Feel free to knock that shit off

[trinityvixen]

The idea was, last night, to get to bed early, get loads of sleep, and wake up refreshed so that I could then spend the next night (tonight) not sleeping at all but playing Mass Effect 2 until either my eyeballs or my wrist gave out.

(Aside: OH MY GOD, IS THERE NO WAY TO EXPRESS THE PAIN OF CARPAL TUNNEL FROM PLAYING VIDEO GAMES TOO LONG WITHOUT IT SOUNDING DIRTY?)

Of course, my Statisitcs homework turned out to be hours long. He chopped three problems off because we hadn't gotten to the material he intended to cover in time, and I was still up until 3 am. Note to self: start homework earlier.

The best part of the not sleeping much is the part where I dreamed that I had been bitten by a bug like a cockroach. This was icky but manageable until the point I realized that the bug had been infected with a parasite that subsequently infected me. Dream-me was in hysterics about how there were now open sores on my body. These sores were holes into my tissue and every so often I could squeeze them to make the stuff coming out of them come out faster so they wouldn't swell and burst on their own (kind of like a pimple).

What was coming out of them? LADYBUGS. These gaping holes in my skin ejected LADYBUGS from my body. There are not words for the revulsion I felt as I watched the hole in my arm bunch together around a bulge when I pinched it and BUGS CAME OUT. LADYBUGS. THEY ARE NOT CUTE WHEN THEY ARE UNDER YOUR SKIN. I WILL NEVER RESCUE ANOTHER LADY BUG AGAIN.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

How does the save loading work? Because I have four games at least. And I'm not at all sure whether I was good, bad, biotic, tech, what have you (to say nothing of who I killed off between Kaiden and the Chief or who I slept with) in any of them. I need to figure this out. Especially since I did all the side-quests with at least one character and I'm sure I've run into Cerberus but I can't remember how...

Can you change your appearance even if you load a save?

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Answered almost all this below but you can also change your appearance as well at the start. You cannot, however, change your gender. Heteronormative bias!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Wait, you cannot change the gender of the character from the one you picked in Mass Effect, or you cannot be a woman at all in Mass Effect 2? I have to be honest: if I have to be female Shepard because I picked a female last time, I'll deal. (I have one dude character anyway, and I can always pick dude Shepard from a clean start in ME2).

If I don't have the option to pick genders in Mass Effect 2 even from a clean start, I might not play the game. For serious. I praised this game highly for the fact that it made gendering of the protagonist a non-issue (http://trinityvixen.livejournal.com/690555.html) by having Shepard be a character first, and a sex second. Removing that option diminishes the game for me because it becomes just another action rpg with a male lead and I can just shut up and take it.

Okay, I probably still will, but that sucks. It's like they're specifically saying "FUCK YOU" to any women who found that that aspect allowed them an easier way of getting involved with and concerned about their character's plight. It removes an almost nothing concession (so some voice actors have to record "she" and "he," big deal) towards equality in favor of the same-old, same-old. If there's only a male Shepard available, my disappointment will be MIGHTY.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Can't change the gender from what it was the last game if you load a file. Jennifer Hale is still fem-shephard.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

::WHEW::

(winds down symphony of destruction)

Sorry about the rant. It's been a touchy subject in the past week. All hail Jennifer Hale! (She's in everything. I recognize her voice all over the damned place. Brutal Legend most recently.)

Interesting that you can change the physical appearance but not the gender, though. I guess with upgraded technology, they want to allow you to play more with the character creator but they have to draw the line somewhere. Being able to change your class sounds intriguing, too, though ultimately useless for me since I'll just play through almost all the classes...

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Shephard, Ophelia, Samus Aran and Naomi Hunter are probably the biggest ones. But I looked her up on IMDB and this is my favorite listing:

EverQuest II (2004) (VG) (voice) .... Generic Racial Callouts

I imagine "Hey, Lizard-breath!" and "Knife ear!"

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think of her more from cartoons. I first recognized her voice in The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest. From there, it's just whenever she pops up, which is invariably everywhere.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

I assume it has something to do with the mildly gendered relationship decisions from the first game affecting things in game 2, and so making it a little incoherent to change genders at this point.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

See this is where I get in trouble. I can't remember who I diddled or who I killed.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

So long as you're sure who you married!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I am not the marrying kind! I protest!