Ugly Baby Studios » Jason Ward

Mass Effect 2 Review

Jason Ward — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:50:59 +0000

It’s fair to say that Mass Effect 2 is a pretty awesome game. So awesome, in fact, that if the ‘net could burst from an overfilling of positive reviews, this is the game that would have doomed the whole damn thing. Going into the experience I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’d finished the first Mass Effect, and while it was a pretty good game I felt like it lacked in a few areas, not the least of which was a dry-as-dirt first quarter spent wandering the Citadel like a chimp on a banana hunt. So it goes without saying, then, that when I approached the new Mass Effect I was pretty much steeled for a dull introduction to what would eventually be revealed as a pretty good game.

I was wrong. Mass Effect 2′s intro is among the most exciting, gripping, well executed game opener’s I’ve ever seen. If it had been a CG cut scene I’d have been on the edge of my seat, but getting to actually play through that explosive, shocking–the list of adjectives could go on for days–introduction, well…had me on the edge of my seat, fiddling with thumbsticks as I desperately tried to save Commander Shepard and her crew from certain doom.

Perhaps my favorite part of the new game is having the ability to pull my existing character from the first Mass Effect into the new game, with an opportunity to make a few different choices in career and appearance. I opted to change neither, of course, and begrudgingly accepted that I would now start over with my character’s level progression. I was rather surprised and pleased to learn that although I was starting at a “low” level again, this time around my Shepard was actually much more powerful than in the previous game, which in turn made the leveling seem more satisfying than I’d expected it to be. Far from making me feel artificially powered down, instead it seemed more like my Shepard had been down for awhile and just needed a little loosening up.

In Mass Effect 1, I played as close to “neutral” as possible, but ended up with a slight leaning toward Paragon. This time around, I made a role playing choice: death had changed Shepard, and she would be hardcore Renegade. As the game progressed there were, I’ll admit upfront, a handful of choices I made that scored me paragon points, though in the interest of posting no spoilers I won’t tell you which those were. For the remainder of the game, however, I managed to steer pretty closely to the Renegade side, even taking cognizance of Samara’s statement that she might have to kill me once we’d completed the mission; thus, when the opportunity presented itself, I chose to kill her and recruit her evil daughter, Morinth, figuring she wouldn’t kill me unless I opted to sleep with her. Well…maybe not sleep.

ME2′s combat and weapons/upgrades management system is greatly simplified and streamlined compared to its predecessor. Gone are the long hours of sifting through countless iterations of ammo types and levels, or various levels of weapons of every sort. In its place is a slick, easy to use interface with a leaner set of options that, while taking away some of the flexibility of its predecessor, greatly improves the player’s ability to outfit each member of his or her team with the best gear quickly and efficiently. Too, the new combat system is much more TPS (Third Person Shooter), and the player’s ability to aim well really pays off. Headshots are your friend. Except when they’re aimed at your head, of course.

Visually, ME2 is a delight, with a wide variety of different locales all rendered in gorgeous detail. The sci-fi trappings are not just futuristic, but they also look used and lived-in, creating a sense of a galaxy populated by living, breathing people. There are the occasional graphical glitches that seem to be the hallmark of the HD generation, with little bits of pop-in here and there, but for the most part it’s hardly noticeable. It’s also fair to say that you’ll be so engrossed in the story that you probably won’t notice most of the little glitches even when they do happen.

The 5.1 mix is fantastic and really works to enhance the mood of the game. I tend to play in darkness as much as possible, with the surround sound cranked up so as to really immerse me in the experience, and ME2 did not let me down. From environmental sounds to enemies trying to flank me, the audio track is rendered with superb attention to detail and had me completely living in the experience within minutes of powering on the game.

Enjoyed:

Virtually everything. Mass Effect 2 is a cornucopia of goodness, and I feel comfortable calling it the best game of this generation so far. The artwork, audio, voice acting, writing and gameplay all work together with the precision of a well crafted symphony, sucking the player into the experience in ways that few games ever will.

Disliked:

The fact that the game ended at all comes to mind immediately, but thanks to the DLC the game can go on for a bit longer. If there’s one thing I dislike about the experience, it’s that there hasn’t been enough DLC to keep me happy yet. The other thing I wasn’t fond of is the fact that the lesbian love experience is nonexistent this time around. I played my Shepard as a female and had previously established a relationship with Liara, so I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to continue that.

