-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The Official Spore Thread
- Thread starter Sharp
- Start date
Seriously. He played for like 15 hours straight.saelz8 said:
From what I've seen and heard Space is the best part, so it seems unlikely.BeeDog said:Damn, I am so on the fence with this game. Hopefully the game doesn't stop dead in its tracks the further you play, like let's say Black & White (2). But I'll probably bite anyhow.
Edit:
Breaking a million users and 3.2 million creatures before the game is officially out? Impressive, most impressive.Spore.com said:
platypotamus
Member
Why, of all the games, does it have to be Spore that America loses on? If that newish EA CEO really wants to make EA un-evil, he should see that Spore is available in some stores already, and just give them all permission to sell it now.
I'm pretty sure that's all, but I used a different service (GameTree, 'cause I'm on a Mac) and it worked that way.Yaweee said:
I'm not sure either, except for the install limit thing. Especially since the Creature Creator already comes with SecuROM, to the best of my knowledge...DrBo42 said:
Well, the last game I bought with SecuROM (Pirates remake) took over an hour to install, simply because my DVD drive had a heart attack every time I asked it to read the disc.
And even better, I was never able to launch it with the game in the drive. Not once. Disk read errors every time. Had to get a crack before I could play it.
Also: Fuck limited installations.
And even better, I was never able to launch it with the game in the drive. Not once. Disk read errors every time. Had to get a crack before I could play it.
Also: Fuck limited installations.
People don't seem to be having that problem with Spore though. Thus far I haven't heard of anyone not being able to run the game because of SecuROM... and there are quite a lot of accounts of the game now from people who have gotten it in Europe and Australia. You'd think even one person for whom it wasn't working would lead to a pretty big story, given that they'd be bitter and loud about it, but no such story has materialized.epmode said:
Tomorrow will be a major website update on www.spore.com .
I'm curious what features they will add and if we get the first patc (Day One Patch) on that day.
I'm curious what features they will add and if we get the first patc (Day One Patch) on that day.
platypotamus
Member
Yeah, While I'm not happy about Securom, it's never given me the problems that Starforce did. Starforce is the only reason that I haven't reinstalled Space Rangers 2... I'm actually going to rebuy it from Stardock when they get that expansion enabled version up.
platypotamus
Member
Windu said:
Seriously. It seems like forever ago I watched that first GDC presentation at work, and gushed over it so much that when I called in sick a few days later, one of my coworkers made my desktop background a picture of Will Wright with hearts around it.
I'm not joking.
I kept that background for a couple of months, because it always made me laugh.
So I've been playing the game for a couple hours now. I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm only up to the creature stage, but it's already fun, fun, fun all around. The cell stage was far more entertaining and engaging than I would've thought. It strongly reminds me of certain XBLA/PSN games, both in terms of gameplay and graphics.
There's a constant feeling of accomplishment and progress in this stage, or the game in general for that matter. It's really hard to get bored since every couple minutes you'll have achieved something new. It's great fun to keep gathering DNA and parts, and then tweak and expand your amoebe as you go, thereby also effectively influencing your creature's future path. The background music is very atmospheric and does a great job at setting the right mood. It's also very dynamic and changes with the gameplay and your actions as the player.
The game has lots of charm, especially during the cell stage. All those cute looking amoebes really brought a smile to my face due to the way they emotionally react to everything going on around them. Attacking an amoebe that isn't able to defend itself and then seeing it flee in terror, eyes wide open and screaming like crazy is a great gaming moment.
I kinda had to get used to the controls in the cell stage, since it plays like an action game, and I'm not really used to playing those types of games on the PC (I'm used to analog sticks for that), but it worked perfectly fine after a while. In general, the controls and user interface of this game are very well designed and thought out. It's a very accessible and smooth package.
Graphically, the game has a hard time to really impress. It's obvious they want to let this game run on as many hardware setups as possible, and it kind of shows in the way the game looks. It's not bad looking by any means, especially because of it's cartoony look, but it isn't exactly a showstopper either and hardly utilizes any graphical tricks that current gen hardware is capable of displaying. An exception to this would be the cell stage, which does look really nice and beautiful. Mind you, I'm playing the game with all details maxed in a resolution of 1680x1050 and I've noticed no hicckups or load times whatsoever, so that's really great.
So far my main concern for the rest of the game is a possible lack of depth. It's as clear as day that this game was designed with more casual players in mind, so I wouldn't be surprised if the later stages will feel kind of lacking in terms of depth and complexity. I'll have to wait and see though. The Sims, while appealing to casuals, still boasted a lot of depth in it's gameplay systems, so here's hoping Will Wright managed to pull off the same trick with Spore.
