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Author Topic: Mass Effect 2  (Read 366665 times)

Johnny C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #550 on: 25 Dec 2009, 00:08 »

It would be so dope if intimidating the crazy seer character in a Bioware game so hard that he runs away or gets punched into oblivion or whatever was something you could also carry over
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Johnny C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #551 on: 25 Dec 2009, 00:14 »

Also John how fun is it being an iconoclast
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Johnny C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #552 on: 25 Dec 2009, 00:14 »

Do you enjoy it

Does it give you... pleasure
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Johnny C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #553 on: 25 Dec 2009, 00:15 »

Why don't they let me write video games, I'm asking this unironically
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LTK

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #554 on: 25 Dec 2009, 05:31 »

Well, Shamus Young seems to agree. I don't see what was wrong with the crazy scientist's assistant though. It's not entirely impossible that he saw Saren with an army of Geth following him while everyone else was busy getting shot.
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Alex C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #555 on: 25 Dec 2009, 08:47 »

I didn't like the crazy assistant at all-- I thought he came across as silly and jarring. It's hard to voice act a disturbed character in a way that's remotely believable, so perhaps in the future they should just cut out the ones that happen to be completely and utterly unnecessary next time.
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KvP

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #556 on: 25 Dec 2009, 09:07 »

Also John how fun is it being an iconoclast
I don't know, why don't you tell me all of your thoughts on how great the new Paramore is and we'll compare notes.
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Johnny C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #557 on: 25 Dec 2009, 10:18 »

John, let's find a programmer and make a video game together
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Storm Rider

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #558 on: 25 Dec 2009, 12:01 »

Maybe you should just stop overcompensating for this perceived 'cocksucking'. Does Mass Effect have flaws? Sure, plenty of them, but Christ you could stop being so fucking negative all the time.
I was recently in this Psych of Gender class which (understandably) was mostly about the history of psychology up to the present and how psychiatry has been heavily stacked against females since Freud's day, and how most gender-related psychological issues are disproportionately felt by women. At the end of the class we got this jarhead dude speaking up about how the class would be better if there was a more well-represented male point of view in the class. What the dude had failed to realize was that all he had to do was go to any other psychology class, or any other class on campus outside of those with the word "gender" in the title, and they would be immersed in the male point of view. Similarly, if you don't feel comfortable with my point of view, which is that popular gaming is on the whole badly written, ridiculous, and praised as "art" all too readily, all the while still being a fun and worthwhile pastime, you can go anywhere else on the internet, where you'll find widespread consensus on how everything is awesome forever that won't make you uncomfortable.

I think Bioware makes good games, I really do, even if I don't like the sameness of their narrative structures post-KOTOR. I think Mass Effect 2 looks really good. I also think that every line of tough-guy Rambo bullshit that Shepard says is awful, glorious camp for people like me who wore out their Total Recall VHS tapes as kids. When I hear Jed Bartlett say "he's making an impressive team, he's scouring the galaxy for the best" all I can think about are those commercials for the army / air force / marines that look and sound just like video game trailers so much that actual video game trailers sound dumber for it. I also think the antagonists in both ME1 and Dragon Age were uninteresting and largely anonymous, respectively. Bioware makes big, fun, well polished games that really aren't mind-blowing as they're made out to be. Except BG2, which actually did do things that no RPG has done since.

I don't know what parts of the internet you frequent, but the gaming boards I read are normally all too quick to dismiss or tear down any game for internet cool points. Seeing people bitch and moan about minor details of a video game is not fun to read and it's even less fun to talk about. Painting yourself as a lone voice of reason in a giant sea of complacency is laughably melodramatic, as is comparing your plight to institutionalized sexism, especially since we're talking about video games on the internet. Is it too much to ask to discuss the parts of a video game you actually like?

Furthermore, if you want to talk about the uninspired central plotting of Bioware games post-KOTOR, that's one thing. But using a character who takes up a grand total of a minute of screen time to make a broad, sweeping generalization of the quality of Bioware's writing is extremely reductionist. Are most games badly written by the standards of film or television? Sure, but if you can only enjoy games with 'actually good' writing then you become one of those insufferable jackoffs who talk about how they replay BG2, Torment, and the first two Fallouts constantly. Maybe they'll throw in Bloodlines or Mask of the Betrayer if they're particularly open-minded.

