Spore

[WanderingKnight]

and miss out on a potential best game ever

You can always rob a ship and steal a copy. It's a great way to show your discomfort towards how this is being handled.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

My friend and I were just discussing Black & White yesterday. The idea behind the game was really, really cool, but the implementation was pretty bad. Did you ever try the multiplayer? I was 1.00 (100% "good") while my friend was -1.00 (100% "evil") and the evil spells totally trash the good spells. Black & White's big appeal to me was that finally, here was a game where you could play in a constructive manner, yet in its implementation they were clearly catering toward the crowd that would want to kill and blow stuff up.

Case in point, in one game I must have had no less than 10 spell shields stacked within each other once my friend got the ultimate evil spell (forgot what it's called, but it's basically a giant "death ray from the sky") - the spell went right through the shields. There is no "ultimate good" spell. (I don't believe that my complaints are derived from being a poor player, either; I wasn't overtaking villages any slower than my friends, and my creature consistently won in creature fights.)

IIRC it's something along the lines of "megablast."

Great point there. I have to agree with you: Black & White was a very far cry from perfect; I suck at games, so I never tried multiplayer (plus, I had a foreign language version; legit of course, but not very multiplayer friendly), but I knew I often got frustrated when I played a good god in the single player campaigns. The first three worlds are fine enough, but the fifth world was a horrible affair as the enemy god whatshisname kept using destruction spells one after another -- without my good god having any proper defense. I think I never kept my cool to the end and always had to resort to some extreme classic Old Testament violence to progress through that world. But my love for it is for the sheer innovation involved and for being the best God Game out for a long, long while. Plus, the pet creature was great fun.

B&W II was disappointing in that aspect. Sure, the city management aspect was drastically improved, but I played B&W for the fun of being a god and raising a troublesome pet, not for some generic city-building wannabe that didn't hold a candle to the great Impression classics. Well, to be fair, not even Caesar IV holds a candle to the Impression classics.

And now we have Spore. Again, it's a very neat idea in that there's a completely open world and you can play how ever you like... but will it really be that open? I've started to lose my enthusiasm for it and feel that it might be a bit more limited and linear than I'd initially hoped for. I'll hold off on getting it and see what other people say, I suppose.

Spore is never going to meet the overwhelming hype it has around it; but I think its potential is really great if one take into account that it won't be what the hype says it would be.

But yes, free-form games have a very dangerous tendency of being a road to nowhere as opposed to a garden of imagination that their creators want them to be. There's a reason why Oblivion in all its freedom and massive environmental awesomeness felt so empty and lifeless compared to the restricted worlds of (well-made) traditional CRPG's. How will Spore handle this is something to be seen.

You can always rob a ship and steal a copy. It's a great way to show your discomfort towards how this is being handled.

Well now, it's not something to be spoken of in public. Regardless, whether I'll go down to Tortuga for some good ol' arrr'ing or not, I fear the sale executives are still going to be blaming Jack Sparrow for all the setbacks in the sale figures -- because evil DRM's that confused buying a product with limited draconian renting have nothing to do with it.

[WanderingKnight]

There's a reason why Oblivion in all its freedom and massive environmental awesomeness felt so empty and lifeless compared to the restricted worlds of (well-made) traditional CRPG's.

The reasons why Oblivion failed so much were:

1) Hype
2) More hype
3) Not having the decency to provide a sane difficulty slider. Morrowind also had integrated the idea that the more you leveled up, the stronger the enemies became, but at least you had some sane standards--if you were level 20, there was no way a run-of-the-mill bandit you found in the middle of traveling from city A to city B could get you in trouble. Oblivion had no such balance integrated. In fact, the more you leveled up, the harder the game became. I played Morrowind at a *very* slow pace (it took me like 6 to 7 months to finish the main quest alone), and I leveled up a lot in the process... but I couldn't do the same with Oblivion. I felt so compelled to blast through the main campaign in order to avoid being slaughtered by a random bear I found on the road that I almost stopped playing it. When I heard from my friend that he had managed to finish the game in level 10 or so while I was having trouble with the first set of missions with my level 17 character, I stopped playing it altogether.

It's sad that it came out so badly in those regards. Morrowind, for all its NPCs' genericness and lack of overall life when compared to Oblivion, was a much better game.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

The reasons why Oblivion failed so much were:

1) Hype
2) More hype
3) Not having the decency to provide a sane difficulty slider. Morrowind also had integrated the idea that the more you leveled up, the stronger the enemies became, but at least you had some sane standards--if you were level 20, there was no way a run-of-the-mill bandit you found in the middle of traveling from city A to city B could get you in trouble. Oblivion had no such balance integrated. In fact, the more you leveled up, the harder the game became. I played Morrowind at a *very* slow pace (it took me like 6 to 7 months to finish the main quest alone), and I leveled up a lot in the process... but I couldn't do the same with Oblivion. I felt so compelled to blast through the main campaign in order to avoid being slaughtered by a random bear I found on the road that I almost stopped playing it. When I heard from my friend that he had managed to finish the game in level 10 or so while I was having trouble with the first set of missions with my level 17 character, I stopped playing it altogether.

It's sad that it came out so badly in those regards. Morrowind, for all its NPCs' genericness and lack of overall life when compared to Oblivion, was a much better game.

