http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1352/danteshepard2.png

(uncertain how to insert pics, did best I could)

I thought they were going to kill Shepard for a while too, sadly they weren’t quite brave enough for it. On the other hand though, he did a very cool hero walk afterwards, and Fallout 3 seems to show that gamers can’t handle a heroic sacrifice ending, so you can’t fault that logic.

And as for Shepard/Geth? I think not, I sold that armour first time I got on the citadel, guess things went badly for that Hannar shopkeeper.

More disappointing about the ME2 trailer is that it mentions Liara. I guess that means Shep didn’t get annoyed enough to lose her in an ‘airlock malfunction’ before kicking the bucket. Damn and blast.

I’ve never even selected a male shephard. Infact, I sit with Spore waiting for me to dismiss a tutorial message and just read this here book. Fuck you computer! Now YOU wait!

It’s how dull and empty my life is, I must resort to repeating myself, on blogs, over the internet.
But atleast I don’t use 4chan.

Although I think it’s possible that the male voice actor sounds better on the paragon lines than he does on the renegade ones. The few times he’s gotten shouty in my game have featured the least convincing delivery I’ve seen from him.

Come to think of it, I wonder how actors handle VO for a protagonist with moral choice? They don’t really have a character to get into — the character could be anything. And I imagine that for the convenience of the developers, they go through the lines scene by scene rather than doing one area of the moral spectrum at a time. That lack of continuity has got to be difficult.

Still, the graphics are gorgeous, the world is detailed, the combat was fun, and Female Shepard is quite pleasing to the ear and eye. What a shame Male Shepard appears to the be the canon one because he could easily be replaced by a robot and it would be difficult to notice the difference.

Captain: they’re the result of scars rather than specially shaved, but frankly: yes.

Monty: my Infiltrator had no biotics, so Liara was handy, but I think I more often paired her with Wrex. My Vanguard took Wrex and Garrus everywhere, because they’re my two favourite characters, and I’d since learned there were lots of unique arguments between them.

But then she looked too much like sarah palin.

Querulous: Tom, why do you have a preference for female characters with an indentation shaved into their eyebrow? This one would like to know, and will hence refer to it as the pentadactian penchant.

Male Shepard: “I’ve got a voice like a cheese grater and deliver my lines with reliable flatness.”

Female Shepard: “I know how to act. Also, I’ve got emotions.”

And if you think Male Shepard looks more awesome then sure. But from my experience, you spend a lot more time listening to your character speak than looking at their face. And a big chunk of Mass Effect’s appeal is in the dialogue. That means the voice acting is make-or-break.

Obvious pride: This is Shepard Shepard, ruthless spacer infiltrator with renegade tendancies and my review character:

I’ve stopped playing to do a writing piece and it torments me, sitting on my hard drive. It’s like looking into an abyss, an abyss of bliss.

Except the Mako sections. They’re just shit, frankly.

Also I’m impressed people have resisted writing like the Elcors in this comment thread. Except Tom, who succumbed.

There’s no freaking way I’d have sacrificed Wrex as a teammate. He’s my favorite character! I used the charm option. But like you, Tom, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a dialogue branch or side-quest involving salvaging some of Saren’s research. Especially considering the scientist encounters; how hard would it be to have them picked up by the Normandy for questioning?

Then again, even if I had that option, I’m not sure what I would have done with it. That was definitely one of those ‘uh, can I sleep on it?’ decisions. Frankly, Shepard should have been inundated with renegade points for choosing either way out.

Also: Punching the scientist at the beginning. The way the conversation played out meant that it was ALWAYS the first thing I did

I posted the first answer not ten minutes after running across it in my own game. Unfortunately, my short term memory was not able to reproduce the correct spelling of Ontarom. Apologies.

After you tipped off the second one, it was just process-of-elimination. My first character was a spacer war hero, and that exchange didn’t seem familiar to me. So I guessed earthborn, and a helpful friend confirmed it and filled me in with the relevant specifics.

For the record, I charmed him out of grassing me up – tempted to shoot him, but a C-Sec officer was standing right there. Afterwards, the C-Sec officer chided me for not just shooting him.

It’s your “old friend” Finch on the Citadel Station. Only triggers for earthborns.

Keep guessing on the second one. It’s another encounter from Shepard’s past, probably tied to one of my origin choices.

(lol – I accidentally posted it in the old entry at first. not sure what happened with my brain there…)

If by that you mean stereotype-jews, then you are far more correct about the Volus than anybody else.

Especially when the result is not what I intended (Choosing a reasonably friendly response and ending it with violent action)

Instead of having less vehicle exploration, I’d just change vehicles. I think a trio of little one-man hoverpod things would be much more interesting to drive around than the big tank, and have the side benefit of not making your team choice completely forgotten and irrelevant.

As a total tourist gamer, there are a couple of things I haven’t been able to do (yet?) in ME and would like to see in the sequel. After Tali’s descriptions of the Quarian fleet, I would really like to visit it at some point. Also, I think it’s stupid that you can fly to Earth, but can’t land.

Oh, and this goes without saying, but any Mass Effect sequel without a sardonic Krogan teammate would hardly be worthy of the name.

The first one: Toombs, Ontorom, Newton System. For the Sole Survivors in the audience.

My memory fails me on the second one, but given that I’m also in the process of playing through again, I’m sure it will be jogged in the very near future.

And if sarcasm wasn’t sexy enough, she also kills things…with sarcasm.

Genuine enthusiasm: the female Shepard preference is all about the voice actress, Jennifer Hale. She manages to be stern and authorative even when asking questions all the time, and her commanding presence makes her tender moments all the more disarming.

So what’s with this ‘female Shepard is the best Shepard’ campaign you seem to have started?

Oh, and I totally agree that Liara is a weak character, which is a crying shame, because she’s the one people are going to go for first without realising this. I prefer my blue babes in the Viconia style please.

So, what would people like to see in Mass Effect 2? I’m hoping for a Salarian team member, specifically the Captain from Virmire, who is fantastic.