FemShep in Mass Effect Marketing, Battlefield 3 DLC, and Box Art Reveals

A few news items I want to get out of the way in between talking about the E3 updates so let's get started with Mass Effect 3 and FemShep.


Commander Shepard is a woman. Don't even try to tell me otherwise. I've made it no secret on here that I consider FemShep (as she's called by the fans) to be the definitive Commander Shepard. This is primarily due to her incredible voice actress, Jennifer Hale, who is one of the most talented voices in the business (actor or actress).

And now this woman who can kick our asses is getting recognition.

Mark Meer is good but he doesn't hold his own against the rest of the cast whereas Hale gives arguably the best performance in Mass Effect 2 which is saying a lot. She gives the character something that I feel MaleShep lacks: vulnerability. I mean that in a good way in that she feels human and not just like a blank slate.

But we have yet to see her in a trailer or in any promotional item besides one image for the first game. Even Hale herself has noted how little recognition FemShep gets in the marketing. Well that's about to change.

The head of marketing for the series asked on Twitter if fans would like to see FemShep in marketing for the final entry of the trilogy and woke up to thousands of responses asking for it. So FemShep will now be getting her own trailer and will also be on the box art for the Collector's Edition. Well played BioWare. My Shepard is licking her chops waiting to kick some Reaper ass.


Now for the controversial Battlefield 3 pre-order DLC. A lot of people complained that some of the weapons and items were going to be held back as pre-order DLC for Battlefield 3. DICE has heard your complaints and has addressed them by putting them in better context.

The weapons and items that they chose to make pre-order DLC were specifically chosen because they were not remarkably powerful so that it doesn't give players any unfair advantage. All of these weapon packs will be released to everyone for free later down the road. They noted that this was a timed-based exclusive only and not meant to tip balance to those who pay a little extra.

That's good enough for me and I'm going to trust DICE to make it work properly. The game looks like it's going to be badass.


Finally box art for two big October releases were released. First up is the box art for Dark Souls.

It could be a little more dynamic though I like the composition of it the reflection and everything. I just wish there was a little more going on than what is shown especially since I want them to drive home the difficulty of this game partly through the box art. They don't really do that but it's not terrible.

This one I also have some problems with. The placement of the logo just feels off and it's just an uninspired pose by Batman. It doesn't look like an enormous amount of effort was put into it. On the plus side though, I love the color scheme for it almost giving an old comic style/noir feel. Once again however, could be better.