Anyone played Spore yet?

So, so sad that somebody gets that worked up over a game with little furry critters running around.

This game intrigued me but I have a feeling I would get bored very quickly.
 
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Hmm I'm on the space stage now (Final Stage) and to be honest it's getting a little boring. Whizzed through the Tribal Stage and Civilisation Stage and now and zoom ing around in the spaceship. It's coll that you design your own ships/tanks/creatures/buildings but this seems to be a classic case of Jack of All Trades, Master of None. The RTS simplely wasn't indepth enough (choice of 3 vehicles (Land, Air and Sea)) in the Civ Stage then conquer all the other cities. It's best summed up as an interesting toy rather than an indepth game. It does have a good sense of fun and humour though. Not sure that I would replay to be honest. I'll update if the Space stage gives anything drastically new.
 
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I'm loving the game!

Each part is quite quick and fairly easy. I mean, come on, you can't have Command & Conquer, Civilization, and Galactic Civilization all in one box plus a brand new genre of game for the creature phase. The game would cost $200 and it would take you weeks to finish!

Spore's big claim to fame is the development of an entire species - and then some. In that aspect, it's a lot like developing a character in an RPG. Only, unlike the vast majority of single player RPGs I've played, I've got a real strong desire to play again and again. Depending on how you run through the game, you get different powers in the next phases.

Space is a very special phase. It's MUCH longer than all the other phases combined. You could make an argument that those other phases are, in reality, a glorified character creation scheme that determine your class when you enter the space phase (I think there are 11 of them). There's a heck of a lot more to do in space, too. Set up trade routes, do missions for aliens, terraform planets, attack aliens, spice trading, setting up cities on your new planets, gathering artifacts, and so on.

It is NOT a multi-player game in the normal sense. However, your creatures (and vehicles and planets and space ships and....) get uploaded to the massive Sporepedia and automatically downloaded by others. People you you mark as a 'buddy' will get high priority on your downloads plus there are 'sporecasts' if you are interested in some sort of specialty. All the fears/laughs about "sporn" seem to be unfounded, too. When I first started the game on the 7th I found one critter downloaded that was just a tad raunchy. I banned it and haven't seen anything bad since then. And it's actually quite fun to ally with, domesticate, and/or wipe out your friend's creations.

My big beef with the game is the difficulty level. At medium difficulty the cell phase is easy, creature phase is medium, tribal is easy, civ is easy, and space starts easy but turns into death incarnate. It's really a major jump - so major that I suspect a last minute bug cropped in. I tried running two games on medium difficulty and both times I flew through the first phases only to get clobbered in space. (And actually, MOST of the space stuff isn't too hard, either - it's just the wars where enemies send fleet after fleet after fleet at you that are killer.) On easy difficulty, it's no problem at all.

I found a little easter egg, too. Every once in awhile, when talking with one of your colonies, the theme music from M.U.L.E. will play. Took me a minute to figure out where that song came from and I about fell out of my chair when I got it!
 
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I was looking foreward to this game but after reading the user and online reviews of it I think I'll pass. A lot of people are saying it's too short and too simple. If they do some expansion packs like The Sims that improve the gameplay then I might get it, but for now replaying STALKER seems like more fun than this game.
 
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...... and it would take you weeks to finish!

Ahh the good old days of games that took weeks to finish. Just started Final Fantasy 4 of the DS and making wonderfully slow progress. (and I still love the Bauldurs Gate/Tales of the Sword Coast/B2/Throne of Bhaal epic 200+ hours play session)

Anyway I agree with your point that it will never out Civ, Civ and I do like the game but I can't really see my replaying it. I am glad I played it but like I said it's more of a toy than a game, imho. Still it nice to see something original coming out (having just seen the video for Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, I am now slowing weeping to myself)

Just out of curiosity did you go the military route? I did and therefore designed a spaceship with 8 high level guns on it. (Kinda reminds me of Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii)
 
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The original Final Fantasy 4 was a favorite of mine for a long time, and a great game all around.

I will have this reviewed in my next article, but for my money there is no reason for this one compared to the GBA one from a couple of years ago.
 
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I will have this reviewed in my next article, but for my money there is no reason for this one compared to the GBA one from a couple of years ago.

100% identicle, except for a bonus dungeon they added into the GBA version that had nothing to do with the storyline. Personally I'd much rather have the larger view screen. :)
 
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100% identicle, except for a bonus dungeon they added into the GBA version that had nothing to do with the storyline. Personally I'd much rather have the larger view screen. :)

Yeah, but since I'm a non-console person ... I look at life from a PC & handheld perspective. But at least with the GBA one you can use the GBA player on the GameCube
 
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I will have this reviewed in my next article, but for my money there is no reason for this one compared to the GBA one from a couple of years ago.

Well one reason is I don't own a Gameboy :)

The graphics are better but the gamplay is the same - I played it originally on a SNES emulator. I really hope they make FF6 as well as that is one of my all time favourite games
 
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Well one reason is I don't own a Gameboy :)

The graphics are better but the gamplay is the same - I played it originally on a SNES emulator. I really hope they make FF6 as well as that is one of my all time favourite games

But if you have a DS you *do* have a GBA! I would highly recommend getting the FF 6 GBA version - I look at it my handheld article #4.
 
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But if you have a DS you *do* have a GBA! I would highly recommend getting the FF 6 GBA version - I look at it my handheld article #4.

Good point I keep forgetting about that

However I am one of life's collectors so I'll end up buying it on DS anyway and besides I got too much to get through (or on preorder) at the moment to worry about getting another game

- FF4 (DS)
- FF Tactics A2 (DS)
- Advanced Wars: Dark Conflict (DS)
- Sonic RPG (when released) (DS)
- DEFCON (PC)
- The Witcher EE (when released) (PC)
- Fallout 3 (when released) (PC)
- Okami (Wii)
- Opoona (Wii)
- Lego Indiana Jones (Wii)
- Lego Batman (When Released)(Wii)
- Star Wars: Force Unleashed (When Released)(Wii)
- Super Mario RPG (Virtual Console) (Wii)

And I currently get about 1-2 hours per WEEK to game (job, wife and a 2 yo daughter). So I'll wait for the conversion to DS and besides I can't just have one GBA box sitting on my shelf can I ? :)
 
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