Kingdom Hearts is a game I hold dear to my.. well… heart, and when I heard they were re-releasing the original game packaged with the follow up game Chain of Memories, I was ecstatic. While playing through the game again with the new HD graphics and the additions that Final Mix provided, it did not feel like I was playing through again, but for the first time.

Story

In a nutshell, Kingdom Hearts is an RPG in which a young boy (Sora) is chosen to wield the almighty keyblade and to team up with Disney veterans; Donald and Goofy to save the world. But in reality the story is so much more. The game begins with our main character Sora watching his island be swallowed by the dark force that is the Heartless. In the midst of this, Sora is separated from his two friends Riku and Kairi. Sora learns that he must go from world to world to stop the flow of Heartless by sealing the worlds’ corresponding keyholes.

There’s nothing new about the story essentially, aside from some added minor cutscenes. Overall the story is a very charming one, showing the power of friendship and how much sticking with your buddies could make a difference. Throughout Sora’s search for his lost friends he makes an assortment of new friends along the way, but the two most important of all; Donald and Goofy feel as if they are your friends, not just Sora’s.

Gameplay

The gameplay inside Kingdom Hearts is pretty simple, you lock onto enemies and press X repeatedly. This is helped with abilities that you can assign to Sora that enable things such as: new moves, longer combos, and so on. The big thing that I noticed with the 1.5 is that in the begining of the game, you’re given a completely new ability called “Sliding Dash” this ability lets you slide in for an attack from afar. While being a minor change, it added a bit of something to the combat. The combat in Kingdom Hearts isn’t complicated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun.

Aside from the regular combat and boss battles, the game also features a shoot em up like travel system. To go from world to world, you must travel by what Donald and Goofy call a “Gummi Ship”. When traveling through space to reach the next world, you’ll have to shoot down heartless’ ships and collect parts to upgrade your ship. In Final Mix they added a new “challenge mode” in which you need to meet certain circumstances to gain bonuses at the end of travel. It’s a nice added feature, but traveling by Gummi Ship can get tedious. Thankfully you unlock a warp feature that lets you teleport without the need of actually going through the travel stages if you do not want to.

Graphics and Sound

Now this is where the meat of the HD 1.5 Remix comes in, while, sure, it added features from Final Mix that weren’t available to fans in the United States, it’s the remastered graphics and sound effects that take the cake here. To start things off, the game looks great, seeing the game in HD is a dream come true, the colors pop off the screen and create a visual landscape that is incredibly pleasing. They’ve also redone the soundtrack, and it sounds phenomenal, and to top things off, some voices sound as if they’ve been redone.

On the left you can see the standard definition graphics in comparison to the high definition graphics on the right!

Extras

Packaged along with the original Kingdom Hearts is Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and the cut scenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. While it’s nice that they added Chain of Memories and the scenes, these still do not hold up to the original. I feel as if the original Kingdom Hearts is the star of this package, and dare I say it, the others are quite forgettable.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

As a Kingdom Hearts fan, I can proudly say that this is a well done HD remix of a already great game. If wanting to get into the series, now’s your best bet. Turn your PS3 on and let the HD graphics do the rest.

The post Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Our very own SpawnStaffer, Chris West, talked of this in his “The Future of Games in the Digital Age” article – which by the way is a great read – but I’d like to revisit this topic, as it is a very important one.

As we all know, and probably heard about way too many times, Microsoft had planned to not allow used games on its system, meaning in short, that you would only be able to buy a new copy of a game, and then you would only be able to play it on one account, albeit with some, let’s admit, confusing friend-sharing functionality. Microsoft stated months later that were taking a step back, and now, they are allowing used games to flourish on their system. This, among many other 180’s, was one of the biggest u-turns in video game history.

For me, this was extremely good news, as I work at a store that sells both new and used games. If Microsoft implemented this change, it’d cut a huge portion of my store’s market, and probably cause us to lose a lot of money. But either way, I don’t see used games going away anytime soon.

The Xbox 360’s “Games” section dashboard.

The two big daddies in the video game market, Sony and Microsoft, both have their own versions of DD platforms. On the Xbox 360 you buy them through the Live marketplace, and on the PlayStation 3 you buy them through the PlayStation Store. Both systems offer downloads of games from past systems (for example: Xbox 360 has Xbox original games, and the PS3 has many PS1/2/P/Vita games).

I can now buy this game for a cheap 10 bucks, while it goes for $50 in used games stores and even more online. Thanks PlayStation Store!

Not all games are like this, as Chris West stated, Deadpool was priced at $49.99 in stores, while being $39.99 for a digital copy. This is a good move, and I feel all markets should follow this example, but unfortunately, they do not. Most games are listed at the same price between stores and online markets, and the DD titles usually don’t offer any kind of bonus for buying it online (though we are seeing a hopeful trend with digital-only extras starting to surface) to make up for all the extras that would come with a physical copy.

For consoles, this is a huge problem in my eyes, since buying and downloading games to a system takes up a good amount of space on the system’s hard-drive, and sooner or later you’ll be forced to remove games for other games to take their place. And if you want to play the deleted game, you’ll have to download it all over again. It’s an endless cycle of downloading, removing and re-downloading.

