Solid Snake's Pseudo-Let's Play: Mass Effect - Page 3

Solid Snake · 07-15-2008, 06:48 PM

Since I need to stall this topic long enough to find a suitable solution to the resizing-screenshots issue, and since I've drawn out the Colonist VS Earthborn decision ludicrously long, let's solve this ASAP.

My original idea of naming the character "Snake" and basing the character off a certain famous MGS character was based off a hypothetical paragon-soldier or paragon-vanguard build. I also had different MGS characters planned for several other different possible builds:
Renegade-Soldier would have been "Liquid Shepard", with an appearance based off Liquid Snake.
Paragon-Vanguard or Paragon-Soldier would have been "Snake Shepard," appearance based off MGS1 Snake.
Renegade-Vanguard would have been "Ocelot Shepard" with an appearance based off MGS3 Ocelot.
Paragon-Adept would have been "Otacon Shepard" with an appearance based off our favorite Otaku, minus the glasses.

Finally, the character you selected is...
Renegade-Adept: "Mantis Shepard."

Psycho Mantis happens to be one of my favorite, and one of the most quotable, MGS characters. Also, Mantis' powers seem to mirror the abilities of an average Adept. And Mantis himself, in his death speech, seems to indicate that his life could have been very different if he dedicated his powers for the good of humanity. Nonetheless, even as an Alliance Adept I still imagine him doing whatever it takes to 'get the job done.' After all, this is a guy who joins FOXHOUND under the pretense that he can kill as many sinful humans as he can feasibly imagine.
I thought briefly about "Raven Shepard" too but A: Mantis was twenty times the better character and B: none of the Shepard appearances have Raven's bodytype.

Under this specification, Earthborn makes more sense. We can actually have our young, blonde Mantis an orphan Russian plucked off the streets of futuristic Moscow, identified as having some serious biotics potential from a young age and groomed into being our resident badass.

More of you voted for Earthborn anyway, and I just checked The Net and found no other examples of an Earthborn-Renegade Mass Effect "Let's Play" session. So let's just stick with that decision and have fun beating the crap out of everyone we can. (Exception: I'll probably stick to acting nice around the ladies. At least the human ladies. I've been toying with the notion of essentially making Earthborn Mantis a speciest -- I think that's the correct terminology for "racist against ailens.")
If there any objections, feel free to announce them. Seriously, if there's a compelling reason to choose Colonist I haven't yet heard, you don't have much time left to steer me away from this choice.

Red Fighter 1073 · 07-15-2008, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Crap, thanks for setting me up for a harder game everybody. =)

Adept isn't really that much of a harder game at all. I personally think it's a lot more fun than playing as Soldier. Vanguard is kind of the middle man but Adept lets you have Singularity and I think one other exclusive biotic skill and Singularity is my most favorite biotic skill and you'll see why when you start playing. It's just a bit easier with Vanguard or Soldier because they have Assault Rifles and Shotguns which obviously kill enemies better/faster but playing as Soldier isn't as much fun seeing as how you can't use the biotic skills yourself. As an Adept, you can still at least use the Pistol and seeing as how it's the only weapon you can upgrade (no assault rifles/shotguns/etc.) then after awhile it will start to get pretty powerful once you keep putting exp towards Pistols.

Also, since you're playing Renegade, it might be a good idea to put a few exp points into Renegade each time you level up because even early on there are a quite a few Renegade dialog options that can be used for some amusing conversations.

Solid Snake · 07-15-2008, 07:30 PM

All right guys, help me a bit with the appearance: (And let's see if this imaging works)

Some subtle differences there:
Been playing around with the eye color and the eye "type" so to speak. Trying to find the configuration that seems "most realistic."
Also, been playing around with the facial hair. He obviously has blonde hair but I'm wondering if his facial hair (grizzle for a pseudo-beard and mustache) should be as light (and thus, more difficult to see) or a shade or two darker.
Finally, trying to decide whether that particular scar works. I wanted to avoid the most popular "cut-through-the-right-eye" scar as it reminded me a tad too much of Squall.
I think I prefer #2's facial hair with #3's eye shape, personally.

Krylo · 07-15-2008, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Fighter 1073

Also, since you're playing Renegade, it might be a good idea to put a few exp points into Renegade each time you level up because even early on there are a quite a few Renegade dialog options that can be used for some amusing conversations.

I'd say that, despite the fact he won't be able to whip out a gun on some colonists and threaten to kill their asses it'd probably be best for him to NOT put any points into intimidate or charm, as that he plans on multiple play throughs with the same character and those will max out by themselves. His combat skills will not.

Though it WILL be a more amusing Let's Play if he does level it up.

DFM · 07-15-2008, 10:56 PM

Lost me at the MGS stuff.

Krylo · 07-16-2008, 05:56 PM

Dude looks like a douche in all of them.

Play the goddamn game.

01d55 · 07-16-2008, 06:07 PM

Seriously, you're gonna put on a mask as soon as you possibly can, aren't you? Unless the game forces you to show your face during conversation or something. Or did "pseudo-Let's Play" mean "Let's not and say we will?"

Solid Snake · 07-16-2008, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01d55

Seriously, you're gonna put on a mask as soon as you possibly can, aren't you? Unless the game forces you to show your face during conversation or something. Or did "pseudo-Let's Play" mean "Let's not and say we will?"

Nah, not going to put on a mask unless Mass Effect forces me to. I'd rather see the character interactions firsthand.
And if you don't like the style of the Let's Play, well, uhh, I'm not forcing you to read it?

