Mass Effect 2 teaser

[Darth Ruinus]

Tali was tolerable. She was genuinely working her ass off and at least had some pretence of character and competence. Her glee for Shepard is what I can't quite get my head trough.

Her glee for him? I thought she was helpful because Sheppard could help prevent galactic genocide.

[Samuel]

The problem is they look just like humans. You'd think they would have different secondary sex characteristics at least.

Hell, a fair number of species on this planet are hermaphroditic, and a few can actually change gender.

I don't believe it is common in vertebrates. I don't think there is any gender changing either.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

IIRC there're at least two fish species that change genders. Although for IIRC the process is irreversable, and that one basically rules the territory afterward.

I don't actually know if that frog they reference in Jurassic Park exists. I can't say I've heard of such things in Reptiles, Avians, or Mammals though.

Though yeah, it is mostly limited to invertebrates.

[Vendetta]

IIRC there're at least two fish species that change genders. Although for IIRC the process is irreversable, and that one basically rules the territory afterward.

There are also hermaphrodite fish. Sea bass, for instance.

The problem is they look just like humans. You'd think they would have different secondary sex characteristics at least.

Not necessarily. You might expect breasts to develop as a secondary sexual characteristic multiple times in predominantly upright creatures that spend much of their social communication face to face because they are a display of nutritional health. "I am well nourished and can carry around this extra fat on my chest".

[Stark]

Guys, they didn't put any thought into the politics. Why would they have done so for biology?

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Bah, we're nerding here.

The Varren amuse me though... Silly fish dogs and their huge eyes...

[Samuel]

Not necessarily. You might expect breasts to develop as a secondary sexual characteristic multiple times in predominantly upright creatures that spend much of their social communication face to face because they are a display of nutritional health. "I am well nourished and can carry around this extra fat on my chest".

That doesn't work. For starters, the Asari are thin. Two, breasts are specialized- if you want to show off fat, the stomach or overall padding is better.

Guys, they didn't put any thought into the politics. Why would they have done so for biology?

That smacks of reasonableness.

[Vendetta]

Guys, they didn't put any thought into the politics. Why would they have done so for biology?

The executive producers and heads of Bioware both hold doctorates in it?

That doesn't work. For starters, the Asari are thin. Two, breasts are specialized- if you want to show off fat, the stomach or overall padding is better.

There are tradeoffs though, all over body fat takes more energy to create and more to live with. A concentration in certain areas does the job of providing the sexual display without incurring the same cost. It's also possible for a species to pass through a phase where all over fat is considered an indicator of sexual health, and then slim that down leaving only a few display areas. (Most early human fertility idols are fat women, but now we're left with fat deposits on the breast and thighs as those signs).

[Zixinus]

About breasts: the thing is that they're mammal-centric. If the species reproduces by eggs, they would be unnecessary. In fact, I'm certain that even if you have a womb, breasts could be unnecessary.

They do make evolutionary sense, but only if the species develops breast-feeding.

There are a multitude of other places to store fat. Gender-relative fat models don't have to be human thought.

But than again, that never really bothered me.

Well, she is a xeno-archeologist. Studying leftovers from a civilization a great deal removed from her time.

Yes, but how does that justify using intuition rather than induction for her theory?

I mean "I just knew I was right because I'm a genius" thing turned me off rather quickly.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

I'm not really gonna defend their writing, but as long as we're overannalysing some soft sci-fi. It could be she was a crackpot to her peers. Though, she managed to come off, to me, as having been looking for the facts to support her hypothesis.

Sheppard's visions provided a large amount of information she, or most likely anyone else, would not have had access to otherwise. One has to wonder if they had even figured out how to read their writings, true they'd most likely have all the same basic data entry methods, due to the citadel being what it was. But it's a little meaningless if they can't decipher the difference between a warning of doom and a recipe for fudge cake.

Of course, I don't think that faucet of the universe was ever actually touched upon... Even in the codex.

