Mass Effect

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Okay, so it's an immersion thing for you, got it.

[Vargras]

I'm reading the submitted comments/questions for GI's Mass Effect podcast. Seriously -- not to be mean -- but 75% of these people are fucking idiots.

 

- "Will there be a Rachni companion?"

Of course not. Rachni, Elcor, Hanar, ect can't be companions because they don't conform to a human skeletal structure.

 

- "Will there be a Mass Effect 4"

For fuck's sake. We've known for years that ME was a planned trilogy.

 

- "Will there still be load screens?"

*sigh*

 

Ugh. I'm simply not in the mood for this shit today.

 

By the way, interview with Casey Hudson: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/26/casey-hudson-interview-how-mass-effect-began.aspx

 

and tomorrow they'll have a Q&A with them on their podcast using submitted questions. Hopefully they'll pick one of mine and not one of the retarded ones.

 

I read through the comments too and facepalmed the whole way.

 

90% of the questions asked can be answered just by reading the FAQ and watching some of the videos.

[TheMightyEthan]

Okay, so it's an immersion thing for you, got it.

Oh, yeah, sorry. I probably could have made that clearer.

[HotChops]

- "Will there still be load screens?"

*sigh*

That's not such a stupid question. Mass Effect 1 avoided loadscreens as much as possible, especially within the Normandy or on planets. A lot of people (myself included) didn't like the addition of loadscreens in ME2.

 

Though personally I'm not opposed to the idea so much as the execution. I found the loadscreens in ME2 to be very jarring.

 

That's why I didn't necessarily say it was a dumb question, it's just a frustrating one -- especially for Bioware. They have to make the game load somehow. Either you use conspicuous "airlock"-like hallways, or long elevators, or a semi-dynamic load screen (ala ME2.) But people need to understand that games like Fallout and Mass Effect need to load somehow at some point.

 

and damnit, my comment isn't showing up on GI's site. I don't know if it's because I'm a new user or if the site is just slow, or it needs mod approval, but my goddamn comment better show up soon. I asked good questions that are easily answerable.

 

Not questions like, "Who built the Reapers?"

 

Yeah. "Hey Casey, can you just spoil the whole goddamn game for us right now please?"

 

again, *sigh*

Edited April 27, 2011 by HotChops

[Hot Heart]

'Are reach and flexibility gender-exclusive traits for Turians?'

[TheMightyEthan]

When Liara says that "azure" is "a slang term for a part of the Asari body" "in the lower reaches, near the bottom", what part of the Asari body EXACTLY is she referring to?

[AgamemnonV2]

Her tentacles, probably.

[Vargras]

When Liara says that "azure" is "a slang term for a part of the Asari body" "in the lower reaches, near the bottom", what part of the Asari body EXACTLY is she referring to?

 

Ankles, definitely.

[HotChops]

Mass Effect 3 "coming to a spectacular conclusion...we're building the biggest and best moments in this series. I think the fans are going to just love it." - Casey Hudson

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/28/casey-hudson-interview-mass-effect-3.aspx

 

Best interview yet (not that the others were that great imo). Some interesting viewpoints. For example, Hudson explains that one of the reasons characters like Liara were kept unplayable in ME2 is because they wanted them to be alive for ME3.

 

 

It also sounds like we'll be stopping by Mars this time around!

 

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Hmmm... what was the deal with Mars again? There was a prothean observer post or something there right?

Edited April 28, 2011 by Faiblesse Des Sens

[deanb]

Hmmm... what was the deal with Mars again? There was a prothean observer post or something there right?

 

Yeah a Prothean cache and eezo deposit. Developed the mass effect engines, found out charon was a relay and the rest as they say is history.

[AgamemnonV2]

Why am I smelling a "Protheans are actually the ancestors to humans" obvious "twist"?

[HotChops]

Why am I smelling a "Protheans are actually the ancestors to humans" obvious "twist"?

 

Because you're a bit of a pessimist?

[RockyRan]

Why am I smelling a "Protheans are actually the ancestors to humans" obvious "twist"?

 

Because you're a bit of a pessimist?

 

I dunno, I can kind of see it coming. Lord knows how many times sci-fi stories end up with a "OMG [insert species X or event Y here] TOTALLY EXPLAINS THE ORIGINS OF MANKIND!!!!!" twists. Mass Effect is far from generic, but they've known to put some horribly cliched stuff in there.

[Pirandello]

Why am I smelling a "Protheans are actually the ancestors to humans" obvious "twist"?

 

Because you're a bit of a pessimist?

