126 réponses à ce sujet

[Mr. Homebody]

Yes, someone like the default Shepard, male or female, must come back, they're the flagship of the series and are recognized as badasses on the gaming community, unlike Dragon Age.

 

Well, Dragon Age has Hawke. He is badass, at least on cinematic trailer. Not so much in the game. But still far more interesting character than bland Inquisitor. Hawke with his/her archetypes of personality and iconic appearance/armor is memorable in the same way as companions. Cannot say the same about Inquisitor the Forgettable.

[NRieh]

 

a face code for the Andromeda character creator would have to be really (REALLY) long, way too long to be shared in the same fashion as the Mass Effect ones (consoles don't have in-game copy and paste afaik).

Have you seen the Wild Star (yes, a MMO) face codes?  They are longer and more complex, yes. But they work.

 

I don't see any problems here. A 100 character string vs encrypted 300 characters string. It's copy-paste anyway, same as people copy-paste the headmorph 'gibberish' values via save editors. The only difference will occur to those who (for whatever reasons) love to write it down on paper.

 

Oh, and let's not forget that (possible DAI spoiler warning!)

Spoiler

in DAI custom-PC player has to recreate 2(TWO) characters per PT. From the scratch. And even if Hawke CC session is successful, player has no options to save this appearance. Mirror won't help with that, like it had with the Inq. Hawke has no access to the Mirror, so we can't even measure the grid of the previously created face.

 

It's not the lack of the 'iconic' presets that is bad, but the lack of proper support for the custom characters is. In DAI 'default' players are spared of so much frustration, really. 

[Andrew Lucas]

Well, Dragon Age has Hawke. He is badass, at least on cinematic trailer. Not so much in the game. But still far more interesting character than bland Inquisitor. Hawke with his/her archetypes of personality and iconic appearance/armor is memorable in the same way as companions. Cannot say the same about Inquisitor the Forgettable.

Good point. That's what I want, a protagonist that will carry the new series with his/hers face.

[Absafraginlootly]

I think who you empathize with in any story depends on each person, there have been movies where I didn't empathize at all with the designated hero but still enjoyed the overall movie anyways. Game wise in general there's also two dominant approaches with the player character - blank slate where it's more about the world around the you, and preset where the player character is their own person and central to the story. They're both valid ways of making games, I like games that feature both methods. Clearly Bioware prefers the latter, though Mass Effect started out the latter and slid more towards the former by the third installment.

 

I do agree about the Warden though, never really connected with them but did enjoy the world surrounding them.

 

"I do agree about the Warden though, never really connected with them but did enjoy the world surrounding them."

 

Funny, this is exactly how I would describe the witcher games. I enjoyed the game, the world and the characters around him - but I don't care either way about him.

 

I really enjoy making my own character, choosing how they think, what they believe, how their background affects those things. Getting into their heads and emotions makes for an intense and great gaming experience for me. But I can also enjoy and empathize with completely set characters, like say, Lara Croft in the latest Tomb Raider.

 

I guess Geralt just exists in an awkward inbetween place for me. I can't choose his personality/appearance/background so he's not my character, but I do choose his choices and moral stances so he's not a separate character either. Though obviously YMMV on that sort of thing (eg. I know for some people da2 was that awkward inbetween place).

 

Still enjoy Witcher - just apathetic about Geralt.

 

In any case, I enjoy bioware's balance of keeping the protagonist and story more set (unlike say Elderscrolls where its a complete blank slate) but still allowing the character to be yours and how you decide them to be. (DAI and DAO did the best job of this for me).

 

Its all very subjective.

[Tex]

Man, I wish I wasn't out of likes. All of these are likes.
 
I'm utterly indifferent to the presence of an "iconic" protagonist, because I've never used one for any of my games, and while I won't say never... I really doubt I ever will. The ability to craft a custom PC is one of the greatest strengths a game can have. There's plenty of compelling supporting characters and striking imagery in a given Bioware game to base an ad campaign on, if you ask me.
 
When we have beautiful stuff like this:
 

Spoiler

 
Do we really need this to sell people on the game?
 

Spoiler

My thoughts exactly.

[Ieldra]

I disagree most strongly with the OP. Iconic anythings adversely affect the player's freedom to envision their character and are generally undesirable. Iconic equipment is acceptable in some cases, iconic appearance (in form of a default face) may be acceptable if and only if it is optional, but iconic characterization is completely inacceptable. Shepard's "iconic" stupidity and general aversion to any type of subtlety was one of ME3's most undesirable features, and I would hate little more in a future ME game than its return. I have listed this as #1 of the things I hated in the ME trilogy 

[Arppis]

Really? Honestly, the first thing I think of when I think of Sheploo is this:

 

But yet, you know where his face is from, right? When you see the face, you go: "Shepard" or heck, some people in denial might go "Fake Shepard".

