going back to the space janitors it just kinda clicked in my head. Anderson apparently tells you the Keepers did away with some of the wreckage before it could be studied, Baily over at C-sec mentions the keepers and how they have been helping repair and also make the repairs the citidel crew have been doing look nicer but he dosnt really know where they get the materials for it. Wonder if ME3 will see the entire citidel turn into one giant reaper

That reminds me, did anyone pee in their pants the moment they saw a Keeper... HIGHLIGHT to view:
walking in the ventilation shaft from Thane's Loyalty mission?

Can we all agree that Shepard needs vorcha, batarian, hanar, keeper, volus and elcor teammates in ME3? And they should all be romanceable.

Well i cant see an elcor holding a gun, and we dont need no stinkin Batarians.

Frackin Batarians....

Woohoo just bought Mass Effect 2, can't wait till it comes. Although I have to finish the first game first, near the end though.
I wish I'd started playing as the female Shep since people are saying she's the better VA and easier on the eye I guess, but I want to continue my epic story.
One thing that really bothers me about the first game: not being able to open certain item lockers because I don't have good enough decryption skills, means I always have to have Kaiden in my team and he's dull.

No.

To which part?

im not sure how well a keeper teamamte would work out given they you know.. dont leave the station or talk or do anything but work on the structure.

Hanar are the space jellyfish right? yeah that could be.. interesting. As long as they keep their yap shut.

I wish I could have the volus from the Illium marketplace that talks about how he only buys top of the line, high performance equipment. That guy would have been fun to have around.

I wanted to recruit that Volus who was so goosed up that he thought he was a biotic god. I think things and they happen! Fear me, lesser creatures, for I am biotics made flesh!



I don't really understand where people are getting that. I like Jennifer Hale's work a hell of a lot, but Shepard is a soldier first and foremost. He's going to be a bit gruff, but he speaks as if every word is carefully measured. With authority. I don't detect any less emotion from the male Shepard. Female Shepard's delivery strikes me as more dramatic, whereas male Shepard seems to be more believable and grounded. They're just different.
Maybe theatrics make more sense in the context of intergalactic crisis? I couldn't say unless I was put in that situation. But I'd sooner follow the person that sounded like they were speaking to me, rather than feeding me a speech.

Male Shepard feels off. There're a lot of lines with just no... ephasis, or anything. I really prefer female Shepard--he speech really sounds more natural to me. And cooler.

(And she's hot)

Let's bring in Blasto, the first Hanar Spectre!



As for Shepard's VAs - I like his male voice. It's actually difficult to do a Male Renegade run through because I'm used to that voice coming out of *my* Paragon's mouth.

Also Female Renegade Shepard is like Vasquez from Aliens cranked up to Eleventy Five.

Male Shepard vs. female Shepard.
This is near the end of Mass Effect 1, for anyone that is close to finishing that game, so you may not want to see it yet if you haven't already.

Hale just sounds corny, Meer sounds more natural and believable.
As I said, love them both, they're just completely different acting methods. Hale primarily does significantly more cartoons and video games, Meer does more real acting. Matter of preference. As convincing as Mass Effect makes aliens and space travel and how everything interacts, if it doesn't seem plausible to me, it's going to stick out.

yeah not hearing it. Meer, as always, sounds like hes just reading lines off a page with no real care for any sort of emotion or inflection. Hale sounds like she is trying to act and emote how she belives Shepard would in her situation.

This isnt even touching upon the fact that there is a huuuuge disparity in the amount of experience the two actors have. Jennifer Hale has been doing acting and voice work since the late 80's including video game work. Shes voiced just a ton of media and a wide range of characters in popular cartoons and video games. I mean hell look at her IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0354937/ 200+ recorded entries

Now look at Meers http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1035752/ starts out in the late 90's.. has a rather poor unimpressive list of VA work with Commander Shepard being his only notible role and his other video game VA work simply summed up as "additional voices" The guy just dosnt have the kind of range or experience that Hale has so I can't super fault him for not being as good but.. well hes simply not as good, and why he landed such a big role given his prior work experience and the level of quality they hired on for the female va.. just dont get it. I simply cant stand playing as the male shep because of how distractingly disinterested his voice sounds. He sounds the same angry, sad, amused... its like that Steven Segal emotion chart pic someone posted in general, he sounds the same no matter what.

Its not even that Hale is beter than Meer, its that almost every va in the game is better than Meer. Sheen(TIM) is better,Keener(Garrus),Sroka(Tali), even most the unimportant characters VA's sound better than Meer. In a game where most everyone has a VA capible of hitting emotional cues and having varience in their dialog, Meer and his one size fits all style of voice acting really mismatches.

I must be a terrible judge of talent then, because I prefer Meer to Hale in that speech. Hale just came across as flat and deadpan in delivery. Meer at least sounded like a Military Commander giving a speech.

