OH GOD BIOWARE WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE

[stefan]

I can't help but feel that Tali was so popular specifically because she was the one member of the original female cast that wasn't written as a shallow love interest. Lets be honest here, Ashley is a block of wood and Liara was so moe it was irritating.

[Marc v4.0]

If I could kill off Ashley again...

[Toast]

I actually really enjoy Ashley's character, and I thought she was pretty hot in me1 and 2. The changes made to her in me3 make it look like she's had plastic surgery, which is not really attractive, and I have a preference for shorter hair styles and long hair put up/tied back, but that's more of a personal thing.

Liara never really did interest me much, because she was so obviously the blue alien space babe of the week, and I always thought the girls in uniform were way more interesting.

As for Tali, I think it's the voice alone. I never romanced her in any of my playthroughs, but I could listen to her all day, and if you really look at her dialogue conversations, it's like 75% quarian culture infodump anyway. Never really saw what was so intriguing about her personality, other than her being a nerdy tinkerer, which is I suppose enough for some.

On Jack, I never really like trauma as backstory type characters, and that's what she was in spades. Her appearance/ personality/ attitude just really grated on my nerves.

I liked Miranda a bit better, although she could get a bit whiny at times, too. The only time I romanced her was on my run through to kill off several squad mates and make all the 'bad' decisions in one go.

[Aerozord]

I think most peoples issue with ashley as that she was abit short tempered and overtly racist. While its not someone I would like as a human being, I dont think she was badly designed. Considering her back story and even humanity over all at that point, being xenophobic made sense. We only recently encountered other life and our first meeting was them killing alot of us.

Originally Posted by Toast

Liara never really did interest me much, because she was so obviously the blue alien space babe of the week, and I always thought the girls in uniform were way more interesting.
....
On Jack, I never really like trauma as backstory type characters, and that's what she was in spades. Her appearance/ personality/ attitude just really grated on my nerves.

I liked Miranda a bit better, although she could get a bit whiny at times, too. The only time I romanced her was on my run through to kill off several squad mates and make all the 'bad' decisions in one go.

Bioware might overall be good at writing, but they still fall prey to writing women more as the exact same person just from differing details. They are all rather bland and flat. Jack is the "damaged girl" Miranda is the "sheltered genius" more like what I'd see in a japanese dating sim then reality, and Liara is... well nothing really she has no personality.

Originally Posted by Toast

As for Tali, I think it's the voice alone. I never romanced her in any of my playthroughs, but I could listen to her all day, and if you really look at her dialogue conversations, it's like 75% quarian culture infodump anyway. Never really saw what was so intriguing about her personality, other than her being a nerdy tinkerer, which is I suppose enough for some.

I think its more that she on the other hand does feel real. She is capable but still new to the outside world with a strong sense of loyalty. Her explanations are alot about her culture rather than her but that works in her favor. Instead of bluntly telling you her troubles you see how being a quarian would cause her trouble. So you can better relate and care about her. Heck I was thinking of getting rid of legion simply because I knew Tali would be upset if it was onboard.

Though for love interest, I personally prefer her because even back in the first game I got the sense she was interested in Shepard, then in the next game they have a legit obstacle threatening to keep them apart. Not sure if its retroactive, but that same thing could be used to explain why things didn't progress in the first game.

Now Garrus, maybe its because I'm a straight guy, but never got any sense from him in the first game. Second game yes, but first not really. So while one of the better examples it didn't have quite as much impact.

[CABAL49]

So I just played through the demo. I can't really comment on the story cause they basically toss you into random parts of it so I am never really sure what is happening. Pretty much all familiar faces. You all may be pleased to note that Garrus hasn't changed. He still likes taking rockets to the face.

I am not a big fan of the third-person aspect, and it still hasn't won me over. Maybe with practice it would get better, but the controls did feel a bit awkward. And the new VA for Mordin is not the same. This is all I really got out. Multiplayer becomes unlocked for the rest of us tomorrow.

[Marc v4.0]

The Wrex-Liara-Garrus interactions brought back found memories and seems to have remained spot on

edit: I did not notice the difference in Mordin, to be honest, and I was listening for it

[Arcanum]

As someone who doesn't care about Mordin's voice actor change, and who didn't actively listen for it, I can't say I heard a difference. So unless you really really really really want to hear the difference, it's not going to matter at all to the vast majority of players.

Also I'm sorely disappointed that they kept the universal cooldown. Granted I only played through as a Vanguard so far so maybe other classes have more abilities like Nova that don't rely on a cooldown per se, but still it's annoying not being able to chain biotics without using your teammates. Though using Nova and then charging to the next enemy to recharge my barriers was pretty fun.

[Kerensky287]

The singleplayer demo was alright except 1) unskippable cutscenes and 2) you can't pick your weapons, which fucks you over if you grab an ability-based class like Adept.

See, what they've done is they've made it so that the bigger (and more numerous) guns you carry, the longer your recharge times last. That means you can go in with a tiny pistol and play Biotic God, or you can be a gun-toting commando who happens to also be a Biotic. Looking forward to that in the full game.

Multiplayer is fucking fantastic. That's all I have to say.

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Kerensky287

See, what they've done is they've made it so that the bigger (and more numerous) guns you carry, the longer your recharge times last. That means you can go in with a tiny pistol and play Biotic God, or you can be a gun-toting commando who happens to also be a Biotic. Looking forward to that in the full game.

Oh. Did not know this. That sounds much better. It's still lame that everything shares a cooldown, but this is better than nothing.

[Kerensky287]

I haven't tried it yet but I think you can actually go into a round with no weapons whatsoever. I'm tempted to try this with an Engineer, Adept or Sentinel just to try playing pure-mage.