The ending was still being worked on in November (the game released in March) - they had to get Martin Sheen to record his TIM dialogue on-the-road while he was filming something else. From memory, I think he had been scheduled to record his lines in August, but that was delayed because of the problems they were having in nailing down the final act.
Think they mean't the default model for FemShep changes between ME2 and ME3 - whereas Sheploo is modeled on Mark Vanderloo, hence doesn't change that much in between the games.
I'm almost certain that if you imported a femshep that had the old default look, she'd still look essentially the same. I don't think it just substitutes the new default. Could be wrong though. Never tested it myself, just vaguely recall reading it somewhere.
The thing about the first Mass Effect game is that the whole "Humanity is in danger" schtick was simply a coincidence to a much larger scale plan. Saren didn't attack the human colony because it had humans on it, he attacked it because it had the Prothean beacon on it. The big plan was targeting every sentient race in the galaxy. I think when it comes to the role that humanity plays in the game is what role the race has in the galaxy. For example, in ME1, humanity is just now becoming part of the council races, a group of aliens that have been traveling around the galaxy for a lot longer than humans have. As the game plays out, Shepard can do things that reflect a 'pro-unity' stance with the council races, or a 'independent/dominant' stance. This concept is put to the real test at the end when Shepard gets to decide on whether to save the members of the council or save the human ships. Do you work alongside with the other races, or do you step in and say you're the boss now? That's one of the reasons I liked TIM as the antagonist in the second game. He represented the human element that doesn't want to be looked at as equals to all the other races in the galaxy. He wants humanity to be the 'dominate power' over everyone else and he was willing to do whatever it took to ensure that goal. But in ME3, Earth and humanity are pretty much the priority no matter where your character stands.
Yeah, the game kinda expect you to have an emotional connection to Earth, since it's not a fictional place and considering that it's your home and the home of everything you know and everyone you like.
I think it would have more effectively locked in the emotional connection if there'd been more tales from earth. More specific ones too, we heard only general things about continents and "major cities" not specific major cities unless you count London. In the start of the game we saw brief news flashes from all over the world. More of that would've been nice, maybe it's one of the things that Shepard watches to maintain drive and Garrus or Liara have to drag him/her away from it.
A lot of things would have made the game better, but there was only so much that could be included in the time available and with the budget they had. Having a journalist on the Normandy *should* have been a great way to implement that connection, but we all know what a dull waste of time she turned out to be. I was actually playing the game earlier today (doing an insanity run with my renegade engie) and while doing the Surkesh mission I found myself noting (not for the first time) that they never did directly address what Cerberus were up to. I get the impression that it was originally meant to be made pretty much definitive that they were indeed all indoctrinated by the reapers but certain lines were cut and the loose plot threads are just left to flap around being unclear. Perhaps they realised they'd created a plothole with the Horizon mission since it's established early on that the whole organization had been co-opted that it'd make no sense for TIM to have been able to develop a way to block the reaper signal, nor would the reapers have attacked sanctuary. As it stands the only way I can make sense of things is that TIM's hold on his indoctrinated troops was always tenuous and the reapers were able to subjugate whole groups of them at a time. It would certainly explain Benning and Surkesh.
Actually, the Earth of Mass Effect IS a fictional place and it is not the home of everyone we know. My family and friends don't live on Mass Effect's Earth, so why should I feel connected to it? What exactly does Earth give in the mass Effect universe that makes it unique? I can tell you that a lot of other science fiction franchises don't have Asari, Krogen, Turians ect, but a lot of them do have an Earth. There's not even one freaking alien on Earth in Mass Effect 3, so all we're pretty much doing is saving a "Homo-sapions only planet". At least on Tuchanka you can see Krogen with their alien mates. Yep. The worn down homeworld of the Krogen have more diversity than Earth.
