Spore

[Warhammer]

I'm wondering if this wouldn't be the perfect kid's game...

[spleen1015]

I guess I'm a kid then.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

I'm wondering if this wouldn't be the perfect non-hardcore gamer game...

Really gives you a taste of alot of different games types/styles...

[Izulde]

Meh. The emphasis on space as the biggest and most developed stage is having me really back off on this.

[Anthony]

i'm starting to cool off on this, i'm thinking its gonna be a little too open ended that i'll find myself saying "just what is the point?". and i can't get past the aliens looking too G-rated/cartoony. they aren't even realistic looking aliens, more like stuff i'd see in a bad kid's animated movie. i'll probably wind up getting it if it proves to be as huge as the Sims, but i'll wait until there's an overwhelming response that it's a must-have game.

[Pumpy Tudors]

What were people expecting out of this game? Not that I've followed it religiously over the past 3 years or whatever, but it sounds exactly like what I expected ("it was what I thought it was!"). Where did anybody get the idea that there was going to be some kind of tactical building/war simulation to this? I guess there must have been some previews out there that I missed.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

What were people expecting out of this game? Not that I've followed it religiously over the past 3 years or whatever, but it sounds exactly like what I expected ("it was what I thought it was!"). Where did anybody get the idea that there was going to be some kind of tactical building/war simulation to this? I guess there must have been some previews out there that I missed.

You are probably right, but I think in my mind I figured that after creating these creatures and having them evolve from cells, there has to be "something" to do with them besides just eat and poop. Some kind of function or practical application for these creatures to live within. otherwise it just ends up being a fictional evolution simulator (which might have been the original intent)

[Anthony]

exactly - there needs to be something more to do with your species after all the time spent evolving them. without a purpose the game is basically a glorified version of the Creature Creator, just more drawn out.

[MikeVic]

I thought that was the whole purpose of the game... evolve your creatures.

[Anthony]

and then do what?

i can evolve a lump a turd in my toilet, but what the hell can i do with it afterwards?

[Anthony]

they should make it if you're a carnivore you want to take over other worlds so you have new sources of food. if you're a herbivore you want to take a more diplomatic approach and establish trade relations.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I thought that was the whole purpose of the game... evolve your creatures.

Yeah, this is where I'm coming from.

Frankly, I was a little annoyed by one of the videos I saw a few months back. If I remember correctly, Will Wright showed how you can send your creatures to another planet, and they can fight the native creatures and overtake the place. I was wondering when it turned from an evolution simulator into a war game. I mean, sure, some creatures are going to fight each other naturally, but I seem to recall creatures being sent someplace for the purpose of fighting. It was like some weird Battletech/Wild Kingdom fuckup.

[Atocep]

Early on you're controlling one creature and essentially you're just eating and spending points on various things to evolve your creature and add to its attributes. Once you hit land you're either allying with or wiping out the other species on the planet.

Once you hit the tribal stage it then becomes more of a RTS-type game. You're controlling your tribe as a whole and fighting with other species, hunting for food (which you can get by killing other species as well), allying with the others, or a mix of the two.

Then you hit the civilization stage, which I really haven't gotten into yet, but a friend playing has. He made his creatures very war-like and ended up developing ICBMs and nukes and such. Outside of that I don't know much about that stage, though.

As I said earlier, its not as deep as MOO or Civ, but thats not to say the game doesn't have depth beyond just "eating and pooping". So far I found the cell stage surprisingly fun and exciting, the first land stage interesting (but it did get a bit boring toward the end), and so far the tribal stage has been a blast.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Anthony

i can evolve a lump a turd in my toilet, but what the hell can i do with it afterwards?

Hire it to serve nachos at your football drafts?

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Anthony

they should make it if you're a carnivore you want to take over other worlds so you have new sources of food. if you're a herbivore you want to take a more diplomatic approach and establish trade relations.

Uh....they did.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Early on you're controlling one creature and essentially you're just eating and spending points on various things to evolve your creature and add to its attributes. Once you hit land you're either allying with or wiping out the other species on the planet.

Once you hit the tribal stage it then becomes more of a RTS-type game. You're controlling your tribe as a whole and fighting with other species, hunting for food (which you can get by killing other species as well), allying with the others, or a mix of the two.