I played both, and I prefer Oblivion's leveling system. The problems with difficulty as you progress in levels is in HOW you level up.
Due to the system of having stats improve at leveling depending on which skills you improved, if you just level "naturally" you tend to get weaker and weaker compared to your enemies. You really have to plan things out in advance and focus on specific skills (and non-major skills, too, in order to avoid leveling too quickly) in order to get all those +5 bonuses when you level.
I know a lot of people would rather just play the game without worrying about micro-managing like that, and for those people you should just turn down the difficulty slider about 10 notches . As for me, Oblivion was a challenging RPG with a bazillion possibilities of how to play it, and I've gone through the entire thing (nearly all the quests) twice now. My last game I beat the main quest when I was level 45 .

Beating the game at level 10 is pretty easy (and boring, really). Beating it at level 1, however...... I still haven't managed it, although I think it should be possible.

[Ithekro]

Spore, if what they say is still correct, seems to be a progressional game that leads to the "endless" possibilities game at the end. Basically all the early stages are so you can learn the tools you can play with. There seems to be a galactic core race that defeating and getting to the core is a goal, but I don't quite get if you have any limits or if you can just do what you want for as long as you want (assuming that there is no "you waited too long, your homeworld (and or galaxy) has been destroyed because you are a slacker" type ending).

[Tiberium Wolf]

Ok... I tested the editor and it seem kinda heavy. Since I only have 25% version so is kinda empty. I tried to make a tentacle monster but I wasn't able to do it with the objects provided.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Ok... I tested the editor and it seem kinda heavy. Since I only have 25% version so is kinda empty. I tried to make a tentacle monster but I wasn't able to do it with the objects provided.

The creature editor is surprisingly flexible, especially once you start to figure out its tricks. Watch the 3 tutorials that maxis uploaded to youtube, where it talks about some of them like using alt and cntl to cut and paste limbs.

Here's my tentacle monster, by the way

http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=...t-500002632998

the rest of my creatures so far:
http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=usr-Quarkboy

Note I have the full version...

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

The creature editor is surprisingly flexible, especially once you start to figure out its tricks. Watch the 3 tutorials that maxis uploaded to youtube, where it talks about some of them like using alt and cntl to cut and paste limbs.

Here's my tentacle monster, by the way

http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=...t-500002632998

the rest of my creatures so far:
http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=usr-Quarkboy

Note I have the full version...

OK...I sux! Need a lot of pratice.

Anyway... I dont see tentacles in that creations of yours.

[Dingo]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

The creature editor is surprisingly flexible, especially once you start to figure out its tricks. Watch the 3 tutorials that maxis uploaded to youtube, where it talks about some of them like using alt and cntl to cut and paste limbs.

Here's my tentacle monster, by the way

http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=...t-500002632998

the rest of my creatures so far:
http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=usr-Quarkboy

Note I have the full version...

Wow I'm really liking the tentacle monster, I am going to steal your concept and modify it as my own :x

[randomuser83]

Hahah nice monster. I cant wait to explore everyones planet.

[Dingo]

I can't wait to invade your planet

[Ithekro]

Released.

So how is it...or is it still too soon for people to be up to the Space Game/Phase?

[Jaden]

It's a good game, I guess it lives up to the hype. It's original and it works. The best parts of the game are the creature editor and the space age with online capability. The other phases gameplay is mostly crap.

[Jazzrat]

I was naughty and gotten an illegit copy first
I like the cell and creature phase. Tribal and civilization phase was boring and space phase felt too much like an MMO (with all the fedex quest)

[Aya Reiko]

Anyone else notice this musical Easter Egg during Space stage while trading?

Spoiler for Easter Egg:

Spoiler for Easter Egg Origin:

[Ending]

I like the cell and creature phase. Tribal and civilization phase was boring and space phase felt too much like an MMO (with all the fedex quest)

Pretty much. I would had been happy if they had focused only on the cell phase and forgotten the rest. One good thing is better than a shipload of crap.

[Ithekro]

I'll get this game. I just hope I can have fun exploring the galaxy, because that is basically what I want to do with it.

[rainnydaiis]

I ordered it and got it the other day, finally installed and played it for a bit. To my amusement it did get my addicted like a couple of my friends did. But then again with a lot of things constantly going on, I haven't been able to play much. But when I do have time I'll see that I go online and try to play this sucker

[othera]

Played this game for awhile now, and heres what i think...

Cell stage - To short and it looks to werid
Creature stage - I thought this was the main part of the game when i first started, freakin loved this stage.
Tribal stage - Took to long for how boring it was.
Cib stage - Took to long just like the tribal stage, seemed like a waist of time
Space stage - omg this is huge ive started killing the grox and after 2 hours it looks like i have just dinted their giant circle of places they own... heck a dint is an exageration

I love this game, but i don't think i will play all the way through(to the point where i beat the grox) im a hardcore gamer but damn thats like... huge amounts of patience needed.

[Ithekro]

Galaxy is a big place. Was exploring for a while, making colonies, then decided to call it a night. Zoomed back just before hand...whole empires of known space vanished into a small part of a spiral arm.

If the game lets you (without spamming messages all day long about this attack or that attack), you could explore the galaxy for years without end.