Would have changed:

Beyond the obvious “no graphical glitches,” which I accept as par for the course in the HD generation, my big gripe really is just with the reduced accessability to the love interest of your choice. There’s plenty of hetero-love to be had, but the fact that the first game allowed gay relationships while the second one doesn’t seems like a step backward, so I’d have carried that element forward. Hopefully it’ll return in Mass Effect 3.

All in all, Mass Effect 2 is a top tier game well worth your time and money, even at full price. By now it’s possible to find it on discount pretty regularly, so don’t let anything stop you: if you own a 360, this is a shouldn’t-miss experience.

E3 2009: Rise of the Mo-Cons

Jason Ward — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:45:47 +0000

I’ll be updating the site with impressions of what I’ve seen today, but one thing is crystal clear: motion controls are in: WAY in. Both Microsoft and Sony showed off new motion controllers, with MS by far taking the lead in a “next gen” motion control system. Sony’s by comparison is more of a “wiimote evolved” scenario, which is all well and good. I’m a fan of the wiimote, after all, so Sony’s approach feels like a natural extension of that, at least from what we’ve seen.

Beyond that, we also have the new Tony Hawk skateboard controller, which from what I saw is very impressive. Not to be forgotten, of course, is Nintendo’s own Wii motion plus, which finally brings true 1:1 control to that platform.

For me, this sudden flood of motion controllers is in many ways Nintendo’s vindication; yes, they shipped a system with less horsepower than Sony or MS, but they took a gamble with motion control that paid off so well that they have now redirected the efforts of Microsoft, Sony and the entire games industry. Love or hate the Wii, there’s no longer any way to deny it: Nintendo was right.

E3 2009: we’re here!

Jason Ward — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:12:49 +0000

So we got here and got checked in, but what have we learned? That the press room is hotter than hell (games journalists don’t need air conditioning!), the show floor is eerily closed until noon and the wifi sucks so bad that I’m actually better off posting from my iPhone.

Blogging the Process

Jason Ward — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:09:06 +0000

So as you might be able to tell from the relative lack of activity on the site of late, we’re pretty busy with something? What is it, you ask? Well, we’re not quite ready to spill the full set of beans yet, but it’s a game. Yes, a video game. For a console. Ah, but which console, you ask? The answer should be fairly obvious, of course, since only one console offers official support for Indie games: Xbox 360, specifically the Community Games service. More details to come later.

Beyond that, however, I have to tell you that the process to date has been incredibly educational. While we’re making excellent progress to date we’ve had a few hurdles, not the least of which was simply finding enough time in everyone’s busy schedule (all of us have lives and jobs that don’t include this process, an unfortunate by-product of the need to eat). Among some other challenges, though, are things you wouldn’t necessarily realize are as difficult as they are. For starters, defining an appropriate art style was incredibly difficult, and our very talented art crew has worked really hard to come up with a look that is both unique and interesting while still being very professional. We’ve looked to some great classic titles for reference, but we’ve also been very inspired by a lot of the hand painted “retro” stylings of upcoming titles like the A Boy and His Blob remake for the Nintendo Wii.

Another point of much difficulty is simply the design aspect, especially in nailing down a lot of concrete details. Working on that angle comes with its own set of worries, many of which for me are wrapped up in the desire to not be a dictatorial asshole, so I try to make sure and get as much input from the rest of the team as possible on anything I do. This has a benefit in that we’re able to come up with some really cool ideas by bouncing things back and forth off each other, but the drawback is that the process can come to a complete crawl for long periods of time while we’re busy hashing out the pros and cons of everyone’s ideas.

Probably the biggest mistake I’ve found myself making is that we didn’t firmly nail down enough of our gameplay specifics prior to beginning work on some of the art. Luckily this hasn’t cost us much time, however, it could have been a major problem, especially if ours were a bigger production. I’m actually only just now nailing down a lot of the last specifics, thanks to input from the rest of the team, who’ve had some really brilliant ideas that are both unique and have the potential to be a lot of fun (and let’s face it, if you’re game isn’t fun, it’s not much of a game). Luckily our project isn’t overly huge or complex (in fact, I enjoy the relative simplicity of the concept), so we should be back on schedule before too awful long.