[Joseph Warrick]

Sheploo is gaming's laughingstock. My brand, etc.

[Inquisitor_Jonah]

But yet, you know where his face is from, right? When you see the face, you go: "Shepard" or heck, some people in denial might go "Fake Shepard".

Well, since it's a fictional character, there's no "fake" or "real" Shepard But every player has their on version of the commander (or more than one, in my case), and that's what make this char (and the warden, hawke, and the inquisitor) so unique. This face just happens to appear more on most players playtroughs, but it's not more "real" than the Shepard in my avatar or the ones other players made lol And also, that facial expression is also not unique to sheploo I'm afraid   the facial animator of ME2 needs to be fired    

[Felya87]

I hate the "iconic" face. Presets in CC? ok. Iconic face to have everywhere and I will always see as estraneous? no. I ended up hating both MaleShep and FemShep iconic faces. They aren't my Shepard. they are random guys that don't let me enjoy trailers nor merchandisyng, since I'm never going to buy anything with pre-made-Shepard on.

 

I expecially hate when stuff like hair or textures are used only for the iconic characters (like FemShep and hawke). Why I have to be penalyzed for wanting MY character? I hope it will be iconic armour like Inquisition. I have found myself attached to my Inquistors, almost as much as with my Wardens.

[FKA_Servo]

Why the hell not? They're little computers; why are they gimped so badly? We used to call this stuff crippleware.

But as you say, something like the Keep could well be a way to move that number around.

 

There's a community site for sharing Saints Row character presets. It works very well.

 

In fact, with the absence of face codes, I was pretty certain that this is what they'd be doing with the Keep. It almost seems purpose built for doing so.

[Torgette]

"I do agree about the Warden though, never really connected with them but did enjoy the world surrounding them."

 

Funny, this is exactly how I would describe the witcher games. I enjoyed the game, the world and the characters around him - but I don't care either way about him.

 

I really enjoy making my own character, choosing how they think, what they believe, how their background affects those things. Getting into their heads and emotions makes for an intense and great gaming experience for me. But I can also enjoy and empathize with completely set characters, like say, Lara Croft in the latest Tomb Raider.

 

I guess Geralt just exists in an awkward inbetween place for me. I can't choose his personality/appearance/background so he's not my character, but I do choose his choices and moral stances so he's not a separate character either. Though obviously YMMV on that sort of thing (eg. I know for some people da2 was that awkward inbetween place).

 

Still enjoy Witcher - just apathetic about Geralt.

 

In any case, I enjoy bioware's balance of keeping the protagonist and story more set (unlike say Elderscrolls where its a complete blank slate) but still allowing the character to be yours and how you decide them to be. (DAI and DAO did the best job of this for me).

 

Its all very subjective.

 

Geralt very much fits the "man with no name"/"man of few words"/"anti-hero" movie character trope, so he can definitely be dull at times. That is one big advantage of a blank slate is the player can attach their own thoughts to the player character and react how they want to react instead of having the writers force emotions on them.

[FKA_Servo]

Good point. That's what I want, a protagonist that will carry the new series with his/hers face.

 

Honestly though, where is the appeal in that?

 

I'm not snarking. I really don't understand why someone wouldn't rather craft a custom protagonist in a game like this.

 

Especially when face scans have a way of looking so goddamn dumb (looking at you, Sheploo and Felicia Day). Kaidan is the only halfway decent one, and he still spent half the series looking like a derp until they tweaked it more to look less like the model.

[AlanC9]

I don't see any problems here. A 100 character string vs encrypted 300 characters string. It's copy-paste anyway, same as people copy-paste the headmorph 'gibberish' values via save editors. The only difference will occur to those who (for whatever reasons) love to write it down on paper.

As mentioned upthread, is that workable on consoles? Wouldn't know myself-- don't own one and likely never will.

[FKA_Servo]

As mentioned upthread, is that workable on consoles? Wouldn't know myself-- don't own one and likely never will.

 

It's been a couple of years since I last messed around with them, but I don't think there was any easy way to copy and paste them. I think you could probably use a companion app like SmartGlass to type them in, though, which would be a thousand times less annoying than entering them with a gamepad.

 

I still wouldn't relish manually typing in a 300 digit long code on my phone or tablet.

[AlanC9]

But yet, you know where his face is from, right? When you see the face, you go: "Shepard" or heck, some people in denial might go "Fake Shepard".

Of course I do. Although in all honesty I didn't look at any of the ME promotional videos until after playing ME1 a couple of times, so I only ever saw that face for an instant before hitting the "custom character" button. I've seen those videos by now since people here keep linking them, of course.

