We're letting you know because they let us know. It appears EA's Spore has, despite many initial complaints, indeed made itself a household name (at least in just over one million homes), with that magic million sell through mark since its release on September 7.

Apparently gamers have also uploaded some 25 million creatures to the "Sporepedia".

"We're humbled by how quickly the community has taken to the creativity tools in Spore," said Lucy Bradshaw, vice president of Maxis and Spore's executive producer. "It's amazing to see the sheer imagination represented in the hundreds of thousands of creatures, vehicles and buildings that have been uploaded around the clock since launch."

So what's the consensus among AusGamers readers? I know Dan has had a serious crack at it, but I've yet to take the plunge.

Its s***.

not my cup o' tea

it's too goofy looking imo. i wanted to make a geiger-esque alien... but it ends up looking really tooney n stupid & has these lame bird chirps & trills.

needs more facehugger.

It's s***.

Even my little sister who devours each new sims like candy from a stranger thinks it's crap.

The editor has its limits yes. You can't really make much of a hardcore alien being. Its too toony.

I maxxed out evolution last night - basically "finishing" the space stage without speding days bashing my way through the Groxx to the centre of the galaxy (may never bother with that).

I wouldn't say its s*** but there is something definetly lacking. Even after 1.01 there are some niggling problems. Chief among them is the fact that planets (even with max turrets on bases and satellite defenses) can't defend themselves without your personal presence. That's my #1 grief with the game.

I've been thinking about it and aside from the severe case of the cutesies there is a lack of depth in each individual stage, even the final space stage which is by far the most involved.

I made it to the space stage in about 4 hours... I reckon Spore was probably just too ambitious to cram into a single game. At every turn I find myself wanting the game to be more that what it is. IE:

* I want to be able to zoom into planets and drop a colony on a world, starting a civilisation stage intra-game.
* I want the civilisation stage to be bigger. More options, more stuff to do.
* Same goes with the tribal stage. This would be awesome if it was a fully fleshed out RTS with tech trees, multiple resources etc!
* I want to be able to build a real fleet, not just borrow ships from allies.
* I want to do planetary combat in first person with a joystick (like a flight sim / descent type deal). The current planetary combat i just spammy and unwieldy.
* Space combat needs to be BETTER. The galaxy combat should be a Sins of the Solar Empire type deal!

Basically, it feels like we have in Spore a cool game framework that with enough content updates (ie, expansions) could be the ZOMG pretty much the entire internets was hoping for.

last edited by Hogfather at 12:11:18 25/Sep/08

Basically, it feels like we have in Spore a cool game framework that with enough content updates (ie, expansions) could be the ZOMG pretty much the entire internets was hoping for.

What you described sounds AWESOME.

I have to agree with Hogfather. While I am enjoying it, and don't mind the cutesies, I just feel that there isn't really any depth in the stages.

The only stage with any real depth is the Space stage. That's only because you've got more options on what you can do. Probably the best thing about the space stage is Terraforming planets and setting up colonies. I was actually expecting to be able to play the colony you make as an intragame like Hogfather said.

My biggest gripe is the fact that every time I try to do something in the space stage my colonies get attacked and I have to keep going back to them to help out. Gets really boring and annoying rather quickly.

My biggest gripe is the fact that every time I try to do something in the space stage my colonies get attacked and I have to keep going back to them to help out. Gets really boring and annoying rather quickly.

I had the same problem, did some reading.

Depending on difficulty setting (and whether you have version 1.01) you can minimise this for the most part through alliances. Just make friends with everyone you meet early on until you can get some good sized colonies up in the rarer crystals (blue, green, purple, pink).

Allies will annoy you for help but you can ignore them and just pay them off with bribes when they drop a faction level. Once you are trading well the bribe dent is nearly trivial in your income.

You'll still need to go back to your planets for pirates for the most part, but get some good base defenses in place and a satellite and you won't have to do anything when you get there (half the time when I arrive they run away). Also, ignore planets that aren't part of your mining strategy.

Once you are strong, go and pay the smartarses who demanded tribute a visit one by one and f*** em up good! Using terraforming tools to smash a planet to T0 is a nice way to mess up city defenses :)

last edited by Hogfather at 15:30:51 25/Sep/08

I'm waiting a few months because I know this game's going to have more expansions than the motherf***ing sims.

Scarier creatures
Ultra body part pack
Tribe extravaganza
Inter-galaxy space edition: Fight your friends with huge fleets!

etc.

So what's the consensus among AusGamers readers?

It's like the Nintendo Wii. Cool concept, but very shallow leaving you pondering not what was in the game, but what was missing...

It's like the Nintendo Wii. Cool concept, but very shallow leaving you pondering not what was in the game, but what was missing...

couldn't have summarised it better

Pretty much. IMO they tried to do too much and hence only scraped the surface of a lot of good ideas.
also I would rather a hardcore looking spore game so when I make every creature extinct it isn't boring and s*** to look at.

I thought this was by far the more interesting Spore story - class action suit filed against EA For the copy protection in Spore.

It's like the Nintendo Wii. Cool concept, but very shallow leaving you pondering not what was in the game, but what was missing...

Do you release newsletters? I wish to subscribe.

One of the greatest disapointments for me was how they completely raped evolution. I didn't like how you can completely change your creature every time you breed. Also, once a species is spread through an entire galaxy, unless you have some uber pimp breeding program, there's going to be a fairly high degree of divergence. Speciation may not occur, but you'd wind up with some very different looking variations of the same species (kinda like dogs). I also disliked the tribal stage. The controls and interface were awkward.

Twisted summed it up perfectly IMO.

I didn't like how you can completely change your creature every time you breed

Yeah they f***ed up the evolution part, which was the whole point of the game.

It should have been a case of .. you eat lots of plants? +X points to Herbivore body parts with every bite. Sure it's still not true evolution but at least it highlights that a useful trait becomes more pronounced through generations.

I also disliked the tribal stage

Yeah, why go to all the effort of gaining resources to upgrade your Sing/Dance/Charm body parts to ally with someone when you can just wipe them the f*** out in 1/10th of the time.

dang. it just arrived today, and just installed it :( was hopping it would be a game like simcity where you could spend months on it.

I thought this was by far the more interesting Spore story - class action suit filed against EA For the copy protection in Spore.

I found it hilarious (and pathetic) on EA's part that they're also banning peoples *game* accounts (not just forum accounts) for discussing DRM/SecuROM on the EA Spore forums.

Spore has to be the might highly anticipated and most massive letdown in a long time.

dang. it just arrived today, and just installed it :( was hopping it would be a game like simcity where you could spend months on it.

Well, its possible. You could try and conquer your entire arm of the galaxy or kill off the Groxx without cheating, or something.

But once you maxx out the game stales a ;bit (and for some people earlier). If there was just a bit more variety in the s*** you can do in the space stage it would be much better. Even the higher difficulties don't improve things, you just get spammed more with attacks and eco-disasters.

bunch of lunatics you lot (all the negative supporters), DUDES its a game for kids!.... REALLLLYYYY....u should be playing other stuff like BF BD or Crysis, SPORES its great for kids! awesome for their imagination and creativity...introduces the concept of an RTS and RP game with the cartoonish like animation...some people are not seeing the picture....u people love getting on the negative ban-wagon !

(all the negative supporters)

What exactly is a "negative supporter" ?

The opposite of a positive supporter.

Duh.

Pretty sure he means supporters of the negative argument.

Pretty sure you knew that.

It's a game for kids and it's being flogged in the courier mail?

Hey at least they didn't call it Sim Everything ...