But for computers, this problem has been pretty much crushed by the existence of Steam. It’s a store for online games, a place to keep your games, and a place to share your content with your friends. Steam does what basically all console marketplaces don’t; Steam consistently has amazing deals on games and is always communicating these deals via email campaigns and within the program itself. Steam is the positive side of DD, and helps keep gamers interested and buying. But, even on Steam, some games are still sold at launch at the same price as their physical versions.

But, referring to my note at the top of how Microsoft decided to listen to consumers and switch their DRM policies, it shows to me that they are listening. And perhaps Sony and other video game companies will follow suit as well, and we’ll see a steady balance of fair DD prices in the near future. Remember, this is just my opinion. Check out what some other SpawnStaffers have to say about the matter, and whether they prefer digital content over a something a bit more palpable.

Buddy Acker – Staff Writer

I’m going to purchase retail copies once I get an Xbox One. I enjoy having physical copies because I like being able to look at and touch them. I have a collector’s soul. Also, digital copies take up way too much room on a hard drive, and consoles are not yet at a point where they can sufficiently store multiple games. It’s cool to have different options, but I’ll always prefer having a disc nearby.

Brian Oâ€Donnell – SpawnCast/Creative Co-Director

I like the idea of digital copies. I originally didn’t, but ever since I’ve joined SpawnFirst and have received digital review copies,…well… now I’m mostly sold on it. I love not having to get up and swap disks when I want to change games (#Lazy). There are 2 reasons I’m not 100% sold on it yet. The first is: why is a DD game the same price as its physical copy? I mean, I’m just paying for the game; not the box, disk, and manual that comes with it. That should knock $10 off the price MINIMUM. Second, what if I run out of hard drive space? As a moron who bought the 4GB Xbox 360, I have a ghetto set up where I have an external hard drive and a flash drive plugged into my 360 to handle all my memory issues. Now, granted, the Xbox One will come with a larger HD and will allow external storage without a cap, but I hate that after a year or 2, I will need to either delete my digital games, or buy another external drive to handle everything. Also, when I do save to the external HD, I lose some abilities that I normally would not have a problem with doing on the consoleâ€s internal drive. For example, I just downloaded Halo 3 and wanted to play an online campaign with Chris (Velluci) but the game wouldnâ€t let me because it needed to save to the internal drive. That SHOULD NOT happen. So until these problems are resolved, I’m going to stick with physical copies.

Justin Celani – Video Content Director

To retail or not to retail? That is the question. I’ve always felt that having an only online library, just never quite satisfied that collector side of me. Yet then every time I move house, I moan about moving my entire library of games, let alone the rest of my belongings. I’ve sat and thought about the whole digital versus physical argument many times over, and ultimately, if games were $10 to $15 dollars cheaper on some digital games versus their physical versions, I’d be inclined to try out more games that I normally wouldn’t at regular retail prices. This would ensure that I end up with either A: a bunch of games I’m now stuck with forever digitally, that aren’t very good, or B: playing some games I’d have normally never given the chance simple due to the price. As it stands, I think I fit somewhere comfortably in the middle. I love physical copies, especially that new game smell (mmmmm) and watching my collection grow, but I have also come to appreciate my digital library as well.

Fraser McIntyre – Staff Writer

To be honest, I see the merit of DD copies and find that their practicality is evidently more important than the nostalgic feeling of taking games over to a friendâ€s house to play. I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I am pretty much 100% in favour of DD. It keeps all my games in one place and I don’t need to worry about losing them or getting them scratched. As a fervent Steam user, DD is a massive part of gaming for me nowadays, and if you know where to look, you need not pay top dollar for titles on any platform. So when I get a next gen console (by that I mean a PS4), I’ll probably be forgoing any kind of hard copies for games.

Chris Velluci – SpawnCast/Creative Co-Director

This is always a tough decision.  With digital copies, stores like GameStop will cease to exist where I can get money for my used games, that then allow me to purchase new games for “less”.  Also, unless my console’s HDD is removable, I won’t be able to bring over my new title to a friend’s house without having to bring the entire console. And there’s nothing like opening a new game on the drive home at the first red-light I come upon, just because the gameâ€s so fresh. I love seeing the titles and lining them up on my shelf and awing at them. However, I would also enjoy digitally downloading a new title while at work, knowing I won’t have to make an extra stop on my way home. Had you asked me a few years ago I’d have said “no” because I love the pamphlets that enhance the story and gameplay. However, those days have passed and now all you find is a warning label or advertisement. But if the prices remain the same, I will opt for the physical copy. Why is digital $59.99 when there’s no manufacturing or transporting of physical goods?