And so, of course, this is where I ask if anybody in the Indie Community has thoughts on this process of game development, and what your experiences and lessons might be. As we move forward I’ll continue to blog about our progress and process, trials and tribble-ations, and hopefully we’ll be able to help some of you other indie’s avoid some of the mistakes we’re bound to make along the way. At this point the best piece of advice I have to give you is just this: accept that you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to be wrong sometimes, and don’t bother worrying about these facts. Just try to learn from your flubs and move forward the best way you can manage, and you’ll do just fine

The future of High Detail 3D Modeling?

Jason Ward — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:45:40 +0000

Pardon my french, but this is fuckin’ cool. You’ll have to check out the video for the full skinny, but after you do be sure to hit the jump and let’s talk about what a scanner like this could mean for Indie Developers who don’t have the resources to hire an army of 3D sculptors!

Oh cool, you actually jumped, neato! So, if you’re interested in the development of games you probably already know that modeling 3D objects in today’s world of HD visuals is extremely challenging. Aside from a good low polygon base mesh, many games require meticulously sculpted high detail models from which normal maps can be generated in order to create the illusion of high detail on the low detail models actually used in the games themselves. While 3D artists and the tools they use have long ago come to a point where low poly models can be created with relative efficiency, high detail models can often take weeks, even months, to bring to a finished state. And these aren’t even models that go in the games, we’re talking here about models from which lighting detail is taken in order to facilitate an illusion in the game engine of more detail than is actually present.

For small studios this is a particularly frustrating and difficult issue with which to contend. The artists who can use these tools effectively often command large salaries, and for the scale and scope of some modern games you need a small army of them in order to get any project done in a timely fashion. For an Indie team, this can put some higher end options simply out of reach. Now, personally, I don’t see this as a roadblock because I believe that the best creative minds don’t come up against adversity and pummel their heads in shame, they look for an elegant solution, a way to create great art without relying on brute force alone. These, I believe, are in fact the true artists, and theirs is the true creativity in gaming.

Nevertheless, sometimes you just want to do some high detail shit, but if you’re an indie that’s an expensive proposition. But a device like this, at a cost of only $3,000 (I know, that’s actually a fair chunk of cash, but compared to the price of a high end modeler it’s peanuts), could raise the bar of what a small team could achieve. As long as they are able to produce the low poly models to drive the normal maps from these high detail models, they could potentially achieve very high end results for very little money. Indeed, I can easily imagine larger development studios using this technology to reduce the cost of producing some of these larger scale big budget games by drastically reducing the time required to produce the high detail models needed. Rather than building from scratch, you could simply scan something that’s reasonably close to your intended result and then tweak it from an already well developed state.

Worthy of consideration? Useful to the future of game development? What do you think?

A narrowing of focus

Jason Ward — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:20:26 +0000

Over the past few years we’ve covered a fairly broad range of topics on this site, blogging about anything even tangentially related to the Games Industry. At the same time we’ve provided period reviews of titles both big and small on all platforms. Heck, we’ve even covered Industry Events such as E3, E for All and others, with our team of…well, admittedly lazy but quite zealous geeks marauding about assorted booths taking pictures of scantily clad babes, playing stuff that hasn’t been released and generally having a good time.

But the raison d’etre of the Ugly Baby Studios team has always been the development of fun ideas, especially those relating to games and animated shorts. We’ve participated in (and actually did pretty well at!) film festivals with ridiculously short deadlines, we’ve worked on Mod projects, and generally had a good time doing all of it. Now it’s getting a little more serious, and so we’re honing in the focus of both our team and our site. As we move forward from now, we’re zooming in on Independent Games, with a special focus on XNA and Xbox Live Community Games (XBLC), which may just be the most significant turn to ever hit a games console or the Indie Developer scene. We’ll have some announcements coming a little further down the pike with regards to this topic.

As always, UBS will remain a blog, and as such we’ll do periodic reviews, though we’ll focus these on Indie Games (or their demos if we’re too cheap to buy the full game). We’ll blog about tools and techniques that you can use in your own Indie Games, and we’ll interview and have conversations with other Independent Development teams who’re working on their breakaway masterpieces as we speak. Any way you slice it, though, this narrowing of focus and reinvigoration of purpose will enable us to deliver a superior experience as we move forward, and we hope you’ll join us.

