Jane Shepard and Garrus Vakarian tandem

My Fem!Shep always has Garrus by her side, no matter what the circumstance… well, except the suicide mission where he had to lead the other teams. I’m too much of a Garrus fangirl to leave him idle in the Normandy while my Fem!Shep goes off on her missions, plus he’s pretty useful with his Overload and Armor Piercing Ammo skills.

Since they’re always together, I decided to customize my Fem!Shep’s armor and make it have the same color scheme as Garrus’. She’s also wearing a visor similar to his. I’ve always thought that Garrus’ visor looked cool, so I was really happy that there was one for Shepard.

The N7 Visor isn’t just for fangirl/aesthetic purposes though; I like aiming for my opponent’s heads, and the N7 Visor provides a bonus to headshot damage.

As usual, I took these screenshots from my TV using my phone’s cam.

New icons and modified Free Icons page

I seem to be on a revamping/reorganizing spree here on Fangirlisms; I just I revamped the Free Icons page and made subpages for the various icons that I originally posted on my LJ. Please feel free to browse, but don’t steal anything! You can use any of these free icons, and it would be really nice if you could provide a link back to this blog (http://fangirlisms.wordpress.com/).

I also added some icons of my favorite turian sniper Help! Garrus Vakarian is taking over my blog! that I just made. You can take a look at them at this subpage.

New stuff on Fangirlisms!

I’ve added a new page to this blog: Scans! I have a few pieces of anime/manga merchandise (like shitajiki/pencil boards, CD booklets, and cards) that I can scan and share, so I decided to make a new account on Minitokyo so I can upload them. I’ve always wanted to scan my stuff but never got around to it until now. :p The new Scans page contains thumbnails of what I’ve uploaded so far, plus links to their respective pages on Minitokyo. Most of my stuff I have is from the Yuu Yuu Hakusho series, which I still haven’t really grown out of after all these years.

I also made a new Gravatar using good ol’ FaceYourManga. I just wanted to add glasses to my old avatar since I just got mine two days ago (video games and books have destroyed my eyes LOL), but I wound up changing my avatar’s outfit and background too.

My Commander Shepard

This is what I don’t like about non-PC console games. It’s so hard to take screenshots to share. Anyway, I managed to take a picture of my tweaked Fem!Shep from Mass Effect 2 using my phone’s camera. I know I mentioned that I didn’t have to modify her because she was pretty enough, but when I started a new game using the same Shep (Yes, I finished my first playthrough of ME2 a few days after buying it. I have no life.), I made a few adjustments here and there to make her even prettier.

As I said, this shot was taken from my TV set using my phone’s camera, so you’ll have to excuse the feedback lines.

…if you don’t find her pretty, that’s okay; I still think she is. ♥

Just in case anyone’s curious, my Fem!Shep’s name is Jane Shepard (yeah, I’m creative like that), is of mostly of Paragon alignment with just a hint of Renegade, and has a Spacer/War Hero background. She’s currently a level 30 Vanguard who loves crushing her opponents using Heavy Slam. XD Her paramour is, of course, none other than Garrus Vakarian. ♥

Mass Effect 2: First Impressions

After getting over my initial “OMFGSQUEE I HAS MASS EFFECT 2 SO I CAN HAS GARRUS ROMANCE NAO” phase upon buying it yesterday, it’s time for me to post about my first impressions of the game. I’ve only played the first few hours of the game while ignoring my crew’s suggestions to recruit Mordin first and going straight after Garrus.

The new combat system is designed to make things easier compared to the original Mass Effect. You can now assign “shortcuts” for your Shepard’s favorite skills as well as your party member’s skills. You can now instruct your party members to move to a specified location individually, which is great for flanking your opponents. The downside is that the new combat system takes some getting used to, especially if you’re too used to the original ME’s combat controls like I am.

The new biotics skills are pretty awesome too; so far my Vanguard was having fun slamming her opponents with Charge or just blasting them with Shockwave. I probably won’t ever play as an Adept (full-fledged biotics character), but I’m still interested in seeing what else the biotics in ME2 can do.

Oh, and let’s not forget the ammo. The new ammo powers in the game are wicked. My current favorite is Cryo ammo, which freezes your opponents and leaves them open to being shattered by physical or biotic attacks. Nice for dealing with stubborn, hostile krogan who just refuse to die.

[RANDOM GARRUS FAN SQUEE: While playing ME2 and drafting this post, Kelly Chambers said that Garrus and my Fem!Shep "would make such a cute couple." I'm so glad you agree with me, Kelly!]

I seriously think I have a femme crush on my Fem!Shepard now. I only wish I could take a screenshot of her to show off, but I can’t. She looked pretty enough in ME, but she looks even prettier in ME2. I didn’t even have to tweak her in any way; she was fine as-is. The new textures actually made her look kind of bad. Maybe I can still make a nice-looking Fem!Shep from scratch in ME2, but right now I’m fine with my imported, unaltered Fem!Shep.

I like that Shepard’s armor and civilian attire are customizable. I remember how much I disliked some of the armor designs in ME and wished I could at least find a set in a different color, so I’m happy that they decided to include this feature. My Fem!Shep is wearing a visor similar to Garrus’ now, and I’m wondering if I should make her wear the same shade of blue too… but nah, I think she looks better in deep red.

With regard to characters… well, I’ve only gotten Jacob, Miranda, Garrus, Mordin, and Subject Zero into my squad so far, and I’ve only spoken to a few other important NPCs. To keep it short, let me just say that Jacob is bland, Miranda is a bit of a bitch (though I’m warming up to her a bit after talking to her about her life), Garrus is still too sexy for his visor awesome, Mordin is “like a hamster on coffee” (as quoted from Kelly), Kelly is cute and has a lot of interesting things to say (plus she reminds me of Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins), and Subject Zero is insane. I have yet to really bond with the squad members though, so my opinions on them may change over time.

I only have one real complaint about the game so far: the new system for upgrading your team’s gear and the new Normandy is… boring. I’m not saying that I want to have the Mako back; I hated driving that blasted thing. The new system involves you scanning planets and launching probes when you detect resource/ore deposits. It’s kind of a slow process. You can move your scanner around and make the planet rotate a little faster while scanning, but it’s still slow even when you speed it up. You also have a limited amount of probes, so you’ll have to purchase some more at fuel stations every so often. My boyfriend was telling me that this was done on purpose to prevent players from making a squad/a Shepard that’s too powerful, but if you’re a bit of a completionist like I am, it’s kind of annoying.

Despite that minor complaint, ME2 is looking to be an interesting gaming experience so far. The new features added mostly enhance the game and make it more immersive, so I’m definitely looking forward to playing through the entire thing.