I suspect that's more to do with resource limitations than anything else. Cutscene animation is very expensive, both in terms of the manpower needed for development and the computing power needed when rendered in real-time like the ME series is. Combining that with the level of detail they need in the facial expressions in cutscenes are going to force them to use a lot of shortcuts where possible.
Honestly, game development as a whole is just the art of making something look just good enough to fool the player into accepting it. Whether it's physics collisions or cutscenes or what have you.
That was the point I realised that they'd sunk a huge pile of raw dollars into the Citadel DLC (on top of everyone having fun as the last hurrah but w/e)
Animating stuff is 'spensive as shit, which is why big RPGs of the Bethesda and BioWare sort have painfully canned animations most of the time and new animations stand out like woah
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited September 2015
Asimov's Foundation series.
There's a lot more in books.
Ian M Banks has written at least one book that features zero actual aliens, but then again the main protags aren't actually humans born on earth, although they basically act exactly like humans, look like humans, if it quacks like a duck etc.
He has a tendency to, like, just take human beings and say "what if they evolved elsewhere" and then make a story out of that. Kinda like Star Wars in that respect, just in this case zero aliens.
I know a lot of authors where the greater universe of their series has aliens, but for one particular book there will be zero aliens in it, its all about the humans. I tend to like those stories the most. Especially if it involves a mysterious past or something like that, that throws up suggestions that whatever tech macguffin they've found might be alien, but it was just human all along.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
The Vorkosigan Saga; Cryoburn particularly is great.
The Vatta's War series.
The Honor Harrington series.
I don't think it's super uncommon; there's a ton of scifi around.
Edit: Now that I think about it, a few books in the Vorkosigan Saga have "aliens," the books that deal with Quaddies in particular. They tend to be humans with extensive genetic engineering and widely known, relatively recent origins, though. The aliens... Are us!
Serenity
Dune
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Killzone
Battlestar Galactica
That's all I got.
The Martian? Gravity?
Oh! Interstellar!
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited September 2015
Bonus points if, via genetic modification or long evolutionary time scales or whotnot, you get weird ass inhuman creatures that act like aliens, but were originally humans.
eg The Time Machine.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
There are many alien races in the Harrington books. None known are space faring.
Oh, right, there are those tripod natives in the very first one, weren't there? I stopped reading around book five, where it'd more or less been all humans for a while, unless I'm forgetting something.
Harrington has a space bobcat which has six paws (because SPACE) and can psychically read and project feelings (because why not). 98% of the time, it's functionally a celery-loving house cat.
*finds wiki article on Treecat society*
Uh, wow, ok. Treecats got a lot more fleshed out in later books!
Ian M Banks has written at least one book that features zero actual aliens, but then again the main protags aren't actually humans born on earth, although they basically act exactly like humans, look like humans, if it quacks like a duck etc.
He has a tendency to, like, just take human beings and say "what if they evolved elsewhere" and then make a story out of that. Kinda like Star Wars in that respect, just in this case zero aliens.
And when he does write stories with aliens in them, they are way more alien than you're used to seeing in science fiction.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I still so much wish they had made use of more of Matt Rhodes' alien concept pieces.
Like so
An unused alien idea. Thank god. I wanted to design an alien that was completely horrifying and was failing in every possible way to come across as relatable to humans. If we actually went this direction I would have loved it if you could see constantly shifting eyes and teeth behind his “Hue-Mon” mask. Just awful.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
But nope, better to just photoshop a stock photo apparently.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
He had a couple concepts for Tali that I liked
The debate about whether or not to reveal Tali’s face was another one that lasted a long time. Versions of her were being worked on fairly often. These were three that I thought worked in their own way. Personally, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to push players to the edge. Tali was like a pen pal, or a friend you’ve only ever known online. Depending on how attached to her a player was, how well could they handle her appearance challenging their expectations? If she looked a little too alien, just a little too repellant, would they still feel the same way about her? Or did her personality and your history together trump appearances? It’s an interesting area to explore and I hope we can find other ways to ask that question.
To me, this has always been (and always will be) Tali. This was drawn during ME1 when she was first being designed, and when her appearance under the mask wasn’t a big deal yet.
I wish they'd have gone with that last one, screw what the fanboys think.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Yeah. They're ALIEN, which is what they should be. Turians are alien designs to us, as are salarians, batarians, elcor, etc.
