Mass Effect 2 box art affected by massive change

by Alexander Sliwinski on Nov 17th 2009 5:01PM

Click image to apply mass effect
BioWare has apparently changed its mind about the Mass Effect 2 box art, as the developer announced today that it has revealed the "final" image for the game's standard edition release -- the Collector's Edition box art was shown off a couple weeks back.

The new box differs from the original version in that the characters and guns are more prominent, the Wrex-lookin' Krogan is replaced by Thane the Assassin, Miranda Lawson is trying harder, but still failing at a solid Dead Space Girl impression, and Default Shepard from the original Mass Effect cover is again the sorry stranger of the bunch. Who is this cookie-cutter mancake BioWare insists cramp its covers? We've never seen him in our game!

Source

Tags: bioware, box-art, mass-effect-2, Microsoft, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (107)

All I can say is

Thank.

God.

Still looks like crap, although not as bad as the original nor the Japanese Uncharted 2 cover.

I don't think so, the original looked much more epic, with Shepard running towards something.

Also, Shepard's face is DSG-ey enough: I expect some shawps.

I don't get it. They have such a well thought out, expansive, epic universe to play with and the best they can come up with is shoving a few of the characters onto the cover just like any other shooter/rpg.

For something like Mass Effect I'd really expect them to come up with something that's more like this:

http://www.covergalaxy.com/forum/attachments/microsoft-xbox-360/6217d1236044211-star-ocean-last-hope-ntsc-j-asia-cover-scan-star-ocean-last-hope-j.jpg

@roger

The original is so much better than this putrid excuse for a cover.

@ WiredKnight: Keeper of Threads:

No hotlinking allowed is a better cover?

Collector's Edition looks nicer.

Stop it with the facial collage, dammit.

Whoops. That link totally worked a minute ago. Try this one:
http://shopping.esdlife.com/catalog/images/Star%20Ocean%204.jpg

@roger

Hahaha omg I know it looked like some kind of Shenmue knock-off..

@wired: just takes a copy/paste instead of clicking thru. Still works fine.

Ummm...

The hell?

I actually liked the old box art much better.. it was so epic

I agree wholeheartedly :)

This looks like some generic cheap crammed together sci-fi shovelware cover. A bunch of space marine type people pointing guns at stuff and a mildly exotic alien in front of a vague landscape.

Mass Effect deserves better. I mean the first game's cover was better than this even.

@"monica" you are a dude. Get off these male-orientated sites with your blonde pic and your links to dating sites.
Everyone can see through your crap. Obviously you like and know allot about videogames, but know nothing about cars and just go to those sites to chime in. What chick on earth talks about wireless video game adapters? none, thats who.
Dude, how much do you get paid when people click through to that dating site?

Nope. Still ugly. What's up with the pinched-face girl? Remember the hand-painted lithograph art from ME1? Why can't they do something as epic as that? It has been said before and I'll say it again, thank god for the Collector's Edition and it's cast-less cover.

It was odd they didn't go with hand-painted art for ME2, considering most of their games have used it.

I wonder if EA has something to do with that?

EA marketing machine, im sure they have some kind of perfect formula for boxart to make them sell better.

i bet there is some subliminal imagery like maybe the chick in the back is being sexually suggestive while the thane is showing hostility to consumers that this must be bought. and shepards big ass gun makes sure people know its a shooter (ppl LOVE shooters)

Eh, seems garish compared to the old one, IMO.

Still picking up the collector's edition for the PC, I hope Bioware releases the first game for the PC in collector's edition so I can pick that up too.

Default Shepard is awesome. He looks like a total frat douche.

That's pretty much what the renegade dialogue makes him. It's not 'evil', it comes across as 'douche'.

he's awesome because he's lame?

yeah. i noticed the doucheocity. on my second playthrough i made my guy look like Fenton from That 70s Show. endless hilarity.

I like it better.

though the girl still seems out of place. maybe it is the smirk she puts on like she is about to burst out in laughter, while everyone else is doing a serious face. maybe it is because she isn't wearing any armor when everyone wears what could be considered space age platemail.

Nah i will have to go with she is wielding her pistol left handed. that just so weird.

She has to let those puppies breath.
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mirandame2.png

Wow...space bra?

oh my God, I really hope that was just a bad angle or weird position, because otherwise I'll skip that romance storyline this time through

Whoa... boobs dont work like that!
Grapefruit in the shirt, on the other hand....

holy shit, that looks terribly unhealthy, damn they're low, is she secretly 80?!

sigourney weaver and julia stiles made sweet love.

