Spore

It certainly is radical to be the birth of an entire genre of games, but, to be honest, it still looks like it will be as lacking in fun as the Black & White and other games that came out claiming to be the "new future" of games.

Anyway, this game style has been done before - Deus Ex Machina back in 1985 on the good old Spectrum, for example.

Cider wrote:

It certainly is radical to be the birth of an entire genre of games, but, to be honest, it still looks like it will be as lacking in fun as the Black & White and other games that came out claiming to be the "new future" of games.

Anyway, this game style has been done before - Deus Ex Machina back in 1985 on the good old Spectrum, for example.

Likewise, Spore reminds me a seriously souped up SimLife game.

W3bbo wrote:

Latest gameplay video from GDC.

Are you pulling the links from year old Ch9 topics by any chance? [A]

Here is the latest scoop, from 2006 GDC.

http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/03/gaming_steve_ep_40.php

For Everything about spore:

http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/spore/index.php

Cider wrote:

It certainly is radical to be the birth of an entire genre of games, but, to be honest, it still looks like it will be as lacking in fun as the Black & White and other games that came out claiming to be the "new future" of games.

Anyway, this game style has been done before - Deus Ex Machina back in 1985 on the good old Spectrum, for example.

Would you prefer to be able to knock the tribals into a tree or slap them Dungeon Keeper style?  I think the best games eschew these cheap thrills in favor of doing something fun.

so anybody playing? I read the drm was awful but they are going to remove it.

Cider said:

It certainly is radical to be the birth of an entire genre of games, but, to be honest, it still looks like it will be as lacking in fun as the Black & White and other games that came out claiming to be the "new future" of games.

Anyway, this game style has been done before - Deus Ex Machina back in 1985 on the good old Spectrum, for example.

Most of the Sim games get boring after a day of playing around with them, the only one I thought lasted longer was Sim City, because you kept on getting new goals as your city expanded. To me, that pretty much proves that Wright's idea of games as 'toys' is flawed, games only last over time when they have some type of narrative to them.

harumscarum said:

so anybody playing? I read the drm was awful but they are going to remove it.

I'm really keen to try it, but the DRM puts me off, and I'm afraid that it's not so much a game but just four or five minigames that allow you to play around with whatever you made in the editor.

Bas said:

harumscarum said:

*snip*

I'm really keen to try it, but the DRM puts me off, and I'm afraid that it's not so much a game but just four or five minigames that allow you to play around with whatever you made in the editor.

Nah, this is an overhyped game building on top of The Sims popularity. But this game certainly does not offer a world we can relate nor a social aspect from Ths Sims. Most annoyingly they put Sim City away for this game, now we have to buy a city building game from French.

The main concern I have for this game is that each stage is basically a different game. Instead of combining the elements from different games, it just use them in different stages. I don't think it will provide a seemless gaming experience. Nevertheless, it will sell like crazy due to its hype and unique game type.

Bas said:

harumscarum said:

*snip*

I'm really keen to try it, but the DRM puts me off, and I'm afraid that it's not so much a game but just four or five minigames that allow you to play around with whatever you made in the editor.

it's more like a mix of "sim earth" and some elements / ideas  of settlers or related  games.

magicalclick said:

Bas said:

*snip*

Nah, this is an overhyped game building on top of The Sims popularity. But this game certainly does not offer a world we can relate nor a social aspect from Ths Sims. Most annoyingly they put Sim City away for this game, now we have to buy a city building game from French.

The main concern I have for this game is that each stage is basically a different game. Instead of combining the elements from different games, it just use them in different stages. I don't think it will provide a seemless gaming experience. Nevertheless, it will sell like crazy due to its hype and unique game type.

this goes way back to his early games work, almost not a game --

but I think it might be very interesting in it's own way.

but no it's not about humans on earth.

W3bbo said:

harumscarum wrote:

Looks cool, intelligent design.

Comedy.

But seriously, I'd say the game models itself more on "guided evolution" than pure "intelligent design" or "creationism", since the two latter imply spontaneousness. (Then again, to my knowledge the game doesn't explain how the single-celled lifeform started out)

No, w3bbo actually intelligent design doesn't imply spontaneousness. I don't want to get in a debate on this now, especially since I don't share the ID position, I'm just saying.

Bas said:

harumscarum said:

*snip*

I'm really keen to try it, but the DRM puts me off, and I'm afraid that it's not so much a game but just four or five minigames that allow you to play around with whatever you made in the editor.

The space stage which is really the meat of the game given how irrelevant the other parts seem to be is rather half-baked. I don't think any one patch will fix it enough, year worth of patches maybe. What I feel is missing is the other human players. Given how the overall design is I don't think it would be infeasible to make this into "spore online". I know there are other space mmo's there but I don't want an immersion breaking and slow experience so there should be no ingame RL-communication and diplomacy should be limited such that you can't get dozen player alliances powering through other players. Alternatively it could be human players vs developers/npc type of thing.

I'd also like to see more proper story and scripting, now it seems there are handful of different mission types and some vague quest to the middle of the galaxy that web sources say isn't all that rewarding. Or maybe it's too early to tell - 15 years ago there was a similar space game with some grand plot but no reviewer had found it and it got poor reviews since there was no point in it.. only if you played a ton it would reveal itself.

Bas said:

harumscarum said:

*snip*

I'm really keen to try it, but the DRM puts me off, and I'm afraid that it's not so much a game but just four or five minigames that allow you to play around with whatever you made in the editor.

You got to see this page and take a look at the reviews!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Spore-Pc/dp/B000FKBCX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1220904072&sr=1-1

ZippyV said:

Bas said:

*snip*

You got to see this page and take a look at the reviews!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Spore-Pc/dp/B000FKBCX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1220904072&sr=1-1

That almost seems like an organized effort by some popular web site to post about DRM cause it's all the reviews have to say. And if you do a 'review' without buying then it's not a review. I won't name names but there are few sites that do these type of campaigns.

However I have to say that given the game cracked already they should do some PR stunt and remove the DRM. Copy protections serve their purpose if implemented properly which doesn't seem to be the case here.

I like the game and had a lot of fun yesterday playing it.  In the extra material in the galactic edition, they talk about how they had a lot of ideas in the design scheme but focused on keeping the gameplay not too complex to keep it more accessible.  I'd love to see a sequel that goes a bit deeper (like if I have two legs I should be able to go faster than someone with one).  If you like Civilization games, real-time strategy games you would probably enjoy it.  This is only speaking from my experience with the first three stages, I'm still in the Tribal stage.

Ion Todirel said:

androidi said:

*snip*

Herbie will love this... personally I don't see nothing spectacular in that game, sorry...

To be honest I'd probably get bored after about 30 minutes.  I prefer the simulations I posted in the Sandbox

Herbie