Then you hit the civilization stage, which I really haven't gotten into yet, but a friend playing has. He made his creatures very war-like and ended up developing ICBMs and nukes and such. Outside of that I don't know much about that stage, though.

As I said earlier, its not as deep as MOO or Civ, but thats not to say the game doesn't have depth beyond just "eating and pooping". So far I found the cell stage surprisingly fun and exciting, the first land stage interesting (but it did get a bit boring toward the end), and so far the tribal stage has been a blast.

Well, I kinda don't want this game anymore.

[Anthony]

too many questions marks, i'm passing. i kinda thought it was gonna be a "Civilization:Universe" type thing. whereas in Civ you start at some early point in humanity - i thought this game took it one step further and made it that you start out from the cellular level, getting to shape how your species evolves. then the Civ portion of it starts and you want to become the dominant species in the world you live in, and then once you've overpopulated the world and resources start to become scarce it's a race to explore other worlds and galaxies to expand and either cooperate with other civs or control them. that's the ideal game for me. would be great if you had to prepare for alien invasions and really ramp up the research for nukes and other types of ways to defend your world.

i thought this game had a grander scope. it really is basically "Mr. Potato-Head meets Civ". create a doofy looking cartoon alien and make him do stuff with other cartoon aliens, like dancing with them or try to eat them.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Anthony

too many questions marks, i'm passing. i kinda thought it was gonna be a "Civilization:Universe" type thing. whereas in Civ you start at some early point in humanity - i thought this game took it one step further and made it that you start out from the cellular level, getting to shape how your species evolves. then the Civ portion of it starts and you want to become the dominant species in the world you live in, and then once you've overpopulated the world and resources start to become scarce it's a race to explore other worlds and galaxies to expand and either cooperate with other civs or control them. that's the ideal game for me. would be great if you had to prepare for alien invasions and really ramp up the research for nukes and other types of ways to defend your world.

i thought this game had a grander scope. it really is basically "Mr. Potato-Head meets Civ". create a doofy looking cartoon alien and make him do stuff with other cartoon aliens, like dancing with them or try to eat them.

I am passing on this too I will try tpo get it off Goovex in a trade when it is cheaper in a year or so after expansions too. Also, I read in the IGN review though it got a 9 there were alot of things noted. For example, the review noted that when he got to the space stage and he started to explore he came upon a aggressive civ who immediately attack hima nd chased him throughout the galaxy. He apparently ran nto the Borg or Cyclons. He spent the next 8 hours trying to just escape this civ. He had no fun since he spent all his time and resources trying to stay away from these guys. Like he noted the reason alot of people play single player game sis so they don't have some a-hole ruin there game. But in this case the a-hole is the AI.

[boberot]

I'm still impressed and mystified that HA can evolve lumps of turd in his toilet. What a unique gift.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I am passing on this too I will try tpo get it off Goovex in a trade when it is cheaper in a year or so after expansions too. Also, I read in the IGN review though it got a 9 there were alot of things noted. For example, the review noted that when he got to the space stage and he started to explore he came upon a aggressive civ who immediately attack hima nd chased him throughout the galaxy. He apparently ran nto the Borg or Cyclons. He spent the next 8 hours trying to just escape this civ. He had no fun since he spent all his time and resources trying to stay away from these guys. Like he noted the reason alot of people play single player game sis so they don't have some a-hole ruin there game. But in this case the a-hole is the AI.

Actually, if that is happening, you might have just turned me on to this game.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Actually, if that is happening, you might have just turned me on to this game.

Glad I wasn't the only one thinking that.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I am passing on this too I will try tpo get it off Goovex in a trade when it is cheaper in a year or so after expansions too. Also, I read in the IGN review though it got a 9 there were alot of things noted. For example, the review noted that when he got to the space stage and he started to explore he came upon a aggressive civ who immediately attack hima nd chased him throughout the galaxy. He apparently ran nto the Borg or Cyclons. He spent the next 8 hours trying to just escape this civ. He had no fun since he spent all his time and resources trying to stay away from these guys. Like he noted the reason alot of people play single player game sis so they don't have some a-hole ruin there game. But in this case the a-hole is the AI.

