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Posted by: PanicProne Sep 14 2008, 05:45 PM

Hey. Well since it's fantastically hyped at the moment I doubt many of you guys have missed out on it. It's Spore. A new game from EA where you basically start from a single cell and then build your own universe. I've been reading about it, watching videos on it on youtube and just hyping it for myself today. I also managed to download the demo onto my Macbook Pro (which when I bought was meant for music,pics and video editing ONLY) and I'm jsut amazed how good the game looks, works and feels.

Anyone with opinions, comments? Anyone already playing or have played the full version?
I'm gonna let my hype cool down for a few weeks before I make a decision but right now it feels like a definite buy!

Posted by: sigma7 Sep 14 2008, 06:13 PM

that game is going to be so good but if i get it i will probably spend 24/7 on it instead of guitar.

Posted by: kaznie_NL Sep 14 2008, 06:58 PM

I tried to get it, but no good... Some people I know told me that it was over-hyped and that the game was not very good.

Posted by: PanicProne Sep 14 2008, 07:19 PM

D'you mean that you didn't enjoy the game? In that case why? Or did you just end up not buying it since your friends didn't like it?

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 15 2008, 12:11 AM

I played it a little at my friends place...Didn't go for the online portion (don't have a clue what it does) but it seems like a very interesting game...I really like the whole concept Might try to get it myself...

Posted by: TreyDeschamp Sep 15 2008, 02:09 AM

Never heard of it.... Sounds like the holy grail of achievments though.

Posted by: mattacuk Sep 15 2008, 08:42 AM

im not really a gamer but I have seen it advertised and I must say it looks very very interesting!

Posted by: blindwillie Sep 15 2008, 09:32 AM

Overhyped.
The evolution thing I was expecting has been reduced and how you design your creature have no impact now. It's purely cosmetic.
From my expectations this game was dissapointing. The space phase might still be fun if you put some time into it, I'm not sure yet if I will though.

Since this is a EA game it contains SecuROM, a copy protection mechanism.
You can install the game three times then you have to call EA and convince them you have a legit reason for needing more installs. No guarantee you will get more. You register an account to play online.

You can only have one player account and that account is tied to your registered install on one computer. That is, you cant play your game, log out and your spouse logs in on her account. Or go to a friend and log in on your account.
This is contradicting the manual wich clearly states "You may have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game." EA blames this to a "misprint" in the manual. To me this is a contract breach.

It's a shame greed spoils a promising game.

Posted by: PanicProne Sep 15 2008, 12:25 PM

I've heard alot about this stuff and I'm with you. It really is a shame. I can understand that in these times of piracy, protection is needed, but to do it the way they (EA) have. is a disaster.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 15 2008, 05:53 PM

I played the game at my friends some more..Well its fun , but not to its full potential...I find the evolution thing like building up skill (strength , combat impact etc) but it could have been more detailed..

So this thing with secuROM , it means that you can install the game three times and than you can't ? What happens if you need to delete the game on the same computer and install it later on ? Do you have only 3 times ? How do they detect such thing...Its really bothering Especially if you have more computers in a same house

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Sep 15 2008, 06:00 PM

There's a lot of things that the software-producers do today to prevent piracy, but in my opinion it will probably just make people go over to downloading the software illegally. Look at DVD's for example, if you buy it in one part of the world, you won't be able to play it on a player in different parts. It just gives you benefits to download it if you think about it. Still, I'm going to stick to buying CD's, at least until they start having security codes and all that on them too...

Posted by: Toni Suominen Sep 16 2008, 01:17 PM

It's sad that they over-hyped it so much, 'cause now it won't live up to the expectations so easily, no matter who great the game is. Of course people will be disappointed if the game is being hyped for years as the "GREATEST GAME EVAH!-blaa blaa blaa, and then when it comes out, it's great but it doesn't blow peoples minds.

Posted by: blindwillie Sep 16 2008, 03:01 PM

Yes sure. The game itself is as fun as any game. It just doesn't live up to what I expected it to be. It's just like any other game. Nothing new.

