What Video Games Have You Been Playing #11: I should go

[hobbsyoyo]

No, he's just pointlessly pedantic. ME1 background lore (not gameplay) is very well thought-out and care to take into account realistic consequences of its paragdim, especially compared to the overwhelming majority of SF (not to speak of SF games). You got a few genre-based schticks (like absurdly-human aliens or mind meld) but most of the rest is just based on a single "big lie" (element zero) from which lots of logical consequences are drawn.

In a discussion about definitions and semi-formal classification, I don't think criticism on grounds of pedantry is useful.

I will say that compared to sci fi in video games in general, Mass Effect is pretty hard. But in the overall scheme of sci fi across all media types, it really isn't. Which is not the same as saying it's bad! It's really great stuff but I agree with Synsensa's definition.

I think I read somewhere it's something about limits of the Unreal Engine that everyone has to be bipedal. Which is unfortunate because it'd be pretty funny having a Hanar or Elcor squadmate. In-universe, I just figured there was just as-of-yet undiscovered benefit of being bipedal.

The hanar and elcor are not bipedal and it's dubious whether the hanar are even vertebrates. If you want a fanon suggestion, maybe eezo has some sort of property that nudges evolution to selecting for bipedal stance or maybe <REDACTED> somehow seeded the galaxy in a similar manner to Star Trek's precursor species.

To Aimee's point, I don't recall the Elcor or Hanar doing much moving around. I can imagine software tools allowing you to create relatively stationary characters with outlandish body layouts but at the same time being unable to animate them as that would require extensive retrofitting of the game engine. Your fanon explanation is good too and I feel pretty in line with what's in the series.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

While screwing around with the config files in the first game, I changed my player-model to a hanar. The model got super-distorted at anything other than an idle animation.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

You're a video game mad scientist @aimeeandbeatles! I love the way you experiment and tinker. I'm too afraid of breaking stuff to do that.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Did you see my experiments on the last page about Priority: Mars screwing up with two Virmire survivors? I just like finding ways to break games.

Also, I ran into another oddity: If the squid-face species on Ilos were Inusannon, why did they also appear in the Prothean beacon?

 

[Arakhor]

That I don't know, but they weren't base-line Protheans.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I found another funny glitch by activating Tactical Cloak just as a cutscene began. Shepard's head disappeared during the cutscene. I was laughing too hard to get a screenshot.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yes I did and I don't know, to your questions @aimeeandbeatles .

What's a base-line Prothean, @Arakhor ?

 

[Arakhor]

Spoiler for Prothean image :

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I just realized that there's a lot of father issues in Mass Effect. Wonder what's up with that.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't recall that in the original series but father issues are a huge part of MEA.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I think something like 3/4 of your squadmates crew have issues with their fathers. Except Thane, who is the bad father. And Shepard themselves has a 2/3 chance of being an orphan.

What's up with Diana Allers? I brought her onto the ship for the war assets, but she's just...there. She sounds practically dead when doing the news segments. And there's something wrong with her face.

 

[Akka]

In a discussion about definitions and semi-formal classification, I don't think criticism on grounds of pedantry is useful.

I will say that compared to sci fi in video games in general, Mass Effect is pretty hard. But in the overall scheme of sci fi across all media types, it really isn't. Which is not the same as saying it's bad! It's really great stuff but I agree with Synsensa's definition.

Synsensa's definition is binary and pretty pointless : there is on one side the ultra-realist stuff, to the point that it flirts with not being science-fiction at all by being so lashed on contemporary science you can barely go into fiction without losing the credential, and that's classified as "hard". And there is everything else on the other, that is somehow all "soft". A definition that puts maybe 90 to 95 % of the content of the genre on one side and put Star Trek and Mass Effect in the same category of hardness is just devoid of significance IMO.
The TVTropes classification seems actually much more adequate.

 

[Synobun]

The TVTropes classification matches up with mine, tho.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So,

Spoiler :

I'm doing Priority: Tuchanka and...did we just sic a giant thresher maw on a reaper?

EDIT: Why do I keep dreaming about the weird vent kid?

 

[Synobun]

I have no idea what the canon answer is but I always saw it as either being PTSD or Shepard resisting indoctrination. The former, if the case, is done really poorly. If the latter, it's still done poorly but it's vague enough to not matter.

 

[Dachs]

I think something like 3/4 of your squadmates crew have issues with their fathers. Except Thane, who is the bad father. And Shepard themselves has a 2/3 chance of being an orphan.

Shepard lampshades this in the third game.

Spoiler list, includes ME3 spoilers :

Let's see.