As for the whole "games as art" thing, I consider that to be an entirely different discussion. First of all, it depends on your criteria for what the minimum threshold for something to be "art" are. I think the artistic design of Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely unparalleled, but is that enough to make it 'artistic'? I think that's for everyone to decide on their own. There are some games that I think pose interesting artistic experiments, but they are by far in the minority, and I think games are such a commercialized industry that's extremely difficult for the creative people involved to make that kind of effort. Do I think Mass Effect is one of those games? Not really, unless you consider creating an enjoyable, well-contextualized ode to 80s science fiction to be artistic. But that doesn't prevent it from being wholly enjoyable on its own terms. The vast majority of film doesn't attempt to be any kind of high art either, it's just the way society works. I think games have a lot of potential as an artistic and storytelling medium, but the added element of interactivity makes things very difficult and even the most creative people in the industry are still figuring it out.

I also think that link that LTK posted is reductionist to the point of absurdity. If you're going to tell me that Morrigan and Bastila, Tali and Leliana, and especially HK-47 and Wrex are indistinguishable characters, I'm going to call you an idiot. Was Obsidian's plotting and characters more original in KOTOR 2? Definitely, but if we want to discuss Obsidian's merits and failings there's plenty to talk about there as well. Maybe Chris Avellone will set an incredible new standard for video game writing with Alpha Protocol, like he did with Torment. I frankly doubt it, but I'm hoping and definitely willing to be surprised.
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Alex C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #559 on: 25 Dec 2009, 12:45 »

I don't know what parts of the internet you frequent, but the gaming boards I read are normally all too quick to dismiss or tear down any game for internet cool points. Seeing people bitch and moan about minor details of a video game is not fun to read and it's even less fun to talk about.

I strongly disagree here; hell, this is actually the first time this thread has actually interested me for a while now. A negative opinion can be every bit as interesting as a positive one. The thing is to avoid being a broken record. In all honesty, most of the posts in here are only interesting as a links depository, as is demonstrated by your "Jennifer Hale is so good," link/post. I would have been just as interested in it if you had linked it under the heading "Jesus Christ, they hired Jennifer Hale again." Hell, I probably would have been more interested, since it implies that there may be weaknesses to using known quantities in every role. At what point, if ever, does a "house style" and familiarity start undermining a performer's ability to become less notable than the character they are trying to embody? For example, I find President Sheen's presence in the trailers somewhat distracting, despite the fact that he's certainly not a bad performer.*


*I actually have the same issue with the West Wing. Hearing his voice just makes me start thinking of Apocalypse Now.
« Last Edit: 25 Dec 2009, 12:48 by Alex C »
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Storm Rider

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #560 on: 25 Dec 2009, 13:18 »

But... she is really good in the first game? She may be in a lot of games, but that's mostly because the games industry doesn't really feel like paying voice actors very well except when they get marketable people from Hollywood (like... Martin Sheen), which means that the pool of dedicated voice actors is very, very small and they have to do a lot of projects to support themselves. Besides, why would they replace her in the middle of the trilogy? Again, this seems like a really pointless thing to complain about.
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Alex C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #561 on: 25 Dec 2009, 13:24 »

I like Jennifer Hale and I understand why they hire recognizable people. It's not really a complaint so much as an acknowledgement of the issue of type casting etc. I was really going for a general question rather than a complaint. I'm mostly just curious whether you think getting a big name to nail the recognition factor helps or hurts the final product when you discount sales as a factor. You know, so there could be a discussion rather than a bunch of guys linking to shit like Kotaku for 12 boring pages.
« Last Edit: 25 Dec 2009, 13:28 by Alex C »
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KvP

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #562 on: 25 Dec 2009, 14:33 »

I don't know what parts of the internet you frequent, but the gaming boards I read are normally all too quick to dismiss or tear down any game for internet cool points. Seeing people bitch and moan about minor details of a video game is not fun to read and it's even less fun to talk about. Painting yourself as a lone voice of reason in a giant sea of complacency is laughably melodramatic, as is comparing your plight to institutionalized sexism, especially since we're talking about video games on the internet. Is it too much to ask to discuss the parts of a video game you actually like?
I am! I'd rather not call anybody stupid for liking Bioware games (like I said, I like them plenty myself) but it seems that in general people don't seem to be as comfortable as I am with criticism of the games. I don't know if it sounds like I despise them, but I don't and I never really have.

