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HazMask

Join Date 04/2008

SPORE

...from the mind of Will Wright.

Out of curiosity, has anyone else out there been waiting years for this title to release? If so... fear not, for September 7th 2008 is upon us. Finally. But, all we can do is hold our breath. Those who know, this game's release date has been pushed back year after year. Month after month. However this time, we have a specific day. Not just a quarterly prediction, or a general month.. a month, day, and a year.

http://www.spore.com

The best way to describe SPORE is to call it a "evolution simulation". You start off with a microscopic organism.. and you simply eat other smaller ones. And once you've earned enough points, you can evolve your creature via the "creature creator". Now.. how you evolve it is totally up to you. Defense? Offense? It's all very basic... or so we thought.

Eventually, your organism becomes a full fledged creature. Your creature emerges from the tidal pool, and sets foot/feet/paws/flippers/whatever-you-want on land. Boom, Hello World! But becareful... other creatures have evolved too. Some may have evolved into herbevorous dwellers.. or multi-toothed vicious carnivores. In any case... life must go on.

This leads you to the Tribal Phase, Civilization Phase (i.e, take over your planet), and furthermore... the Space Phase.

The following are direct quotes from Spore.com commenting on each phase of the game.

Tide Pool Phase
Fight with other creatures and consume them to adjust the form and abilities of your creature. It's survival of the fittest at the most microscopic level.

Creature Phase
Venture onto land and help your creature learn and evolve with forays away from your nest. The only way to grow is by taking chances!

Tribal Phase
Instead of controlling an individual creature, you are now caring for an entire tribe. Give them tools and guide their interactions as you upgrade their state of existence.

Civilization Phase
Once your city is established, your creatures begin seeking out and interacting with other cultures. Make contact with an olive branch or a war cry. The goal for your creatures is to conquer the planet.

Space Phase
The time has come to move on to other worlds in your solar system. Make contact, colonize, or terraform, then venture further to find other solar systems. A 'mission' structure provides new goals in your quest for galactic dominance.

Sound neat right? It is. Imagine the GC2 Ship Builder... but for creatures. And for ships. And buildings. And cities. Yes, that's right. Not only can you totally customize your creature...but you can customize their building style, vehicle style, etc. Awesome.

But.. how crazy can you get with the creature editor? I'll show you.

The following are different fan concepts submitted to the SPORE team. They put the crew to the test, just to see if the editor can actually give you as much control as you want. So let's take a look...

Fan Submitted Graphic

Creature created in the SPORE Creature Creator

Wow.

Fan Submitted Graphic (looks like maybe an attempted 3D render)

Creature Creator

Amazing... And.. just to be real crazy...

I'm sure this fan thought he stumped them...

And he was wrong.

(There are more at the official website for everything SPORE, http://www.spore.com )

But.... that's not all. The game not only lets you builder whatever you want, but it recognizes the creatures structure, and it customized how the character would move. Bipedal? Walks. Lots of little feet...they all work together, like a centipede.

It also recognized the offensive/defensive abilities of your creature. It will use what is on it's body to attack. For instance, if you have a claw hanging off of the top of your creatures head, it uses that to attack.

This has been displayed numerous times in videos of SPORE, whichare all displayed on the SPORE website.

Here is a quick glimpse of the creature creator...

Are your creative juices pumping out yet? Already itching to try your hand at this?

Well... coming on June 17th, 2008 you can download a 25% enabled demo of the creature creator, or..for $10 (yes, EA are a bunch of moneygrubbing ..ehrm.. yeah. ) you can purchase the full Creature Creator. It lets you do everything fully to create your creature, and offers you a small little area to see your creature in action. And of course, these are importable to the retail version coming in September.

Now... on one final note. They have categorized Spore as a Multi-Single Player experience. Or some kind of catch phrase like that. What this means that, if you have an internet connection, your game will actually pull down other peoples creatures and use them in YOUR game to populate the planets in your game. This is done via the Sporepedia. Basically, all of your creatures are uploaded to it, and will populate other people's games. And vice versa. This ensures you will never run into the same creatures over and over again. There will always be something new.

