Spore Website Updated

[Varsity]

I just can't get enough of this damn Spore news. In this installment: Maxis' official site (www.spore.com) for the game has been updated for E3. The intro movie is the same as before, but there are now fully-fledged pages with more screens and a mirror of the E3 trailer, which seems smaller than the one hosted by GameSpot.

There are also samples of creatures from the dev team (http://www.spore.com/screenshots.php), including cutesy descriptons of how they shouldn't be mocked because they eat with their anuses, and so on.

[gzsfrk]

...including cutesy descriptons of how they shouldn't be mocked because they eat with their anuses...

Somehow reminds me of the SouthPark episode where everyone starts having crap come out of their mouth. I wonder if the same holds true for the devs' anal ingesters?

[torrefaction]

Hell. Fuck. Yeah. This will be the Best. Game. Ever. (Hahaha...Gotta love hype.)

[Cha-Ka]

The most innovative things I've heard about Spore have to do with players creating new downloadable content. That's sounds like good news for the dev team, but what's it going to do for gamers..?

[Heretic Machine]

The most innovative things I've heard about Spore have to do with players creating new downloadable content. That's sounds like good news for the dev team, but what's it going to do for gamers..?

How do you mean? Gamers have always been able to make downloadable content for PC games, some games support it better than others. Hell, The Sims 2 website has a whole area dedicated to user uploaded content, which they made super-easy to do. This will be even easier, as it will be doing it behind the scenes.

EDIT: And the way it works with this game means that I'll be getting tons of civilizations and races made by players, being scattered across my galaxy. I could encounter them, or I might not, you never know. They're just out there.

[Cha-Ka]

How do you mean? Gamers have always been able to make downloadable content for PC games, some games support it better than others. Hell, The Sims 2 website has a whole area dedicated to user uploaded content, which they made super-easy to do. This will be even easier, as it will be doing it behind the scenes.

EDIT: And the way it works with this game means that I'll be getting tons of civilizations and races made by players, being scattered across my galaxy. I could encounter them, or I might not, you never know. They're just out there.

There's something in Spore that interests me, but I think it might just be the concept rather than the game play. For all the talk I've heard about a game universe that will be populated by downloaded species, I just don't get a sense of what SPORE will be like as a game. RTS? Arcade? Have I overlooked something here?

[Serapth]

This game is starting to sound alot like a few other games that bombed.

First one was impossible creatures, published by Microsoft I believe it was. You engineered creatures and led them out to the world to fight for you. Sold terribly.

Second is Black and White. Game strangely never sold well, but the whole premise of raising a critter was pretty central to the game.

Third was some oddball dreamcast game where you raised a fish by talking to it with a microphone... Semen was it?

Finally, there was a game based completely on evolution, where you created critters and bred them etc, and they would take strong traits and breed new abilities. Game had a huge cult following but little commerical success. I remember you could even trade DNA with other players... what the hell was it called..... it was the most spore like game to date.

[netcraazzy]

Does anybody remember SimEarth? This game has always struck me as being SimEarth 2.0 hopefully it will be bettern than the original.

[Wraith]

For all the talk I've heard about a game universe that will be populated by downloaded species, I just don't get a sense of what SPORE will be like as a game. RTS? Arcade? Have I overlooked something here?The Spore demo video from last year explained that Spore is sort of an amalgam of game genres. You proceed from the amoeba game (2D eating/running away, like pacman) to the creature game (sort of action/exploration) to the society game (SimCity/Civilization-esque) to the spaceship game. I'm not sure what the spaceship game is comparable to.

[Cha-Ka]

Third was some oddball dreamcast game where you raised a fish by talking to it with a microphone... Semen was it?


I believe that was Seaman. Seamen would be plural. Still, I suspect most people pronounced it the way you wrote it. Makes me wonder if Sega's marketing team didn't think anyone would make the 'semen' reference from the title...or if sega's marketing team was banking on the jokes about the name to serve as free advertising.

The Spore demo video from last year explained that Spore is sort of an amalgam of game genres. You proceed from the amoeba game (2D eating/running away, like pacman) to the creature game (sort of action/exploration) to the society game (SimCity/Civilization-esque) to the spaceship game. I'm not sure what the spaceship game is comparable to.

More than I'd heard to-date. Thanks! Love your signature, by the way/

[sheol]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXMsWNGcbP4&search=spore

last years 35min gameplay vid

[Mason]

This game is starting to sound alot like a few other games that bombed.

http://www.spore.com/images/screens/screen_1_big.jpg

As this shot shows, the customization is almost purely aesthetic. A species has 5 stats and 3 intelligence levels. Not what I would consider deep, particularly since it will likely end up with effectively six combinations (strong/fast/stealthy and herbivore/carnivore). Explore a galaxy populated with six kinds of creatures!

I've posted at length about the various design "challenges" in Spore, so I won't repeat myself. But let's all stay a tad skeptical.

[Varsity]

Try to think outside the cold mechanics, yeah? Live a little.

[inflamez]

Finally, there was a game based completely on evolution, where you created critters and bred them etc, and they would take strong traits and breed new abilities. Game had a huge cult following but little commerical success. I remember you could even trade DNA with other players... what the hell was it called..... it was the most spore like game to date.

I think you're talking about Creatures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures). You were indirectly controlling little beeings called "Norns" by changing their environment. You could pet them or punish them, depending if you like their actions or not. They were able to learn things by using objects or interacting with other norns. Older Norns would teach their children how to get food, how to use an elevator, NOT to touch that booby-trapped chest lying around, etc. It was funny watching those little critters go along their virtual lifes.

The developers promised the must advanced AI every seen in a game, but in the end it felt more like a very improved version of Tamagotchi. :-) Nevertheless, the game was lots of fun and it's still worth a look if you dig such games.

[Aries7777]

I'm still super pumped for Spore, it looks to be a very original game. Fuck Gears of War, I want Spore!