Furthermore, if you want to talk about the uninspired central plotting of Bioware games post-KOTOR, that's one thing. But using a character who takes up a grand total of a minute of screen time to make a broad, sweeping generalization of the quality of Bioware's writing is extremely reductionist. Are most games badly written by the standards of film or television? Sure, but if you can only enjoy games with 'actually good' writing then you become one of those insufferable jackoffs who talk about how they replay BG2, Torment, and the first two Fallouts constantly. Maybe they'll throw in Bloodlines or Mask of the Betrayer if they're particularly open-minded.
It was kind of a flippant comment. And all of the games you listed have their niggling problems - BG2's romances are all gross violations of the therapist / patient arrangement, Torment is really extremely wordy and intentionally confusing, and Fallout 2 had Modoc.

As for the whole "games as art" thing, I consider that to be an entirely different discussion. First of all, it depends on your criteria for what the minimum threshold for something to be "art" are. I think the artistic design of Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely unparalleled, but is that enough to make it 'artistic'? I think that's for everyone to decide on their own. There are some games that I think pose interesting artistic experiments, but they are by far in the minority, and I think games are such a commercialized industry that's extremely difficult for the creative people involved to make that kind of effort. Do I think Mass Effect is one of those games? Not really, unless you consider creating an enjoyable, well-contextualized ode to 80s science fiction to be artistic. But that doesn't prevent it from being wholly enjoyable on its own terms. The vast majority of film doesn't attempt to be any kind of high art either, it's just the way society works. I think games have a lot of potential as an artistic and storytelling medium, but the added element of interactivity makes things very difficult and even the most creative people in the industry are still figuring it out.
Really the whole "art" argument thing is just the only way I can comprehend why anyone would get so up in arms about the games that they love being criticized. I think it's just indicative of a larger issue of defensiveness within the community of gamers, who are still trying to prove that games aren't just kids' play. It's understandable I think, but I'd rather give my entire opinion and weather the outrage than hold off. I love games, I love playing them and I love analyzing them, and I wouldn't have any fun if I couldn't talk about them.

I also think that link that LTK posted is reductionist to the point of absurdity. If you're going to tell me that Morrigan and Bastila, Tali and Leliana, and especially HK-47 and Wrex are indistinguishable characters, I'm going to call you an idiot. Was Obsidian's plotting and characters more original in KOTOR 2? Definitely, but if we want to discuss Obsidian's merits and failings there's plenty to talk about there as well. Maybe Chris Avellone will set an incredible new standard for video game writing with Alpha Protocol, like he did with Torment. I frankly doubt it, but I'm hoping and definitely willing to be surprised.
I wouldn't agree with some of the particular parallels in the articles, but it should be blindingly obvious to anyone that Bioware uses familiar tropes as templates for many of their characters. The drunken berserker has shown up in more than one Bioware game (Black Whirlwind and Oghren are basically the same character, except Oghren has an added level of tragedy with his wife and all). There's the "Lancer" character who has suffered a personal loss to be overcome (Carth Onassi, Jaheira, Ashley / Kaidan, Allistair, several characters from Jade Empire including Dawn Star, Sagacious Zu and Sky) and the ambiguously evil, proud sorceress type (Viconia, Morrigan) Canderous Ordo and Wrex are both morally neutral mercenaries who come from dying cultures.

But really all of that's fine, because by and large Bioware makes their characters different enough to be interesting on their own, as you said. I don't follow David Gaider very closely but I'm willing to give thought to the idea that all this coming back to the same wells for character templates is less laziness than it is good old-fashioned auteur-ism. Like I said earlier, what frustrates me about Bioware is the more recent repetition of overall narrative arcs, with the ancient evil awakening (Elder Race / The Reapers / The Blight) and the "herald" standing in the way of ending the threat (Aribeth, Saren, Loghain) I've always felt that adventure stories like the ones in games are only as good as their villains and this "Ancient evil" template has yet to produce a villain that's been interesting to me. Aribeth, Loghain and Saren all could have been interesting but they were never the real focus of the game, and so they died before you faced the Big Bad, who's always pretty boring.