Anyhow... this is my little spill about the game. It's gonna be good. There are tons of screenshots, team created creatures, and videos all at the official website at http://www.spore.com

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

I'm extremely excited for it.

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This may sound real corny but...

some of my first creatures will be some GC2 races lol.

It seems viable

Maybe pretend this is how that race came about.

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Ive been waiting for years , dont like what EA is doing with the creature editor though charging $10usd for a demo is this the next greed trend we will see in the industry.

I cant wait for this game but I seriously hope some more friendly sensible community fan sites come about. (Ive been in many gaming communities and spore has the worst community ever on the sites I have visited, maybe thats because people have been waiting so long who knows? but I really hope some of the admins see sense and adopt a more friendly, objective tolerable atmosphere for all)

But aside from all that I cant wait

should be good as long as they havent taken dumbing down the graphics too far and hacked the original product to bits to make expansions. As I say I have waited a long time and for 3/4 of that time I believed spore would be epic, a one of a kind , awesome, seriously words cant describe , anyone who hasnt seen it really needs to watch the old 30 min video right to the end because to start with you think hmm this doesnt look great but you keep watching you will see this is unique!

EAs recent actions and various dumbing down of the game make me concerned. I hope it turns out well.

lol you realise this post has just slowed the spore wait down again for me , Im crying now hehe .......if they havent went MR Greed style too much that is going to be a game of epic proportions. Just to finally say Ive been waiting so long for this game I was starting to believe I would be an OAP or even dead when it finally gets released haha

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Achronous

Join Date 03/2006

+29

@redwingdw28: Yes, it seems EA is starting the milking process. People said they were changing but I don't see it happening. Also, screenshots show it getting simpler and simpler by the month... It's sinister.

I'm not getting on release. EA has lost my confidence a long time ago. I'm going to wait as much as I can, because I'm sure an expansion pack with missing feature shows up...

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I can't wait until this game comes out. Anyone who has been keeping up with the news should have heard they're releasing a Creature editor in June. Also, for fan sites, I'd recommend sporesite.com, or sporeplanet (I think that's the name), also, Spores Illustrated is a good one.

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The game is overhyped. Not saying it won't be good, but chances are it will have much less replability as some think.

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I thought this game looked revolutionary a few years ago but two things have dampened my enthusiasm: (1) EA is producing it- a $10 demo, are ?!?!? kidding? They will milk this like they are the SIMS- they will try to get you to spend hundreds of dollars on this game. (2) Although the game sounds ambitious, it really isn't. To achieve what they have been touting (especially with how the creatures must be ported) the game will need to be massively simplified. Of course what is likely to happen is that of the five or so phases of the game (beginning with the "pac-man" part), maybe one or two will be worth playing for the non-casual RTS/Strategy gamer, and the rest will be fluff.

Sorry EA, the only way I'll donate any money to you for this game is off the discount rack.

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Thanks folks , In saying that I am still looking forward to the game but think if much more happens well EA are going to ruin it. Im glad theres more than me just feel something revolutionary could potentially be ruined.

I am still really looking forward to it but kinda wish it wasnt EA doing it.

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I think that the respondents who are in a tizzy about paying $10 for the standalone Creature Creator should get a grip. It's not a demo; it's a full-fledged editor that you can use (if you wish to do so) to build a lot of creatures that you can import into the game for use once you pick up the actual game. (Incidentally, there will be a "demo" version of the Creature Creator available for free on the website.) If tweaking ships or creatures is your thing, is $10 really an exorbitant price to pay for being able to "jump the gun" on other Spore players? Have none of you ever purchased a pre-order for a game?

Frankly, I'd love to try my hand at tinkering with this. However, I don't think my machine is going to meet the minimum specs for Spore when it comes out.

Is it really necessary to bash Spore just because you have some kind of issue with EA? Pardon my ignorance here, but what exactly did EA do to you--shoot your dog, steal your wife , and insult your mother?

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I'm still debating on this game because of the EA connection. Its been a good 6 years since i bought my last EA game,, at least back then there were series of unstable games and bad patch support with the game. I know some of this involves with the game developer.