At least in the creature stage, I've already run into several different gameplay mechanics. There's the social (or aggressive) interaction with other creatures (of which there seem to be many), which mostly reminds me of The Sims (in this game you have to match what the other creatures do in order to impress them and improve your standing), eating food so you wont starve (again a mechanic from The Sims, though simplified), teaching a newborn creature all the moves it can do (just copy what an adult creature shows you), finding stuff in the environment (so you get more creation options) and migration which involves following a path on the minimap, so you also further explore your surroundings. In between, you'll keep gathering DNA by fulfilling objectives, which can then be spent to further develop your creature. Also, in between your creature's brain and thereby it's conciouseness will keep on growing. So yeah, the feeling of progression is definetly there and there's always something to do, but it isn't a very deep game overall.
There's a constant feeling of accomplishment and progress in this stage, or the game in general for that matter. It's really hard to get bored since every couple minutes you'll have achieved something new. It's great fun to keep gathering DNA and parts, and then tweak and expand your amoebe as you go, thereby also effectively influencing your creature's future path. The background music is very atmospheric and does a great job at setting the right mood. It's also very dynamic and changes with the gameplay and your actions as the player.
The game has lots of charm, especially during the cell stage. All those cute looking amoebes really brought a smile to my face due to the way they emotionally react to everything going on around them. Attacking an amoebe that isn't able to defend itself and then seeing it flee in terror, eyes wide open and screaming like crazy is a great gaming moment.
I kinda had to get used to the controls in the cell stage, since it plays like an action game, and I'm not really used to playing those types of games on the PC (I'm used to analog sticks for that), but it worked perfectly fine after a while. In general, the controls and user interface of this game are very well designed and thought out. It's a very accessible and smooth package.
Graphically, the game has a hard time to really impress. It's obvious they want to let this game run on as many hardware setups as possible, and it kind of shows in the way the game looks. It's not bad looking by any means, especially because of it's cartoony look, but it isn't exactly a showstopper either and hardly utilizes any graphical tricks that current gen hardware is capable of displaying. An exception to this would be the cell stage, which does look really nice and beautiful. Mind you, I'm playing the game with all details maxed in a resolution of 1680x1050 and I've noticed no hicckups or load times whatsoever, so that's really great.
So far my main concern for the rest of the game is a possible lack of depth. It's as clear as day that this game was designed with more casual players in mind, so I wouldn't be surprised if the later stages will feel kind of lacking in terms of depth and complexity. I'll have to wait and see though. The Sims, while appealing to casuals, still boasted a lot of depth in it's gameplay systems, so here's hoping Will Wright managed to pull off the same trick with Spore.
At least in the creature stage, I've already run into several different gameplay mechanics. There's the social (or aggressive) interaction with other creatures (of which there seem to be many), which mostly reminds me of The Sims (in this game you have to match what the other creatures do in order to impress them and improve your standing), eating food so you wont starve (again a mechanic from The Sims, though simplified), teaching a newborn creature all the moves it can do (just copy what an adult creature shows you), finding stuff in the environment (so you get more creation options) and migration which involves following a path on the minimap, so you also further explore your surroundings. In between, you'll keep gathering DNA by fulfilling objectives, which can then be spent to further develop your creature. Also, in between your creature's brain and thereby it's conciouseness will keep on growing. So yeah, the feeling of progression is definetly there and there's always something to do, but it isn't a very deep game overall.
^
Yea i was thinking about picking it up this morning but so far what i have been reading is not too positive. Some are wishing they could take it back and so on. Now i'm a bit torn, going by the reviews it doesnt have much depth at all, but at the same time i could see the online universe feature being cool if you had enough users to participate.
Not too sure what to do now. Might wait for a few more reviews and user impressions before i decide to grab it.
Yea i was thinking about picking it up this morning but so far what i have been reading is not too positive. Some are wishing they could take it back and so on. Now i'm a bit torn, going by the reviews it doesnt have much depth at all, but at the same time i could see the online universe feature being cool if you had enough users to participate.
Not too sure what to do now. Might wait for a few more reviews and user impressions before i decide to grab it.
itsinmyveins
Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
I wonder how much more hype this game would have gotten if it was released like eight or nine months ago. Right now there's suprisingly little talk about it, and to some extent it doesn't even seem that people are aware of the game being released pretty much now.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
Zenith said:
sweet, as a paying customer i can expect to not have to deal with a 3 install limit with no token refunds on uninstalls now right securom?.....right?
