Product Details
 | Spore |
| List Price: | $29.99 |
| Price: | $22.90 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by SoftwareMI
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Product Description
From the creators of The Sims comes Spore, where you evolve a single-celled organism into a galactic god whose personality and abilities are completely up to you. Then interact with other players' creatures-including ones made by celebrities! EA Games. PC/MAC, NDS.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1522 in Video Games
- Brand: Electronic Arts
- Model: 15352
- Released on: 2008-09-07
- ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Mac, Windows XP
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .50" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .40 pounds
Features
- Epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and outer space exploration
- Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space
- Grow, evolve, interact with and battle other cultures, and conquer the planet
- Visit literally millions of planets full of other player's creations
- Single-player game provides unlimited worlds to explore and play
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Create
universal wonder in Spore, an exciting new simulation game that lets
you develop your own personal universe. Work your way through five
evolutionary phases, including Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization and
Space, that offer unique challenges, thrills and goals. For example, you
can start in Cell and nurture one species from a simple aquatic
organism all the way until it becomes a sentient life form. Or you can
jump right in and begin building tribes and civilizations on multiple
planets. What you do with your universe is totally up to you.
The
powerful creation tools of Spore are easy to use, allowing you to
effortlessly design every aspect of your universe. Creatures, vehicles,
building and even starships are all within your grasp. While Spore is a
single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are
automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, offering a nearly
limitless number of worlds to visit and enjoy. You can also go online to
view the incredible things other players have made and can even pull
those items into your universe. Spore gives you the chance to make
worlds and beings that evolve, grow and delight you every step of the
way.
SPORE CREATURE CREATOR
Finally all that hard work creating the perfect being can be put to good use. Import creatures that you created with the Spore Creature Creator and watch them live, breath and thrive in the full version of Spore.TAKE YOUR SPORE ONLINE
While Spore is a single player game, your creations and other players’ creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play within. Internet Connection Required.Minimum System Requirements
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac)- PC Minimum - Windows XP/Vista
- 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
- 512 MB RAM/768 MB RAM
- 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
- The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
- Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1
- At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations
- Mac Minimum - Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
- Intel Core Duo Processor
- 1024 MB RAM
- ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
- At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations
- This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac), or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards
- For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least:
- Intel Integrated Chipset, 945GM or above
- 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
- 768 MB RAM
Customer Reviews
Dumbed down experience and draconian DRM
See those older 5-star
reviews from 2006 (two years before the game was released)? Well, they
had a reason to be excited. Spore was supposed to be a revolutionary
experience, combining multiple genres while concentrating on evolution
and genetics.
Fast forward two years and here we have the
finished product, ready to be installed on our hard drives.
First
of all, the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you
to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3
activations. If you reach that limit, then you'll have to call EA in
order to add one extra activation. That's not as simple as it sounds,
since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying
customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of
purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all
happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of
course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even
provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even
shut down the general activation servers, because "it's not financially
feasible" to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice,
colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another
copy/license if you want to continue playing.
This basically
means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it. The
game WILL stop to function in the future. That's inevitable, because
even if EA keeps the activation servers going, there IS going to be a
time when EA will simply cease to exist because of financial issues or
federal laws (like most businesses eventually do).
Second, the
game was dumbed down to oblivion. Evolution doesn't even matter anymore.
For example, you can add as many legs to a creature as you want, but
the multi-legged creature won't be any faster than a single-legged one
with higher leg stats. This gameplay element makes "creating" your
creatures entirely pointless (cosmetic only, because everything is based
on stats), and brings you about the same amount of excitement as
dressing up a plastic doll.
I don't
understand magazine reviews giving this game high marks
This game has some
revolutionary concepts, such as automatically shared user content and
amazing design tools (that were already introducted and perfected, and
some would say superior by Galactic Civilizations 2 years ago).
However,
there is no 'game' here. As some people put, the 'game' amounts to over
simplified tasks that are monotonous and repetitive. The creature stage
isn't as fun as you would imagine, as not all the parts are available,
and even if they were, you are encouraged to use the 'highest stat' part
effectively limiting you to maybe 6-10 parts to place onto your
creature.