Intervention time…

Chris West – Staff Writer

I myself tend to be old school as I still prefer to have a physical copy. Unfortunately, despite everyone’s preferences, there will come a day where all forms of media will be in a digital-only format. There is nothing wrong with preferring physical copies over digital, but everyone will eventually have to get used to the perpetual cycle of technology. Just like the change from VCR to DVD or from floppy to disk, this is essentially the same situation. At the moment, I feel physical copies will remain superior until pricing changes for digital and there are guidelines and rules set that will benefit for both developers, retailers, and consumers.  In short, a great amount of work needs to be done before the big change.  For now, I’ll stick with my physical copies

Vernon Gomes – PR and Marketing Manager

As the resident SpawnFirst.com PC Gamer, I love the idea of digital distribution, with one caveat: it needs to be executed well. My favorite game distribution service is Steam, as Valve has done an excellent job of streamlining it since it first came out. The Steam Store always has games that are on sale, often does free weekends of particular games, and then offers that said game on sale during that time period, and let’s not forget about the season sales! However, two PC distribution services that are truly lacking in the PC gaming world are: EA’s Origin and Microsoft’s Games for Windows Live. (Incidentally, Microsoft Game for Windows Live will be shutting down in 2014)

Karam Elahi – Founder/Editor-in-Chief

Everyone above me just about covered every aspect of this debate, but Iâ€ll go ahead and put in my two cents. Itâ€s very simple. Make digital distribution titles cheaper than their physical counterparts. Publishers save a ton of money on manufacturing, distribution, and retailer cuts by offering digital content. Sure theyâ€re probably paying a certain percentage of the profits to Sony, MS, and Nintendo for the convenience of channeling their content through the big guns, but overall, DD titles are pretty profitable. So why not pass at least some of the savings onto the customer?

And which do I prefer? Physical copies. Nothing beats being able to swap out one game for another in a few seconds, as opposed to re-downloading an older title to play again, just because you previously cleared it out from your already bursting hard drive. I might consider going through that trouble, if say, the DD copy I bought was about $10 – $20 cheaper than its physical counterpart. And thatâ€s a pretty big IF. Until Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and publishers wise up, Iâ€m sticking to my game cases and smelling my manuals (or whatâ€s left of them) ‘till the walking stick arrives.

The post Physical vs Digital Games: Time to Decide appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Sadly, it seems as if this happens less and less nowadays with a good majority of games being online multiplayer only. This is a very disappointing truth that I’ve had to face over the years, local co-op began to decline as headsets and online connection rose. It’s just the feeling of having everybody within an arms length of each other, all doing the same thing, whether it be fighting against each other in a blood-soaked death match, or fighting in unity against a common foe.

One of my favorite past-times is blowing through Borderlands 1 or 2 with a buddy. My record is beating the original twice in 2 days split-screen.

Now let’s back it up, I know it sounds like I’m whining and can’t stand online games. That’s totally not true, I love playing online and my second favorite video game genre is based off of online play. That being said, I love MMORPG’s, I played World of Warcraft from Burning Crusade to the end of Lich King religiously, and many other MMO’s after that. These game making it possible for you to play from the comfort of your home with thousands of other players doing the same, all at the same time. While this was great, I still conned my best friends into play WoW with me and bringing there computers over to my house for some good ol’ World of Warcraft all-nighters.

I promise our all-nighters did NOT look like this…

While sure it’s still possible to play your online games with your real life friends while sitting next to them side by side, I still gotta say I miss split screen. I feel that it’s an important aspect to not overlook as gamers, and that more games should implement them in the future. It makes sense as to why some games are single player only, but not for almost every game on the market. For instance, 2012’s third person hidden gem, Spec Ops: The Line added a free co-op DLC campaign just months after it’s release, but with no split-screen mode available.

It just doesn’t make sense why they couldn’t make it possible to play the game with two people on one console. The game was good – I just wish a friend of mine could have been there to see the story unfold. Some of my favorite memories in my video game career consist of sitting back playing Dynasty Warriors with my brother, calling out specific objectives and tactics, even though he probably wasn’t listening. I can say that I am hopeful for local multiplayer, but at the same time not completely sold that it’ll be back any time soon.

Co-op games hold a special place in my heart and they always will, if you’re ever in need of a good game to sit down with a buddy and play, I’d recommend Borderlands 1 and 2, Diablo 3, Dynasty Warriors (any of the games, they’re so bad they’re good, trust me), and Guardian Heroes for the Xbox Live Arcade.

The post Gaming is Better With a Friend appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Did you originally conceive the idea for the game with Van Helsing in mind or did you decide that the lore surrounding Van Helsing would best fit the type of game you were creating?

From the very beginning we had Van Helsing in mind as our main character. We envisioned a story about his incredible adventures and only then did we start creating the game, exactly in that order. Years ago, our content designer, Viktor Juhász, broke his ankle and the injury forced him into bed for weeks. During this forced, but creatively fulfilling rest, he started to work on four game design plans and one of them was The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. Our team loved the idea so much that we all agreed that the game needed to be made. We found Van Helsing a good choice since the name brings up very strong associations with literature and history, and we could easily twist the well-known elements of the background into an enjoyable experience for our potential fans.

Was adding in Katarina also planned from the beginning, or was it decided on at a later time?

At the very beginning, Van Helsing was the only character that we knew would be in the game for sure, but the idea of a charming ghostly companion presented itself quite early. Katarina’s concept, like many other things in the game, went through many changes during the development. Fortunately, as it turned out, our fans love this witty and beautiful ghost almost as much as we do. She’s a great help to our young hero and I think Van Helsing sometimes needs a cheeky woman to criticize every single step he takes!

