OT: Spore

[Sarisin]

Have any of you played the full version of Spore yet?

I downloaded and fooled around with the trial Creature Creator a bit and that was fun for a few minutes. I'm debating on whether or not to spring for the game.

They are saying that one of the later stages of the game is "Civilization-like." Can anyone confirm this? Is it similar to Civ or just more Sim City?

BTW, I'm fairly certain that one of the planned versions for FFH2 will allow us to design our own units and races, right Kael?

 

[Wits]

It's an almost total bore. The later stages are certainly not civ-like, it's not really even a proper strategy game. Very, very simplistic.

The only fun part of the game is the creature editor, which you can get for free. I would most certainly not recommend paying for this title. You have FFH, which is a billion times better on all counts.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

well from what I've heard of it it sounds cool but simplistic. I'm guessing that a civfanatic would become bored with the game kinda quickly, but that it would be incredibly cool while it lasted. just my 2 cents of course.

 

[MiKa523]

I've heard the copy protection/activation is very annoying.
No. 1 Reason for me to not buy a game, especially if you can see the game on various sites showing that the protection is totally useless.

 

[Mortenart]

The game is extremely fun the first time you play, but soon gets very repetitive. The phase where you have to take over the planet is like a simplified version of C&C. The craft and building design is fun, but you're only allowed to make one land, sea and air vehicle, and one spaceship when you're ready to lift off into space. (you can create different buildings on new colonies, but you're flying around at such a height as these are pretty insignificant).
When it finally gets to the space stage, things kindof fall apart. It's exciting at first, visiting new star systems and communicating with new alien lifeforms, but very soon you realise that the whole thing is one big grind. Kill infected creatures on planet A, find artifact on planet B, bring us a plant from planet C etc, and that's not the worst part. You can't do an f'ing thing without having to return to your home planet and colonies every few minutes to perform the same repetitive saving act by defeating enemy attacks. It really kills any sense of freedom that this stage does have, and believe me it is huge and the potential is amazing. It needs a lot of tweaking though. Hopefully patches and mods will improve things, but right now I couldn't really recommend that you buy it.

 

[seZereth]

I think Spore is the first released "freeform" game with lots of brilliant ideas, but not perfected yet. It will take several Spore like games to transform the concept to a hell of a game.

Like those Stardock guys said about their upcoming fantasy tbs game, they have something like their "creature editor" as well and you can share your stuff with other players in the world.
So, imagine FfH, but with a nice tool to customize the look and feel of your civilization and endless new ones by "random" combinations of forms, colours, armors, weapons, etc.

I think those concepts will have to grow and mature. Spore has to make a start and introduce it.

BTW, I'm fairly certain that one of the planned versions for FFH2 will allow us to design our own units and races, right Kael?

actually look at Fall Further e.g., in a way we have something like a custom civ designer tool. Modding gives you the ability to create the race and civ and world you want to have,...
sure it doesnt come in a bright point and click interface to create your Creatures, but well, with blender and photoshop, I can create what I want and everyone could do that as well ... thats why I won´t play spore:
I have the deep gameplay and flavor of FfH to create my creatures for

 

[Wauthan]

I had a chance to try out the game for a few hours, together with a couple of friends. And while Spore looks and plays great I'm already completely bored with it. Creating creatures is pretty fun, especially when you're slightly drunk and in good company, but apart from that the game is pretty unremarkable and very simple.

I feel that the developers overextended themselves. By trying to do so many things all at once they ended up not doing anything really well. The game is fairly short, the pacing is really uneven and the choices are fairly limited. Putting creatures together is strangely addictive, but in the end the design is merely eye-candy.

I hope it will be popular though, because a few expansion packs might turn it into something really interesting.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

well the reason it's so simple in the first place is cuz it's heavily aimed at casual gamers I guess. like the sims.

 

[Charybdis]

If you decide to buy it, buy it then download a hacked version that doesn't have the SecuROM DRM installed.

It installs to ring 0, stops you from using cd/dvd burners, does not remove itself when you uninstall spore and you will need to use a 3rd party app to remove it, and fiddles with your registry.

Basically you give EA your money, and they treat you like a criminal, while their 'protections' do not stop actual criminals from providing free/clean software anyway!

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

whoa. this war on piracy is really going too far it seems. what's really bad is that because of a minority of people EVERYONE gets screwed. as is usual actually. sigh.

 

[rusty217]

Simple answer, it sucks.

But if you want to try it out for your self it would be best to try a "free" copy before you buy the actual game...

 

[Gelvan]

EA Favourite Religion = Order ...

 

[Sarisin]

Thank you for all the feedback and opinions, guys.

It is easy and cheap to go out and buy a bootleg copy here in Thailand. I used to do that as a form of shareware - if I liked the program, I would then buy the real one. If not, I lost a few Thai baht.

However, the last few times I have tried to install the copies, they have been pure carp. Hearing that Securom is being used is the death knell for Spore as far as I am concerned.

I had a really bad time with a game called Sacred that used that. It was a legit copy that I bought, but because I had Daemon tools or something like that on my hard drive, it screwed up my machine big time.

I swore I would never buy another game that had this copy protection again.

Oh year, one other thing....I noticed that EA has installed a downloader that tries to download every time I start up my machine. This was just the trial Creature Creator. I went in and took it out of the Start-up, but what a nerve!

 

[Caradoc]

Rule: Any game that is famously late in order to "get it right" won't be.

 

[Fafnir13]

Um...unless that game is being made by Blizzard.

As for Spore, I am not buying it. Limits on installs is just not going to work for me, regardless of any support that might be available for getting new ones. That and installing extra doodads on my comp ticks me off.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I think Spore is the first released "freeform" game with lots of brilliant ideas, but not perfected yet.

It's not he first, lots of games have tried crud like this. Hoping to reign in 'fun' with the elusive lasso of 'emergent gameplay'.

Problem is, infinite possibilities doesn't = fun unless each possibility is fun, or even a majority.... a rare thing.

Spore is a terrible waste, and I'd really suggest to not bother with it.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Um...unless that game is being made by Blizzard.

Or Valve.

Actually, a lot of games that are late to get it right are better for it. I would much rather they take their time than come out with product that isn't finished.

 

[Tarquelne]

Or Valve.

There are a few more I can think of - they're all either fairly focused or "niche" publishers. That is to say, extremely focused.
The key thing might be the ratio of developers to marketers/executives at the company involved.

They have dance fights, ala West Side Story, and the devs - graceless nerds all - have to rely on overwhelming numbers to win.
Just a guess.

 

[slowcar]

not going to buy a game that installs a rootkit and is a worthless silver disc after three installations.
and the only people liking the game are non-civ players, seems i am (we are) too hardcore for it

 

[smusebaer]

I am just waiting for Fallout 3.
Hopfully it´s as good as the first two.