No argument that he's not the best voice in the games though.

the speech sadly isnt the best example of hales work. One scene that really stuck me as bizzarely different in ME2 was on the Citidel at the end of a small side mission to prove a quarian didnt pickpocket from an Elcor. The paragon action has Sherpard geting pissed off at C-sec and the elcor for not really caring that she was innocent all along and still giving her crap about it. Femshep actualy sounds outraged and a bit angry at how they are acting. male shep delivers the same lines and even tho the animation is the same.. his voice just dosnt follow through and he sounds very deadpan.

eh. I dunno what im doing really. If you think Meer is better then im not going to convert anyone over to thinking Hale is the better shepard. I guess its just me being a little annoyed that the VA i find lacking is the one they plasterd all over the commercials and art and even went to the point of giving him a unique custom non facegenable head in the game. Meanwhile the va i like is kinda just.. not even mentioned. If you hadnt played ME before you wouldnt even think there was a female shepard option and you would probably avoid her thinking that she obviously wasnt nearly as good as the other guy if she never got any mention. eh.

Ah well. I'll let the subject drop.

See... I've always liked FemShep in that speech.

Looks like I'll hit level 30 soon on my insanity run so I'll have all the achievements once i beat the game again. The snipet rifle has been my best friend on this difficulty

Aside from the level 30 and Insanity achievements, I've just got to get a few more biotics ones. I think this might be the first game that I get every achievement for..

oh my, that insanity achievement is ummm...insane. I can't get past the the first YMIR mech.

I highly recommend infiltrator for insanity clears, and make your squad almost exclusively Mordin and Miranda. Just muscled through insanity myself that way. My first time getting all the achievements in a full retail game

I miss the bonuses you got for unlocking achievments in ME1. not huge bonuses but helpful in their own way.

I agree. And one of them was huge--the one for Rich unlocks the best gear in the game.

right theres that. I mean the loyalty achievments unlock the loyalty skills for shep, and the completed game unlocks 25% bonus xp but.. was hoping for mores.

I think a big difference between the two is their theatrical background, and it's reflected in their performances. Hale is an accomplished VA, sure, with a broad range by the standards of people who do solely voice over work. Her break came in a ... made for tv movie? And since, she's worked in animation, cartoons, and commercial voice overs. Meer's roots tie more deeply into theatre. I watched some of his improv work after I played the first game, and the man is trained and versatile. What sounds flat to you, sounds to me like the mien of a soldier who speaks decisively.
In the speech I linked to especially, Meer sounded like he was living it. Hale sounded like she was reading it.
But I'm able to see both sides of it objectively, and I'm definitely not implying that Hale is a slouch. I looked up some female Shepard stuff to see if I was missing anything, and I thought her lines when romancing Thane in particular were damned smooth. But her performance is uneven. Sometimes I'd find a gem like that, and sometimes I'd find a bucket of ass candy like the stuff she shoveled in that ME1 endgame speech.

But yeah, no one is going to change anyone else's perception. I have friends who watch anime and don't flinch at the acting or think twice about it, but 80% of the voice acting in them grates on me horribly. It's just awful. That, and the mindless nature of a lot of it makes it painful to watch.



Keener and Sroka are both awesome. Didn't I see him in a commercial the other day for retirement plans or something? It sounded a hell of a lot like him, you hear the dude talk even casually and it's so unmistakably Garrus.

I still think the best conversation comes from Garrus - when probed about how Turians prepare for dangerous missions and his story about him and the lead scout of his old ship.

About how he had the reach, but she had the flexibility.

That one is also a cue for females to start down the path to hot Garrus sex, IIRC.

(I don't know for sure 'cause my mainshep is loyal to Liara and my alt shep likes Kelly)

Mordin's sex advice about Turians is priceless.


"So don't..coughs..ingest"

Well i give up.

Ive gone through twice, one paragon once renegade and still can not manage to get everyone back.

Jack got it on Paragon, and Legion took one in the flashlight on Renegade.

Iam done, this is shelved, and iam not going back unless its for important DLC or ME3.

Get full loyalty, full ship upgrades. Do the IFF mission last, followed by the one loyalty mission left. Legion as the first specialist, Miranda leading fireteam. I use Samara as the biotic specialist, again Miranda leading. I send Grunt with the crew.

This has not failed me. Ever.

yeah i did all of that except i sent jacob with the crew on paragon and mordin on renegade.

Legin didnt have my trust thanks to a confrontation with tali so he took it in the face once he got through the pipe, and Jack got it on the paragon play cause i lost her in an argument with maranda.
Both times i guess i didnt have enough P/R juice to save them in the conversation.

Both the charm and intimidate options during those arguments keep both characters loyal.

Yeah, it's actually kinda heartwarming using the Charm one on Legion and Tali - as they end up cooperating at the end of the sequence.

Also, am I the only one who was annoyed Legion was a 11th Hour Addition? Dude's so much fun, I wish you could get him earlier!

"Why did you use my armor?"
"There was a hole."
"But why my armor?"
"....i have no data."

