Spore Has Gone Gold!

[IDIC]

Anyone had problems with the game locking up?

It's done it to me twice now.

I had the game crash. I was in the space stage and had over 7 solar system and two alliances (one with some science base aliens and another with some trade aliens). When I restarted the game, my save game had me way back in the tribal stage. I recommend to save frequently as there isnt an autosave feature apparently.

 

[MikeGainer]

Wow, one-star rating at Amazon.com due to DRM!!!

Fifty dollars for rental (3 installations and that is IT) of a pc game sounds pretty steep.

http://www.amazon.com/Spore-Mac/dp/..._1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1221346532&sr=8-1

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

I played through a friends copy and I was kind of disappointed. Granted I didn't get to meet any creations outside of the Maxis stuff, but the game wasn't all that great. I played till the first hour of the galactic conquest before I just gave up on it. Sure it was fun making my creature and making my star destroyer/enterprise/defiant to go blow things up. But really I couldn't see myself actually playing it again or paying for it. There's like one best body/vehicle part per stat, so really if I'm going to play again, I'm just going to use most of the same parts on a second play through.

Even beyond that, building things didn't mean all that much in the end because it was all about the stats. What's the point of putting a bunch of guns and engines on a ship when it's going to perform on the same level as a ship with one gun and engine? For your creature it didn't really matter either once you got out of the cell phase. Once I built my 5 in all stats monster I was kind of done with it, because it didn't really matter after that other than looks. The galactic conquest seemed pretty detailed and whatnot, but I just couldn't bring myself to care at that point.

I was looking forwards to more challenges with the creature building, like if I had a monster with ten arms and two tiny legs, how it would be top heavy or whatever. With the ships I was hoping that putting the weapons and engines on the thing would actually mean something other than a stupid balance stat.

That being said, the creature/vehicle creator is really powerful and cool to mess with. I'd hope they'd maybe make it more complicated down the line and give you a sandbox mode to play with your creations. Maybe having other peoples creations roaming around would have made it more interesting, but I'm not sure how having ten penis or bong shaped monsters roaming around would improve the experience all that much. As it stands the game is too shallow for me to really get in to, which is really disappointing considering the hopes I had for it.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm up to the space phase on my master race.

Overall, I'm kind of disapointed in the game.

Somehow I expected more.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'm up to the space phase on my master race.

Overall, I'm kind of disapointed in the game.

Somehow I expected more.

Same here, it seems quite mediocre after the years of hype.

 

[Arrqh]

Maybe having other peoples creations roaming around would have made it more interesting, but I'm not sure how having ten penis or bong shaped monsters roaming around would improve the experience all that much.

I haven't seen a single penis or bonged shaped creature in my game, and I've been playing in the space phase quite a lot.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm kind of disapointed in the graphics too. Maybe I need to tweak my settings, but the graphics are kind of... poor. And with a LOT of alising.

The only thing "going" for this game is the user-created stuff but even that doesn't ammount to much. I mean it seems pointless to design your own City Hall/House/Factory when they don't last much.

Then again, I have only been playing in the "easy" mode. Maybe there's more to it in the harder skill levels. But in the end I expected much more from this game.

Also though I'd be builidng fleets of ships of varying designs not just one design of ship to explore the Galaxy in.

Very disapointed, this game doesn't quite live to the hype and is very simplistic to play. The camera controls changing with every stage is annoying too. Again, I've yet to try the harder skill levels but I expected more.

I expected the civilization stage to be more work and working over the course of many hours to build and expand cities (in a simplified SimCity) and build up your creature's "tech level" before you hit space travel. Not just "align with/defeat all of the other cities and advance to the space age!"

 

[IDIC]

I played it a bit more last night and this morning. I think I enjoy the space phase the most. The ability to fly around explore, terraform, colonize, set up trade routes, and conduct diplomacy is pretty good. I just wish that there was better defense of the colonies. It gets on my nerve to be called back to my home system every 5 to 10 minutes to deal with an alien invasion or pirates trying to run off with my spice.

One of the things I like is that it shows on your spore page what has occurred with your creations. It showed that some people had made alliances with mine in their game or eradicated them.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'm kind of disapointed in the graphics too. Maybe I need to tweak my settings, but the graphics are kind of... poor. And with a LOT of alising.

The only thing "going" for this game is the user-created stuff but even that doesn't ammount to much. I mean it seems pointless to design your own City Hall/House/Factory when they don't last much.

Then again, I have only been playing in the "easy" mode. Maybe there's more to it in the harder skill levels. But in the end I expected much more from this game.

Also though I'd be builidng fleets of ships of varying designs not just one design of ship to explore the Galaxy in.

Very disapointed, this game doesn't quite live to the hype and is very simplistic to play. The camera controls changing with every stage is annoying too. Again, I've yet to try the harder skill levels but I expected more.

I expected the civilization stage to be more work and working over the course of many hours to build and expand cities (in a simplified SimCity) and build up your creature's "tech level" before you hit space travel. Not just "align with/defeat all of the other cities and advance to the space age!"

I totally agree. It's a decent idea, but it's no where near as good as it should be.

 

[Twilight]

I played for about 5 hours straight last night (from cell to space in one sitting... I sort of lost track of time ) and didn't get a single crash.

Also, my profile.

I like your monolith!

 

[Arrqh]

I like your monolith!