Yes, that's what it means.
It ties your DVD key to your registration. Just like Windows it calculates a checksum based on your computer configuration and ties that checksum to your registration and validates your DVD key and checksum online.
That means that if you have two computers at home you want the game installed on and maybe a laptop to bring with you, or you spend some time somewhere else and want to install the game you quickly use up all your installations. There is no "unregister" functions. You can't uninstall the game and get an installation back. If wrong part of the computer crashes, one with enough significance in the calculation, or if you replace your computer, you need one more install.

I don't know what happens if you block SecuROM from internet access or if you play offline. I think it have to validate every 10th day or the game will not start.

You are also depending on EA's niceness to keep the validation servers running. Will they do that in 3 years? 5 years?

Ironically pirated copies don't suffer from this and was leaked four days before launch.
This upsets me of several reasons.
We have bought every single release and addon for Sims and Sims 2, my wife loves them. I bought Black & White and I loved it. I bought Black & White 2 which came with SecuROM. Surprise surprise. SecuROM was uncompatible with my CD/DVD drives so B&W2 never ran on my comp. I had a loong mail conversation with EA and Lionhead, giving detailed information from logging and debugging, pinpointing exactly what was causing the problem. All I got was "Upgrade your soundcards driver, upgrade your video driver" and so on. Even though my logs clearly showed there was no way to upgrade anything more because there didn't exist any later versions of anything. The final answer politly told me to buy new hardware (because may playrig extreme didn't cut it?) and I politly told them do do something else. Now I have a B&W2 that I've never played. Then I decided to never again buy another EA game (my wife has her own will and still buy Sims stuff). I made an exception now because I really was looking forward to Spore and end up with this.

Correction: Maybe "activation" is better wording than "installation".

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/15418.cfm
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/15407.cfm

Posted by: AnyJimmy Sep 16 2008, 03:09 PM

Completely overhyped. The only option that really matters creaturewise is the choice of Carnivore/veggie. Everything else is only funny once. And the part in space is actually quite lame imo..

Posted by: Canis Sep 16 2008, 04:35 PM

I agree, it was totaly overhyped. I can't understand why it took them xx amount of years to finish it...

Posted by: blindwillie Sep 19 2008, 07:54 AM

An update on this. EA feels the pressure (but they are still unlucky when thinking and can't get it right).
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/09/16/spore-drm-update-ea-loosening-one-restriction/

Posted by: Moon Boots Sep 19 2008, 11:28 AM

Out of curiosity, I just checked a torrent website. Over 100,000 people are downloading spore right now. I guess this is what EA gets for making the legal version inferior

Posted by: kaznie_NL Sep 19 2008, 03:00 PM

I've got it now, but not installed yet my friends told me it was a bit simple and short, but I can see for myself in a while!

Posted by: AJRAD Sep 19 2008, 04:19 PM

ive got spore... unfortunately when i try to run it, it just gives me a black screen and dies.
that sucks.

Posted by: Iluha Sep 19 2008, 08:32 PM

Well from what iv'e read, it's one of the biggest dissapointments to the video game worlds.. and it made me quite sad because I was looking forward to it..

From what I read, you will spend most of you'r time going around eating other creatures...... and that's preety much the biggest part of the game

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Sep 20 2008, 10:59 AM

Game companies often don't realize that todays games need to be based on simple but creative ideas, like tetris was. This is how the good games are built, and no hype is gonna help any game if it is not good. In contrary, too much hype can damage the game cause people will tend to have big expectations then, and when they loose that confidence once, company can have problems for next titles.

Posted by: Canis Sep 20 2008, 01:57 PM

So true. Spore has been delayed each year since 2002 or something
So each time they delayed it, people were angry at first, then rumors and expectations came. So for each delay, people said "Oh my lord!! This game is gonna be awesome since they keep adding new stuff!!"