As for Obsidian / Chris Avellone, they do the same things and they have similar problems, actually. Khelgar from NWN2 is a berserker character, Ammon Jerro is a male Morrigan, etc. Chris Avellone actually does have the auteur thing going on, as he has his own tropes and his own thematic obsessions that show up in every game he helms - There's always blind antagonist / mentor with maternal feelings of love toward the PC (Ravel in PS:T, Kreia in KOTOR2) or, as in Mask of the Betrayer, towards a party member. Avellone also has a fascination with codes and oaths (Dakk'on in PS:T, The Jedi and Echani codes in KOTOR2, the oaths to the Betrayer in MotB) and how they affect those who bind themselves to them in ways they can't predict. The main problems with Avellone's approach is that he can be excessively wordy, and he's had the habit since Fallout 2 of telegraphing his villains from very early in the story when they would have been more effective as mysteries.

And as far as Alpha Protocol goes, the "suave" dialogue path is going to be much stronger cheese than anything yet done by Bioware. I've already heard one double-entendre involving a gun. I'm more interested in seeing how he's going to adapt his pet obsessions for a modern real-world setting, if he does at all.
« Last Edit: 25 Dec 2009, 14:35 by KvP »
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Alex C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #563 on: 25 Dec 2009, 14:59 »

There's always blind antagonist / mentor with maternal feelings of love toward the PC (Ravel in PS:T, Kreia in KOTOR2) or, as in Mask of the Betrayer, towards a party member.

Yeah, he's said in interviews that Kreia was essentially an exploration of Ravel ideas that he couldn't be fit into Torment. Plus, the whole character idea is that Ravel has existed before all over the planes, and so Avellone snuck her into the Icewind Dale games in one incarnation or another.
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KvP

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #564 on: 25 Dec 2009, 15:43 »

Oh yeah, there was a blind cat-lady seer in the prologue of Icewind Dale II (not unlike the mad seer in Mass Effect, really) I hadn't thought about it since that was a JE Sawyer project, not an Avellone one.

I don't recall their being a blind woman in Van Buren. Hecate might've been one.

Anyway, what are we left with in terms of ME2 classes now? Soldier and biotic? Or have they already been covered?
« Last Edit: 25 Dec 2009, 15:53 by KvP »
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LTK

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #565 on: 25 Dec 2009, 17:03 »

Adept has been covered, I have't seen soldier yet, though. Has Vanguard been revealed yet?

Aww damn, Ashley got killed but Liara doesn't want me any more after the "just friends" talk. I'm gonna backtrack and pick Liara, because I do want to see how ME2 plays out after you've romanced someone.
« Last Edit: 25 Dec 2009, 17:11 by LTK »
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KvP

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #566 on: 25 Dec 2009, 17:11 »

Yeah, their special ability is the biotic bull-rush thing.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #567 on: 25 Dec 2009, 17:35 »

All of the class-specific abilities have been revealed at this point. Vanguard has the biotic charge, Infiltrator has cloaking, Engineers the combat drone, and Sentinel the special shielded armor. Of the two you mentioned, Adepts are the only class with access to Singularity, which is easily the most effective crowd control ability in all of Mass Effect, which I assume holds true in the sequel as well. Soldiers have the revamped Adrenaline Rush, which has been changed (since reducing cooldown times is less relevant since they cranked up recharge times for all powers anyway) into a bullet time mode. That's the one which sounds the least interesting to me, which is why I'm probably changing my Paragon Soldier to a Vanguard when I import. Not sure what I'll do with my other two characters yet.
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Alex C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #568 on: 25 Dec 2009, 17:40 »

Oh yeah, there was a blind cat-lady seer in the prologue of Icewind Dale II (not unlike the mad seer in Mass Effect, really) I hadn't thought about it since that was a JE Sawyer project, not an Avellone one.

Yeah, I read somewhere that they divvied up the chapters/areas amongst the various designers, with Avellone getting the intro as well as polishing up some of the spots that Sawyer was personally heading prior to leaving the company. I also vaguely remember an interview where Avellone said point blank that the Cat Lady is Ravel. Of course, I don't know what's a more unreliable source: my memory, or the internet. It'd make sense though, considering that Targos is quite a bit more wordy and atmospheric than the rest of IWDII. At any rate, it's certainly not hard to believe that they'd sneak in Chris's favorite pet character, particularly since she doesn't really do anything that changes the overall story arc.
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Johnny C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #569 on: 25 Dec 2009, 18:08 »

Also - we're all clear that something can be all kinds of flawed and still be "art," no?? Surely I'm not the only dude who's bothered reading a Dom Delillo book, for example.