If there’s something specific you’d like to see covered, by all means let us know! We’re always open to hearing from you and believe me, we read every email we get from those who feel the need to drop us a line. If we can make your experience on the web a better one, don’t hesitate to tell us how.

Indie Developer Interview: Binary Tweed

Jason Ward — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:58:27 +0000

Recently I had the opportunity to talk a little with Binary Tweed Managing Director Daniel Jones about the studio’s upcoming game release, Clover. If you haven’t heard, Clover will be the studio’s first foray onto the Xbox 360′s new Community Games service, which for the first time allows Independent Developers legal and authorized access not only to put their games onto a legitimate games console, but to sell them for a profit. For countless small teams without the resources to get on the radar of the big publishers, this is a veritable dream come true. For the Games Industry as a whole, this is an opportunity for hitherto undiscovered talent, both in skill and in gameplay concepts, to create a name for themselves.

In pursuit of that we’re pleased to speak with Mr. Jones and thank him for his time. Without further ado, Binary Tweed!

UBS: What factors drew your team to create a game for the new Xbox Live Community (XBLC) games service?

DJ: XBLC has dramatically lowered the barriers of entry to large-audience games development. The biggest draw of the service has to be the extremely large user base combined with a piracy-proof delivery mechanism.

UBS: Working with XNA, have you found the technology to be limiting in any way or has it allowed you to express the vision you wanted to? What would you say is the biggest strength of using XNA to create a game for XBLC? It’s biggest weakness?

DJ: So far XNA hasn’t limited us in any way, and there are some very impressive titles being developed using the technology. Being a C# library, it’s mostly object-oriented which brings with it the strengths and weaknesses of C# itself. I come from a Java background and by comparison C#’s documentation and APIs just aren’t as well thought-out and presented, but moving to an OO language helps move games development away from the ‘hacking’ mentality that C++ can lend itself to.

The biggest strength of XBLC development is probably not XNA itself (although being based on a high-level OO language enables this) but the community that Microsoft have been nurturing. For the most part there are some really friendly and helpful people on the Creator’s Club forums.

Coming from an enterprise Java background looking in on the games industry, it’s always seemed that games development has suffered from the closed nature of the business. There’s a great deal of information sharing present in the J2EE development community, and a lot of great open-source projects. Hopefully the Creator’s Club will start going some way to emulate this more collaborative approach.

UBS: From screens released for Clover it appears to be completely 2D, but of course a screenshot doesn’t always tell the whole story. Is there any use of 3D elements (ie, models) in the creation of Clover? If so, what sorts of challenges have you seen with implementing your artwork?

DJ: Clover is completely 2D. I do all of the programming, and whilst I’d like to think my object-oriented design skills are fairly good, my 3D maths isn’t all that hot. We needed to deliver a title that worked within our constraints, which is one of the reasons for choosing the genre that we did.

I’m also not sold on the idea that 3D is the answer to all the world’s woes. I personally thought that transition from 2D to 3D in the Saturn/PlayStation era was a dark period for gaming, with a lot of mediocre titles developed as a result of resources being spent getting to grips with then-new technology rather than focusing on creating a great experience.

UBS: What methods are the artists employing in the creation of the game’s Watercolor effects? Are pieces hand painted and scanned or are they created in software?

DJ: The artwork is first sketched in pencil as apart of the concepting process, and then a ‘final’ version is drawn on heavy paper. These are coloured in watercolour paint, outlined in pen, and then scanned in. We try to do as little digital manipulation as possible, but there’s some colour correction and tidying up that goes on in Adobe Photoshop.

To answer the previous question, one of the challenges has been maintaining consistency of colour when working in a physical medium. Additionally we also have two artists working on the project, so there’s a certain amount of stylistic consistency that also needs to be maintained.

UBS: What programming / art tools do you use? Does Binary Tweed make substantial use of any Open Source or Freeware tools or do you primarily use commercial software?