But there are dozens of other things I would recognize from ME just as certainly. The N7 logo. Either Normandy. Any of the alien races. A mass relay. Someone using biotics. And so forth. Some of these are in the ME:A trailer.

My substantive point was that I find Sheploo to be of zero or even slightly negative value. Having a default face is a feature that I didn't want, never used, and never will use in any game with a CC.

[Andrew Lucas]

Honestly though, where is the appeal in that?
 
I'm not snarking. I really don't understand why someone wouldn't rather craft a custom protagonist in a game like this.
 
Especially when face scans have a way of looking so goddamn dumb (looking at you, Sheploo and Felicia Day). Kaidan is the only halfway decent one, and he still spent half the series looking like a derp until they tweaked it more to look less like the model.

The appeal shows on the media and community in general. Commander Shepard is an iconic and badass character for many gamers out there, including me.

I rather a much more detailed scanned face for the PC, instead of the horrible ones that comes from the customization system. Not mentioning the fact the VA for both genders fit the default character much more.

Tastes.

[FKA_Servo]

Ok then. If you're holding Sheploo specifically up on a pedestal, I question your taste, but it's not my call. Although I still can't help but think that the male VO in Mass Effect is a much better fit for this character:

 

Spoiler

 

Truth be told, the custom faces generated by Inquisitions CC look as good or better than any of these face scans on the old gen systems ever did. I hope they take a cue from Inquisition in not establishing an "iconic" PC in MEA, but if they must, I hope it's not so trite as Shepard.

[Rannik]

Have you seen the Wild Star (yes, a MMO) face codes?  They are longer and more complex, yes. But they work.

 

Wildstar's CC is a joke compared to DA:I's, all options are just a bunch of presets instead of the extremely granular selections you see in DAI.

 

DA:I tattoos alone (two position axis, alpha value and RGB color times a bunch of designs) probably have as much possible values as the entire Wildstar character creator.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Another and this is a little off topic, but that stupid customization in DA:I with the decor was a bit idiotic, and that was a tautology. But still, you could change the throne, and you may have thought you could change the appearance of the main hall to suit you, but instead you could buy stuff to change the appearance of your quarters which took about two hours to find, and you only went there once. It was useless. A waste of resources and my inquisitor's money.

 

So how about putting both male and female human characters on the box cover in full armor and helmets in battle poses (not sexy poses) and have default faces plus a really good character creation screen?

[LiL Reapur]

 

Face model of our own design may sometimes damage immersion instead of improve it. It happens especially when player is not skillful enough to manually create satisfying facial structure. In this case protagonist may look painfully lame compared to professionally designed companions and/or models created with face scanning method.

 

Not sure if trolling or serious, ugly or not how can someone making their own character DAMAGE the iconic version or the gamplay immersion in any way possible? So this Shepard ruined the game by existing in someone else's playthrough?

 

[KaiserShep]

Good point. That's what I want, a protagonist that will carry the new series with his/hers face.

Meh. The only face that I feel should carry the series is the one you choose, not something chosen for the ads. Nuts to Sheploo 2.0 I says.

[Annos Basin]

Shepard's dance is iconic. Maybe there could be some gesture or pose that you could associate with the new character even with space suit and helmet on...?

 

And maybe they would release versions of the trailers where you can customize the main character's appearance? Maybe it would work the best after release, as a bonus content along the game.

 

If the default face is too interesting looking, I end up using it. This happened with male Shepard and Hawke. I bought these games intending to play them as a woman, you know. And my replays tend to be the same character with variations based on hindsight. I had fun with character creator in Inquisition though.

 

I don't actually mind whether the iconic looks are up to me or come along the package. The more they're able to express personality, the better. Character with known appearance comes handy with snappy fanart, at least. Though good outfit might be as effective as iconic face? In some cases?

 

I like how default face Shepard has slightly crazy look in his eyes (unlike his face model who looks just different person). Many custom Shepards seem more laid back. I used Sheploo as inspiration with my inquisitors, with results that improved my game (personal taste speaking, I'm not expecting to impress anyone else). Make the eyes reflect what the character feels like inside, and each scene looks fitting for them.

 

-Oh while I was writing(=rambling) this, an Ugly Shepard picture was posted. Good times.

[Rannik]

Personally, I'd love to have a default face with a good scan instead of a lowish quality CC preset.
 
If you don't like it just create your own, I'd be more worried about custom characters transferring properly between games (if this end up being a trilogy) than the fact that some iconic face that you'll never see in your playthrough exists.
 

Although I still can't help but think that the male VO in Mass Effect is a much better fit for this character:
 

Spoiler

Funny how these things are, this is what I hear every time Hale opens her mouth:

[Andrew Lucas]

Meh. The only face that I feel should carry the series is the one you choose, not something chosen for the ads. Nuts to Sheploo 2.0 I says.

Not gonna happen. Sorry.