("art" is such a lame word, i'm gonna start using the word "text")
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Alex C

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #570 on: 26 Dec 2009, 20:24 »

Certainly. Hell, it's part of why I'd argue that on the whole my relationship with "art" is somewhat antagonistic.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #571 on: 27 Dec 2009, 20:09 »

Now the rumor is that new game + is in
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #572 on: 27 Dec 2009, 22:06 »

Just pre-ordered the Collector's Edition. Man oh man oh man who's excited? I'M EXCITED.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #574 on: 28 Dec 2009, 12:36 »

Yeah... those videos are pretty bad. But hey, no Marilyn Manson at least.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #575 on: 28 Dec 2009, 12:53 »

Just pre-ordered the Collector's Edition. Man oh man oh man who's excited? I'M EXCITED.

What's in it anyway?

I just remembered there was DLC for Mass Effect. I wonder if those will have any impact on Mass Effect 2? Oh hey, all you need for Bring Down the Sky is a CD key. I didn't know that. Downloading it right now.
« Last Edit: 28 Dec 2009, 12:58 by LTK »
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #576 on: 28 Dec 2009, 12:56 »

I doubt it.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #577 on: 28 Dec 2009, 12:58 »

Actually, Bring Down the Sky I could pretty easily see playing a part.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #578 on: 28 Dec 2009, 13:11 »

Can't be too hard to find out: As a Bioware writer states on the forums: "Potentially". Well, that's good to know.

Steam's CD key bounces on the download. Hooray.
« Last Edit: 28 Dec 2009, 13:20 by LTK »
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #579 on: 28 Dec 2009, 15:13 »

Man there better be a mission in ME2 for people who chose the Paragon path through Bring Down the Sky.

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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #580 on: 28 Dec 2009, 19:45 »

Yeah if that guy shows up in ME2 I am gonna put a fucking bullet in his head.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #581 on: 31 Dec 2009, 13:28 »

Heard this, not quite sure of the veracity, some of it has already been confirmed, but it's there. Turns out I was right way back when about overhaul of character systems. -
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Mass Effect 2 allows the player to import their characters from any completed Mass Effect playthrough. This means that all decisions made by the player in Mass Effect will carry over into Mass Effect 2 and have the potential to impact the story. Decisions confirmed to have an impact on the game include:

* The decision to save either Kaidan or Ashley.
* Whether or not the player kills Wrex on Virmire.
* Whether or not the player decides to save the Citadel Council at the end of Mass Effect.
* The player's choice of love interest.
* Whether the player spares or destroys the Rachni Queen at Peak 15.
* The player's treatment of Conrad Verner.
* Whether or not the player completed the UNC: Asari Diplomacy sidequest.
* Whether the player chose to allow the Alliance to conduct experiments on Nirali Bhatia's body.

Due to massive gameplay redesign, your level will not transfer over to Mass Effect 2 and you will start out with basic abilities. However, the game will acknowledge if you were a level 60 character and if you were a Renegade or Paragon and adapt it in ways that map across to the new system. Also, the physical appearance and class of imported characters can be changed at the start of the game, if desired.

If a player has no Mass Effect save files, Mass Effect 2 will start with an introduction sequence which, in combination with interactive decisions made by the player, introduces new players to the storyline and establishes a “canon” backstory.
« Last Edit: 31 Dec 2009, 13:31 by KvP »
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #582 on: 31 Dec 2009, 13:49 »

Those are all culled from various interviews with Bioware, mostly from Casey Hudson himself. I think the only one of those that didn't come directly from him was the one about Nirali Bhatia. Supposedly there are even more beyond those, but they won't say what they are, so take that with a grain of salt. They also aren't specific about how exactly your character's level and Paragon/Renegade status will map into the new game, except that it will be recognized and benefit the player, but that it 'won't upset the balance of the game'. I am glad that they're letting us change our character's class and appearance upon import, though. I definitely want to change my Soldier (probably to Vanguard), as my later playthroughs led me to discover that the game is a lot more fun when you can throw powers around a lot.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #583 on: 31 Dec 2009, 14:47 »

I'm also hoping the new game will feature improvements to the appearance system that will help my characters to look less like walking asses.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #584 on: 31 Dec 2009, 15:04 »

Yeah, starting my female playthrough a few days ago really brought the limits of ME1's character creator into stark relief. I think my Soldier looks OK, at least.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #585 on: 31 Dec 2009, 15:55 »