Wait, so uninstalls don't refund an install token a la Bioshock? So if I'm one of those folks that reinstalls/upgrades/has catastrophic hardware failures a couple of times a year, I'm fucked? If EA is going to get medieval on our collective asses they need to be clear about exactly where the screws and hot irons are being applied.
Fortinbras
Member
The two biggest German PC magazines reviewed the game. PC Games gave Spore 73%; Gamestar gave 79%.
ccgenerals
Member
that's my birthdayWindu said:
This happened like a week ago. They didn't include the creators in their reviews.Fortinbras said:
Incidentally, the game is supposed to get deep around the space stage. The previous stages are like warmup stages. The main goal is that everyone should be able to get to the space stage. So early impressions are probably somewhat misleading.
I've only played till the start of the Tribal stage, but I'd like to comment on what I have played so far.
The cell stage is pretty and reminded me very much of flow, so it's cathartic in that respect. Gameplay however is incredibly simplistic. Basically you swim around consuming other cells if you are a carnivore or plant cells if herbivore. Some of the other cells swimming around will have an icon on their name tag which means that a part will drop if they are killed.
So you swim around getting bigger and unlocking parts, upgrading your creature(The best part of the game imo) until you evolve to the point of emerging from seas and walking on land. Queue loading screen...
Replayability of the cell stage would be down to how much you can handle repetition of the incredibly shallow mechanics because creature design at this point is quite limited.
So onto the Creature stage. Gameplay here consists of running around a bland looking environment clicking on glowing bits of bone to gain parts and interacting with other creatures through either social or aggressive means. You gain DNA, which is the currency you use to upgrade your creature, by making other species your allies or extinct.
Gameplay once again is incredibly simplistic. Basically you have 2 stances, social and agressive. Before approaching another species you need to decide either of the two stances first then double-click another creature to begin the interaction. Parts that you put on your creature have stats for either social or aggressive interaction or sometimes both. For social interactions you have Sing, Dance, charm and Pose. For aggressive I've only seen bite and charge since I was being a nice little Waderium(my creature name)
Gameplay boils down to matching the other species actions. They sing, you click sing, then they dance, you click dance and so on. Each of the interactions is ranked from level 1->5 and some creatures you end up meeting will need you to have a higher level ability to be able to befriend them. Befriend 3 creatures of a certain species and that species becomes your ally. Being allied with another species allows you to recruit them to your party( they follow you around and can help to befriend or defeat other species) and heal at their nests.
That's pretty much it. You wander the landscape meeting the other species, finding parts, leveling up. I enjoyed it to a point, but I found after meeting my 15th species and doing the whole sing, dance , charm thing it was getting incredibly tedious. If you have an MMO or "gotta catch em all " mentality with scouring the map for all the different species then I guess there is enjoyment to be had at that level.
The best part of the game for me so far is the actual creature creator. It is outstanding what you can make, it's just such a shame that so far, for me, the gamplay is failing to live up to that quality.
The cell stage is pretty and reminded me very much of flow, so it's cathartic in that respect. Gameplay however is incredibly simplistic. Basically you swim around consuming other cells if you are a carnivore or plant cells if herbivore. Some of the other cells swimming around will have an icon on their name tag which means that a part will drop if they are killed.
So you swim around getting bigger and unlocking parts, upgrading your creature(The best part of the game imo) until you evolve to the point of emerging from seas and walking on land. Queue loading screen...
Replayability of the cell stage would be down to how much you can handle repetition of the incredibly shallow mechanics because creature design at this point is quite limited.
So onto the Creature stage. Gameplay here consists of running around a bland looking environment clicking on glowing bits of bone to gain parts and interacting with other creatures through either social or aggressive means. You gain DNA, which is the currency you use to upgrade your creature, by making other species your allies or extinct.
Gameplay once again is incredibly simplistic. Basically you have 2 stances, social and agressive. Before approaching another species you need to decide either of the two stances first then double-click another creature to begin the interaction. Parts that you put on your creature have stats for either social or aggressive interaction or sometimes both. For social interactions you have Sing, Dance, charm and Pose. For aggressive I've only seen bite and charge since I was being a nice little Waderium(my creature name)
Gameplay boils down to matching the other species actions. They sing, you click sing, then they dance, you click dance and so on. Each of the interactions is ranked from level 1->5 and some creatures you end up meeting will need you to have a higher level ability to be able to befriend them. Befriend 3 creatures of a certain species and that species becomes your ally. Being allied with another species allows you to recruit them to your party( they follow you around and can help to befriend or defeat other species) and heal at their nests.
