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Nim - you mean he stands out because he's Vin Diesel?
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Well I was thinking more about the shaved head and swimming glasses. :.) But yeah, you could say Riddick stands out because the guy playing him actually exists, compared to all these other jokers. He's ugly as a dump truck but he knows how to "seek out your sweet spot, just to the left of the spine, fourth lumbar down." Mmm-mmm...
Registered: Aug 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Reverend: back to the meat-heads, I think it's just a matter of brown haired white guys being a "safe" neutral look and probably shows there lead character was the last thing on the developers' minds when they made these games. Not surprising considering they're mostly of the run-and-gun variety.
It's blantantly discriminatory against us brown haored white guys- everyone now expects us to run-n-gun wherever we go: I'm more than that streotype man! Sometines I like to go for long walks along the beach and gun. I'm sensitive that way.
I think that anything except for the "generic white military look" would draw the ire from whatever ethnic group is represented- the solution is to be able to customize your character...or at least choose from several body types (kinda like the Star Wars games).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Nim: But yeah, you could say Riddick stands out because the guy playing him actually exists, compared to all these other jokers.
Did you already forget that I told you the "Force Unleashed" guy was modeled on & voiced by Samuel Witwer? So not all of them are fictional.
Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:Did you already forget that I told you the "Force Unleashed" guy was modeled on & voiced by Samuel Witwer?
Um, you said "that guy who played Crashdown in BSG", it wasn't something I followed up on, but point taken, he exists. Looking at Witwer's track record now, though, I recognize several shows or movies I've seen that he was supposedly in, but I wouldn't be able to recall him to save my life. Which was partly my point. He's actually the perfect example of the neutral, symmetric, spot-free brown-haired hunk. Vin Diesel may suck in different ways but he knows his strengths (giving deliberating badass voiceovers and doing Hercules-stunts) and he's easily-identifiable, both in voice and face, which makes for a good game character. :.)
Speaking of character modeling, I thought this was funny when I first found it, I've mentioned Alyx Vance twice earlier in this thread, a major character in the HL2-games. Well after I finished HL2: Episode One I went out and googled for fun, and here's Merle Dandridge. I thought it was a bit cute, and I was so sure she was a pure construct.
Registered: Aug 1999
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"Actually on that basis alone Alyx Vance is way ahead of the pack, considering she's of mixed heritage. I suppose you might count Jade from BG&E in that category too as her ethnicity seams to be intentionally ambiguous. Zoë Castillo and April Ryan from the TLG games should get an honourable mention too."
While you're at it, there's the character from Portal, as well.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Wasn't she modelled on the same woman as Alyx, at least in part? Not sure if she counts though since, like Gordon Freeman she's a non-character the player just inhabits.
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I've never seen a picture of the player character in Portal, anyone know of any?
Wow, "The Longest Journey", that's ten years ago. I remember playing the demo with April Ryan on that sailing ship, and I got threatened with being thrown overboard if I didn't stop trying to make the captain sing a sea shanty.
Registered: Aug 1999
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That character model doesn't seem to be like Alyx Vance, except for clothing sizes. This girl looks fierce and desperate, like she's had a bad year in "Cube". Cool that they went with prison clothing, makeshift "sunday" hairstyle and no makeup. It's like Andrei Tarkovsky's dream protagonist. And she's a little red under the eyes, from lack of sun and sleep, maybe? She's a gamer! *rimshot*
Registered: Aug 1999
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Nice grab, Mars! I found out the leg-braces are devices put in place so she won't take fall damage ever and won't need to eat heart-shaped health treats every 20 steps.
Since my last post here, I steambought Portal and played through it, enjojing it a lotly. Wonderful humor by the crazy AI. At first I thought the game was over after I'd beaten the last official level and escaped the horrible flame floor. Took me a while to see the above frame from which to spring to the attic. End fight was wonderful, I first came close to beating the AI mainframe a bit too quickly, so I reloaded the level and ran through slower so I could have time to hear all the reasoning-dialogue it churned out as I pulled bit after bit out of it.
But the real reason for my new post here has to do with the thread subject. Just now I stumbled upon a "Zero Punctuation" game review I hadn't seen before, dealing with the game "Mass Effect"... http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/18-Mass-Effect The whole review is nice, but check what he mentions at 0:33.
Registered: Aug 1999
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