Then of course you have asari for the obligatory alien sex bait.
+1
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I really think they just underestimated the "Talimancers." I think they mostly could have handled it, and any that couldn't could always go back and go for Ashley, Liara, or Miranda instead. There are plenty conventionally attractive ladies in the game, no need to make yet another one with Tali.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
What they really should have done is that in 2, when you visit the fleet, the Quarians should have been suitless but Shepard should have been required to wear her helmet at all times (which I think she was even in the version they went with). That would have been the time to do it.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
What they really should have done is that in 2, when you visit the fleet, the Quarians should have been suitless but Shepard should have been required to wear her helmet at all times (which I think she was even in the version they went with). That would have been the time to do it.
But then you had a bunch of the characters who didn't have fully-sealed suits for some reason...
What they really should have done is that in 2, when you visit the fleet, the Quarians should have been suitless but Shepard should have been required to wear her helmet at all times (which I think she was even in the version they went with). That would have been the time to do it.
But then you had a bunch of the characters who didn't have fully-sealed suits for some reason...
You mean like Jack? Yeah, that was weird.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Tali having scalp hair (that was long!) kind of emphasized the laziness too. Like, okay sure, she's human in the face, but a full bodysuit like that with long flowing locks? Preorder cancelled.
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The Black HunterThe key is a minimum of compromise, and a simple,unimpeachable reason to existRegistered Userregular
Posts
Which is why when this came out
That was the point I realised that they'd sunk a huge pile of raw dollars into the Citadel DLC (on top of everyone having fun as the last hurrah but w/e)
Animating stuff is 'spensive as shit, which is why big RPGs of the Bethesda and BioWare sort have painfully canned animations most of the time and new animations stand out like woah
I like stories where they find mysterious human tech millenia old and are like "wait...what?"
Kaidan gets to live this time.
Try to find some sci-fi stories with starships, without aliens. Go on, count them on one hand.
That's why I like them.
They're, you know, actually interesting.
Dune
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Killzone
Battlestar Galactica
That's all I got.
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
There's a lot more in books.
Ian M Banks has written at least one book that features zero actual aliens, but then again the main protags aren't actually humans born on earth, although they basically act exactly like humans, look like humans, if it quacks like a duck etc.
He has a tendency to, like, just take human beings and say "what if they evolved elsewhere" and then make a story out of that. Kinda like Star Wars in that respect, just in this case zero aliens.
I know a lot of authors where the greater universe of their series has aliens, but for one particular book there will be zero aliens in it, its all about the humans. I tend to like those stories the most. Especially if it involves a mysterious past or something like that, that throws up suggestions that whatever tech macguffin they've found might be alien, but it was just human all along.
The Vatta's War series.
The Honor Harrington series.
I don't think it's super uncommon; there's a ton of scifi around.
Edit: Now that I think about it, a few books in the Vorkosigan Saga have "aliens," the books that deal with Quaddies in particular. They tend to be humans with extensive genetic engineering and widely known, relatively recent origins, though. The aliens... Are us!
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
The Martian? Gravity?
Oh! Interstellar!
eg The Time Machine.
Oh, right, there are those tripod natives in the very first one, weren't there? I stopped reading around book five, where it'd more or less been all humans for a while, unless I'm forgetting something.
Harrington has a space bobcat which has six paws (because SPACE) and can psychically read and project feelings (because why not). 98% of the time, it's functionally a celery-loving house cat.
*finds wiki article on Treecat society*
Uh, wow, ok. Treecats got a lot more fleshed out in later books!
Firefly
Cowboy Bebop
Gundam, with the exception of the movie for 00.
Why I fear the ocean.
And when he does write stories with aliens in them, they are way more alien than you're used to seeing in science fiction.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Like so
But nope, better to just photoshop a stock photo apparently.
I wish they'd have gone with that last one, screw what the fanboys think.
but if i'm being honest, it wasn't appearance that turned me off
it was the singalong
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Then of course you have asari for the obligatory alien sex bait.
Wearing the Professor Genki line, I see.
(Also this portrait looks super Baldur's Gate-y.)
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
But then you had a bunch of the characters who didn't have fully-sealed suits for some reason...
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
You mean like Jack? Yeah, that was weird.
(Thane and Zaeed had full helmets but other parts of their body were still exposed)
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Really should have done something else.
space gnome midget with pink hair and a fetish for grilled cheese sandwiches?