Quote:

Dude looks like a douche in all of them.

I've been trying to make him look halfway decent, but the character creation has all these fun little variable settings for different facial types that makes "mixing and matching" inevitable to the point that your custom character really looks nothing like a "normal" human being should.

Quote:

Play the goddamn game.

It's coming.
I'm really not trying to be a dickwad. Honest.

Harpell · 07-16-2008, 10:30 PM

I like the third one because of the squinty-ness.
I wouldn't level his intimidate...but whatever.

Solid Snake · 07-16-2008, 10:37 PM

I'm going to name my character "Taran," after one of my favorite characters in a novel I enjoyed as a young'un, and avoid the whole Mantis issue altogether, as that seemed to be a turnoff for quite a few of you.

A few more alternative appearance options:

Alternative A

Alternative B

Alternative C

I also have a near-exact replica of Alternative B with dirty blonde (as opposed to red) hair, but I forgot to do screenshots with him.

07-15-2008, 06:48 PM	#21
Solid Snake Erotic Esquire Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 5,563	Since I need to stall this topic long enough to find a suitable solution to the resizing-screenshots issue, and since I've drawn out the Colonist VS Earthborn decision ludicrously long, let's solve this ASAP. My original idea of naming the character "Snake" and basing the character off a certain famous MGS character was based off a hypothetical paragon-soldier or paragon-vanguard build. I also had different MGS characters planned for several other different possible builds: Renegade-Soldier would have been "Liquid Shepard", with an appearance based off Liquid Snake. Paragon-Vanguard or Paragon-Soldier would have been "Snake Shepard," appearance based off MGS1 Snake. Renegade-Vanguard would have been "Ocelot Shepard" with an appearance based off MGS3 Ocelot. Paragon-Adept would have been "Otacon Shepard" with an appearance based off our favorite Otaku, minus the glasses. Finally, the character you selected is... Renegade-Adept: "Mantis Shepard." Psycho Mantis happens to be one of my favorite, and one of the most quotable, MGS characters. Also, Mantis' powers seem to mirror the abilities of an average Adept. And Mantis himself, in his death speech, seems to indicate that his life could have been very different if he dedicated his powers for the good of humanity. Nonetheless, even as an Alliance Adept I still imagine him doing whatever it takes to 'get the job done.' After all, this is a guy who joins FOXHOUND under the pretense that he can kill as many sinful humans as he can feasibly imagine. I thought briefly about "Raven Shepard" too but A: Mantis was twenty times the better character and B: none of the Shepard appearances have Raven's bodytype. Under this specification, Earthborn makes more sense. We can actually have our young, blonde Mantis an orphan Russian plucked off the streets of futuristic Moscow, identified as having some serious biotics potential from a young age and groomed into being our resident badass. More of you voted for Earthborn anyway, and I just checked The Net and found no other examples of an Earthborn-Renegade Mass Effect "Let's Play" session. So let's just stick with that decision and have fun beating the crap out of everyone we can. (Exception: I'll probably stick to acting nice around the ladies. At least the human ladies. I've been toying with the notion of essentially making Earthborn Mantis a speciest -- I think that's the correct terminology for "racist against ailens.") If there any objections, feel free to announce them. Seriously, if there's a compelling reason to choose Colonist I haven't yet heard, you don't have much time left to steer me away from this choice. __________________ *WARNING:* Snek's all up in this thread. Be prepared to read massive walls of text.

07-15-2008, 07:30 PM	#23
Solid Snake Erotic Esquire Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 5,563	All right guys, help me a bit with the appearance: (And let's see if this imaging works) Some subtle differences there: Been playing around with the eye color and the eye "type" so to speak. Trying to find the configuration that seems "most realistic." Also, been playing around with the facial hair. He obviously has blonde hair but I'm wondering if his facial hair (grizzle for a pseudo-beard and mustache) should be as light (and thus, more difficult to see) or a shade or two darker. Finally, trying to decide whether that particular scar works. I wanted to avoid the most popular "cut-through-the-right-eye" scar as it reminded me a tad too much of Squall. I think I prefer #2's facial hair with #3's eye shape, personally. __________________ *WARNING:* Snek's all up in this thread. Be prepared to read massive walls of text.

07-15-2008, 10:56 PM	#25
DFM Om Nom Nom Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 3,850	Lost me at the MGS stuff. __________________ [14:26] ManoftheRus: YOU GODDAMN SNEAKY DEE

07-16-2008, 05:56 PM	#26
Krylo The Straightest Shota Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: It's a secret to everybody. Posts: 17,789	Dude looks like a douche in all of them. Play the goddamn game. __________________ I am very tired.

07-16-2008, 10:37 PM	#30
Solid Snake Erotic Esquire Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 5,563	I'm going to name my character "Taran," after one of my favorite characters in a novel I enjoyed as a young'un, and avoid the whole Mantis issue altogether, as that seemed to be a turnoff for quite a few of you. A few more alternative appearance options: Alternative A Alternative B Alternative C I also have a near-exact replica of Alternative B with dirty blonde (as opposed to red) hair, but I forgot to do screenshots with him. __________________ *WARNING:* Snek's all up in this thread. Be prepared to read massive walls of text.

07-16-2008, 06:07 PM	#27
01d55 Not 55 years old. Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 2,098	Seriously, you're gonna put on a mask as soon as you possibly can, aren't you? Unless the game forces you to show your face during conversation or something. Or did "pseudo-Let's Play" mean "Let's not and say we will?"