43796 réponses à ce sujet

[Valmy]

fongiel24 wrote...
Last night's Chuck was good (especially after a three week hiatus) but I'd definitely say the last one was possibly the best episode in the series.

I agree it was so wonderfully epic.  I think the fact the two guys who wrote were enormous fans of the show the first two seasons before signing on helps.  They put little things in each episode they write (they also wrote Tic-Tac) that refer back to previous plots and character traits and stuff only a fan would know.

[Valmy]

jtav wrote...

Strahovski has the advantage of much more flattering lighting. Miranda always looks too pale on the bed. Although she looks so happy and peaceful that it makes me go "awww!"

I know it sorta warms my heart to see she and Shep get a chance to relax and enjoy being together for a bit...I mean as much as one can with a fleet of invincible genocidal space ships closing in.

[jtav]

Well, there is that. Stupid Reapers, ruining my romantic mood.

It's doubly sweet because I don't think she's gotten to cuddle very often.

[fongiel24]

Valmy wrote...

fongiel24 wrote...
Last night's Chuck was good (especially after a three week hiatus) but I'd definitely say the last one was possibly the best episode in the series.

I agree it was so wonderfully epic.  I think the fact the two guys who wrote were enormous fans of the show the first two seasons before signing on helps.  They put little things in each episode they write (they also wrote Tic-Tac) that refer back to previous plots and character traits and stuff only a fan would know.

The last episode was apparently written as a series finale, just in case NBC didn't pick up the rest of this season and cancelled the show. As much as I would have hated that, the last episode would have been perfect closure for the series.

jtav wrote...

Well, there is that. Stupid Reapers, ruining
my romantic mood.
It's doubly sweet because I don't think she's
gotten to cuddle very often.

I definitely agree with that. Being such a guarded person emotionally, I figure Shepherd is the first person she's ever opened up to on that kind of level (at least for a long time). Cuddling like that to me feels like a much closer emotional act than just sex, which can be attributed to hormones runing amuck.

[Ieldra]

Sir Ulrich Von Lichenstien wrote...

Ieldra2 wrote...

But yes, the reason why I usually have everyone survive is that's so easy to see the correct choices that anything else would make my Shepard stupid. Miranda for the barrier is borderline - she says she can do it, but clearly Samara is the stronger biotic. The only wrong choice I can see making is about the fire team leader. Which makes Tali, Kasumi or Legion die. I had that once and won't repeat it.

Course that all depends on perspective, what if Shep wanted to see some people dead. Plenty of ways to RP Shep showing that the end can justify the means.

Take Jack for example. I RPed it that Jack Shepard was under orders that she wasn't going to make it out of the suicide mission alive, so as to ensure another of Cerberus mistakes was swept well and truly under the carpet. So who got swarmed whilst Miranda was maintaining the Biotic Field kind of funny considering Shep had sided with Miranda during the argument too. That threat of Jack's against Miranda was icing on the cake for Shep.

I can see coming up with reasons to kill almost anyone. But after a certain point the role I play then is no fun anymore. The reasoning for killing Jack I can assume for myself without disliking my Shepard enough to abandon that game, perhaps also for killing Grunt since he does threaten Shepard. Beyond two or three deaths, things slide into "I don't want to be that Shepard" territory fast.
 

[Valmy]

Ieldra2 wrote...

I can see coming up with reasons to kill almost anyone. But after a certain point the role I play then is no fun anymore. The reasoning for killing Jack I can assume for myself without disliking my Shepard enough to abandon that game, perhaps also for killing Grunt since he does threaten Shepard. Beyond two or three deaths, things slide into "I don't want to be that Shepard" territory fast.

Besides it seems a bit odd that if Shep wanted to kill somebody he would have a plan complex enough that involves recruiting them and intentionally killing them off on a mission.

I guess you would just have to assume Shep has some sort of inability to judge his crew objectively and cannot finish the loyalty missions because he is so darn eager to save his crew and so forth.

[fongiel24]

ME2 is a great game, but the whole thing with the loyalty missions seems a bit contrived. If stopping the Collectors is the primary goal and any delay means another colony getting hit, it seems a bit ridiculous to go running around the galaxy so Jack can blow up a defunct Cerberus facility, Thane can go find his son, Jacob can go on a wild goose chase for his probably dead father, etc. I can see doing things to put the crew more at ease before a suicide mission, but the extent to which ME2 takes it seems a bit ridiculous.

[RGFrog]

fongiel24 wrote...

ME2 is a great game, but the whole thing with the loyalty missions seems a bit contrived. If stopping the Collectors is the primary goal and any delay means another colony getting hit, it seems a bit ridiculous to go running around the galaxy so Jack can blow up a defunct Cerberus facility, Thane can go find his son, Jacob can go on a wild goose chase for his probably dead father, etc. I can see doing things to put the crew more at ease before a suicide mission, but the extent to which ME2 takes it seems a bit ridiculous.

I agree, but then that opens the whole can of worms as to why you have to mine planets for rescources or steel credits/get paid by cerb. on each mission.