DJ: XNA ties you into using Visual Studio, so we don’t have much choice in IDE. Other than that, we try to use Open Source as much as possible if only to lower costs! I’m writing this in OpenOffice, and I use GIMP for our tiling system. I’ve always been a big fan of EditPlus, too.

One of the most painful parts of transitioning from J2EE to XNA development was having to move away from the open source Eclipse IDE. Whilst it has its fair share of bugs, it’s an incredibly powerful and versatile application, and Visual Studio comes nowhere near to matching it. I need some resourceful fellow to write an Eclipse plug-in to support XNA…

UBS: What are the big challenges of being an independent developer? What are some of the rewards?

DJ: The challenges are many. Funding, credibility and resourcing are the most prominent in my mind. So far Clover has been completely self-funded, and with XBLC sales figures still under wraps I dare say no-one in their right mind would have invested in such a project.

Funding also raises secondary problems that the majority of consumers aren’t going to consider when making their purchasing decision. Being based in central London, most of our costs are simply paying rent and bills, and so time really is money. As much as I’d like to have a team of 20 people working on Clover for a year to make it the masterpiece I know it could be, we have to make sure it gets into the marketplace and earning money within a certain time frame.

The rewards are much the same as any form of start-up business. I get to choose my own path, work only with people I choose to, and don’t have to put up with the herculean levels of corporate ineptitude I’ve experienced elsewhere. I’m very much looking forward to when we’ve brought a title to market, and can start looking at other opportunities and hopefully working with some great people.

UBS: What advice would you give to those would-be Indie Devs out there who don’t have a clear idea of where to start?

DJ: It’s a tough question. I’d say first and foremost that some degree of business experience is vital, so you can know how large companies work, how to communicate in a professional manner and how to negotiate deals and manage staff. Project management is also a key skill when you’re on a tight budget, so that should also be at the top of people’s lists.

A lot of people tend to focus on the technical first, and while this is obviously an important part of engineering any product, there’s little point spending months working on something only to have the project fail, or to market the product inadequately.

UBS: How do you see the Indie Games market today in light of the emerging Downloadable games market? Do you see space for Independent studios amidst the sea of big names?

DJ: I think there’s a great opportunity there for independent developers. As the video games market matures, we’ll see more refined taste from gamers who have been buying titles for over 20 years. There will always be a large number of people ready to snap up the latest blockbuster, but there’s going to be an ever-increasing number who are looking for something a little more niche.

I see the games industry starting to look a little more like the music industry. There are people who listen to chart tunes as they get ready to go out on a Saturday night, and there are people with very specific tastes who really appreciate the most technically-crafted works with a certain message.

UBS: Xbox Live’s Community Games service has made the console market accessible to Indie developers for the first time in an official capacity (sans hacking/modding/etc); would you like to see similar services from Nintendo and Sony?

DJ: Absolutely! There’s a reason why the United Kingdom was once one of the world’s hotbeds for developer talent, and that’s reason was the Sinclair Spectrum. One of the main strengths of XBLC is not necessarily what it’s doing, as Sony did something similar with PlayStation Net Yaroze a few years back, but the fact that it’s taking these titles to a very large audience. If Nintendo were to do something similar and open up Wii development, I’m sure there would be a lot of very excited people.

UBS: A common problem with Indie Developers is finding talented staff that is willing or able to work with little to no compensation while developing that critical first product. Have you had to contend with these issues, and if so, how have you managed to work around them?

DJ: I’m lucky to know some very talented people with a broad range of skills, so I’ve been able to call in a lot of favours. Many are keen to help just as they find the medium so interesting. Even my account manager at the bank was thrilled to be involved in a games development project!

UBS: If you find some reasonable success with your efforts on the XBLC, do you envision extending your reach to services such as PSN and WiiWare?

DJ: We’ve invested a lot of time and money into the artwork of Clover, and so it would make sense to With the services mentioned we’d need a publisher on board, so a lot of our future possibilities depend on the performance of Clover. In an ideal world, there’d be a port to every platform where it made financial sense.

I’d like to thank Mr. Jones for taking the time out to talk with me about Binary Tweed and Clover, and on behalf of both myself and the Ugly Baby Studios team, I wish you all the best success and look forward to purchasing my copy of Clover on launch day!