I agree entirely. I'd love to get him much earlier, but I can't bring myself to sacrifice the crew. You COULD mod your save file--he even has dialogue for places before you can actually get him!

Yeah i managed to pull one off and keep Maranda and Jack loyal, telling both of them to keep a deck apart for the remainder of the mission was pretty sweet.

But like i said, didnt have enough Mojo to keep Tali and Legion happy. SO if iam sacrificing one its gotta be the geth dude. But i didnt think he'd die if i sent him in the pipe.

If somebody's not loyal, they're gonna get offed. Maybe not quite so spectacularly, but they won't be coming back alive. A Coworker actually had Thane just keel over dead before they even landed.

My friend just completed his second playthrough (renegade) and didn't upgrade the Normandy or do any loyalty missions.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
Legion was sold to Cerberus. Jack died when the collector ship shot the Normandy, Tali died when the Mass Effect core exploded, Thane took a bullet to the face after the tube, Jacob took a bullet between the eyes getting through the first door, Garrus was carried away by the seeker swarm after Miranda couldn't hold the shield, Mordin died escorting the crew back. None of the crew made it either. Miranda, Grunt and Samara survived.

The ME3 import for that file will suuuuuuuuck.

thats what happens when you try to skip the bulk of the game.

Personally i wish more games were like that. Sure it would turn off the casual gamer or the gamers that dont really play Rpg style games, but i like having a consequence for my actions.
No matter how annoying it is to not get that achievement.

Legion is awesome. I actualy recruited him asap, despite the implication for the rest of the crew, for one of my playthroughs. Its interesting to see the cutscenes they put in for him that sadly you have to miss out on if you want to make sure everyone survives that can. Taking Legion early means that your loosing at least half your crew, possibly all of it once you actualy get around to taking on the suicide mission :/

you can romance a team member and still be with kelly



my first play through, i had all the ship upgrades but not full loyalty (miranda wasnt loyal after her spat with jack). not sure when i did the iff mission but i lost most of the crew. aside from that, everyone came out alive. tali was the tech and garrus was the other team leader (wasnt trusting it to someone i didnt like and wasnt loyal) and samara kept off the swarm. mordin went back with what few crew survivors there were

so the team survived but not the crew. so i guess technically not EVERYONE made it back lol

on my second go round, everything was still pretty much the same, but i did the iff mission next to last (got legions mission before the final party) and saved all the crew this time. again, tali was the tech, garrus led the other teams, samara held off the swarm and miranda still wasnt loyal. sent jacob back with the survivors this time. this time...miranda bought it. though when it happened i dont know. she was alive during the final cut scene before i took on the HIGHLIGHT to view:
hybrid reaper. oh well. shes off my boat and thats all i ever wanted. the ends justify the means



see the first part of my reply above. maybe a trade off of a non loyal person surviving is a trade off with the crew dying and when you go after them?

I finally got the game. I just met the doc, Mordrin (SP?) So I'm still avoiding reading most of this spoilerrific thread.

Dr. Mordin Solus. He is awesome.

Agreed, horrible partner for fighting but he's chock full of good advice.

He also has a beautiful singing voice.

I actually like him in combat, too.

I like Mordin's incineration attack, it's handy and does some nice damage while I'm waiting on my shields to recharge.
Plus, he usually has something insightful or amusing to say, so I like having him along.



I wonder if certain characters have a random affinity for dying, outside of any circumstance. I'd read on other forums that Mordin had been dying off on occasion, in spite of correct choices and total crew loyalty. Tali died on me for seemingly no apparent reason, so I loaded a save at the station, chose instead to take her with me for the last fight, and she survived. Everyone did, and I saved the entire crew.
No idea what caused her death in the first place, but I'm certainly not going to play Mass Effect 3 without her. Story permitting.

I like Legion, too, I was surprised how almost bashful he seemed when confronted about his fanboy fascination with Shepard. I'd have thought Geth to be above such things, but it was interesting to see. I liken the N7 armor patch job to sporting a football player's jersey. That's just my perception, though. Hopefully we get the opportunity to learn more about him in the next game.

Legion was an 11th Hour addition to the crew, but not an 11th Hour addition to the game. Behold, the first trailer for Mass Effect 2:





I've heard in a few places that your dialog choices in the lead-up to the suicide mission can influence whether people live or die too--specifically that the urgency you show about rescuing the ship's crew determines whether or not they died, but there could be some other components to it as well.

I liked that about Legion too, because it showed that beyond the whole "Technological Construct composed of hundreds of sapient programs", ultimately the Geth were something that could be understood and even rationalized with. Given the similarities between the Geth and the Reapers, I found it put a more "human" face on the enemy.



I never figured he was. It was just sad that you can't venture through more of the game with him.

You CAN, if you edit the save. He--and all the OTHER second round crew--have dialogue for all missions after the first one with Jacob and Miranda.

On the Xbox 360? How can this be?