In this game we wanted to create a dark, fictional gothic-noir kingdom, which resembles a historical European country from the 19th century. Itâ€s like a scary, but beautiful metropolis from a dark tale.

I see that you let the fans decide between 3 looks for Van Helsing; The Chevalier, The Mysterious Stranger and The Veteran. What was the reason behind this?

We always try to create our games to appease and entertain our players, so we always want to hear their feedback from the fans at any stage of development. Earlier in the development cycle, after the first teaser trailer was released, it turned out that the fans wanted much more from us than a manga-looking Van Helsing with big, glowing eyes and white hair. So, as promised, we took their feedback seriously and decided to change the look and feel of our main character. We created three different Van Helsing variations and let them choose which one would be the best fit for the game. Finally, the Mysterious Stranger received 72% of the total number of votes, so it was quite obvious what our community wanted.

What made you decide to have the story focus on Borgova?

Since our studio is located in Hungary, right in the neighborhood of the amazing region of Transylvania, and our office is smack in the heart of Budapest, the beautiful historical European city, we had quite a few sources of inspiration around us. In this game, we wanted to create a dark, fictional gothic-noir kingdom, which resembles a historical European country from the 19th century. Itâ€s like a scary, but beautiful metropolis from a dark tale. Although the city of Borgova is a fictional place, a couple of real buildings and streets from Budapest show up in the game. So what made us decide to have the story focus on Borgova? Simply because we love it.

Thanks. As you probably know for our content designer, the most important source of inspiration was Bram Stokerâ€s novel, Dracula. It was a good start to create the mood and settings for the game. Regarding the art style, we had a lot of other sources of inspiration and a lot of unique ideas. Some of those came from such classics as Tim Burtonâ€s Sleepy Hollow, Mary Shelleyâ€s Frankenstein or Stevensonâ€s Jekyll and Hide.

The game mixes a dark world filled with monsters with witty humor. How did you come about making this decision to mesh the two?

As we intended to stick to the dark, gothic-noir style in the game, we had to decide if we wanted to make a true horror story, or rather fill the universe with humorous antics, and create a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Actually, the witty humor mostly comes from the conversations between Van Helsing and Lady Katarina, and for me itâ€s an essential aspect of their relationship. Also, the dark humor made it a perfect playground for us to include all sorts of pop-cultural references from other games, movies, books and turn them into hidden content and funny easter eggs that we all love so much.

Also, the dark humor made it a perfect playground for us to include all sorts of pop-cultural references from other games, movies, books and turn them into hidden content and funny easter eggs that we all love so much.

I notice that you play as Abraham Van Helsing’s son. What was the reason behind this?

Actually, Professor Abraham Van Helsing is already too old for this stuff and is not exactly the badass monster-killer we wanted our hero to be for this action RPG, so we decided to give the main role to his son as we imagine him.

This game seems to blend RPG elements with hack and slash, and the outcome is a great mix. How were you able to combine both elements successfully?

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an Action RPG, and as such it mixes RPG and Hack and Slash elements. A great mix, as you said. The truth is that RPG is our all time favorite genre in games, so we always try to use as much role-playing elements as we possibly can. For example, in this game not only does Van Helsing have a skill tree, but so does his ghostly companion, Katarina. She can also get ability points etc., unlike NPC’s and “followers” in other similar games. As much as we love the RPG genre, you can be sure that even if we create a game in a totally different genre in the future, it will definitely have some RPG elements blended in.

Many thanks to Júlia for answering our questions and Neocore Games for presenting gamers with such an awesome series. Yup, I just said series. Aside from the great expansion DLC’s (Blueblood and Thaumaturge), a sequel to Van Helsing was also announced back in June! The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is one series we’ll be keeping a close eye on. Check out Neocore Games on their Facebook page, Twitter feed, and developer’s blog.

The post Interview and Contest: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing appeared first on SpawnFirst.

This damn dog gave me nightmares as a kid. No joke.

What I mean by this is that games have, dare I say it, gotten too easy. I’ve been playing games since I was five, the first game I remember playing is Super Mario Bros./Duckhunt on the NES, and what I remember most  was how hard it was (Not Duckhunt, that game just didn’t really work in general. It was hard by flaws, not by design). Anyway, Super Mario Bros. was hard, and I only remember getting to the first castle- if that, back then. As I got older, I went back and played it again, and again, getting better the only way you could, by playing.

See, this is a key aspect for video games, not only having a lasting appeal, but teaching the player how to play the game and win, without giving them any unfair advantages. Not all games today are guilty of this, but far too many that I’ve played recently felt like the game was holding my hand. For example, when playing last year’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning I began playing through on normal, and eventually cranked the difficulty up to hard. Even on hard the game felt like what should have been the normal difficulty. It’s like we’ve taken out the option to play games on the hard setting, and switched the usual Easy>Normal>Hard for Very Easy>Easy>Normal.

Call of Duty: Black Ops’s FAMAS, the most overpowered weapon in the game.