And now, well.... People have made rumors about it for so many years, that it just doesen't live up to anything we would have hoped for ^^

That's why I'm definetly not buying "Duke Nukem Forever"

Posted by: PanicProne Sep 20 2008, 04:40 PM

Wise words my friend. Sadly it kinda goes with music and artists/bands that sellout. It just isn't the same listening to band whos put out their third album and are being played on the radio all the time. There was more excitement when they first where underground....or at least not super hyped.. If anyone needs personal examples from me, just ask... but then again I think everybody's been through it.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 21 2008, 01:10 AM

Can anyone tell me how is the online portion of the game "SPORE" working ? How does it look/work, what do you do there ? Is it something like WoW ? Can you describe it to me a little..

heheheeh I think 10 years passed from the first announcement I loved the old Duke Nukem , but I don't know how are they going to adapt a 10 year old project (currently) to new standards and everything
I'll rent it when it comes out (if it comes out)

Posted by: Canis Sep 21 2008, 01:28 AM

The online part of Spore is nothing else then the game downloading planets and creatures from other players..
There's no communicating or anything. It just copies another persons stuff, and adds them as another race you can be friends with or exterminate

Hehe, exactly... "If" it comes out I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to just give up on "Duke Nukem - If Ever"-Oh, sorry... "Forever", I mean

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 22 2008, 01:41 PM

Oh so there is no real time interaction with them on planets ??? You play against CPU That's boring...

Posted by: blindwillie Sep 22 2008, 02:17 PM

Reminds of my B&W2 problem, check Spore forums and google for EA black screen or SecuROM. Sounds like SecuROM problem.

Posted by: Fran Sep 22 2008, 02:30 PM

Sounds like spore is nothing great then. I was curious about it after their huge advertising campaign, and I thought it had real PvP. Glad I didn't get it then. Well it's 5 years since I bought my last computer so... guess I couldn't play it anyway. I might renew my PC when diablo III is released though.

Posted by: kaznie_NL Sep 22 2008, 05:32 PM

I've played the first fase, and after like ten minutes, I had to leave for dinner. I havne't started it since, which is four days ago!

Posted by: Jakub Luptovec Oct 6 2008, 07:58 AM

Seriously.. this is one of best games I played in all times.. the options for creativity are endless... Btw. the first four phases - cell, evoultion, tribe and civilisation are more of.. just the one quarter of the game.. believe me.. the more time you will spent with your creations, the more you will love them Until you finally conquer whole space:P

guys.. just take a look at the friggin main menu.. the space... with tousands of stars.. and each stars has few planets.. that game is HUGE, with HUGE, maybe unlimited possiblilities.. its hyped.. but you got to give those guys some credit... they did a pretty good work..

Posted by: Velvet Roger Oct 6 2008, 10:25 AM

Hmmm, maybe I should try this game also ... it certainly appeals to me

Posted by: PanicProne Oct 6 2008, 01:16 PM

Well I finally tried it at a friends place a few hours yesterday. And it's allright. But not a lot more. The creation part is brilliant but the gameplay is pretty anoying at times and the fact that it's easier to kill everyone instead of make friends tends to manipulate "lazy" players like me into doing just that. Which is a shame.

I haven't reached space yet but so far the game is good fun even though it get's pretty repetetive. I would never buy this game at it's current cost. But maybe rent it or get it later on.

Posted by: Jakub Luptovec Oct 6 2008, 03:02 PM

Well... the motivation to do it the peaceful way is, that you gain.. medals or idkn how to call it, which result in your philosophy in space age, which determs your bonuses and special skills..

On the other hand, to some extent, this game is a life simulation.. and mostly, the aggresive way is the faster way to solve problem:P

Posted by: PanicProne Oct 6 2008, 04:49 PM

haha. I knew someone would come up with that comment and I'm glad you did. But it still annoys me that it's so much easier to kill and conquer. well, guess I'm just lazy and spoiled. ;P

Posted by: Jakub Luptovec Oct 6 2008, 08:32 PM

Well.. me personaly played herbivore and peacefull character till the last phase.. where it gets really annoying and time consuming..

WARNING SPOILER - select to make visible:


The most annoying thing is, that the strongest/final/quest/most advanced nation from middle of galaxy (dont know the name in english - I play Czech version...) keeps harrasing your planets till no end and when you are not used on attacking (have no battle bonuses from philosophy..) it gets VERY HARD on hard difficulty.. o' well