Yikes. This is a completely different game than what I expected. Based on my original thinking, this is like playing "The Sims" and having to run away from muggers and murderers in the park. "I just want my Sims to sit on the swing and fall in love, but the damn rapist keeps showing up!"

Yeah, not really my thing. My wife has Spore preordered, and I don't think I want to tell her about any of this. She might cry.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Yikes. This is a completely different game than what I expected. Based on my original thinking, this is like playing "The Sims" and having to run away from muggers and murderers in the park. "I just want my Sims to sit on the swing and fall in love, but the damn rapist keeps showing up!"

Yeah, not really my thing. My wife has Spore preordered, and I don't think I want to tell her about any of this. She might cry.

Its definitely not for everyone and I'm really begining to question its replay value. Parts of it are really fun and others cross over into the realm of tedium. If this were a console game I'd say rent it first, as a PC game I'd strongly suggest waiting for a demo.

[Galaril]

Yup, I got this quote from a co-worker ewho got the game overseas"every phase up to the space phase is tutorial.
After going through the space stage, I can say this game has almost no appeal to actual gamers. The "civilization phase" is laughably bad, comprising of stagnant cities in which you can build 4 building types, and, 3 units with which to attack other cities. A land unit, an air unit, and a sea unit.
Even the most complex stage :the space phase is still nothing remotely close to something like GalCiv, it's like a neutered version of Stars.

Spore is clearly not for actual gamers."

[Galaril]

On the bright side we can all go get the new NA release of Romance of the Three Kingdoms which is coming out next Tuesday via download.

[Pumpy Tudors]

The use The Sims and Civilization IV as baselines, here's what I'm gathering:

The game is too much like Civilization IV to be playable to people who want a Sims-style game.

The game is too much like The Sims to be playable to people who want a Civ-like game.

I'm on one end of this spectrum, and HA is on the other. Exactly who is this game for? Will Wright, I guess.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

. Exactly who is this game for? .

Microbiologists

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

The game is too much like Civilization IV to be playable to people who want a Sims-style game.

The game is too much like The Sims to be playable to people who want a Civ-like game.

I think this sums up my experiences with it pretty well so far. There was a lot of fun initially and the first time you see some parts of the game there's without a doubt a "wow" factor, but once you get past that you start wondering what the hell the point is.

I'm sure some will love making different creatures and vehicles in the games plus, as I said, there are some enjoyable moments while playing. However, anyone looking for a well designed game experience is probably going to be disappointed.

FWIW, the friend who hooked me up with a copy played through and we've had more or less the same experiences so far. His wife, on the other hand, absolutely loves the game. Not surprising, though, she's not a gamer at all.

[Mustang]

Ok, I'm curious. Just what is a 'real gamer'?

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Galaril

On the bright side we can all go get the new NA release of Romanc eof the three Kingdoms which is coming out next tueday download.

slow down, please

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Ok, I'm curious. Just what is a 'real gamer'?

You know, a real gamer.

[gstelmack]

I thought it was anybody who doesn't like the Wii...

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

You know, a real gamer.

There is only one real gamer and his name is Tron

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Glad I wasn't the only one thinking that.

hahahaha, me too. i was like "hold up, if its gonna be like that...."

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Ok, I'm curious. Just what is a 'real gamer'?

well, the opposite of a real gamer is someone who isn't savvy when it comes to games, who thinks of games as super mario bros. or pacman (simplistic grpahics and purpose, ie run, jump and collect coins). with all of the advances in gaming today, non-gamers are impressed by outdated things we've all seen before. a non-gamer can have just as much fun playing Max Payne on the PS1 as someone would playing COD4 on XBox 360. basically its someone who doesn't know enough about game to expect a whole lot out of them, for a non-gamer the bar is set extremely low to the point where things real gamers were doing 8 years ago are things that non-gamers are enthralled and excited about today.

[Thomkal]

Just saw in the tv listings for tonight at 8pm EST on the Discovery Channel is something called "The Future is Wild." The episode is about the making of Spore and stuff about evolution

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Just saw in the tv listings for tonight at 8pm EST on the Discovery Channel is something called "The Future is Wild." The episode is about the making of Spore and stuff about evolution

Thanks, I generally skip Discovery Channel these days and would have missed it.