Sigourney Weaver now or 1974?

mmmm... ghostbusters sigourney?

This is like an ad for the collector's edition. God forbid they put a helmet on default MaleSheppard, or take him out, cuz no one actually plays him.

I use him. Every other character I made seemed somewhat retarded. I guess I need to resist the fu manchu.

You should try female Sheppard, the voice acting is far superior!

I used him. The problem is that he was marketed towards me, so I didn't feel right creating someone else. Unlike Fallout or Oblivion, I felt I had been sold a pre-made character. This is by no means a complaint. I'm playing through Mass Effect for the first time right now (I have it on pause) and I'm loving every minute of it.

@ Twyst

Ditto, I play him too. All the Custom Males I tried to make came out looking like they had down syndrome. So default Shep for me!

Female Shepard: Jennifer Hale (big surprise, it's a BioWare game).

I have to admit, the character creator made for some odd looking characters. I remember the first time my female Sheppard turned sideways, and her face was almost perfectly flat, except for her nose. I contemplated starting over, but i didnt want to go through it all again.

"This is like an ad for the collector's edition."

No kidding; that cover art is like watching a classic muscle car roll through an intersection -- "Oooh, nice."

The first Sheppard I made was alright, but an hour or so into the game I noticed some weird things about the edits I made. It was a touch choice, but I had to start over otherwise it would have bugged me the rest of the game.

I used the regular Shepard as well. Every character I tried to create was fuck ugly, or just like Oblivion and every other character creator, completely out of place looking. I was disappointed that default Shepard didnt look like he had in the earliest of the games reveal and trailer videos.

What the hell,

I've made a good 5-6 different profiles and most of them have come out believable; morseo than any other CC system. My main chick looks like a cross between jada pinkett and Nia Long. But I made her evil so she's pretty much Adolf Satan. But damn is Adolf Satan sexy...

What?

Another default Shepard user here.

I too use default Shephard, for two reasons:

1. He is in every trailer, walkthrough, and art. He is even the model used for the statue that I still want.

2. Every edited Shepard has some major flaw from any given angle no matter how I edit them. He may be flat-faced or have no chin or something else. I think the problem is that when you first start to edit, you don't edit the default model, it changes to some random generic guy with blank features, and all the other presets just look weird.

I never had any problems making a believable model, but it was incredibly hard to match the male Shepard's voice to anything but the default model, while the female voice pretty much fit with anything but buttugly Shepard(which was actually one of my characters)
I usually ended up playing male shep, though.

This box art reminds me of those cheesy 80's SCI-FI novels. They are all looking so important and determined, but, in reality, we all know it just looks cheesy.

Where did the artist for the first Mass Effect go?

downgrade

Can't wait for this game. It's going to be epic.

I find it strange the placement of the characters is also slightly different in the 360/PC covers. They should be identical but they aren't.

See in the PC version how Shepard overlaps the other two characters more than in the 360 version?

I would guess it's the way they had to squish the image to fit under that "XBOX 360" title bar. The PC version is longer, so the ratio changed?

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 218 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 152 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

Mass Effect 2 box art affected by massive change

Reader Comments (107)

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:45PM The angry pro consumer gaming ga said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 6:01PM ch3burashka said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 6:03PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 6:27PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 6:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 7:08PM Ballistic H said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 9:40PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Nov 18th 2009 12:49AM rahmenxnoodles69 said

Posted: Nov 18th 2009 10:49AM Ghen said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:03PM OMGOMG said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:04PM s ls said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 6:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 7:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:29PM DeepFriedSushi said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:05PM RKN said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:07PM VSpeck said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:08PM Ballistic3188 said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:23PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:33PM TheyDidItFirst said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 7:33PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:14PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:29PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:35PM Funkmaster General said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:36PM big 3y3 said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:38PM Jack Tretton said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 6:05PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 7:28PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 8:14PM embassy said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 9:44PM Vcize said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 11:11PM KeithAsante said

Posted: Nov 21st 2009 5:03AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:11PM BacteriaEP said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:12PM aughscreennames said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:12PM Mr Slayer said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:14PM RKN said

Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:15PM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Kotick: New Call of Duty planned for 2012, Diablo 3 still launching this year

Featured Stories

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

Remedy not done with Alan Wake

The Joystiq Show - DICE 2012: David Jaffe and Kevin Dent

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days