Yeah, that one took a lot of work

I'm gonna throw in a disagreement with the disappointment of the game people have been expressing... it's exactly what I was expecting and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. The game was not intended to be a hardcore or indepth simulation of anything; this was very clear to me as I was following their publicity. It's designed to appeal to the casual audience (just like The Sims) and the focus is not on complicated gameplay, but on letting people be creative and getting to see all the stuff that other people make. That's the real point. Playing the game without having other people's content... or even your OWN content... in the game is completely missing the point. Wanting an indepth simulation is also missing the point. And I think a lot of the dissapointment in the game comes from people that were expecting something that was fundamentally different from what the game is trying to be.

So yeah. A simulation is not what this game is. It's a content creator/browser and it does it perfectly.

 

[Trekker4747]

Then I wish they'd stop making games for the drooling masses that are just simplistic and not deep. Just look at Sim City Societies.

I miss far more complex games.

Spore could've been grand if just aspired to be a bit more.

Maybe Spore 2.

 

[Arrqh]

Spore is pretty grand IMO... it's just aspiring to be something different from what you wanted. And it hit the goal is was aspiring towards.

Calling it simplistic is again missing the point. It's not about complex gameplay, it's about giving people tools to be creative. That's the point.

 

[Trekker4747]

Spore is pretty grand IMO... it's just aspiring to be something different from what you wanted. And it hit the goal is was aspiring towards.

Calling it simplistic is again missing the point. It's not about complex gameplay, it's about giving people tools to be creative. That's the point.

Then why the pretense of rasing a species from simple-celled organism to a powerful space-faring one? Why not just make it a simple creature/building/vechile creator?

I was expecting a LOT more from this game in terms of game play and doing things with your creature and planet and space craft. The game leaves a lot to be desired in those areas. The customization tools are great and all, but does the ability to make any design of city hall you want matter when it's not a big deal in the game. "Ooo. Look at this City Hall I built. It's neat!"

So really, it's just a fancy 3D building/vechile creator with the destraction of a somewhat simplistic testing game. :yawn:

Sorry, I expected so much more.

 

[Arrqh]

Then why the pretense of rasing a species from simple-celled organism to a powerful space-faring one? Why not just make it a simple creature/building/vechile creator?

Because creating your own universe is the context of the game. The galaxy is your method of browsing other people's content. They've been very clear about this.

I was expecting a LOT more from this game in terms of game play and doing things with your creature and planet and space craft.

That's your own problem. You were expecting things that the game never intended to deliver. And Will Wright says the same thing.

 

[Trekker4747]

From the lnked article:
...As wonderful as the content creation and sharing options are, the one consistent complaint I’ve seen is that the gameplay seems to have been “dumbed down” for the sake of appealing to a more casual audience. Was it?
“I’d say that’s quite accurate,” Wright told me. “We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players...

That's my problem. The game was simplified and "dumbed down" for the drooling masses when it could've been something much more complex.

Anyone play "Master of Orion" games? Those had a pretty deep and complex intraglactic civilization gameplay to it. (again, granted I've not dug into Spore's galactic gameplay yet.) Sim City 4 had a much more complex and involved city-building game, there's countless RTS-es out there that are far more complex than Spore's "Tribal Stage."

Did Spore's various stages need to be as complex as any of those? No, not necessairly, but it should've aspired to be someting much more instead of trying to pander to the masses.

This kind of thinking ruins games. It gives us something like "Sim City Socities" instead of "Sim City 4." And, from Wright's inrerview, I wouldn't call Spore greatly more complex than TS2. TS2's relationship system is a bit more complex.

Don't get me wrong, Spore is an OK enough game and I like it, but I wanted something far more deeper and complex. Something a lot more Will Wright-ian.

I mean, this should've been Sim Earth + Mars + Sim City + The Sims x10,000.

Instead it's all of that plus about 10,000 gallons of water.

 

[Trekker4747]

This is my first space ship design.

I do want to give this game credit for running real smooth and handling Alt+Tabbing into and out of it really well, on top of running well in a window.

 

[Arrqh]

The game was simplified and "dumbed down" for the drooling masses when it could've been something much more complex.

The fact that you continually refer to the casual market as the "drooling masses" just shows that you are still totally missing the point... with a good dose of elitism to boot. How dare Wright make the game he wanted to make if you weren't the target audience!

A game about user generated content is about as Will Wright-ian as you can get. It's a shame that you're letting your elitism and refusal to understand that not all games have to be tailored to your specific desires get in the way of understanding the game for what it is instead of this magical game of a totally different genre. Seriously, if it's not your cup of tea then that's fine. But to disparage it because of that and to, by extension, call anyone who does enjoy the game the "drooling masses" just shows that you need to get over yourself.

 

[Jono]

The game was okay. Felt most of the stages were too short. Would have been nice if you had to do something other then locate DNA to vary it up. Space stage is kind of annoying. Your allies constantly need you to do work, pirates hassle your planets and you only have one ship. After going to the centre of the galaxy and then finding Earth I quickly lost interest in playing the stage.

Played through it time once as carnivores and the other as herbs. Didn't occur to me that if I started on a different planet I could have hunted my old race down across the galaxy so I just removed them and started again on the same planet.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Well after playing through this again with guest creatures on, I'm ready to call this game a bust for me. If this really is just a sandbox for your creations, they should have made the creations vary more than just a 1-5 stat per part. As it is it's just too simple and boring.