As an aside from ME3; I started my canon trilogy play through a few days with a Paragon FemShep. About 20 hours in so far, and loving it all over again. Hadn't played the first game for about 3 years prior to this - the things that I remember frustrating me before (Mako, clunky combat, inventory system) hardly bother me at all now. ME1 has a sense of scale that's never really been recaptured in the second and third games - the Citadel is huge, Noveria too, then there's Feros as well. One thing that the Mako did do was to give the planets a sense of size. In the later games you land, kick ass, and then get back on the Normandy. Generally speaking. The number of side-missions is staggering, and there seems to be more variety than in the later games, particularly ME3. Good job there's a proper journal system to keep track of everything. Missed that in ME3 too. Quite like the ranking system and equipment setting as well. The dialogue wheel seems populated, but not as refined as in ME2 - ie. there's often a choice of things to say, yet whichever one you pick you end up saying pretty much the same thing anyway. Can't remember if ME2 did that quite so much. Guess I'll find out soon. A few more side missions to do and then on to Virmire. Sorry Ash, knowing what I know now, I think you'll be getting a one-way ticket through the pearly gates this time. Kaidan was so much better in the final game. Wrex will be surviving this time too. There's so much in ME1 that I'd forgotten that it almost seems like an entirely new game.
That's a fallacy. Of course every place in every piece of fiction is by definition fictional. Of course even real people become fictional when they're used as characters in a novel or a movie. In a way, the Earth of Mass Effect is not anymore "the real Earth" than the Earth of Sense and Sensibility is. But the attachment, the feelings of compassion, those that make it possible to feel any connection to fictional characters, are real. The Earth of Mass Effect is a fictional place, that's true, but it is also Earth, and we feel a connection to it - except our psychopathic friends - because Earth is everything we know.
It'd be interesting to do a super pro-human, anti-alien Shepard sometime, having Ashley kill Wrex on Virmire, and then ensure only Miranda, Jacob, Jack, Kasumi, and Zaeed survive the suicide mission. Unfortunately, Liara is completely unkillable in ME3... *grumble*
Yeah.... but the game's practically over by that point. I did start a new engineer last night since I love the class so much, which I'll dabble with on the side while I primarily work on the vanguard, who's about halfway through ME2 currently. Plan with the engineer is to romance Kaidan in ME1, Thane in ME2, and then hook up with Kaidan again after Thane inevitably dies. Need someone to fill the gap while Kaidan's dickering around on Horizon / laying in the hospital! I'm curious if you still get the Thane romance stuff in the Citadel DLC if you've hooked up with someone else afterwards.
You're kidding, you've still got that epic boss battle against Marauder Shields afterwards! Pretty sure that you don't.
No, it's one or the other. I don't know anyone on Mass Effect's Earth. Maria Shepard may not have even VISITED Earth before the tribunal. It's stupid to expect people to care about Earth because "I LIV THER FOR REEL!!!!!!!" It's a cheap cop-out used by hack writers. Obviously I know that I live here and all my family and friends do, but I'm no more a psychopath for not connecting to a fictional version with none of those people in it and absolutely no context to make me connect to anyone or anything else. The fiction provides me no reason to care. That's the heart of the matter. Expecting me to because of outside influence, no matter how basic, only betrays a weakness in the work itself. Star:Trek First Contact? That made me care. Lilly and Zefram were a real, tangible connection. Obviously you *appreciate* the Borg threat, but they give you a very real, personal context. That's an example of that scenario done well. Not that that approach would've necessarily worked well here, but that's not the point. If a work of fiction cannot stand up on its own merits and expects you to care about its locations and people without providing any reason or context, then that's a bad work of fiction.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, Earth is a place where 10 billion people live. That alone should be enough for ANY Shepard give a crap. Failing that, it's the place where Anderson is and if you don't care about that, them you *must* have been indoctrinated after all. Small aside, but whatever Shepard's origin, she/he at some point must have visited Earth (Rio de Janeiro, specifically) since that's where the Interplanetary Combatives Training program is based and were the N1 course is held. The off-world training doesn't start until the N2 - N6 courses. And if that's not enough; the Normandy starts it's journey in Earth orbit right at the beginning of Mass Effect 1, so Shep most likely embarked as XO on the ground.