certain religious words.

 

[Ryan]

What's the deal with all the Quarians having wildly different accents anyway?

Because humans don't have wildly different accents?

Well, not usually when they all grow up in the same neighborhood. Everyone Tali grew up around has a different accent from her - and each other - including her own father. You've got Brit, Aussie, Persian, American, German, and Tali's vaguely Slavic/gypsy thing going.

It's not really a criticism. I just find it funny.

 

[Ryan]

Ah, the cheap Star Trek solution.

At least it's not silly where sometimes Klingons sometimes speak in Klingon and sometimes they speak in Human.

Shepard, this is the trial of Pahblahgaaack and the four Sheematacks of the fleet must preside over it. Or did they actually do that? I can't remember now.

The only show that ever really handled it well was Farscape where nothing was translated, you just understood whatever language they were speaking.

Hmmm, I think this means we need Ben Browder in ME3.

 

[Sheep]

Better question is, why would the Quarians hold a trial in English?

Universal translator. You don't think Shepard's brilliant enough to speak fluent quarian, turian, krogan, asari(an?), salarian, volus, drell, batarian and elcor, do you?

Speaking of which, I agree with the Giant Bomb guys and want an elcor squad mate in one of the DLCs. Maybe one running the ship...sure as hell not someone to take on an away mission.

 

[firehawk12]

Hanar assassins baby!

 

[Reverend]

Oh I don't know, logically speaking a race like the Elcor that naturally lives in a high gravity environment could in theory have the muscle power to move at quite a clip in a 1G environment. Can't see them holding a gun though...actually, that's a point, do they even have opposable digits?

As for the differing Quarian accents, perhaps some accents are specific to certain ships and since adult Quarians get adopted by a new shop after their pilgrimage, the accents they carry with them are mixed all over the place. Not that it matters much in any case.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

If you're wondering how they understand, or other science facts, (la la la) then repeat to yourself: "It's just a game. I should really just relax."

 

[LeadHead]

^ We can only do that if Tom Servo is involved.

 

[Jim Steele]

Ah, the cheap Star Trek solution.

A necessary conceit, lest half the fucking dialogue be dancing around language barriers.

 

[Reverend]

In hindsight it probably wasn't clear, but I was being ever so slightly ironic.

 

[firehawk12]

Ah, the cheap Star Trek solution.

A necessary conceit, lest half the fucking dialogue be dancing around language barriers.

I must admit, I prefer it to the looping voices used in KoTOR in JE. But it'd kind of be nice if on a Quarian ship, people just spoke Quarian.

 

[LeadHead]

I prefer it this way, the Uo-ka-la-ba-da-ji-ka of KOTOR got really old.

 

[Reverend]

Aliens speaking English is a major suspension of disbelief that just about every relevant non-literary science fiction story is forced to impose on it's viewers. Explanations run from universal translators in Star Trek (which also fix lip sync in real time) to translator microbes in Farscape (also good for lip syncing) and for Stargate there's the...oh...yeah.

I think one of the few TV shows that got it consistently right was B5, where you had aliens that had to actually learn English or use clunky, creepy sounding translators that did nothing for lip sync.

And yes, I agree, the alien speak in KOTOR does get irritating, FAST. Mostly because it's always the same two sentences looped ad nauseum and your character didn't have a voice so there's nothing to break it up but silent, slightly cross-eyed head bobbing.

 

[firehawk12]

I guess it just doesn't make sense to create a consistent language and then have an actor record all those lines convincingly.

Too bad though, because if there's one place where it would be more practical, it would be in games.

 

[Deks]

Well, KOTOR was bad in this retrospect because it only had a few words of 'alien' language that ALL aliens spoke.
It was repetitive and got tired after a while.

they just have to introduce much more variety and create a distinctly different language for each race (there's only a few of them in ME to begin with ... or at least few individuals you will be speaking with directly).

As it is though ... majority of alien races in ME behave exactly like Humans.
The language and swearing makes it look like Humanity indoctrinated everyone to the level of low-earth trash.

Their behaviour in terms of being actually 'alien' is not really present.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I think one of the few TV shows that got it consistently right was B5, where you had aliens that had to actually learn English or use clunky, creepy sounding translators that did nothing for lip sync.

That doesn't explain why aliens consistently spoke English on their home planets when there were no humans around.

We just have to accept that this is one of those things necessary for proper story-telling. If they have to come up with a conceit such as universal translators, then so be it.

 

[Reverend]

I think it's a given that in those instances they were actually speaking their own languages. It's just a TV show after all and nobody expects them to do whole episodes with subtitles. The trick with the consistency is that whenever humans are around, when you hear aliens speaking English, they're really speaking English. No humans, then their probably not speaking English.

The same type of logic applies to the old "sound in space" conceit. When the perspective is inside a ship with the characters, then they can't hear the explosions, weapons fire or engine noise that isn't coming from their own ship. When the perspective is outside then there's sound. It's just dramatic licence, like gunshots that sound several orders of magnitude more powerful than they should, or punches that sound nothing like the dull thud of knuckles connecting with mean and bone.

 

[Hermiod]

Took everyone's advice.

Spoiler: Completed the game

Saved everyone and handed the base over to Cerberus.

My picks were:

Technician: Tali
Fire Team Leader #1: Garrus
Biotic Shield: Jack
Escort: Mordin
Fire Team Leader #2: Garrus again
Final Team: Tali and Jack

I picked Tali and Jack because I read a guide that suggested you should bring use the weakest defenders for the Escort and in your final team. That meant getting Mordin out of harms' way and making sure that Garrus, Grunt and Zaeed were around to hold off the Collectors.