So, if you don't have to gain the loyalty of your crew, then they're all just merc's for money and Cerb. should bank roll the whole thing. You should have the best armor and weaps from the get go and merely have to fly around a bit to pick up the crew. That might lead to some firefights to get to them, but then you'd go to the real mission and have at it.

However, if you were a merc. just in it for the money, what reason would you stay once you found out that you were going to most likely die on a mission to a place no one has ever returned from, fighting a race that is obviously technologically more advanced than anyone in the galaxy and has already destroyed the first Normand and killed the original Sheppard?

Were I a merc, Shep would have to do a lot more than let me blow up an empty base. IMO the loyalty missions were too short didn't go far enough to make me believe each would die for my shep.

And I prefer Miranda to both Ashley and Kaiden. She's on par with Liara except in that she won't hang with my femshep.

[fongiel24]

I understand they have to make some considerations for the sake of gameplay, I just wish the loyalty missions had been tied more closely into the central storyline. I'm not really sure how that would be done though. Maybe have the loyalty missions contribute something like intelligence or additional resources towards your greater goal?

Some of the missions themselves are interesting but I just don't like how artificial it feels to have your team come up to you one by one and ask, "Hey Commander, there's this thing I've been meaning to take care of and if you've got a minute...". If loyalty missions have to be done, I'd have rather have triggers for them inserted into the core story or recruitment missions.

[jtav]

We've been a bit slow lately, so a couple of inconsequential questions:



What other fictional characters (not named Sarah Walker) remind you of Miranda?

Any quotes or song lyrics you associate with her or her romance?

[MrNose]

fongiel24 wrote...

ME2 is a great game, but the whole thing with the loyalty missions seems a bit contrived. If stopping the Collectors is the primary goal and any delay means another colony getting hit, it seems a bit ridiculous to go running around the galaxy so Jack can blow up a defunct Cerberus facility, Thane can go find his son, Jacob can go on a wild goose chase for his probably dead father, etc. I can see doing things to put the crew more at ease before a suicide mission, but the extent to which ME2 takes it seems a bit ridiculous.

I actually had no problems with the loyalty missions "for the most part."  While stopping the collectors was big, it seemed to me that Cerberus had indicated that Shep could take his time if he needed.  Since the characters don't shut up about their loyalty missions, I assumed that they were important enough to be distractions, which the 'end-of-level' text (talk about immersion breaking, btw) also indicated.  Same with the mining. I needed better gear, and Cerberus' solution to that was mining.  Clearly no rush.  At least until your team gets abducted (I was going to straight in, but Miranda said that it was a bad idea and I trusted her judgement.  Too many teammates were stll not loyal.) 

To an extent, the loyalty missions are one of those elements where story and gameplay are mixed.  The character progression that results gameplay-wise as a result of the loyalty mission shows us how important they are to each character.  That said, here's where my problems come in:  Most of the missions weren't that important! Miranda's I can understand, I too would be distracted if my sister was in danger.  Legion's loyalty mission?  Yes, stopping an army of geth is rather important. 
     Jacob's loyalty mission?  Seriously, that man needs to be spaced.  Someone is abducting huge amounts of people and this dude is concerned with a guy he didn't even like?  My god!  It's a good thing that Alex Shepard is a people pleaser or I would have let Jacob's dad rot.  Bioware could have tightened up a few of the loyalty missons.  I have similar reservations about Garrus' mission as "not important right now." 

Maybe I'll make a list later on of loyalty missions; grading them on a scale from "what the crap?" to "yeah this is pretty damn serious."

I have a completely different attitude on ME1's side missions.  I only did the side mission on Luna because the Alliance soldier made it seem really important.  Other than that, my mission was called "Race Against Time" and that's what I was doing.  I hated the fact that there were a ton of side missions available to be played through when I was supposed to be busy trying to stop Saren.  To me going on those side missions would have broken immersion completely for me, and so I couldn't do it.    

[Strikor2115]

edit:  her looks awful

Modifié par Strikor2115, 28 avril 2010 - 04:52 .

[icarus414]

jtav wrote...

We've been a bit slow lately, so a couple of inconsequential questions:

What other fictional characters (not named Sarah Walker) remind you of Miranda?

A little sick of that comparison, are we?

One sort of jumped out at me a few days ago, actually: Snow White. That won't make a damned bit of sense if you don't read Fables, but if you do then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. She's intelligent, beautiful, levelheaded, and a lot tougher than she looks. More dangerous in a fight, too. Her own happiness is low on her list of priorities, which is a bit sad but also oddly endearing. She comes off as something of an ice queen to begin with, but you realize pretty quickly that it's a front - she's really just afraid of getting hurt.

Almost makes me want to have a go at "Bigby Shepard", but he just wouldn't look right without the hair.

Anyone who doesn't immediately write off comics as sub-literary trash should be reading Fables. Anyone who does write them off should read Watchmen (no, seeing the movie doesn't cut it) and then Fables. It's the best series since Preacher.

jtav wrote...

Any quotes or song lyrics you associate with her or her romance?