That's pretty much it. You wander the landscape meeting the other species, finding parts, leveling up. I enjoyed it to a point, but I found after meeting my 15th species and doing the whole sing, dance , charm thing it was getting incredibly tedious. If you have an MMO or "gotta catch em all " mentality with scouring the map for all the different species then I guess there is enjoyment to be had at that level.
The best part of the game for me so far is the actual creature creator. It is outstanding what you can make, it's just such a shame that so far, for me, the gamplay is failing to live up to that quality.
APZonerunner
Member
Tideas said:
I'm finding it difficult to be an upstanding citizen and wait, but I will.
It's disappointing to hear all the negative thoughts on the game so far. When the game was first shown off, I was under the impression it was going to be this massive, open ended, experience where you began life in the cell stage all the way up to conquering the universe.
However, initial word is that it's a handful of glorified mini games up until you reach the space stage where it doesn't take very long to 'beat' the game. Wtf.
Also, what kind of shit is only being able to have one vehicle and spaceship design at a time? I probably won't even bother "demoing" it.
However, initial word is that it's a handful of glorified mini games up until you reach the space stage where it doesn't take very long to 'beat' the game. Wtf.
Also, what kind of shit is only being able to have one vehicle and spaceship design at a time? I probably won't even bother "demoing" it.
Space stage it takes about 20 hours to get to the center of the galaxy, and it is fairly open-ended... you also get more than 1 vehicle design at a time. I'm not sure what you all expected, to be honest. What exactly were you expecting from the evolution part other than exploration, eating, and evolution? If you don't like creating stuff, don't like exploration, and don't like the open-ended space phase stuff, you probably aren't going to like the game, but I don't remember anything but that being promised.Defcon said:
There is no piracy going on for those who got it first.
Australia was due to get the game first on the 4th of september, However it looks like alot of places have broken the date by a few days. Game sold it on the 1st of sept and other's followed with EB selling it on the 2nd and now Big-W selling it today at a nice cheap price.
Australia was due to get the game first on the 4th of september, However it looks like alot of places have broken the date by a few days. Game sold it on the 1st of sept and other's followed with EB selling it on the 2nd and now Big-W selling it today at a nice cheap price.
Defcon said:
I thought the same. What's been delivered is dissapointing in that context. So far it feel like I've been playing 3 different games. Cell->Creature->Tribal. With loading screens between, different feeling game engines and even interfaces. Nothing feels contiguous like I was expecting.
Sharp said:
I'm looking forward to the space stage, I've heard it's the best part of the game.
I think Civ => Space is probably the most contiguous-feeling change. Like I said before, the developers really focused on getting everyone to space, which is the sandbox mode and sort of the point of the game. And the choices you make in the previous modes actually do affect your later actions, which is more apparent if you look at it on the timeline but it also affects the AI and some other stuff that's not immediately apparent.Surfheart said:
I also get the impression that creature stage is more fun if you play violent rather than social. But that might just be me.
Oh, also, if any of you hooligans are using the pirated version, you don't get content from Sporepedia, which sort of eliminates like 90% of the point of the game.
teacupcopter
Banned
Australian chiming in, it's simplistic but great fun, can be a tad frustrating fumbling around Tribal/Civ mode though.
Also- You can fully edit all the different buildings, your land, sea and air vehicles, your spaceships, you can clothe your citizens, and for the buildings/vehicles there is a texture/colour 'fill in' tool which is 500x more customisable colour wise as the animal editors.
Also- you can create your own national anthem tune, notes, beat, length, ambient noise, everything. And it plays in game while you are playing.
Also- You can fully edit all the different buildings, your land, sea and air vehicles, your spaceships, you can clothe your citizens, and for the buildings/vehicles there is a texture/colour 'fill in' tool which is 500x more customisable colour wise as the animal editors.
Also- you can create your own national anthem tune, notes, beat, length, ambient noise, everything. And it plays in game while you are playing.
Spotless Mind
Member
Hmm... i'm ever so slightly tempted. Screw it. I'll probably have it in my hands by tomorrow. :lolevlcookie said:
No Means Nomad
Banned
Why do I want to though? Does it really even make a difference?teacupcopter said:
Similar threads
- Locked