[Lord Revan]

About breasts: the thing is that they're mammal-centric. If the species reproduces by eggs, they would be unnecessary. In fact, I'm certain that even if you have a womb, breasts could be unnecessary

IIRC visible breast outside of the when nursing young is not only mammal-centric, but human-centric with no other species on earth having visible breast when not breast feeding not even other apes (yes humans are apes).

I'm not 100% sure as it was from a TV-series I saw quite a while ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

[Xess]

Interesting teaser. I liked Mass Effect despite the previously mentioned deficiencies in writing so I'll pick up ME2 when it comes out. Hopefully they'll have a more accurate description of what the dialogue option actually means in it. That is by far the worst part of the writing in Mass Effect as far as I'm concerned. The lack-luster plot and so-so characters I can deal with, not knowing what your character is going to do is just bad gameplay.

[CaptHawkeye]

Well it's not like it matters. Shepard's only options in any important context were....

A. Be nice.

B. Be rude.

C. Ask a question.

...so ultimately the whole paragon/renegade system fell on its ass. I keep hoping someone at Bioware will manage to make a genuine character persona system like Witcher. Yeah, right. And then pigs will fly.

[Tanasinn]

I rather want more info on the Geth. Besides their religious insanity, they seem like decent folks for heartless robots - sure, they fucked up their creators, but that was a war over continued existence. After that, they fucked off beyond the veil and left everyone alone (so far as we know).

[CaptHawkeye]

I want somebody to explain why the Geth are so obviously powerful but everybody treats them like they're no great threat. We've got this huge battlefleet defending the Citadel. Whoops the Geth just crush it.

[SylasGaunt]

I want somebody to explain why the Geth are so obviously powerful but everybody treats them like they're no great threat. We've got this huge battlefleet defending the Citadel. Whoops the Geth just crush it.

Primarily for the same reason nobody seemed to be waiting for a massive cylon attack in nBSG.. out of sight out of mind. The Geth wrecked their creator's shit and pretty much haven't done anything since. They haven't been seen outside their territory, they haven't gone a viking, or anything else for what.. 300 years or something like that?

[Stark]

That's the sort of massive contrivance that's at the heart of Mass Effect's terrible writing. I'm not a fatty angry virgin nerd - I don't need to be made to feel powerful with stories where EVERYONE BUT ME IS CLINICALLY RETARDED.

[Vympel]

Hang about, the Geth didn't crush the Citadel Fleet alone - they had a Reaper with them. It's no surprise they did so well, and in the end, the arrival of Citadel reinforcements decided the issue against them.

[Peptuck]

I want somebody to explain why the Geth are so obviously powerful but everybody treats them like they're no great threat. We've got this huge battlefleet defending the Citadel. Whoops the Geth just crush it.

The geth were hiding behind the Perseus Veil for three hundred years. The biggest geth incursion in-game prior to the Citadel assault is the spat in the Armstrong Cluster and the commando units you fight on Feros, Noveria, and Therum. The Council quite clearly had no idea the geth had that powerful of a fleet, and they were led by a Reaper.

On the other hand, the Council fleets did seem to do a decent job handling the geth themselves. The only ship that got through was Sovereign, which ate mass driver fire from what looked like three turian dreadnoughts without any damage, and just bashed one out of its way without pausing.

[Stark]

Ahem.

Sovereign did nothing; he just flew through a Turian ship (that's probably their mastery of space combat showing through). He didn't fire his magic lasers until the humans showed up (not a Council reinforcement fleet) and the humans destroyed Sovereign in a few minutes (I dimly recall some plot silliness here). This tells us a) the gates to Citadel weren't guarded (the Citadel fleet was taken by surprise) b) the Citadel defence fleet was annihilated by Geth (with the exception of the HMS White Elephant) and c) the humans can kill Sovereign when a giant fleet of Turians can't even handle a fleet of Geth that should have been whittled down over many many relay jumps past defence fleets the Council SAID they set up but apparently didn't. Then again fleets of Turian 'let's not use anything but missiles oh no we died' ships might not have helped any.

