First Impressions Thread - Spore Out Now!

[ElPresidente]

With Spore having just been released (in Australia at least) I thought I'd start this thread so we can keep all first impressions discussion together.

I'm still installing but thought I'd launch a pre-emptive strike against the potential thread bombardment this section of the forums is about to recieve.

So... who has it and what do they think? My thoughts coming in about four hours time.

[roxxy_SC]

I wasn't home when they called me this morning, so I am now going to have to wait as the stores close in an hour. Looking forward to hearing from anyone that has the game.

edited to add; got it this morning.

[nikisazombie]

That's awesome! Yup. I live in America... so no Spore yet.:( *sigh* It's preordered and paid for, though... so I'm just waiting.

[tinyhayuk14]

Im in the UK so no spore for another three days! Can't wait!!

[ElPresidente]

Okay so I lied about the 4 hours thing. I've been sick and played the game solely with my mouse from bed and then passed out.

Having said that I'm currently near the end of the creature stage and the game is surprisingly compelling. I'm not quite sold on the longevity of the title but so far it has been a lot of fun.

Cell stage is surprisingly addictive considering it is little more than a fl0w (http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/) clone with upgrades and sans the beautiful music. There is something quite compelling about swimming around the primordeal ooze and getting jealous of another creature for having genetic parts and abilities you don't. Suddenly you start customising your organism to counter the threats of others and so on.

The beginning of creature mode feels like an epic journey. As you set forth from your nest to expore your environs there is a definite feeling of discovery. Especially as you begin to interact with other life forms and continue to evolve your creature.

Perhaps my biggest complaint here is that outside of special abilities learned from previous stages based on your eating habits, socialising habits, governance, etc you are free to effectively strip down your creature and start all over again. It takes away somewhat from the feeling of evolution when one step in the evolutionary chain can be as big as the difference between a garden snail and a T-Rex.

The other concern I have is that after the initial feeling of wonderment does wear off you realise that there are not a lot of tasks in the creature stage. It is basically wandering around the landscape, picking up creature upgrades, eating food and either befriending or fighting other creatures.

It is worth noting this is as far as I've gone in the game so far. Considering the difference in complexity between cell and creature stage (not that the latter is expecially complex) it is likely further stages will continue to increase in complexity and provide more replayability.

So far the game is excellent... my concerns lie only with longevity. This game may be more expansive conceptually than The Sims or Sim City but of Wright's creations I'm concerned this will have the least of that ellusive quantity we call 'gameplay'.

[coltraz]

Thanks for the words, Prez. I was anxious to know your opinion(s).

[ElPresidente]

Having decided to replay from the start again and having made it to tribe mode my enthusiasm is dwindling. Everything seems so binary - make war or peace, war or peace. The controls are obsucre for the more complex areas of the game and frankly, how you design your creature has very little impact on gameplay.

I will keep playing til the end but something tells me I will be returning it upon completion.

Oh well.

[Echo]

My opinions are similarly mixed. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the creature phase, playing with a herbivore. The creative aspects are still fun, but having played with the full creature editor that's a bit passe now. ;) The gameplay is entertaining enough, but tends towards the repetitive - Find another species. Play the "repeat what we're doing" game with them. Click on skeletons and fruit trees periodically. Given that I'm playing a peaceful herbivore there's not much fighting (defensive or offensive) but I imagine that's different with a carnivore.

I'm quite looking forward to getting some wings though!

It's still fun, not sure how repeatable the fun will be though. Time will tell!

[Delphy]

I just got it (and HP did too) - just finished the slow install phase. Will update with my thoughts soon.

[coltraz]

I'm nervous Delphy!! I hope you like it! :(

[roxxy_SC]

I have watched another family member play, so from that perspective it's been entertaining. They are still in the creature stage, nearing the end. So far there has been meteor showers, aggressive gigantic beast picking them up and throwing them around and a spaceship abduction.

[ElPresidente]

Unfortunately that is all the surprises it has to offer outside of rogue versions of other creatures (HIGHLY recommend befriending those guys and adding them to your pack, they tend to be twice as strong as anything else).

[coltraz]

I added one to my pack, but I don't understand how to add anymore. Maybe I am only allowed one at first...?

