For me it's mostly because tibermoon is the lead designer of ME4 and he's is registered on the Codex. Which gives us the slim chance that ME4 may not suck and we at last could have a decent space opera, where aliens are not gone full wh40k and the galaxy filled with diplomacy and intrigue, rather than total and eternal war with humanity.
The key word being "more or less" - there is quite a bit of difference between vaguely humanoid Turian or Krogan and Asari who are almost exact duplicates of human females, save for blue skin and hairtacles. And then there are all the non-humanoid species for added contrast.It's stupid in any case: they mirror most of human morphology - including face - closely enough to not cause uncanny valley "eww" reaction.
Standard space opera thing. Almost every species in ME is more or less humanoid, you can't really expect Stanisław Lem levels of "alien-ness".
I'll actually let them get away with this one. Other species are probably going to focus on different parts of the anatomy than humans do when establishing how similar or different someone is to them, so it makes sense that multiple species might be able to find the asari attractive. With humans, it's all about the face. For other species, maybe it's more to do with skin tone and texture, or nonverbal expressions, or whatever. I actually like this because it makes the ME aliens seem a little more alien, rather than just humans in costume.The key word being "more or less" - there is quite a bit of difference between vaguely humanoid Turian or Krogan and Asari who are almost exact duplicates of human females, save for blue skin and hairtacles. And then there are all the non-humanoid species for added contrast.It's stupid in any case: they mirror most of human morphology - including face - closely enough to not cause uncanny valley "eww" reaction.
Standard space opera thing. Almost every species in ME is more or less humanoid, you can't really expect Stanisław Lem levels of "alien-ness".
In order for the series to actually be good, they would have to go back and make ME2 be about something, rather than being completely pointless to the trilogy at large outside of one DLC. Really, what else could they have done with ME3 after that but make the plot revolve around a giant deus ex machina?
It was actually the very first thing I noticed. The first screenshot I saw of ME after it was announced was of a human and an asari sitting at a bar, and I thought "limitless posibilities with 3D graphics and they deliberately choose to design aliens that look like humans with rubber shit on their heads. This game is going to be dumb."
So, to summarize:I'll actually let them get away with this one. Other species are probably going to focus on different parts of the anatomy than humans do when establishing how similar or different someone is to them, so it makes sense that multiple species might be able to find the asari attractive. With humans, it's all about the face. For other species, maybe it's more to do with skin tone and texture, or nonverbal expressions, or whatever.The key word being "more or less" - there is quite a bit of difference between vaguely humanoid Turian or Krogan and Asari who are almost exact duplicates of human females, save for blue skin and hairtacles. And then there are all the non-humanoid species for added contrast.It's stupid in any case: they mirror most of human morphology - including face - closely enough to not cause uncanny valley "eww" reaction.
Standard space opera thing. Almost every species in ME is more or less humanoid, you can't really expect Stanisław Lem levels of "alien-ness".
The simple lesson I learned from 369 hours of Mass Effect
369 hours.
That's nine 40-hour work weeks of time spent in the Mass Effect universe, according to the combined reports of Steam, Origin, and my creaky old Xbox 360. Eighty-six hours went into the original Mass Effect (three playthroughs), 189 hours into Mass Effect 2 (six playthroughs), and 94 hours into Mass Effect 3 (three playthroughs).
Commander Shepard and his crew—sometimes her crew, but we'll get to that—have done plenty of galaxy saving under my control. They fought aliens, robots, clones, politicians, and reporters. They stood united against enemies vast and unknowably timeless. They have, in the words of James T. Kirk, "been through death and life together."
They're my friends.
OK, they're not really my friends; claiming to be buddies with imaginary characters is a little too geeky even for me. The Mass Effect series is not without its flaws, and some are truly Reaper-sized. But it has gripped me like nothing else in the history of video games, and video games and I go back a pretty long way.
As the first anniversary of Mass Effect 3's release approached in early March, I embarked on an epic playthrough of the entire Mass Effect series. My goal was not just to finish all three games but to see if I could actually role-play a character through the series. I wanted to take an angry, win-at-all-costs Commander Shepard and transform him through fire into a caring, compassionate leader who values the means as much as the ends. I found this to be both easier and far, far more difficult than I imagined.
Each game takes at least 30 hours to play properly, so I did a lot of my playing in eight to 10 hour stretches on weekends. My wife is sick of hearing me describe scenes and characters to her, but honestly, as the closing notes of "Farewell and Into the Inevitable" echoed through my headphones, I found myself sadder about the end of the epic three-game playthrough than I expected to be. Mass Effect is just that good, and I want to tell you why. It might not be for the reasons you're expecting.
A note about spoilers: This piece is going to be filled front-to-back with spoilers from all three games. We'll talk about plot arcs and choices, the fates of the characters, and the endings. By the time we're done, we'll have touched on tons of stuff across the entire series. If you haven't played the games but still want to, this will kill a whole lot of the mystery and anticipation. This is your first and only warning!
Infinity and beyond
The Mass Effect universe is that rare thing—a fully-realized science fiction game setting that stands up to the likes of Star Trek or Star Wars. The universe in which the games take place has a rich and complex backstory, and even better, it's not a rich and complex back story that the player has to have info-dumped into his head. This isn't The Old Republic, where you have to read thousands of awful Kevin J. Anderson "Extended Universe" novels and have a working knowledge of the seven prime forms of lightsaber combat to get the most out of the game.
There's depth in the backstory, but it's not the kind of depth that ever compelled me to memorize the game's codex entries. (Do you really need to know that the "First Contact War" between humans and Turians started because humans activated a mass relay in violation of council law and that the war culminated in the siege of Shanxi? No. It's wonderful flavor, but it's not mandatory knowledge.) The world is alive and compellingly real just through dialogue and character actions, without needing endless narration. The first game's opening title crawl essentially says, "This is the future and aliens are real and you are a space soldier. Go." That's enough.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/the-simple-lesson-i-learned-from-369-hours-of-mass-effect/
Meh, out of the three, ME2 is worth one go