Do I stick with my ban on EA games or should I give them another try? I just don't know...

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So from the original description, the path is to eventually conquer the planet, correct? So if you have a choice of being a herbivore or a carnivore, whats the advantage to NOT being the one that can eat you? Are there different victory conditions like GC?

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Im looking forward to Spore as well

I do wonder if its legal to make a creature in that editor and then import it into another game

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It's more of a sandbox.

Once you conquer your planet, you can eventually tech up to the Space Age. Go explore different planets, abduct other creatures, populate planets, terraform, yadda.

And about the $10 charge. You don't HAVE to pay for it. There will be a free demo of the creature creator, with limited playability. Just like a demo. Just like the demo I played for GC2 that was free.

If you could, would you have paid $10 for the Ship Builder months before the full release of GC2? And have the ability to save and import your ships later? This gives you months to construct your armada

The $10 is for a full Creature Creator, that lets you completely play with the creator in it's entirety, and give you a little area to see it walk around , etc. I suspect there will be some people who are only interested in the concept and design part of the game. This lets them pay $10 for the only part they are interested in, and not the full price of the game.

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Let's see, beef with EA...

Well I've been playing PC games since I was a kid (about 15-20 years). The first problem I had with EA involved a copy protection fiasco. We called the company's help line, and got blown off. So, my dad, who was a software engineer at the time, was a bit annoyed- so he cracked the copy protection, and sent his "cracked" copy to EA, so that they could give it to other unsatisfied customers, since they couldn't figure out how to do this themselves.

I won't bore you with the dozen or so other problems I've experienced with this company over time, but I am absolutely certain that this game is being over-hyped, and that EA will maintain the same "customer-friendliness" it always has.

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I won't bore you with the dozen or so other problems I've experienced with this company over time, but I am absolutely certain that this game is being over-hyped, and that EA will maintain the same "customer-friendliness" it always has.

It's unclear to me how you can be certain that something is over-hyped. Is it because you don't like the premise behind the game or because you have a very low opinion of Will Wright's previous work? I'm not a Sims player, but I did enjoy SimAnt, SimLife, and SimEarth. I see Spore as being a logical successor to those classics.

I don't really understand how the publisher can impact the quality of a product unless it forces the developer to release an unfinished version to meet a certain deadline, and my suspicion is that Will Wright has sufficient clout in the gaming industry that he more or less sets his own deadlines.

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I like the premise behind the game. When I first read about the premise, a long time ago, I was excited about it. Maybe, based on the original description, I imagined something different from what seems to be developing. Originally, Spore appeared to be the ultimate "God Game".

I played SimAnt and some of the other Sim games and I did find them enjoyable for a while. I do not recall nearly the amount of press coverage for earlier EA titles. I think it would be difficult for any game to live up to the hype that this game is getting.

Despite my problem with EA over the years, I am still willing to give another EA game a chance if it looks like a truly quality product.

The only game I have pre-ordered in recent memory is Sins, and I haven't been disappointed. When Spore is released, I will read the reviews/ customer comments and decide whether or not to pick it up at that point.

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I find a large problem with EA, in that games come out unfinished and therefor, the expansion comes out costing us another such and such amount to finish the game. Look at Black and White, Fable, given this is from the same game developer. Some of the Battlefield series. When I had an Xbox, I dreaded any EA sports game on the market. So I guess I might have to wait till spore comes out with an expansion and that may solve all my problems.

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Regarding the question of Spore being an unfinished product, all I can say is,

my suspicion is that Will Wright has sufficient clout in the gaming industry that he more or less sets his own deadlines.

Well, I never played the original Black and White, although the sequel is sitting on my shelf, patiently awaiting its turn on the HDD.

The original Fable never came out on the PC, so that's a bad analogy. Personally, I found The Lost Chapters to be entertaining and certainly Molyneux succeeded in developing an immersive game world as well as a combat scheme that wasn't too aggravating (a common complaint I have with today's "action" RPGs). I only played it through once; it's rare that I enjoy any RPG so much that I'll play it through multiple times. I can only remember doing that with a few recently, like Neverwinter Nights and um, Torment (if that counts as recent).

