Now Playing at Spawn Kill

Not only does the staff of Spawn Kill keep readers up-to-date with news and reviews from all facets of video games, we also partake in our fair share of private gaming goodness. While we may not be writing about it, many of us are knee-deep in games both old and new. Now Playing at Spawn Kill is but a glimpse into the staff’s present indulgences. What have you all been playing this week? We’d love to hear all the gory details.

Tigresa:
I put my right arm back into finishing up Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater this week after powering through the first three games the past few weeks with the goal of getting to be part of the super sweet MGS4 fan club. That goes without saying, that I’ve put a good amount of hours already into Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. It is absolutely … AMAZING how much more addicting the character development and story-telling has gone up. The combat is so much more fun (though I loved the previous with my all of sweet little heart) and just blow-by-blow the game sharks the rest out of the water. So impressed! I can’t wait to keep playing. I’ve also been playing a lot of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days which I honestly am not enjoying whatsoever still. I keep hoping it’ll get better and keep telling myself that, but there has been no story or character development STILL and I am a few hours into the game already. Please get better…?

K-Tuck:
Well, I finally finished playing WET. This one was enormously hard to swallow (that’s what she said). Though the combat just by itself was very entertaining, it wasn’t entertaining enough to support the weight of the rest of the game. The WET review just went live today, for anyone who wants to see precisely how I felt about the title. I’ve put shamefully small amounts of time into the never-ending quest to beat Prince of Persia, as well as into my recently-acquired copy of Street Fighter IV. I’m finding the reach of the ever-so-familiar moves to be confusing and underwhelming, but the title definitely has a large amount of polish to it.

Snarkasaur:
This week saw me charging my way through the first Uncharted and loving every snarky minute of it. I’m completely jazzed for number 2 now because if it’s as much better as everyone says it is, the world is in for a real treat. I’d probably watch the game if it were nothing but cut scenes. I also played through some of the indie titles World of Goo and The Path. World of Goo is just comic genius and a little bridge building educaton. The Path I can’t even properly describe but I’m pretty sure it measures success by how brutally murdered you were when you get to Grandma’s house. I need to delve more in to really get the big picture I suppose. One thing I can say is that the creepy, yet dreamy, aesthetic is amazing and I hope more games take such an approach to setting.

m3talst0rm:
Most of my game-playing this week was spent on 360 games in my backlog. First, I played and completed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on normal difficulty. Though I was sceptical because I am not the biggest realistic war game fan (I like sci-fi in my fps), I was really impressed with the story and its effect on me. Parts of the story actually bothered me. The only other gaming experience that I can compare to this would be BioShock, but, even then, I had the “fiction” factor in my mind the whole time. Another title that I’ve been playing is Mass Effect. Nothing new here, but I love this game because it feels as if you are in a live action science fiction novel. Lastly, as I am a sucker for the indie games that are on Xbox Live Arcade, I’ve just downloaded an exceptionally well crafted game called Arkedo Series-01 Jump! A smooth platformer full of pixely goodness, Jump! seems to be worth the three dollars.

Cuatro Chihuahuas:
This week I spent some time playing Persona PSP. It’s definitely a challenging game, with a lot of level grinding involved, although I’m still fairly early into it. I also played through Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan, and you can read my review and see how enjoyable that was. I also played through another adventure game called Drawn: The Painted Tower. It’s by BigFish Games, known for mostly casual titles, but I have to say this was a pretty enjoyable little game with good atmosphere, a creative premise, and some genuinely fun and interesting puzzles. The ending was a bit abrupt and it left a lot of questions/issues unanswered, but I have a sneaking suspicion they’ll be a sequel.