Mass Effect universe discussion thread

[Eternal Density]

ME1 and ME2 are some very enjoyable games and quite well put together. The graphics in ME2 are beautiful! I played a soldier (male paragon, imported from ME1 on my first playthrough, and then I tried a female renegade Infiltrator, which is quite a different playstyle compared to soldier and seriously fun!
I've given playing a break at the moment though (uninstalled Steam because I was spending way too much of my time gaming, I'll probably start back with Portal 2 and then go back to ME2 so I can play all the new DLC, still haven't done Kasumi even though I bought it).
Anyhow, it's a really rich universe that Bioware have created Well done!

[Madwelshboy]

Mass Effect Heading For The Cinema

Legendary Pictures has nabbed the rights to turn critically-acclaimed console game Mass Effect into a movie.

Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on Thor is in talks to script the movie, which will be produced by fromer Marvel Films head Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad alongside Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. Warner Bros will distribute.

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/25/mass...or-the-cinema/

[DigiFluid]

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/25/mass...or-the-cinema/

Yes it does, which is exactly why Hollywood needs to stay the hell away from it

[Eternal Density]

Not sure if I want.
This is either going to be good or very very bad.

[Stewart5]

Yes it does, which is exactly why Hollywood needs to stay the hell away from it

I agree with Digi. It's about time they realised taking things from an Interactive media and trying to make them into Movies doesn't work well. Especially for deep, compelling things like Mass Effect. 2 hours will not be enough time to work on a story as aweseom as that of the 1st game

Not sure if I want.
This is either going to be good or very very bad.

I fear the latter...

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

While I can understand why Bioware have agreed to a movie deal, shedloads of cash presumably being involved (and hey worst comes to the worst we get a crappy movie but better games thanks to the money that Bioware got from selling the rights for the movie which they can invest in their games) I’m not hopeful in any way about this movie.

Mass Effect is a 30 hours game at least, as is Mass Effect 2. How the hell are you supposed to cut down the story from that to a 2 hour movie? Yes a lot of the game was driving round planets in the Mako and side quests, but there will still many hours of main story. Besides some of that side quest stuff is pretty important, Cerberus is set up in Mass Effect, you remove them from the story then suddenly you have these mysterious group pop out from nowhere in the sequel. Also I imagine just about every single character will lose characterisation due to time restraints, and say goodbye to characters like Dr Chakwas. I think even if you went cutting out every extraneous part of the story your left with enough story to make 3 movies at least from the one game. Look at the plot, you go from Eden Prime to the Citadel, to Feros, the planet where you pick up Liara, Virmire, Noveria, Ilos and back to the Citadel. Good luck trying to fit all that into one film.

There will also be the awkward fact that there is no set canon in the Mass Effect universe. In fact there’s a good chance that whatever the plot of the movie, it will not resemble the plot of the game I played in any way. When Shepard can be male or female, can have a number of different backgrounds, characters and whole races can live or die, to be honest the plot would be an absolute nightmare to adapt.

In all honesty I wonder whether anything will come of this, we’ve heard rumours about a Mass Effect movie before, but the shear difficulty in adapting the plot and in filming the movie (lets be honest they’ll have to throw Avatar levels of money at it to make it work and have stuff like numerous cgi characters)makes me wonder whether this will ever see the light of day. If that does happen I must admit I will not be upset.

To contiue my rant

Mass Effect Heading For The Cinema

Legendary Pictures has nabbed the rights to turn critically-acclaimed console game Mass Effect into a movie.

Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on Thor is in talks to script the movie, which will be produced by fromer Marvel Films head Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad alongside Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. Warner Bros will distribute.

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/25/mass...or-the-cinema/

The bolded part also pissed me off. Aside from Digifluid’s good points the bolded part shows that the guy has no idea what they’re talking about and really should stay away from Mass Effect. Sure if you play paragon the story is about races coming together, play renegade however and the story becomes more about humans becoming self reliant and muscling their way on to the stage. And neither of those outcomes, or anything in between is deemed official canon, it all makes up your play through and the story can change drastically as a result.

[Replicator Todd]

Mass Effect Heading For The Cinema

Legendary Pictures has nabbed the rights to turn critically-acclaimed console game Mass Effect into a movie.

Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on Thor is in talks to script the movie, which will be produced by fromer Marvel Films head Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad alongside Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. Warner Bros will distribute.

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/25/mass...or-the-cinema/

Awesome! Hope its done right. I love the Mass Effect universe, but i'm not much of a gamer anymore () so I will take any other form the universe can take.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Awesome! Hope its done right. I love the Mass Effect universe, but i'm not much of a gamer anymore () so I will take any other form the universe can take.

If it’s an adaption of the main games plotlines, then there’s about as much chance of it being good as there is of getting Nelson Mandela membership of the KKK.

[DigiFluid]

If it’s an adaption of the main games plotlines, then there’s about as much chance of it being good as there is of getting Nelson Mandela membership of the KKK.

I would've gone with a potshot at Uwe Boll, personally.

[Replicator Todd]

If it’s an adaption of the main games plotlines, then there’s about as much chance of it being good as there is of getting Nelson Mandela membership of the KKK.

Um....wow.... No trust in Hollywood at all huh! They do good adaptations.....sometimes....as in once every bazillion years.

[Replicator Todd]

I would've gone with a potshot at Uwe Boll, personally.

Please don't say that name....

[DigiFluid]

Mass Effect could probably lend itself pretty well to a more episodic approach. A season for ME1, made up episodes of the major missions, a season of ME2 doing the same, some supplementary episodes/mini-sodes to fill in other gaps; that sort of thing.

[Replicator Todd]

Mass Effect could probably lend itself pretty well to a more episodic approach. A season for ME1, made up episodes of the major missions, a season of ME2 doing the same, some supplementary episodes/mini-sodes to fill in other gaps; that sort of thing.

Or someone make a film or series that has nothing to do with the games main storyline. As in new characters but same universe leaving the games stories intact. I like the idea of having the games existing on screen while not being erased. If that....makes any sense.

[DigiFluid]

Or someone make a film or series that has nothing to do with the games main storyline. As in new characters but same universe leaving the games stories intact. I like the idea of having the games existing on screen while not being erased. If that....makes any sense.

Perhaps an adaptation of one of the tie-in novels could work. I have them, but haven't gotten around to reading them yet so I don't have any suggestions....

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Um....wow.... No trust in Hollywood at all huh! They do good adaptations.....sometimes....as in once every bazillion years.

Yeah they’re good at adaptations of books and comic books, not videogames. I mean they managed to screw up an adaptation of Max Payne, a game which if they had trimmed out a bit of the extra action, they could have recreated scene for scene from the actual game.

Or someone make a film or series that has nothing to do with the games main storyline. As in new characters but same universe leaving the games stories intact. I like the idea of having the games existing on screen while not being erased. If that....makes any sense.

That could work and I’d have much more confidence in that working. Now a film about the First Contact War would be exciting.