Even online games have been affected, for example; Call of Duty. While I will say that there are players out there that are truly skilled at the game, it still is largely based off of your loadout and what weapons your using. What happened to needing skill alone to succeed in a game? I can understand a helping hand every now and then, but it just seems like we as gamers are being treated like we just started playing. While sure, that is the case for some, but that’s what tutorials and good lesson-teaching game design is all about. Making your audience able to understand the game more and more each time.

Not all hope is lost, though. Certain games recently have made it a point to be difficult, and I respect and appreciate said games with great honor. A noteworthy example: Dark Souls. This game is known to be hard, and very unforgiving. But, while it’s unforgiving, it’s also fair in the sense that throughout the game it is teaching you how to play by trial and error. By slowly racking the difficulty up and forcing you to learn from your mistakes, it creates a very satisfying and thoughtful experience. After playing Dark Souls, I feel like I’m better at video games and can approach a problem in another game with a better mindset.

The Taurus Demon in all of his terrifying glory.

For example, in the Taurus Demon boss battle in Dark Souls, you have a raging demon charging toward you on a narrow bridge, with nowhere to go, you eventually will find a ladder to bring you up to higher ground. From here, you have an advantage on the demon, and if you think back to the first boss battle in the game in which you jumped off a ledge and plunged your sword into the Asylum Demon’s head, you can apply this method on the Taurus Demon. Doing so makes the boss battle tremendously easier, and will see you to a quicker success. That is a perfect example of good game design, by showing tactics that are actually useful later on.

See that is exactly my point, more developers need to apply things that I mentioned above in their games. While not all of them should be as hard as Dark Souls by ANY means, they should look at it and learn from it. Learn that it isn’t about winning, it’s about the journey it takes to get there.

The post My Hands Are Getting Sweaty appeared first on SpawnFirst.

One of the things I hold proudly in my obsession with video games is the drive I have to play games that fly under the radar, or the ones that just don’t “fit in” with the other titles. One of these games is none other than Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death. Marlow Briggs is a game that isn’t afraid to show you what it truly is; pure entertainment.

Story/Concept

As for the story, it’s laughable. It’s in no way a pleasant tale, but the way it’s played out makes it a prime target for laughs. When you boot up the game, you’re immediately introduced to a quarry somewhere in Central America surrounded by gun-toting guards and what looks like a research camp.  It then shows Marlow Briggs and his lover Eva walking toward one of tents. Eva reveals that she’s unsure if she’d like to continue working as a translator of Mayan text in the camp. When they reach the camp she tells her boss how she feels, and he doesn’t react kindly to this. He tells her that she has no choice and that she has signed a contract, basically meaning she’s forced to work for him until he’s satisfied.

Marlow doesn’t take kindly to this, telling Heng Long (The boss) that he can’t talk to his lady like that. Long replies by ordering his guards to take hold of Marlow and Eva, and then commands his assistant to kill Marlow with a Mayan scythe. Think I’m spoiling anything? I’m not, this literally happens in the first 5 minutes of the game. So there you are, dead, and out of nowhere, a mysterious mask on the scythe orders resurrects Marlow to become the “Sacred Warrior”. Marlow’s original goal is to take back his girlfriend and leave the dig site, but as the game progresses you learn that there is a much more pressing issue at hand, and you eventually need to, you guessed it, save the world.

The game isn’t very long (I beat it in one 6 hour sitting), and you can tell that the story was not the main focus here. But throughout everything the story only becomes increasingly more ridiculous, from fighting gigantic water gods to a mountain rising out of the ground like it was nothing. Most of the story is presented in the gameplay, with the banter between Marlow and the Death Mask. There are cutscenes here and there but they’re nothing to write home about.

Gameplay

This is what kept me playing through the game, it’s just pure fun. It plays a lot like hack and slash games like God of War or Devil May Cry, but with less originality. It has basic combos that you can string together, but it’s nothing new. With that said, the game is still a blast to play, and most of the time you’ll be cutting up enemies and throwing them all over, but that’s not all! Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death even features some platforming aspects, which feel almost like an Uncharted game, but less refined.

One of the many moments in which you’re literally hanging on for dear life.

The combat is fun and simple, with no real complicated combos to master. It’s fast paced through and through, meaning elements never feel dull and this makes up for the button mashing you’ll be doing the next six hours. Besides the combat and platforming, there are a few shooting based portions of the game where you’re either in control of a turret shooting down choppers or when you’re actually in a plane, shooting down other planes. The shooting sequences are fun and a nice change of pace, which helps the game stay interesting. The controls feel tight and responsive, which is something that a lot of hack and slash games have trouble achieving.

Even though the game is only around 6-8 hours long, the game feels like a game you’ll want to give another playthrough on another difficulty or trying to get one of the high scores on one of the challenges spotted throughout.

Graphics & Sound

Due to the game taking place in Central Africa the color scheme in this game is great. Even though you’ll be splattering the area with blood, the game looks lively and the areas are varied throughout the game as you try and track down Heng Long. The game looks its best when you’re in outdoor environments, but still feels detailed enough throughout.

On the other hand, the sound was probably the first issue I had with this game. I noticed right off the bat that the voice acting was sub-par for some of the characters. The voice of Marlow was good, but not great, and the only voice to really grab my attention was the voice of the Mask of Death.

