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Mass Effect 3

^If you look at the new design, the jaw is pretty squared off so that's quite intentional on my part. It might seem more prominent because the hair frames the face differently.
 
Nope.....sorry folks who love femshep, I just can't do it. I can't take her seriously. It's the voice, it sounds soooooo.....forced. She sounds like someone "playing tough". Someone who is trying to make her voice sound deeper so she sounds tough. I just did another playthrough of ME1 as "Jane" and it just kinda made me laugh. Women don't have to sound badass to be badass. Look at say Ripley and Vasquez in Aliens. In no way did their acting seemed forced yet they were obviously ass kickers, well atleast Ripley was near the end. Or Zoe in Firefly. She was hard as nails but still spoke in a soft natural tone. Mark Meer aint perfect, and there were a FEW times he could have emoted a little more, But i'll take Meer over Hale any day of the week. Sheploo atleast sounds more natural, like someones actual speaking voice.

All that being said....I'm ok with the red head getting the default. Though I can't say I hated the blonde one either.
 
You're kidding right? Jenette Goldstein absolutely played an OTT tough bitch (that was the character after all) and her real voice is noticeably very different. Jennifer Hale on the other hand, pretty much uses her normal voice to play Shepard. Also, I don't know what dialogue options you were picking, but FemShep absolutely has "softer" line readings. Not to deride Meer's work, but Hale gives the character *MUCH* more emotional range.
 
Agreed, Jennifer Hale is incredibly gifted, a great voice actress. It's definitely a matter of personal preference though, I think Meer's pretty good as well. I don't mind playing as MaleShep at all.
Reverend said:
Just for a lark I thought I'd have a go at recreating the new default shep with the ME1. I have to admit I got closer than I thought possible (I'd say about 75% allowing for the absence of the right hair style, complexion texture, nose width and lip colour.) I might have a go at recreating it in ME2, just to see if it looks any better.
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I like it.
 
Reverend said:
You're kidding right? Jenette Goldstein absolutely played an OTT tough bitch (that was the character after all) and her real voice is noticeably very different. Jennifer Hale on the other hand, pretty much uses her normal voice to play Shepard. Also, I don't know what dialogue options you were picking, but FemShep absolutely has "softer" line readings. Not to deride Meer's work, but Hale gives the character *MUCH* more emotional range.
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Not kidding at all. Yeah, Vasquez was an over the top character, but Goldstein pulled it off while sounding natural, like it was her everyday character. To me, myself and I, Hale's Shepard does not sound natural at all. Meer sounds like a soldier, perhaps a little stiff at some moments, but still a soldier, a natural leader. Hale's Shepard just sounds like someone trying to act tough. The lines seemed so forced. Not saying Hale is bad. I'm aware of her body of work and usually I find her very good. But to me, her voice does not work for Mass Effect. This is just my opinion. Other's love her obviously, and thats great. Just my own personnal opinion.
 
I have to agree with HotRod. Normally I like Hale's work, but to me, Meer's Shepard sounds natural, confident, and commanding, while Hale's Shepard sounds like she's trying too hard to prove herself to everyone.
 
Thank you! Others are intitled to their opinions of course. I'm just glad someone shares mine.
 
That's because you're all misogynists. Obviously.

Wait, I have to add a "this is sarcasm, get it? Get it?!" smiley now, haven't I? ;)
 
^There may be a *very* small grain of truth in that actually. After all, culturally speaking we're not used to seeing females in strong leadership roles.

...Anyway, I just had a go at recreating the new default FemShep in Mass Effect 2 this time and ran into some interesting results that really shows how different the same face can be.

First off, when I did this in ME1 I made an exact note of all the slider settings so that I could easily convert that data into a ME2 facecode. So, doing that, what started as this: -



Ended up looking like this: -



Note how much more pale the skin looks and the head as a whole looks noticeably wider. The hair even appears to sit differently on the forehead.

A few minor alterations and I think I've got the right look again, but it's interesting to see the first two side-by-side.



One can only speculate if the ME3 face creator will be different still. Personally I'm hoping for more nose, mouth and complexion options. ;)
 
^There may be a *very* small grain of truth in that actually. After all, culturally speaking we're not used to seeing females in strong leadership roles.
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Very small. I've never had a history of having a problem with women in commanding positions. I loved Tomb Raider, Buffy, Aliens (Ripley), etc. trust me, it's just the voice. Though I never could stand Janeway........hmmmmmm.
 
^Yes, *very small*, as I said and I was thinking more of an unconscious cultural thing rathing than accusing anyone of being out-and-out prejudiced.

As for your examples; though those are all indeed "strong" female characters, none of them were really strong leaders (though you could probably argue either way for Ripley, depending on which film she's in.) Laura Roslin from Galactica might be a better example. I suppose Carter, Weir and Wray from the Stargate shows count too, but it's not as clear cut.

As for Janeway...her characterisation was written all over the place, so I don't think I'd count her as a strong leadership character.
 
Well when you're talking about third person shooters where you're forced to stare at your character's backside for something like 10-20 odd hours...I think it's safe to say I prefer the view with a female character. ;)

Truthfully though, I've always favoured female characters in RPGs when given the choice precisely because it's (still, even now) not the norm. Since my first playthrough was as a FemShep, Hale's performance has sort of fixed itself in my mind as my "definitive" Shepard.

I think it's like when you hear a new cover of a song, you tend to favour the first version you ever heard, regardless if it was the original. For example, I think it's fair to say the most people hear of Hendrix's version when they think of 'All Along the Watchtower'. When I think of 'Johnny B. Goode', the version that comes to mind is always the one from Back the the Future.

At the end of the day, it's all subjective.
 
Hmm, I still haven't played through ME2 with FemShep yet, but I might have to start over with her so I can see what I think of her.
 
Oh bloody hell I hope not. I know they think they've cracked the multiplayer RPG experience with TOR but I'd rather they not expend time and money shoehorning this into a series that has up until this point been very much a single player experience.

Best case scenario it's just an optional feature that allows up to 2 extra players to directly control the squad mates in combat only. Anything more than that and it'll almost certainly diminish the final product.

As for that artwork on the cover: I hope that's not official material. It's about as dodgy a photoshop job as I've ever seen.
 
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