Friday, September 12, 2008

Don't buy Spore

Because it's eaten my life in the 3 days I've had it.

Dangerous game. It's quarter to seven in the morning, and I haven't gone to bed yet, because "I'll just finish this bit..." then "Wow, how cool! I'll just have a look at this other bit..."

Damn my lack of willpower.

5 comments:

  1. Uh oh. My mom is going to buy that for my son for Christmas!

    So, what did you really think?

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  2. It's exactly the kind of game I like.

    5 sections to it:

    1) Cell phase - where you wander around eating stuff and trying not to get eaten. You can evolve and add bits as you unlock new parts. Simple but fun.

    2) Creature phase - pick up bits and evolve in a similar way, but now you get to interact with other creatures, either befriending them or killing them. New bits give you combat or social abilities. Also gathering food/hunting. Like Virtual Villagers, but better.

    3) Tribal phase - bit like a real-time strategy game (or whatever the correct terminology is) where you control a tribe of up to 12 of your creatures, befriending or defeating the other tribes. Bit simple for someone who's played a lot of that type of game, but perfect for someone like me who hasn't for years. Tribes get new abilities as they befriend/defeat the other tribes.

    4) Civilisation phase - sort of like the original Civilisation game where you control a city which produces units - military, economic or religious - which you use to gain control of rival cities. Haven't played this one much yet. It confused me a bit at first but I'm liking it now.

    5) Space phase - haven't played yet.

    You have to meet certain requirements to move onto the next stage, but you can choose to delay until you've collected everything or explored everywhere or whatever.

    The best bit? Apart from having control over designing creatures, buildings, vehicles, etc., and being able to download thousands of the same designed by others? The fact that how you play the game in one phase affects what happens in the next.

    For example, my peaceful little creatures are herbivores who only killed by accident in cell stage, befriended lots of other creatures in creature and befriended all the other tribes rather than kicking their sorry asses (even tribes which hated them).

    All actions are weighed up, and this meant that my civilisation when I moved to that stage became a religious one. So I've had the fun of seeking out unhappy rival cities and converting them to my religion! (The irony of this isn't lost on my atheist self.)

    I plan to go entirely the other way with my next game. Kill, kill kill! Man eat meat! Kill, crush, destroy!

    So. Much. Fun.

    Z-boy will love it.

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  3. I'm really tempted, it sounds like my kind of game.

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  4. Hmmm... I have a feeling my son is going to have to fight me for it.

    I have something for you over on my blog - come and get it!

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  5. I can see it being a fantastic reward thingy. Like bribery for doing chores or homework.

    Might even work for Zboy too! See what I did there? I made a joke!! ;)

    Oooh, how exciting... heading on over!

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