I went with darker skin, too--it looked to me like a Shep with darker skin looked less like she got hit too many times with the "run over by a double-wide" stick. But I put her in the Cosmic Bun hair because it looked least like a bunch of cardboard chunks. And I love her eyes. I must admit that I lucked out on awesoming the eyes.
Absolutely agree with you about Jen Hale's voice. She did an awesome job and made Shep really likeable. The guy who did MShep's voice did okay, I guess--listening to him, I thought he was playing things in this sort of dry, understated deadpan style.
The only quibble I have is that she very firmly established Sheppard on the hardass end of the spectrum, even with Paragon choices. Not that there was much in-game opportunity for it, but all my fic gizka center around a femshep who's actually a bit of a femme-fatale, diplomat, and PR-face person (who's waaay the hell out of her element and has to learn fast).
In the same vein, it took me some concentrating to see Kaidan as more than Not-Carth. Especially in the beginning when he says, "Smells like smoke and death here" - it just seems like such a Carth-emo thing to say. And then my six-year-old started saying, "It smells like beans and weenies here" and the Carth-ness sorta went away. :P And, more into the storyline, he does develop his own personality that's distinct from Carth's.
Ashley--I like her side-stories a lot better than her main stuff. Actually, what I liked best was hearing her little non-sequiturs on the different main places ("Nobody lick any poles." on Noveria. Next to Kaidan's "extranet fetish site...What?" line that made me LUL)
As for Garrus - I can't help but like the guy. It's the bird-alien-d00d thing, the voice, and the subtle changes your PC can engender in him. The turian culture is fascinating to think about, too. And while I liked Kaidan well enough, I had a hard time getting past the fact that I was supposed to be his commanding officer. It lent the romance a distinctly skeevy undertone to it. And while I went with the whole "bunk here tonight" thing just to get the cutscene, if I were pressed, I'd have just shunted it to the side and said, "get yourself assigned to some other ship first, soldier." Even though there were solid story elements that made that little fraternization problem go away.
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I went with darker skin, too--it looked to me like a Shep with darker skin looked less like she got hit too many times with the "run over by a double-wide" stick. But I put her in the Cosmic Bun hair because it looked least like a bunch of cardboard chunks. And I love her eyes. I must admit that I lucked out on awesoming the eyes.
Absolutely agree with you about Jen Hale's voice. She did an awesome job and made Shep really likeable. The guy who did MShep's voice did okay, I guess--listening to him, I thought he was playing things in this sort of dry, understated deadpan style.
The only quibble I have is that she very firmly established Sheppard on the hardass end of the spectrum, even with Paragon choices. Not that there was much in-game opportunity for it, but all my fic gizka center around a femshep who's actually a bit of a femme-fatale, diplomat, and PR-face person (who's waaay the hell out of her element and has to learn fast).
In the same vein, it took me some concentrating to see Kaidan as more than Not-Carth. Especially in the beginning when he says, "Smells like smoke and death here" - it just seems like such a Carth-emo thing to say. And then my six-year-old started saying, "It smells like beans and weenies here" and the Carth-ness sorta went away. :P And, more into the storyline, he does develop his own personality that's distinct from Carth's.
Ashley--I like her side-stories a lot better than her main stuff. Actually, what I liked best was hearing her little non-sequiturs on the different main places ("Nobody lick any poles." on Noveria. Next to Kaidan's "extranet fetish site...What?" line that made me LUL)
As for Garrus - I can't help but like the guy. It's the bird-alien-d00d thing, the voice, and the subtle changes your PC can engender in him. The turian culture is fascinating to think about, too. And while I liked Kaidan well enough, I had a hard time getting past the fact that I was supposed to be his commanding officer. It lent the romance a distinctly skeevy undertone to it. And while I went with the whole "bunk here tonight" thing just to get the cutscene, if I were pressed, I'd have just shunted it to the side and said, "get yourself assigned to some other ship first, soldier." Even though there were solid story elements that made that little fraternization problem go away.