Spore. Buy. Now

[Thrik]

Pretty interesting article here about what Spore is, etc:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=230510

I completely agree with the notion that Spore is to be applauded for bringing out the best of the gaming medium, rather than doing what 99% of other games do nowadays and trying to deliver a film-like experience. Is a game without a plot really so bad?

Don't forget that no matter how much games are dressed up and made to appear mature, they are at their core one thing: toys. Spore is one of the best incarnations of such a thing I've ever seen, personally. I've been playing it, and the hours have melted away while I waste time making things like TF2 sentries and Metal Gear REXes for the sheer hell of it. I'm sure it'll get old before long, but even at this point it's given me more hours of entertainment than most current-gen games I've played in the past year or so. Damn.

While it may not be for everyone, it really does do what it intended to do pretty much as well as it could have done. With that said, I can definitely see kids enjoying it the most; it's pretty much the ultimate creativity toy. If I'd had this instead of LEGO when I was a kid I'd never have been off the computer.

[2d-chris]

I must be stupid as I don't like articles written like that Just so happens that allot of edges articles are the same, talk about over analyzing ...

[Taylor]

I completely agree with the notion that Spore is to be applauded for bringing out the best of the gaming medium, rather than doing what 99% of other games do nowadays and trying to deliver a film-like experience.

They are?

I must be stupid as I don't like articles written like that Just so happens that allot of edges articles are the same, talk about over analyzing ...

Someone hasn't experienced Tim Rogers.

[Erratic]

I completely agree with the notion that Spore is to be applauded for bringing out the best of the gaming medium, rather than doing what 99% of other games do nowadays and trying to deliver a film-like experience.

They are?

I would say so. If I had a dollar for every time the word 'cinematic' was dropped. It's kind of sad it's used in the context of describing a game.

Anywho, Spore is great so far. The game gives you almost no reason to stop playing, you're constantly strung along with new things every few minutes. I'm at the tribal phase right now and so far the transitions aren't as sharp as I expected, all of the principals and gameplay in each phase are built upon the last, so it doesn't feel like a series of mini games as I feared.

I also noticed there's like, 5 other creation modes for vehicle types and buildings. I didn't even know there was this much creation to the game

[Izuno]

I haven't gotten it yet but I know it is having an impact when my dad says to me: "So are you getting the game Spore? I read an interview with Wil Wright."

lol awesomeness.

[Taylor]

I completely agree with the notion that Spore is to be applauded for bringing out the best of the gaming medium, rather than doing what 99% of other games do nowadays and trying to deliver a film-like experience.

They are?

I would say so. If I had a dollar for every time the word 'cinematic' was dropped. It's kind of sad it's used in the context of describing a game.

Every big budget title released these days will choose it from their list of buzzwords, I'm sure. But I don't think we're quite at the stage where we're applauding people simply for doing otherwise.

[Thrik]

They are?.

I don't know how many games you play outside of RPGs and RTS titles (these admittedly still put a lot of focus on gameplay), but in other genres I'd say that gameplay and fun has very much been compromised by striving towards a 'cinematic' experience with the finest graphics and set-pieces. We're in an age where there's an abundance of games that look fantastic, and little more. Pretty much every current-gen console action game has fell into this category for me.

And just to clarify the applaud comment, I didn't mean that they should be applauded simply for doing something different. I meant they should be applauded for doing something different really well. This is one of the best examples I've seen of a game providing an experience that only a game can provide: being a fantastic toy.

Of course, it's this very open-ended toy-like nature that seems to turn a number of Mapcorians off. I say: does a game need a story like a film to be good? Is a basic structure like Spore has not enough?

[Hourences]

No one cares about facist pirate protection anymore? That is a pretty bad evolution, opens the door for more.

[Steppenwolf]

The two biggest german print magazines rated the game 73% and 79%.

Game was overhyped just as i expected.

[Thrik]

To be honest that door was opened when BioShock did it. It's pretty much inevitable that more games are going to require online activation after that was relatively successful for them, and it's not like perfectly good services such as Steam don't require an internet connection too.

We're moving into an age where internet and games are intertwined. Retail games requiring internet activation is only going to help push everyone towards digital distribution I imagine. Gaming will be based on what you have licenses to, not what you physically own. Whether you get it from a shop or an online download store, you still need to be authorised to install it. I don't see a big problem in this respect, especially if it gets you lots of additional content like in Spore.

I do agree that the limited install count is a pain, but again that's something BioShock had. And with BioShock, they raised the limit and eventually removed it completely within weeks — hopefully EA is smart enough to realise that this is a good idea. Ideally there should be no limit, but I guess it does stop someone's CD key being intentionally shared or guessed, thus inconveniencing piraters and forcing them to to go with the fully cracked copy.

[dux]

Why are you judging it on 2 numbers? Have you tried it?

[Thrik]

The two biggest german print magazines rated the game 73% and 79%.

Game was overhyped just as i expected.

Do you really judge games solely on a two-digit number supplied by magazines? Have you even read the reviews you're basing your purchasing decisions on?

I'd personally rate Spore higher than the 70s, and so would many of these guys. You should give it a go and make up your own mind.

Edit: Omg, beaten by Dux.

[dux]

Zing, bitch.

[Steppenwolf]

I will try if there is a demo available. Just saying that if the game really would live up to its hype everybody would rate it in the 90's.

That the two biggest competitors on the german market rated it around the same is a indicator for me that the game must have some flaws.

[dux]

That's for you to decide yourself. Not some greasy hairy games journalist. If reviews for you are a big factor in deciding whether a game is good are you only going to use the two german reviews for opinion of the game and not any of the ones listed on say, metacritic or whatever? The game has lived up to it's hype but there are likely to be several reviews that aren't overly satisfied with it.