Wait, what? What are you talking about? What does pessimism have anything to do with how Protheans end up being ancestors to the humans?

 

Besides, the all of the Protheans were either killed or taken by the Reapers and turned into Collectors, last I remembered, or end up in something akin to Ilos, which isn't really any better. Pretty much makes me think that a dead species can't really be a good ancestor for humans. I could be wrong, of course.

Edited April 28, 2011 by Pirandello

[HotChops]

I consider it pessimistic because it would be totally lame and cliche. If I'm not mistaken, isn't that exactly what they did in Halo's story.

 

I am optimistically hoping Bioware avoids such lameness.

[Hot Heart]

I know all species were 'supposed' to have evolved along similar lines as was the Reapers' design, but it fits with the whole Prothean beacon 'compatibility' and subsequent interest in humans (although ME2 was implying there is just something 'special' about human's diversity apparently?)

 

But, yeah, I really hope it is not that.

[deanb]

Weren't Protheans like 8 foot tall, gangly, tentacle like features for a face/torso?

 

In fact:

 

 

It would take a fair bit for them to start to resemble us.

[AgamemnonV2]

Why am I smelling a "Protheans are actually the ancestors to humans" obvious "twist"?

 

Because you're a bit of a pessimist?

Calling out an obvious trope is being pessimistic? That's news to me.

 

Weren't Protheans like 8 foot tall, gangly, tentacle like features for a face/torso?

 

In fact:

 

 

It would take a fair bit for them to start to resemble us.

Retcon doesn't take much work.

 

Also:

 

[deanb]

 

 

 

They're shown in the game several times to be gangly with tentacle things for jaw/torsos. The ones on Ilos are therefore most likely "realistic" depictions not fertility statues.

 

There's retcons, and then there's shitting all over the franchise with a really bad cliche and hack job retcons.

[SanaEquiesterer]

I dunno, I can kind of see it coming. Lord knows how many times sci-fi stories end up with a "OMG [insert species X or event Y here] TOTALLY EXPLAINS THE ORIGINS OF MANKIND!!!!!" twists. Mass Effect is far from generic, but they've known to put some horribly cliched stuff in there.

I'm suddenly imagining a storyline where the Protheans that fled to the Sol system encased the Charon relay in ice as a means to escape the Reapers. I could maybe see them working in some human/prothean link like that, too.

 

They're shown in the game several times to be gangly with tentacle things for jaw/torsos. The ones on Ilos are therefore most likely "realistic" depictions not fertility statues.

I interpreted the tentacles as being a part of what encased them in stone, or whatever the hell that is. The tentacles could be growing out of them or into them and may not have been a part of their anatomy, I think.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, Protheans are definitely not humanity's ancestors. Hell, EDI did a freaking genetic analysis of the Protheans in ME2, and it seems like she might have noticed the similarities to humans. Not to mention the fact that we KNOW that the Protheans had a base on Mars 50k years ago, at which point humans already existed on Earth, and it's heavily hinted that the Protheans were observing/studying the human population.

 

Like Dean said, there are retcons, and then there's shitting all over the whole franchise.

 

*Edit* - Also it's well established in ME2 that the Protheans were basically giant bugs. Humans don't have a lot in common with giant bugs.

 

I dunno, I can kind of see it coming. Lord knows how many times sci-fi stories end up with a "OMG [insert species X or event Y here] TOTALLY EXPLAINS THE ORIGINS OF MANKIND!!!!!" twists. Mass Effect is far from generic, but they've known to put some horribly cliched stuff in there.

I'm suddenly imagining a storyline where the Protheans that fled to the Sol system encased the Charon relay in ice as a means to escape the Reapers. I could maybe see them working in some human/prothean link like that, too.

I could totally see there being some kind of a connection between humans and the Protheans, something that makes humans "special", but I really really doubt they're genetically related to us in any major way (perhaps some gene-modification of us by them, but that would be it).

[deanb]

I interpreted the tentacles as being a part of what encased them in stone, or whatever the hell that is.

 

Statues

[AgamemnonV2]

There's retcons, and then there's shitting all over the franchise with a really bad cliche and hack job retcons.

This is Bioware we are talking about. It really wouldn't surprise me if it happens. Anyway, I'm not saying I want it to happen. I'm just saying don't be surprised if there's some human-Prothean tie-in as to why humanity is the galaxy's savior.

[deanb]

Oh I'm aware of, and bored by, the trope. I just don't think "we were once protheans" is what will cut it here. Something will pop up though.