BioWare onzeker over tonen Tali’s gezicht

De art director van Mass Effect 3 heeft veel aan z’n hoofd vandaag de dag. Naast het behouden en vernieuwen van de omgevingen in het derde deel, weet hij ook nog niet of Tali’s gezicht dit keer vol in beeld komt. Een vraag die menig Mass Effect-liefhebber bezighoudt; wat zit er onder dat masker?

“Art-wise the original Mass Effect’s levels worked really well but for gameplay they weren’t so good”, zegt art director Derek Watts. “We had a lot of raised platforms and areas you could get caught up in – stuff we should have fixed right from the beginning.”

Watts zegt dat BioWare toentertijd goed werk had afgeleverd, omdat het de eerste game van de studio op de huidige generatie consoles was. “Getting used to the technology made it difficult for us, he said. “We wanted those wide open areas, those swooping curves, the grand vistas and stuff, but it was hard to do with that engine.”

Sommige dingen waren echter wat moeilijker. “Videogames look a lot better if you clutter up hallways. It usually looks more realistic. It’s hard to do with clean, plastic, white hallways with the reflective floors you see in some of the movies. That’s hard for us to do. You rely heavily on the lighting and the materials and can you get those reflective surfaces? Can you do it real time or is it all faked? Do you have to flip the level upside down and make part of it transparent? You have to end up faking it and making it as good as you can.”

En ook Tali’s gezicht kwam op de discussietafel terecht. “A lot of people want to have her face revealed and obviously people are going to be pissed off either way. Like ‘I thought she was going to look beautiful!’ or ‘I thought she was going to be the most hideous thing ever!’ So we’ve had a lot of debate over Tali’s face, but that’s the one we kind of dread a lot. We’re always ‘well, let’s talk about something else for a while!’ That’s something we’re going to have to decide.”