Such fantastic writing. Everything the Council did was stupid and wrong, and this goes all the way back to the discovery of the Citadel. The only way to salvage the interstellar government as anything other than a pack of plot-driven boobs to make the impotent nerds playing feel big and strong is if it was all a giant fakeout/trick. Like the whole 'terminal pirates' thing. The only strange thing about the Citadel battle is why HMS White Elephant was still alive (obviously for a stupid 'plot' 'decision') when the Geth had raped other ships in single hits. Remember, the humans can't kill the Geth on the way past; what missiles? WHAT MISSILES I SAY?

[Tolya]

It makes me wonder: why the hell did the Sovereign even need to use the Conduit?

I mean, he and the geth fleet raped through Citadel fleet EVEN though everybody was waiting for them to show up, they shouldn't have any problems with a surprise attack.

That way they would catch everybody off guard, giving Saren and the geth strike team more than enough time to make their way to the council chamber (everybody apart from the main character has problems killing the geth, so I doubt that C-Sec would put up much of a fight).

It kinda makes it sad that the entire plot is practically useless. C'mon, a space ship that can ram through a big battle vessel of the most militarised species in Citadel space and don't break a sweat?

The game's contrivances even go to the most basic level - hardware. My puny Athlon AMD XP2000+ with a GeForce 7600GS can run this thing at the highest settings faster than on the lowest. What the hell? I tested today: Ultra high textures, medium particles, dynamic shadows, the whole shebang. And the only time it slows down below 20fps is in the presidium.

[Alyeska]

It makes me wonder: why the hell did the Sovereign even need to use the Conduit?

I mean, he and the geth fleet raped through Citadel fleet EVEN though everybody was waiting for them to show up, they shouldn't have any problems with a surprise attack.

That way they would catch everybody off guard, giving Saren and the geth strike team more than enough time to make their way to the council chamber (everybody apart from the main character has problems killing the geth, so I doubt that C-Sec would put up much of a fight).

It kinda makes it sad that the entire plot is practically useless. C'mon, a space ship that can ram through a big battle vessel of the most militarised species in Citadel space and don't break a sweat?

The game's contrivances even go to the most basic level - hardware. My puny Athlon AMD XP2000+ with a GeForce 7600GS can run this thing at the highest settings faster than on the lowest. What the hell? I tested today: Ultra high textures, medium particles, dynamic shadows, the whole shebang. And the only time it slows down below 20fps is in the presidium.

Sovereign needed the conduit in order to get Saren onto the Citadel to shut down its internal security and close the Citadel around it.

[Tolya]

And why are games like that always about galactic destruction?

I recall how awesome was the beginning of Nexus: Jupiter Incident. Small scale corporate warfare, humans and their greedy problems... and then WHAM - right in yer face - aliens, invincible enemy vowing to destroy all that is alive, galactic destruction...AGAIN.

When will the game developers learn that the base of a good game is writing and story and not the scale of the main quest?

Having said that, I really had fun playing Mass Effect. But every once in a time I have a thought that they just wasted a great premise for another Kotor rip-off.

Back in the day of pen and paper RPG's we followed a rule of "no save the world quests". And with a good GM it was always fun. I can't see how that couldn't work in computer games.

[Tolya]

Sovereign needed the conduit in order to get Saren onto the Citadel to shut down its internal security and close the Citadel around it.

Im still not convinced. Saren, being a Spectre, could do it before the Council was alerted to his actions. He could go anywhere and do everything. So why couldn't he just take a hike to the council chambers at night when most of the inhabitants were asleep, hijack the citadel station and open it for Sovereign?

Scouring half of the galaxy to find some forsaken Prothean technology that allows you to teleport to a place almost everyone has access to anyway just sounds like an overkill.

[White Haven]

And that's ignoring the whole 'We made all the original Mass Relays, bitches' bit. Big whup, there's one you didn't make, but you know how they work, probably better than the Protheans ever hoped to. Build a fucking Conduit of your own and aim it at Citadel Station if it's that important to you.