Why would you use a cool looking mouth with a social
rating of '1' if that means that you can't befriend the other tribes and
hence progress in the game?? Basically, many of the parts become
useless, no matter how good they look. Furthermore, other creature nests
(only one nest per species) are arranged with weak creatures
immediately around you, and progressively higher level creatures at
increasing distances. How predictable. Basically, its designed so that
you only explore or run around your immediate nest. I always imagined
finding random creatures walking around, hunting, eating, grazing,
finding mates, etc. Nope. All creatures basically hang around IN or NEXT
TO their nest. How lame. So basically there is no mixing of the
creatures. Creatures dont wander around the world as you would think.
They are all found in clumps and really only have limited interactions
with each other (limited since they only interact [partially] with
surrounding nests, as they dont wander around the world)
The
civilization stage is HORRIBLE. Basically it amounts to the most
simplified and boring RTS I have ever played. Quickly grab a few
resources, and then keep clicking on 'create vehicle' and send it to the
enemy city. Repeat the last 2 steps endlessly and you have the game. No
strategy, no thinking, no variety. You might as well have a script do
this for you.
Then there's the DRM. Let me just clarify what
people are saying by adding, it not only counts installations, but
changes to your hardware ! Upgrade a system component (memory, CPU, vid
card) and you are out an installation. Not that it matters because its
really a pretty bad game (except for the creation tools) Nice job.
Basically I just paid $50 for a coaster.
Returning
the game...
I played with the creature
creator a bit and had a good time. I long ago pre-ordered Spore and have
not had time to look further into the game as it approaches release.
When I finally did, a few days ago, I discovered that they are
implementing the absurd SecuROM DRM.
I have no interest in paying
full price for a game that I will be severely restricted from being
able to play at a later point. Presuming installation is flawless, the
current restriction to "three installs" is something any user will
exceed long before their interest in the game does.
In my
situation, I would be installing it on my desktop and my laptop. I would
only ever be playing one of these systems at a time so there would be
no violation of the ridiculous EULA most products have. Only one
instance would ever be operated simultaneously and only by me, the owner
(well, renter as EA and SecuROM would have it). This would mean that as
soon as I ever had to reinstall an OS on my desktop or laptop, I'd be
screwed out of the game unless I wanted to buy it again for full price
(and what happens if you want to enjoy the game a few years down the
road and re-install it)?
Think about that for a minute. Even if
you never upgrade your hardware or buy a new computer or use a different
computer -- how often (presuming you're using Windows of course) do you
reinstall your operating system? And each time, you have to reinstall
the game. If you're an XP user, you'll probably install the game. Then
you'll upgrade to Vista. That'll be another install. Two down; one to
go. Then you may need to re-install vista from scratch for any number of
miserable reasons. And that will be your third strike. You better hope
that you never *ever* need to change or adjust that system for any
reason if you like Spore.
Imagine applying this to other
products. What if you could only watch purchased DVDs on one specific
DVD player and once you've played it on that system, you could never
play them on another one. No lending them to your friends. No buying a
new player. No watching it on your payer in different rooms. No selling
your used DVDs. And if your player dies and you buy a new one, you'll
have to re-purchase the movie. Wouldn't that be silly? Perfectly good
content that you have physically sitting in your hand that you paid
handily for and have every right to own and use... only... you don't own
it and can't use it.
I only wish I had known this sooner. It is
already in the process of being shipped so I can't cancel the order.
Once it arrives, you better believe I'm going to hand it right back to
the UPS driver and tell him I refuse to accept delivery.
This is
truly unfortunate. I'm a fan of Will Wright, even if some of his more
recent games have not been geared toward the traditional simulation or
Sim City fan and have been aimed more at the "decorate a bedroom and
play house" crowd. I'd love to give Wright my support. But EA is making
that impossible with this ridiculous scheme. I'm not a thief. Don't
treat me like one.
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