Issues

The only real issue I had when playing Marlow Briggs was at certain moments in the game it showed these static image cutscenes in which it’d be a frozen frame of time, but viewed at multiple angles. (Example: Bayonetta) I have never enjoyed when scenes are played out like this and sometimes it felt like I would of rather played out the scene in the game rather than watch it in what I would call “broken slow motion”.

Spawnfirst Recommends…

Have you ever seen a movie where the only things you could say about it were; “It’s so bad it’s good.”? Well Marlow Briggs is the video game adaptation of that, with over the top gameplay, cutscenes and an absolutely ridiculous story, this game is worth a playthrough or two. While I wouldn’t pick it up at full price, if this sucker goes on sale, definitely give it a chance. You might be surprised.

The post Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

With all this being said, I’d like to take a moment to look at a couple of the games that have also earned the same title and really analyze the aspects of good development choices that are responsible for said titles.

But, before we go back in video game history, let’s start with the most current nominee to the greatest club; GTA V. GTA V has received comments such as:

• “Rockstar’s Xbox 360 swansong is probably the console’s greatest technical achievement”  -Official Xbox Magazine UK
• “Rockstar has delivered one of the most amazing and awe-inspiring games of this generation.” – Level Up
• “The world is massive and detailed, the gameplay is damn near perfect” -GamesRadar

Reviewers weren’t lying when speaking of the beautiful graphics featured in GTA V.

All the statements above are incredibly bold and daring, praising the game as “damn near perfect” and one of the Xbox360’s “greatest technical achievements”. These are only three reviews out of the 38 total reviews aggregated on Metacritic. It seems as if the main features of this game would have to be the massive open world gameplay, incredible graphics, and the highly entertaining story. A recipe for one of the greatest games of all time, if you ask me.

The next game in line and one of my personal favorites; The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. On most top games of all time lists, you’ll see Ocarina in Time usually in the top 20, 10 or 5 (depending on what list you’re looking at). This game’s major feature was that it was the first third person Legend of Zelda game, and to many, the first great third person game in general.

Link playing the iconic Ocarina from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

It featured many things never seen before in games at the time, like a lock on system and a massive open world for the player to explore. I would say that the main reason why Ocarina of Time is viewed as one of the greatest is due to the features listed above and the fact that Nintendo was able to seamlessly transition from 2D over-the-top gameplay to smooth, action packed third person adventuring. Ever since Ocarina was released, most main  console games in the Zelda series have followed this principle. Gamers and fans alike still look back on the game that started it all; Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Last but not least, another game that has received some of the highest ratings of all time is none other than Valve’s precious Half Life 2. Half Life 2 puts the player behind the eyes of Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must fight against an evil alien force threatening human existence. One of the major selling points behind the game was the wonderful physics system, at the time it was the best anyone had ever seen. A unique factor that Valve introduced with the Half Life series was the way that you experienced the game, it played out as if you were seeing everything firsthand, meaning there were no cutscenes.

A sighting of the “G-Man” character from Half Life 2. The character has been found at random spots in the game observing the player (Gordon Freeman).

Over time Half Life 2 has won 39 “Game of the Year” awards and 8 years after it’s initial release in 2012, was named “Game of the Decade” at the Spike Video Game Awards. Ever since its release it has been a staple in not only PC gaming’s history but to fans across several platforms.

Now I’m not saying that these three games are the only incredible games out there, and I will say that only showing the games above is barely even scratching the surface of the topic, but when looking at the praise and following behind these games it shows one thing. Great minds bringing together stories told in a way not done before, something that feels refreshing and new. Whether it be the technical greatness of the recent Grand Theft Auto V, the groundbreaking story and immersion of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or the mind bending Half Life 2, video games are not just something you play for fun. They’re something to experience and appreciate. They are interactive forms of art, and nothing less.

The post The Greatness Behind the Greatest Games of All Time appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Back at the Penny Arcade Expo this year, Kenji Inafune revealed his upcoming game Mighty No. 9, that he will be producing along with an “All-star team of Megaman Devs”. Fans, myself included, were ecstatic. Kenji-San launched a Kickstarter project on August 31st and met the $900,000 goal on September 1st.

Concept art for the gameplay of Mighty No. 9.

On the Kickstarter website, Inafune released a video which basically plays out like an interview, in which he talks about the upcoming features in Mighty No. 9 and some of the background on the game. Inafune states in the video that he felt the need to strip himself from Capcom after various Megaman projects were cancelled, such as Megaman Legends 3 and Megaman Universe, and shows him actually speaking to fans about what they’d want next from Inafune. It seems as if he’s trying his hardest to get the fans involved with the production of Mighty No. 9 and in my opinion that’s absolutely wonderful.

To see a developer so concerned about what his fans want, and making his fans happy, shows not only generosity but a passion for the games he creates. I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve watched an interview with a game developer and sat back and thought to myself “I think this is my favorite game developer.”.

I myself am a huge Megaman fan, and let me tell you, the past couple of years haven’t been pretty for Megaman fans, with the cancellation of projects being rampant. I was filled with excitement when I saw that Inafune left Capcom, while Capcom used to be one of my favorite company’s, I’m not so sure anymore. It truly means a lot to see a developer up and leave the studio he’s been working with for 23 years to have the freedom to create whatever he, or the fans, want.

