Mass Effect 3

[Polysorbate80]

Back to shameless nerd baiting for a moment, looks it goes a step further, too

Chobot's character one of the romance options

have to say finding it personally a step right into the "ugh" zone.

She probably licks the new EDI 

[Ingmar]

I wonder if it provides some shortcuts for the animators?

[Paelos]

She's got that Jersey look I hate. Also, her face in the game is...not attractive.

[Ingmar]

Welcome to pretty much all faces in ME?

[Sjofn]

Yeah, ME is a fucking hideous universe.

[Merusk]

Exactly what I was thinking when watching that video and they covered Capt. Mohawk and Anderson. "Fuck, these faces are TERRIBLE.  I don't remember them all being this just.. godawful.."

Then I remembered so many of the folks you interact with is are alien and slip past the UV because of it.

[Ingmar]

I don't notice it so much on my first playthroughs because they're always on the Xbox and on my tv a decent distance away from me, but when they go on sale on Steam and I mess around with them on the PC the faces (Anderson is like Prime Example #1) are really pretty  .

[Paelos]

Well I mean Shepherd the dude doesn't look abnormal. Granted, pretty much everything about Miranda's facial model was terrible, and the hair was just...I mean it's like they intentionally made it terrible so you'd be forced to check out that body.

[Sjofn]

I used to think Anderson was THE ugliest man in the galaxy, but then we met Admiral Hackett. 

[Ingmar]

It appears Sergeant Brohawk is continuing the tradition too.

[Sjofn]

He's pretty fucking ugly too, yes.

[tmp]

Well I mean Shepherd the dude doesn't look abnormal.

[Sjofn]

That picture gets me every time.  

Thing is, horrible, terrifying, serial killer-ish looking MANSHEP is still probably the best looking guy in the Mass Effect universe. My PigShep is ... not horrifying to look at, but still. And aside from Sally Shepard, my LadySheps are pretty painful too.

Ugly, ugly, ugly universe. No wonder the ladies swoon for Garrus, he's not that much weirder looking than the humans. 

[tmp]

Yup, the candy van frigate driver expression aside, Shepard ain't actually bad looking -- which is probably to be expected when he's face scanned professional model. But there's something in the combination of lighting, face animations (or sometimes lack thereof) and the materials used to render characters, that makes them feel off for the most part. Aliens don't trigger that uncanny valley with their lack of real world reference to compare them with, so they have easier time, i believe.

[Lantyssa]

They got Kelly right.

[Fabricated]

Considering that it's not a spoiler about Ashley/Kaidan being back (they're on some of the fucking promotional art), good god I'm glad I always killed Ashley. She looks awful this time around.

[Sjofn]

They got Kelly right.

I disagree, she has weird fishlips and has Unfortunate Plastic Hair paired with Dead Eyes, just like everyone else. I mean, compared to everyone else, I guess she's about as pretty as they get in the ME universe, but she's not escaping the blanket "Mass Effect's Universe is Goddamn Ugly" statement. 

I also second the "good thing Ashley's dead in all my saves but one" sentiment. I hate what they did to her hair. Kaidan looks derpy, but that's our Kaidan.

[TripleDES]

In regards to ugly, I sure hope you guys are going to like new default female Shep. Given that she's all animu.

[tmp]

I don't know what the new default female Shepard is going to look like, because after all the facebook voting hoopla BioWare still has yet to make and release the trailer featuring her that they'd promised

[TripleDES]

The choices they put up during the vote all had the Final Fantasy look, except for the afro-american one. So yeah, fuck that.

--edit: Well, look here:

http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/18/femshep-fan-feedback-sought-again/

[Simond]

Considering that it's not a spoiler about Ashley/Kaidan being back (they're on some of the fucking promotional art), good god I'm glad I always killed Ashley. She looks awful this time around.

They bleached her skin.

[Sjofn]

I could not possibly care less about default Lady Shepard, just because I will never USE default Lady Shepard. Lady Shepard is a nice black lady FOREVER.

[Ingmar]

The choices they put up during the vote all had the Final Fantasy look

Not seeing it, myself.

[UnSub]

Back to shameless nerd baiting for a moment, looks it goes a step further, too

Chobot's character one of the romance options

have to say finding it personally a step right into the "ugh" zone.

To be mean: she looks like she's suffering chromosomal damage. That is not hot.

BioWare appears to be falling into the Dreamworks trap - thinking that we want the character model and the voice actor looking the same. They need to be following the Pixar model - use the best voice actor available and make the character model suit the character.

So use the voice of Lance Henriksen, but you can make his character look like whatever you want.

[rk47]

[Kageru]

BioWare appears to be falling into the Dreamworks trap - thinking that we want the character model and the voice actor looking the same. They need to be following the Pixar model - use the best voice actor available and make the character model suit the character.

Or making a callous business estimate that having "virtual celebrities" will widen the mass market appeal of the game and bring in more cash. In which case they'll also simplify the game and make it more adrenal / twitchy.

[Stormwaltz]

They bleached her skin.

When they were working our Ash's design for ME1, I'd really wanted the character to be Hispanic. Casey put an image of Ash's model up his monitor next to a picture Salma Hayek, and pointed out to me that their skin tones were identical.

[Simond]

Yeah, and now she looks like a slightly mongoloid Helena Bonham-Carter. 

[UnSub]

BioWare appears to be falling into the Dreamworks trap - thinking that we want the character model and the voice actor looking the same. They need to be following the Pixar model - use the best voice actor available and make the character model suit the character.

Or making a callous business estimate that having "virtual celebrities" will widen the mass market appeal of the game and bring in more cash. In which case they'll also simplify the game and make it more adrenal / twitchy.

If that's the case then they need to aim higher than Jessica Chobot and Felicia Day. I can't imagine there are that many nerds out there going, "Well, I wasn't going to get ME3, but now that I hear I can keep Jessica Chobot on my ship and make her talk to me and pretend that she touches my wang, it's a definite buy!".

... and the nerds that do say that should not be allowed to buy the game on principle.

[Margalis]

Bioware has gone to a weird place in a hurry. Virtual Felicia Day, Chobot fuck buddy, overpriced toys with DLC in them. It's like some cartoonish 80s caricature is driving the decisions. Like that ep of Futurama with the unfrozen 80s lawyer guy.

[Trippy]

Or EA.

[Simond]

As long as they've not started branding totally unrelated studios as "Bioware wherever" I'm sure it'll be all right. 

[TripleDES]

Someone posted this on the SA forums, it involves what endings you'll be able to get.


Hope that's a lot of bullshit. I know that Bioware said otherwise in the past, but you know, promises are there to be broken.

[Kageru]

I could actually see them thinking that's an innovative and exciting advance in integrating the game with the dynamic world of social media.

Hopefully that's a fake rumor though, or they have an attack of reason, because it sounds terrible.

[Miasma]

If that stuff is true I'm not buying the game.  I have to assume that's bullshit, it's too stupid.

Note to people who haven't looked at that spoiler: it doesn't actually contain any info on the endings just a stupid (hopefully false) mechanic to unlock them.