I recently read a short editorial in EGMi lamenting background music in games.  The author, Paul Semel, points out how he always turns the music off in his games, as he feels many times the music ruins the experience.    “[I]‘m . . . not into music in games because, most of the time, it doesn’t make sense to have music in those games.  If you were a secret agent sneaking up behind an enemy combatant, you wouldn’t crank some Metalica.”

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I’ve returned from this year’s Fan Expo, which took place in Toronto this weekend.  The expo is a large convention for fans of anime, horror, gaming, comics and science fiction.  I saw a lot of great stuff this year, and I’ll admit that while it was a huge improvement since 2008, the first year I went, it had a lot of fatal flaws that may keep me from going next year.  While I had plenty of exciting experiences, some were not nearly so awesome, and some were just so completely terrible that I hope to never have to suffer through them again.

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The Kill Kast is back again with Episode 15 where Rebecca, Dana, and Eric get together to discuss some new ways critics are reviewing games and much more. We chat about some games we’ve been playing, which includes Burn Zombie Burn!, Scott Pilgrim, Sam and Max, Dragon Age Awakenings and Mafia 2. We also spend a good amount of time talking about Final Fantasy 14 and its flaws along with other MMO’s. Finally we get into our main topic where we discuss the new ways in which critics are presenting reviews, for example displaying the hours played, achievements earned etc.

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We’ve discussed it before here at Spawn Kill: the issue of game length.  Recently, one of the developers of Joe Danger, Sean Murray, wrote a blog post about the subject, and it got me thinking about it once again, especially since it’s a concept I ruminate about often.

Many game reviews include game length not only in their text, but also consider it when determining the score.  Of course, that leads to the argument: is a game bad simply because it’s short?  Obviously, that depends on a lot of things.  As Sean Murray wrote in his post, Limbo and Portal are both short games, but the fact that they took only a few hours to complete didn’t lessen their critical acclaim.  In fact, I agree with him on a lot of his points, as the concept of “gameplay arc” is something I’ve touched upon before.  Some games have a natural length to them, partially due to pacing, and if you go beyond this (or below it, for that matter), the game feels “off.”  (more…)

An ordinary school day in Columbine, Colorado most likely never consisted of a bloody, pre-meditated massacre at the hands of an outcast and ethically unsound teenager. Two Combine High School students by the name of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold changed this perception on April 20th of 1999. Eric and Dylan single-handedly shook the foundation of American media and propagated concerned parents around the globe to question the consequences of uncensored entertainment. A large majority of psychologists and journalists reporting on the incident were quick to degrade the “Goth Scene,” antagonistic music, and both Eric and Dylan’s immersion in the virtual world of Doom, a hugely popular first-person shooter video game depicting ruthless killing of “demon-esque” creatures.

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If you do a Google image search for RPG, unfortunately most of the shots you’ll find feature a certain deadly weapon.  However, use that word around any gamer and they’ll immediately think something completely different. Role-playing games.  If you play games regularly, chances are good you’ve played at least one RPG at some point in your life.  Many of us thoroughly enjoy the genre in all its facets, which made this week’s Staff Picks even more difficult.  Once again, the staff here at Spawn Kill got together to each pick just one of our most favorite RPGs.  Again, no easy task.  However, we all managed to settle on one title to represent some of our favorite moments in gaming.  Check out our list, and feel free to list your picks in the comments.  And, unlike us, you aren’t limited to just one pick.

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“Americans are dying and I can’t imagine who would really want to sit and shoot U.S. soldiers on a game,” says Meredith, commenting on the upcoming October release of Medal of Honor. Karen Meredith is a mom. Like many Americans, Meredith is also severely distraught over losing her son in our country’s so-called “War On Terror.” Meredith, appalled by EA’s blatant insensitivity, stated “I find it disrespectful and irresponsible for EA to be putting this game out at this time.”