I'm currently listening to my ever-in-progress Chuck playlist (sorry, jtav - I fully and freely admit that I love the show far too much), and something about Gnarls Barkley's Gone Daddy Gone seems viciously appropriate. And while it's clearly not Miri's usual fare, I do believe that she'd like it in spite of herself. Maybe to listen to while at the firing range (with a photo of Mr. Lawson taped to the target, of course). Actually, that could probably go for most of the aforementioned playlist. Well, not so much the "firing range" bit as the "like it in spite of herself" bit. But you get my drift.

Oh, and a quote - my favorite quote, in fact, courtesy of Erich Fromm:

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."

Something tells me Miri would appreciate it.

Modifié par icarus414, 28 avril 2010 - 06:08 .

[MrNose]

Strikor2115 wrote...

My latest

Nice! I like your style. The arm holding the glass has a bit of a foreshortening issue, but other than that it's grand.

[Strikor2115]

Oh gosh...I came back from my computer and WOW. That is the scariest face I have ever drawn ever. I need to fix this nowwww

[Breakdown Boy]

Whats up people.



Got a bonus at work and then proceeded to get myself a 23" Samsung suncmaster flat screen for my PC. Upgrading my resolution from 1600 x 1050 to 1950 x 1080 making the visuals so much better. Previously my ME2 characters looked a bit wide faced, now it's all good. I'm falling for Miri all over again.



Anyway, I thought the loyalty mission give the game length and made sense. When someone gives their all, that makes a difference, they are a bit faster, more alert and thus push up their survival rate.

[fongiel24]

jtav wrote...

We've been a bit slow lately, so a couple of inconsequential questions:

What other fictional characters (not named Sarah Walker) remind you of Miranda?
Any quotes or song lyrics you associate with her or her romance?

It's been a while since I saw it, but Sydney Bristow from Alias comes to mind. Not a perfect comparison, but they're both basically good people caught up in a messy business that they do to preserve the greater good. In each case, they've basically been prepared for a life of espionage by their fathers since they were in diapers, even before in Miranda's case. They're also both physically beautiful women who I think could be underestimated due to their looks.

[Breakdown Boy]

Da Shadow Master wrote...

Posting another.
../../../../uploads_user/839000/838282/30165.jpg

Nice one Shadow, sleep tight.

[Ieldra]

fongiel24 wrote...

jtav wrote...

We've been a bit slow lately, so a couple of inconsequential questions:

What other fictional characters (not named Sarah Walker) remind you of Miranda?
Any quotes or song lyrics you associate with her or her romance?

It's been a while since I saw it, but Sydney Bristow from Alias comes to mind. Not a perfect comparison, but they're both basically good people caught up in a messy business that they do to preserve the greater good. In each case, they've basically been prepared for a life of espionage by their fathers since they were in diapers, even before in Miranda's case. They're also both physically beautiful women who I think could be underestimated due to their looks.

No. Sydney is much too Paragon and much too openly emotional (to an extent that that I found sometimes annoying and unrealistic). Miranda's more like Irina Derevko:
(1) Both work towards an ambiguous goal tainted by the methods used to achieve it.
(2) Both are expert actors and, while perfectly capable of killing, usually reach their objectives by deception and seduction.
(3) Both genuinely care about (at least some) members of their families, in spite of possible conflicting interests.
(4) Both are, as a rule, emotionally detached and professional, planners rather than improvisors.
(5) Both are somewhat enigmatic. We don't see much of that in Miranda, but I think it's part of her template. If facial expressions in games could be done better, I'm sure we'd have seen something like Irina's hallmark enigmatic expression on Miranda's face.

Irina is the first character that popped into my mind after reading jtav's post. It may have something to do with the fact I've been revisiting Alias in the recent weeks.

Modifié par Ieldra2, 28 avril 2010 - 07:58 .

[Jebel Krong]

ugh. sydney bristow.... yes her emotionality really got on my nerves after a while. especially her blatantly selfish attitude at the start of season 3... sloane though, there was a baddie (until they kinda ruined him at the end).

Modifié par Jebel Krong, 28 avril 2010 - 09:01 .

[Andysilv]

Jebel Krong wrote...

ugh. sydeny bristow.... yes her emotionality really got on my nerves after a while. especially her blatantly selfish attitude at the start of season 3... sloane though, there was a baddie (until they kinda ruined him at the end).

Sloane was cool but Jack Bristow was the best character on that show. He's still the coolest Jack on tv!

[Breakdown Boy]

Hey andy....er...whats with the sig?



I like the matriach bartender myself...."What a kick in the quad"!



Never really followed Alias.

[Sir Ulrich Von Lichenstien]

andysilv87 wrote...

Jebel Krong wrote...

ugh. sydeny bristow.... yes her emotionality really got on my nerves after a while. especially her blatantly selfish attitude at the start of season 3... sloane though, there was a baddie (until they kinda ruined him at the end).

Sloane was cool but Jack Bristow was the best character on that show. He's still the coolest Jack on tv!

Blasphemy! Jack Bauer is far more the coolest Jack on TV

Speaking of which, if I was going to associate anyone with Miranda it would be Renee Walker

Modifié par Sir Ulrich Von Lichenstien, 28 avril 2010 - 09:03 .