Maybe this is why Wii is so very popular…

Jason Ward — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:36:09 +0000

Although Executive flame wars like those routinely highlighting mega-gaming blogs can be a lot of fun (after all, who doesn’t enjoy reading about Sony’s crackpot comments or Microsoft’s clueless retorts?), ultimately they just make the companies involved look a little…juvenile. We all love to laugh at (insert company name here) when they make fools of themselves, and when they do, the blogs love it because they get page traffic like there’s no tomorrow.

But what these things ultimately end up engendering rarely reaches beyond the level of pissing off Group A, Group B or both. It doesn’t take much effort to find a PS3/360 related flame war on the net, after all.

Then enter Nintendo, who’s Wii has become the utterly undisputed champion of this generation, nearly matching the combined sales of both its competitors, a goal it will likely reach this quarter. When we see mention of Nintendo in the press it’s usually in the context of how their new system and its software is helping someone. The elderly. The sick. The Injured. The Children.

One of the best examples I’ve seen of this is a posting on mega-gaming blog Kotaku today, proclaiming that Wii Fit Helps Paralyzed Girl Walk Again. I’m sure it’s overstated, I’m sure it had more to do with her doctors than Wii fit itself did, but the effect on perception is profound all the same.

In all of these cases, what do we see that we don’t get from the other console vendors by either their press releases, their advertising or their flamebait, crackpot commentary? We see situations that virtually anyone, no matter what their belief system, their politics, their affiliations–can open their hearts to. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, a Christian or an Atheist, you almost can’t help but feel an affection, admiration or appreciation for anyone or anything that helps people. We all know someone–or of someone–who fits into one of these categories. A grandparent. A friend. Our own children. And when we see that something reaches out, takes a little of the pain away and delivers a smile to someone for whom perhaps it seems that nothing else could, that in turn puts a smile on our faces, a warm place in our hearts, and an opening in our wallets.

I think some things are very clear when it comes to Nintendo and its Wii. It’s not selling on the power of flashy visuals and it’s not catering to the Home Theater enthusiast crowd. It doesn’t do movies, it doesn’t tantalize us with cleverly named processors or promises of 50 million dollar game budgets. Instead it’s reaching toward something far more universal and meaningful than what its competitors are: our heartstrings.

It tugs at our nostalgia with its Virtual Console. It tugs at our sense of family, friends and fun with its playful games that demand a group. And in the media, in our public perception, it tugs at our sense of purpose because–whether its true or not–it reaches out to help those who need a hand–and a smile. In the end, maybe that’s more powerful marketing than any buzzwords or polygon counts can ever be, because while only some of us care about detailed games, practically all of us care about people who suffer more than seems fair.

Free World of Goo Soundtrack!

Jason Ward — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:34:35 +0000

[SinglePic not found]The great guys over at 2DBoy, who delivered what is arguably 2008′s finest Indie Game achievement World of Goo, have released the soundtrack to their seminal game for free on their website. In support of their efforts–and because we just love helping send a few folks to help bring down servers giving away free goodies–here’s the link to get this fine soundtrack all for your own enjoyment. If you haven’t heard it yet, World of Goo’s soundtrack is phenomenal–haunting yet simple, elegant and beautiful. It’s a truly amazing complement to a truly amazing game.

To XNA with Love: Clover

Jason Ward — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:47:18 +0000

The web is semi abuzz with the news that Indie Studio Binary Tweed has announced an ambitious new XNA Community Games Project: Clover. The game is described as being laced with political themes, which sounds like it could make for an interesting bit of storytelling. The art is all done in a watercolor style and looks nice overall, though to be honest I feel like there should be some depth or perspective or something, I’m not quite sure. Work in progress, though, and a screenshot often fails to convey a game’s look in motion.

What’s most important, though, is that Binary Tweed appears to be taking the development of small Indie Games quite seriously, which I think is going to be a very wise move as Community Developed content moves forward in importance. To date, most of the XBLC games I’ve seen have been interesting from a “share and examine” point of view, but there are very few I’d feel good about paying money for (It’s quite unfortunate that Microsoft doesn’t allow indies to release games on the service for free). However, from the early looks and description of Clover I hope that I’ll be pleasantly surprised when it finally releases this quarter.

Good luck, Binary Tweed, we’re rooting for you!