It was kind of pointless how default Shepard was not one of the presets you could scroll through in the character customization menu. Maybe I wanted a Shepard with a moustache, or other hair or something, but the first preset you get is a Conrad Verner lookalike, if I recall correctly.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #586 on: 31 Dec 2009, 18:04 »

I just took that to mean that default Shepard had been created using separate tools than the ones given to the player. There's no benefit to allowing the player to fiddle with his appearance because it can only make him look worse than he does.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #587 on: 31 Dec 2009, 18:48 »

That makes sense, given that there's a model for him and all. For this one I just used the default male look, since everything I attempt to create comes out ugly anyway. I beat the game now, saved the Council's sorry asses, so that Destiny Ascension had better be there for me in ME2. Got the Tactician achievement, too. Still haven't got Bring Down the Sky, hopefully support can help me get the damn thing to install.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #588 on: 31 Dec 2009, 18:53 »

I don't know, I had no real problems making different models look fairly good. I mean, it was incredibly easy to make a fugly ass mongoloid, but you could get a pretty good variety of male faces.

Females were... lacking in variety to say the least though, i agree.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #589 on: 31 Dec 2009, 18:55 »

hit the button to put the helmet on, not too bad anymore haha
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #590 on: 31 Dec 2009, 19:38 »

My first shepard was pretty good. I feel like he needed a eyepatch though, with the huge scar he had.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #591 on: 31 Dec 2009, 19:57 »

My second playthrough when I made Chocolate Shepard, he looked pretty damn good. Too bad his voice sounded so different it made me and my brother laugh every time he said anything.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #592 on: 31 Dec 2009, 21:15 »

Yeah if you're looking to make anything other than a White Canadian you're out of luck.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #593 on: 31 Dec 2009, 23:06 »

Yeah, while I don't really get the hate for male Shepard's voice actor it's hard to deny that he sounds like a very white dude. But that's kind of been a problem in games in general: Bethesda made your father actually look like your created character in Fallout 3, but they couldn't change that Liam Neeson's voice sounds very out of place coming out of a black dude.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #594 on: 01 Jan 2010, 00:52 »

I never understood all the hate either. I actually found Jennifer Hale's more aggressive moments to be a lot more distracting than Meer's (perhaps unintentional) understatement.  He was pretty flat, sure, but I generally mind that a lot less than the scenery chewin' you get in most games. I guess some people aren't happy unless you've got someone who sounds roughly a million times more emotive than half the people you'll ever meet.
« Last Edit: 01 Jan 2010, 00:57 by Alex C »
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #595 on: 01 Jan 2010, 01:51 »

The only reason I didn't like the guy's voice was because they gave me the leeway to create my own face. There are at least as many faces that the voice doesn't "fit" with as there are faces it meshes with perfectly, maybe more, and that's a problem if you really like the faces that don't fit. All in all I prefer things old school, with no VA for the PC. This avoids aesthetic problems, but it also cuts down recording budgets somewhat and it can allow for some more flexible and interesting dialogue design (Mass Effect's dialogues, as dialogues go, were very simple in structure) But with games headed in a decidedly more "cinematic" direction that's becoming more and more of a niche. But VA can work. I'm a big fan of JC Denton's voice in Deus Ex, though I know a lot of people who don't like it at all. The quality of the VA in that game was shaky across the board but it was rarely awful (though it got pretty bad in Hong Kong) and overall I found it endearing.
« Last Edit: 01 Jan 2010, 01:58 by KvP »
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #596 on: 01 Jan 2010, 01:54 »

Anyone else go out of their way to make a silly looking character?
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #597 on: 01 Jan 2010, 01:59 »

When I'm all done with "roleplaying" or whatever and I'm just playing to dick around I go Maximum Face, in which you set all feature sliders as far to the right as possible.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #598 on: 01 Jan 2010, 09:47 »

When I'm all done with "roleplaying" or whatever and I'm just playing to dick around I go Maximum Face, in which you set all feature sliders as far to the right as possible.

This in an Elder Scrolls game and/or Fallout 3 makes for some hilarious results.
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Re: Mass Effect 2
« Reply #599 on: 01 Jan 2010, 15:44 »

Anyone else go out of their way to make a silly looking character?

YES. I did it for my male Shepherd character. I also named him Titty (a la Yahtzee), and I could not play for more than ten minutes due to the silliness of it all.
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