[Bonegavel]

Glad I'm headed off to Dorney Park/Wild Water Kingdom today as I won't have a chance to pick this up. Sounding worse and worse with every reveal.

Funny thing is, I wonder what the game was like when they first delayed it? Woof, must have been a sleep simulation app.

[gstelmack]

I'll be picking it up as soon as I can hit a store. The naysayers aren't scaring me off.

[nZane]

For what it's worth, I'm enjoying it. It's nowhere near as involved as Civ, but if you're a fan of the Sims, you should enjoy this. Does it live up to anywhere near the hype it's had? No, but no game could. Is it fun? I think so.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm still planning on picking it up when the stores open up around here in a few days (along with Head Coach.)

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, I'm giving it a shot, against my wiser judgement.

[Shepp]

There have been several reviews that have popped up over the weekend. This is the one that makes me think I will hold off on this until the price comes down a bit.

hxxp://pc.ign.com/articles/907/907454p1.html

A couple quotes kind of sum the article up:

Spore, the most ambitious Maxis product to date, and one that's as much as a game as it is a toy.

Rookie gamers are going to feel at home here, but veteran gamers may feel like they need more.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Microbiologists

Alan FTW!

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Anthony

well, the opposite of a real gamer is someone who isn't savvy when it comes to games, who thinks of games as super mario bros. or pacman (simplistic grpahics and purpose, ie run, jump and collect coins). with all of the advances in gaming today, non-gamers are impressed by outdated things we've all seen before. a non-gamer can have just as much fun playing Max Payne on the PS1 as someone would playing COD4 on XBox 360. basically its someone who doesn't know enough about game to expect a whole lot out of them, for a non-gamer the bar is set extremely low to the point where things real gamers were doing 8 years ago are things that non-gamers are enthralled and excited about today.

How do we know Anthony isn't a gamer?

Because he thinks Max Payne came out on the PS1.

Hi, Anthony!

[SackAttack]

Dolahint: a gamer keeps up-to-date enough with his hobby not to make stupid mistakes when talking down his nose to someone else.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Actually, if that is happening, you might have just turned me on to this game.

Ditto - I was starting to think I wouldn't bother ... but now have a peaked curiousity ..

[SackAttack]

I'm enjoying the game, but I really don't like how the camera apparently takes a crap once you hit tribal stage. I guess that has to do with how it goes from "control one character" to an RTS-style game at that point, but I wish they could've made it easier to control the camera and follow tribal groups when you're commanding them to do something.

[Groundhog]

Hmmm.

Played it for basically all of yesterday evening. Had fun with all the stages, but up until the space stage it very much has a "tutorial" feel to it. I wasn't ever really challenged and breezed through all the pre-space stage. I'd say it took me 5 hours total to make it to space, and that was with a fair amount of time spent dicking around in the creator tools. I don't think their is going to be much replay value given the lack of depth in these first stages.

I didn't get much of a chance to play around with the space stage last night due to how late it was when I got there, but the "tutorial quest" part crapped out on me because to complete my current quest I have to return 'home' and communicate with the tutorial instructor dude, but when I go back to my home planet the communication panel flashes, but when I click it nothing happens? So I'm still stuck on the tutorial quest which prevented me from doing much. Hopefully when I re-load tonight it will fix itself.

So yeah, while I definately enjoyed my intial Spore experience, I'm really having a tough time seeing myself playing through this a bunch of times. The RTS game took me the longest, but once you conquer the first 4 cities and get the ability to build aircraft, it was game over - I had a ton of aircraft and a ton of ground vehicles and special weapons that could just destroy any city in about 5 seconds.

I was playing on 'normal' difficulty and went with the easiest possible life path (carnivore/warrior/kill everything path). I think next time I'm going to try a herbivore/diplomatic creature on the 'hard' difficulty and see if that alters the experience for me much.

[Young Drachma]

I'm curious, but I dunno...the hype deterred me and as have the comments here. I think I can't get past the goofy creatures.

I miss when Maxis used to create serious games.