As far as the Battlefield games are concerned, I find the entire concept of an MMO FPS to be as dull as dirt, so I can't take criticisms of that sort seriously, even if they are legitimate (and they may be). However, I've never had a strong desire to play any of those games after my one run through the Star Wars game, Battlefront.

I can't see Spore actually having an expansion pack or expansion packs. The concept doesn't seem as though it would lend itself well to that kind of incremental gaming. Read the descriptions on the official website. If anything, I expect (if the game sells well) there will be one or more sequels that expand the concept to something even broader and update the visuals to take advantage of next-gen hardware.

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And about the $10 charge. You don't HAVE to pay for it. There will be a free demo of the creature creator, with limited playability. Just like a demo. Just like the demo I played for GC2 that was free.

All baby steps by corporations to aim to have gaming 100% subscription orientated. Its a creature editor that is a demo, demos get put out free so its greed, pure and simple, and the fact they are giving out 75% of it free or whatever is to appease those of us who can see what they are doing, this year $10 for a demo , next year some other excuse to over charge, then 8 years from now we all have monthly fees to pay for all our games. See xbox live boycott, suppose people will say that is worth it as well? Trying to monopolise a free passtime , as in free after you have bought the game. Im not telling people not to buy it just saying I aint going to be one of the ones who are helping make gaming in the longterm 100% subscription based. Have you looked at the graphics of spore lately? majorly dumbed down and consequantly when gciv 2 got an editor it was decent in its day and I dont recall Stardock ripping people off? Buy what you want Im just saying dont cry when half your poorer friends cant play games with you because they cant afford hundreds upon hundreds of stupid subscriptions because thats the way its heading.

I supported EA by preordering and know they are trying to get me to pay twice for the same thing, sorry thats GREED no matter how you paint it and its mostly going to be corporate entities that dont see it that way but hey that figures. Lets turn it on its head, we should be getting paid for testing buggy software and saving them cash , sounds ridiculous doesnt it? Yet some are fine with a corporation doing it.

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I wish people would look at what other companies have done like with the oblivion horse saddle scandal and try and make more informed choices rather than just a self motivated instant gratification no matter what the cost to gaming in the long term.

Also what , if right now they know theres alot wrong with spore, they have problems and can forsee a drop in sales so they put out the demo, they know the games generated a stir so this can bolster up potential losses. Apologies for the conspiracy theory 101 the long and short of it is I trust EA as far as I can throw a 10 ton boat.

Just so you know though I so much want spore to be great its just that one aspect really puts me off, I can also understand some of you artistic people want the editor its just I worry of EAs motives. Fact is Im sure we can all agree that we wont a full and complete game, not one thats hacked to bits into a million expansions prior to release of the initial one thus drastically killing the games lifespan. Its funny because there was talk about charging for the editor just as speculation months upon months before anything was heard . It wouldnt surprise me if that rumour was put out by EAs PR team, test the water , people are largely accepting, okay lets go with it.

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i wanna see if its possible to make the deathstar as your space ship

that would ROCK

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EA made this? But it looks interesting... I'll wait for the blog reviews.

Wow. I just checked out the site. It looks really neat!

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Yeah actually I think one of the best ones is an old 30 odd minute video its on youtube, just give it time, it takes a while to get into I will brb Im just going to try and find the link for you.

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They really need to fix the edit button, I imagine you have maybe seen this one but anyone who hasnt really needs to make some time and watch it right through because it gets 1 million times better from stage to stage, thats from when the graphics were better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dvMDFOFnA

best video imo, enjoy , in fact I havent checked but im thinking maybe its in the start of the thread? still one to watch

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Yes, EA is in this to make money, just like every other business. May as well just say that to state the obvious.

But, I think EA may walk into some backlash here. I think a lot of people are expecting big things from this game. Again, I think EA has created hype that not even Will can live up to.

EA has advertised a lot of pieces of this game, but the challenge will be how they all fit together- I think that will make or break it.

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