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The Kill Kast is back again and we hope to start a new streak of consecutive podcasts. In Episode 14 Stephanie, Eric and Rebecca get together to talk about what they’ve been playing which includes Dragon Quest IX, StarCraft 2 and Mafia II. We go through some recent news such as Mass Effect hitting the PS3, the Windows Phone 7 and the Sony PSP phone. For our topic(s) this week we discuss last week’s Community Voice and what you all said along with our recent Staff Picks and why we love those soundtracks. We also talk about Dragon Age a whole lot, mainly why Origins is so awesome and why Dragon Age 2 has us worried. It happens. I think it’s high time we just start a separate Dragon Age podcast…

You can download and subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and let us know what you thought about the episode. Thanks for listening!

Last week, all of us here at Spawn Kill got together to list some of our favorite game soundtracks.  After all, gaming would be a far less entertaining experience without the stirring melodies to accompany our jaunts through space, the wild west, the Mushroom Kingdom, or wherever the wonderful world of video games may take us.

However, being the generous sort of folk that we are, we felt it was only fair to open up the floor for all of you to weigh in on what game music keeps you humming long after you’ve hit the “power” button.   Do you prefer the classic nostalgia of 8-bit blips, or do you relish the full orchestra?  Perhaps you go for more of the eclectic or avant-garde works.  Perhaps you’re a rhythm game junkie!  Maybe it’s a little of everything.  Whatever your faves, we want to hear them, so feel free to post your picks in the comments, and don’t be afraid to include a YouTube link so others can enjoy your selections!

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Music has always been a fundamental part of the gaming experience, from simple chiptune melodies to today’s symphonic scores.  The staff here at Spawn Kill has gathered around the virtual campfire to each pick one of our favorite video game soundtracks.  Some may be what you expect, others may introduce you to a new tune or composer.  Each staff member also selected one song to represent the game’s overall soundtrack in order to give you a feel for the music if you may be unfamiliar with that title.  So turn your speakers up, scroll down, and enjoy!

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Spawn Kill was able to sit in on a Mafia II developer conference call today with Jack Scalici, Director of Creative Production. He was responsible for creating the authentic setting in Mafia II; making sure the environment fits the era along with finding the the 122 tracks that are included in the game. In the call Jack talks about the struggles of creating a new engine, how hard it was to narrow down which songs will be included in the game (from the thousands he listened to), what went into creating the authentic 50’s mafia world and what the future of the franchise is, which could include the Russian or Japanese mob. We conveniently recorded the call for you so you can listen to it here or head over to iTunes and download it there. Enjoy!

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After a bit of a technical issue Spawn Kill’s Kill Kast is back with episode 13! In this episode we talk about recent news, what we’ve been playing (Critter Crunch!), we laugh about a study that says kids who play games can turn into drug addicts later in life, and we discuss our topic of the podcast which is the recent copyright ruling that essentially said  jailbreaking an iPhone to create homebrew apps is legal and what that means for  gaming.

Don’t forget you can subscribe to us on iTunes and also remember to enter our Halo: Reach Special Edition Xbox 360 bundle giveaway! Thanks for listening.

Just the other day while I was checking out the Jones Soda website, I noticed they were selling Dungeons and Dragons Spellcasting soda.  There was nothing unique about this soda other than the labels they used on the bottles, which depicted different scenes from the popular tabletop role playing game.  The geek in me wanted them badly, but my logical side eventually won out after seeing the price for shipping ($55 in total for six bottles of soda to Canada, yikes).

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The Spawn Kill crew has gotten together and mulled over the firey question, “What is your favorite PSN game?” and come to some unique and surprising results. We each selected our favorite PSN game that is available and put it together to form Spawn Kill’s PSN editor’s choice list. Some are critical favorites, some are unstoppable addictions we’ve held inside of us, but all of them are our loves. Check out our list of PSN favorites and let us know what your favorite is!

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Spawn Kill was recently given a rare chance to ask Visceral Games a couple of questions about their upcoming release Dead Space 2. Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of the studio, was more than happy to oblige. While he’s still a bit tight-lipped on some of the most sought-after information, Mr. Papoutsis did give us a closer look at some of the tweaks to the Dead Space formula that the sequel is going to offer.

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