So where do you think Zephyr has been for the past week?

Anyhoo, Spore is a completely amazing epic PC game by EA and I'm not going to go in-depth explaining it and I'll just give you guys the link. Actually I will explain it.

So it's incredible. You start off as a single-celled organism in a tidepool, and you eat vegetables/meat to grow bigger. You also collect parts to edit onto your creature to improve it; I gave my guy spikes on either side of his face and things that leaked poison, for example. You interact with other creatures; avoiding predators and competing with others for food. Once you grow big enough, the cell phase ends and you move on to the creature phase.

In the creature phase, you grow legs and walk on land for the first time. The game switches from top-down to 3-d. Uh. The procedure is similar-- eat food and gather parts to evolve-- but you also interact with other creatures, either befriending them or killing them. Yes. Oh, and did I mention that all these other creatures are other people's creations that the game downloads from the internet? And your creatures will show up in other people's games too. Amazing.

Next is tribal phase, which is sort of akin to Age of Empires. Manage your tribe, divvy up the tasks, and ally with or defeat rival tribes. Defeating/allying all the tribes moves you to the next phase: civilization.

In Civilization, it's world conquest. You compete with other nations of your species for resources, and there are three ways to overcome your enemies: capture their city by military force, buy the city with oodles (okay not really) of cash, or (my favourite) convert them religiously by deploying vehicles that project gigantic holograms of your leader. Um. Once you capture all the cities, it's space phase, baby!

In Space phase, the world... err galaxy... err universe is your oyster. Establish relations with other sapient species, hunt for treasure, or expand your empire. There's literally nothing you can't do! You can take a barren planet and turn it into one capable of supporting life by introducing plants and animals to it, or on the flip side you can completely eradicate the population of planets from existence. There's a lot to do.


So, have I gotten you hooked yet? The game is incredible (and worth whatever it takes to get it; making my computer able to run the game in the first place was an adventure, but it all worked out in the end). GET IT GET IT GET IT or if you already have it, say so here. =D

My cousin has it, so I've played it, but not past the Cell Stage. That was good enough though - I'd spend a day just playing the Cell Stage (maybe not a day, but still, even that was fun). Yeah apparently it's really good but it's far too easy, much like the Sims. The thing I like about this game is that your creatures don't have moods and don't speak in backwards German at twice the speed.

My personal favourite stages would have to be, erm... either the Creature phase or the space phase (because it's awesome turning barren rocks of a planet into something hospotable), but the Cell phase is so simple and fun, it makes me want to play Spore Origins. =D

...And, uh. Hate to break it to you, but they do speak in double-speed backwards german in the tribal, civ, and space phases. xD; It's not so bad once you get used to it, and they have different voices, y'know, depending on what mouth you give 'em. And it does incorporate elements from the Sims, 'cause they're by the same people and all. xD But I like the sims, and so I like Spore. =D (I wanna get the Sims too now. =D)

My friend just got Spore, but then immediately after got The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which, so I hear, is the best RPG ever) and that pretty much overshadowed it.

In any case, I've been hearing a lot about Spore, but in a negative way thanks to EA's draconian DRM tactics. Three installs, and you have to call them and ask for another try. Computer crash? Tough luck. Multiple installs? No go. The sad part is, the pirates that it's supposed to prevent don't even need to worry about the DRM, since they've got it cracked.

I'm not saying Spore's a bad game. (I haven't even tried it, so that would be kinda stupid.) I just think EA could have been a little smarter on the implementation...

In any case, I just have too much work now for MORE games. Maybe I'll try it later. :\

Gasp! That sounds fun! Maybe I'll have to get it. xD Really creative idea. It would be fun to see all the other people's little monster things. *shot*