This Just In: Bioware Unsure On Tali's Face

I love these strange burps and backdrafts of information that aren't really stories, yet they are.

Bioware art director Derek Watts has revealed in an interview with CVG that the studio is having trouble deciding whether to finally reveal the face of party member Tali in Mass Effect 3. Tali has, up till now, sheltered behind the mask that characterises her space-faring people with their terrible immune systems, and in the process has become something of a seductive enigma in the Mass Effect community, as a quick (NSFW) Google image search will prove.

"A lot of people want to have her face revealed and obviously people are going to be pissed off either way," said Watts. "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."

Watts also talks about where he draws inspiration from, including Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Interesting stuff. Still, to me the most interesting part of this story is that it sounds like Bioware have no idea what's under the mask either. I know what I'd do in their shoes, mind you. Random facial generation. Let each player find something completely different under there, ranging from a beautiful lady to a fibrous, ever-shifting blob.

Speaking of which, the Tali's Face thread on the Bioware forums is more than worth a look.