Not only is he making a new game, it’s basically a new Megaman game. Even though no gameplay has been released, Inafune has expressed that the game will feel like a classic Japanese sidescrolling action game. Beck, the main character behind Mighty No. 9 even has the ability to “steal” weapons from his enemies, just like the blue bomber. You can color me overwhelmed with excitement, and the other 36,000 backers on kickstarter.

You can expect to see Mighty No. 9 released sometime in 2015.

The post Kenji Inafune’s New Project Sure Looks Mighty appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Ah Japanese RPG’s, a staple of my gaming life. In Japan, the game market is rife with such games (obviously that’s why they’re called JRPG’s), but there’s two major series among the countless games, and those two series would be Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. But there’s always been one series following right behind those two, and that would have to be the Tales series. Starting way back on the Super Famicom with Tales of Phantasia in 1995, the series has spawned 14 games in the main series, and 9 in the sub-series. With the newest NA release, Tales of Xillia for the PlayStation 3, fans (myself included) have been aching for this game to receive a western release ever since it debuted in Japan two years ago. After playing through this game extensively and logging in nearly 50 hours in three weeks, I can say that it was definitely worth the wait.

Story

Story has always been a strong suit for the Tales series, and it keeps up in Xillia. The game starts with the option to play the game as either Jude Mathis, a soft spoken goody-good medical student, or the mysterious Milla Maxwell. This will affect certain cutscenes and even some playable events in the game. In my first run I went through as Jude, and I’ve started a second playthough with Milla. I can already tell the difference between starting with Jude or Milla. The story, in a nutshell, goes as so; Jude and Milla cross paths while Jude is looking for his professor in the Research Facility of Fenmont, The two decide to go together since they’ll both be infiltrating the Facility either way. While investigating, Milla reveals that she’s there to destroy a military weapon called “The Lance of Kresnik” due to the fact that it will disrupt the balance between human beings and spirits. Humans rely on spirits for special abilities called “Spirit Artes” and are largely dependent on spirits. Along with humans being dependent on spirits, so is the environment they live in. Without spirits, nature will begin to die along with humans, the most cherished resource. After Jude realizes this and sees the corruption of the military firsthand, he decides to join Milla on her quest to eradicate the super weapon that is the Lance of Kresnik.

Throughout the game you’ll end up meeting an ensemble of characters, 6 playable in all. These characters develop and grow throughout the entire game. I found myself even going back to previous towns just to check up on characters that had a role earlier in the story, and the best thing is there’s actually cutscenes for when you come back to characters in the game! It’s great, and it’s something I haven’t seen before in a game and makes you feel as if the characters are alive after the main story has passed them by. I felt a bond with all of these characters, especially the ones that are in your party. From the cute, innocent Elize paired with her loudmouthed stuffed animal Teepo, to the silent and reserved gentleman that is Rowen. One thing that I can say about the characters is that they definitely grow on you. For example, when I first saw/heard Teepo, I absolutely hated him. By the end of the game he was one of my favorite characters.

Lady Driselle and Lord Cline in their welcoming nature, two of my favorite sub-characters in Tales of Xillia.

Tales of Xillia‘s story is a roller-coaster of ups and downs, surprises and loops. The game had me on the edge of my seat just trying to mentally prepare myself for what was coming next. The story moves at a quick pace, but not to the point where you’ll find yourself asking “Wait, what am I supposed to do now?”, and even if you do feel that way, the game has an “Event List” in which you can get a brief summary on the story and everything that has happened so far. The story is gripping and consistently interesting.

Gameplay

One thing that makes the Tales series different from the other two franchises I’ve mentioned above is the combat. It may look like the same thing you’ve seen in a Final Fantasy game, but once the screen transition between the field map to the battle screen is over, you’ll quickly realize what’s so fantastic about the battle system. When engaging an enemy, the screen transitions to what Tales calls a battle map, four party members are there to take part in combat in which you can switch between, but here’s the kicker, the combat plays out like an action beat em up game mixed with RPG elements like abilities and items. The combat is smooth and exciting, and battles only last from about 10 seconds to a minute, so you won’t get tired of fighting field monsters as quick as you would in a traditional turn-based RPG.

The combat can take on various forms depending on the character you play. You’ll have six characters to choose from by about 15 hours into the game, and they all fill different roles within the party. Jude uses his fists and legs in combat which makes him primarily an offense-based character aside from other abilities while Milla uses a mix of swordplay and Spirit Artes to take down her foes. All characters feel complete when you play them, and feel like another essential member of the party. Even though Jude and Milla are constantly in the spotlight, it doesn’t mean the other characters feel less like a main character when played in battle.

Onto the next and most exciting addition, the Lilium Orb. Each character in your party has one, and it’s basically a way to level your characters into specific roles. Each time you level up you get GP which can be spent to activate nodes on a grid that makes up the Lilium Orb. Abilities and special skills are unlocked through this and make each character different in their own way. The system is a great addition to Tales, and I found myself enjoying leveling each character to my own liking, the only complaint is that leveling the Lilium Orb can sometimes take away from the action, but overall it’s not something that was excruciatingly time consuming.