ME1: 3/6
Kaidan - strong family relationships with little conflict
Ashley - strong family relationships with little conflict
Garrus - spends a significant chunk of the first game wrestling with his relationship with his father
Wrex - goes to war with his father, kills him
Tali - she's a Codex entry with little to no personality (yet)
Liara - doesn't know who her father is until the third game, kills her mother

ME2: 7/12
Miranda - her father is has all kinds of issues AND turns out to be Dr. Mengele in the third game
Jacob - his father is Jack Merridew from Lord of the Flies, except grown up and rapey
Jack - orphan
Garrus - has other issues, although he hasn't totally resolved his relationship with his dad yet
Mordin - has other issues, although it's a mentor/mentee conflict which is close
Grunt - vat-grown with a dead father figure, kind of imprints on Shepard
Zaeed - has other issues
Kasumi - has other issues
Thane - is the twisted father figure himself
Tali - her dad is ALSO Dr. Mengele
Samara - mother-child conflict instead of father-child conflict
Legion - has other issues, unless you think that the whole Morning War is basically daddy issues

ME3: 1/7 (honestly more like a 0.5/7)
Liara - has other issues, but she does find her dad so I'll allow it
Tali - has other issues
Garrus - fixed up his relationship with his dad between games! Well done.
Kaidan - strong family relationships with little conflict
Ashley - strong family relationships with little conflict
James - has other issues but he does mention that his dad dipped out when he was a kid
Javik - has other issues
EDI - depends on what you think of Timmy but I'd file her under "other issues"

What's up with Diana Allers? I brought her onto the ship for the war assets, but she's just...there. She sounds practically dead when doing the news segments. And there's something wrong with her face.

Yeah, she's an odd addition. From a certain point of view, it makes sense to try to impress upon players that the war is really big and happening everywhere, not just what Shepard's doing. The Allers character was not a particularly smart way to do that. Nothing about her worked very well - the writing, the voiceover, or the modeling.

Pretty much one thing about Allers is interesting to me: the concept of romance for Shepard outside of the chain of command. In a military or paramilitary environment that at least theoretically has a claim on professionalism, romance does not have a place on the team. The Allers idea holds out the promise of avoiding that issue. But the romance itself isn't worth pursuing, so meh.

Spoiler :

I'm doing Priority: Tuchanka and...did we just sic a giant thresher maw on a reaper?

Yes.

EDIT: Why do I keep dreaming about the weird vent kid?

You don't. Shepard does.

Spoiler massive spoilers :

It's a rather heavy-handed attempt to demonstrate the costs of the war and Shepard's powerlessness to resolve the conflict purely through force of arms. The kid outright says that Shepard can't help him, and then Shepard repeatedly dreams about being unable to help him. Flames consume the child in dreams as Shepard watches; eventually, Shepard appears to burn with the child. Finally, at the end of the game, the Reaper intelligence takes the form of the child to hammer the point home: because victory through force of arms is impossible, Shepard must make use of the Crucible to resolve the conflict. If Shepard chooses the nonstandard game over of rejecting that choice, s/he shoots the child - thus condemning the powerless multitudes of this cycle to extinction.

Like I said, heavy-handed. It's not about indoctrination. It's not even about PTSD. It's a thematic choice and a storytelling choice.

The child's appearance in Shepard's dreams was one of those places where players and creatives simply didn't connect. One of the most common criticisms by players was that BioWare was inflicting post-traumatic stress on "their" Shepard, "their" Shepard wouldn't care about the kid, blah blah blah. For their part, BioWare's writers had a pretty difficult assignment on their hands in attempting to write a war story that accommodated their chosen themes while also to some extent catering to player choice. Their approach was...not perfect, to say the least. They made many missteps. Arguably, the child was one of them.

I have thoughts, but this ain't really the place to have an ME3 ending argument.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yeah, she's an odd addition. From a certain point of view, it makes sense to try to impress upon players that the war is really big and happening everywhere, not just what Shepard's doing. The Allers character was not a particularly smart way to do that. Nothing about her worked very well - the writing, the voiceover, or the modeling.

Pretty much one thing about Allers is interesting to me: the concept of romance for Shepard outside of the chain of command. In a military or paramilitary environment that at least theoretically has a claim on professionalism, romance does not have a place on the team. The Allers idea holds out the promise of avoiding that issue. But the romance itself isn't worth pursuing, so meh.

It's weird, because there's already two journalist characters.

Anyways, something weird just happened:

Spoiler :

The Salarian councilor wants to meet and suddenly Cerberus is attacking the Citadel. I don't know where they're getting all these soldiers from; in the second game, some stuff that EDI said gave me the impression that it was a smallish organization. Then I find the Salarian councilor. Then suddenly this anime-looking guy shows up and tries to kill him. Thane intervenes, nearly gets killed himself...and then the anime guy runs off and jumps on a shuttle. Then later on he suddenly reappears and causes Shepard's shuttle to crash. What?

 

[Synobun]

Anime-looking guy. Certainly one way to describe Kai Leng.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

When I saw him, I thought he was supposed to be some sort of parody cosplay.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So the comms officer wanted to play some chess. She was excited about the shower so Shepard suggested she take a shower. Then sat there staring as she took a shower. Then the option came up to join her. That was awkward.