Graphics & Sound

Most people would prefer the good before the bad, so I’ll start with the good: the sound. The sound in this game is absolutely top notch. From the voice acting to the sounds of Jude’s fist-mashing into enemies to the soundtrack; the sound in this game is captivating and I loved every second of it. I can’t say enough good things about the voice cast on this game as every character talks with the appropriate emotions, whether it be happy, silly, sad or angry – they all work perfectly. My favorite voice on the cast would have to be the elderly Rowen as he truly sounds like the gentleman he portrays on the screen.

The beautiful town of Fenmont is lit completely by spirit artes. How impressive!

Sadly, I cannot give the same praise to the graphics. While I understand that this game was released two years ago in Japan, I feel that they could have polished some of the textures and cleaned the game up a bit. Even though the graphics aren’t the best, I can say that some of the areas in this game are breathtaking. I found myself taking a step back just to look in awe of the landscapes pretty often. But, some of the animations during cutscenes were also sub-par. Sometimes the mouths wouldn’t match up to the words and other times the animation felt a tad bit delayed. But that didn’t pull away from the cutscenes too much. Overall, the graphics aren’t horrible. But they’re not great either.

A scene from the beautiful opening.

One thing I can say about the graphics, which isn’t really about the in game graphics, is that the game features great anime cutscenes in the heat of the story. Just when things get to their most intense, Xillia brings the cinematics with the powerful and beautiful animated cutscenes, and there’s definitely a good amount throughout the game, not like in Tales of Symphonia where we were promised many, and only got two in reality.

Notable Extras

The game features many things to do after you’ve beaten the game, from hidden side-bosses, side-quests, to Alfried Treasure’s to collect. I beat the game at 42 hours, and have put in 15 hours additionally since then. One notable extra is the additional dungeon at the end of the game, Magnus Zero. Not only is it a whopping twenty floors, but after you beat the boss at the end, you have the opportunity to go through it again at a harder difficulty, and this happens twice, for a total of three runs.

Issues

There’s only one issue throughout the whole game that I experienced, and it wasn’t even really an issue. In past Tales games, you’d walk from field map to field map and then between each area you’d have to walk on the overworld map. Obviously the overworld map is outdated at this point, so in Xillia instead of the overworld, all of the field maps are connected on one big path. The issue I had with this was that sometimes the preview of an area of the next Field Map didn’t always match up to what you actually walked on at the beginning of the next field map. It felt as if it were skipping large portions of the world – like I was missing out. But this only happened a few times in the beginning, and it didn’t feel like an issue by the end of the game.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

Tales of Xillia deserves to be bought by RPG fans and at the very least, tried out by gamer lovers of any genre. The game gives you what you pay for: a 45 hour long story with tons of hours of optional gameplay on top of that. Overall, this game is a welcome addition to the wonderful Tales series, and I can’t say enough that it is absolutely worth the full asking price.

The post Tales of Xillia Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

“Gents,” Beer said. “You were the guys who did Indie Game: the Movie. And some of you looked relatively normal in it, one of you looked like a total tosspot in it. But you can’t have it both ways. You’re successful game designers — you’re ‘indie’ game designers — hurrah, good for you, you f*****g hipsters.”

The fight between the two became ugly on both sides, with Beer attacking Fish with personal comments about his recent ex-girlfriend and his quality of work and Fish saying things like “Compare your life to mine then kill yourself” and calling Beer a  “Media Leech.”

Throughout the conversation, Fish requested that Beer apologizes to Fish on camera, in which they refused.

Fish continued on by saying things “I f***ing hate this industry” and ended it all with “im done. Fez II is cancelled. goodbye.”. Polytron, the company founded by Fish and responsible for developing Fez II later posted on their website that they were sad to say that Fez II had been officially canceled.

Since then, multitudes of opinions have poured out from users on various sites across the internet, one opinion coming from the Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszenski, where he pleaded Fish to come back to industry from the depths of his personal blog, saying “Come back, Phil. We miss you already. Maybe Iâ€ll be right behind you, returning with Adamantium skin.”.

Polytron producer, Marie Christine Bourdua was also surprised by the announcement.

Bourdua stated in an interview with Joystiq: “It was weird and special to learn it that way, but I respect and trust (Phil) a lot, so that’s totally fair that he decided that and he has his reasons.”

In my personal opinion, I will say that I am a fan of Phil Fish, and have found myself agreeing with things that he’s said, and absolutely hating other statements that he’s said. I think he’s rude, almost a bit too much outspoken, and a bit harsh sometimes, but in the end he was a great developer. But, I also think that a lot of the hate he’s received makes sense, and was deserved for things that he’s stated in the past. But this time I believe that he didn’t deserve any of the strikes against him. He simply declined to answer questions about Microsoft’s decision to allow indie developers to self-publish on the Xbox One, and for that he received a 5 minute long rant, and then more personal attacks later on.

I agree with Cliff, I’ll miss you too, and it hurts to know that I won’t be seeing another one of your games. Take it easy Phil, and hopefully you’ll find happiness in whatever you do in the future.

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