[kattenijin]

WANT!!! lol! I hate you all now, not the big H hate, just the little h. :) Is it Sunday yet?! It better be out on time in the US. And that Flow game...totally addictive too!

[Echo]

I added one to my pack, but I don't understand how to add anymore. Maybe I am only allowed one at first...?
You get one at first. As your brain size grows, you can have more creatures in your pack. :)

[PandaGuin]

I'm installing now... but I'm sick and sleepy so who knows what will happen.

[Delphy]

ElPres, yeah if you befriend those Rogue creatures you can go around and annihilate everything else on the map - especially if you have 3 of them. :)

So far I'm quite liking it. I got to civilization stage and got my ass kicked (this is in the same game where I owned the Creature and Tribal phases easily).

Initial thoughts:

- The graphics are nice, cute, but not really "Wow". The downsides are a lack of microvegetation, low quality texturing in some areas, but also the draw distance is fairly low - I would have much liked it if I could have seen further and zoomed out more.

- As noted above, the game as a whole tends to be very black and white. Carnivore / Herbivore / Omnivore, Aggressive, etc. You also can only Social or Combat things. Still, it's interesting to deliberately try and do different tactics. I'm an agressive militaristic herbivore. :)

Should hopefully finish the Civilisation phase later and then it's onto the Space Stage.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Well, I played it for hours last night until like 1:30 before flopping into bed, so I must like it some...

I didn't really go "WOW!" until the civilization stage, where the ability to paint different parts of your vehicle with different textures extremely easily - along with the amazingly lovely textures they have to use (including some awesome steampunky ones!) made me all weak in the knees. That, and the bit where you can compose your own national anthem (!) with its lovely little intuitive interface is fantabulous. I believe I actually said "Holy shit!" out loud when I found that.

I sort of wish each part were more developed though. To me, it feels almost like you're just starting to enjoy the game, waiting for more depth to come along in the stage you're in, and then it ends and you're on to the next stage. This will probably be corrected with an expansion pack.

There are some really cute things like being able to outfit your creatures in tribal gear, and the mating music in the stage after you just crawl onto land makes me giggle.

I'm also not seeing a ton of -challenge- happening. Yeah, I did die like eight times in the cell stage, and about four times in the creature stage... and then once in the tribal stage, but after that, it's pretty much cake, and you don't really lose anything when you die. It's just annoying, with no real consequences.

It's not often a game can make me crack up laughing. A chuckle, sure, but I have busted up cackling delightedly on at least three occasions - mostly at the cutscenes transitioning from one stage to another. The sense of humour is great. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't played yet (as they're probably kind of a one-laugh things as they're mostly surprisingly funny rather than just wickedly clever) but they are highly amusing.

The part names are great too. I'd noticed it in the creature creator but there's parts for everything - boats, planes, structures, etc., so there's a lot more to work with, and many of them are worth a giggle.

I guess I'm curious at how replayable it's going to be. I have a feeling most of it is going to be creating different things (creatures, structures, boats, etc.) that -really- don't have that much impact on the game. Yes, there's like a million different options and probably billions of ways to put them together, but then you get in game and it's a little speck and so easy you could have put it together backwards and it'd still be fine.

I did wake up with the urge to build an elvish society - elvish creatures as herbivores, peaceful and religious, with lovely delicate buildings and vehicles...

Ugh, must go play again...

[PandaGuin]

Gee. I must be the only one who's playing the game they expected. I'm not disappointed in it at all, I've spent a lot of hours playing it and I'm only just up to the civ stage. The only issue I have is from playing C&C for all these years, I can't find a way to number a certain group for easy selection, in C&C ctrl+ whatever number would do that.

[ElPresidente]

I never said I was dissappointed. I'm just saying there isn't much depth to it nor do I feel there is going to be much longevity. It is a good but not great game.

[PandaGuin]

I always figured it would be a fluff game, like the first Sims, but then I'm easily amused and like pretty things so what can I do? Each to their own.

[Delphy]

You know, the more I think about it the more I think that the Tribal phase is very shallow: All you do is gather food. Then occasionally go beat up some people.

What it needs is *other stuff* to do. Something like Ally with friendly villages to go and kill an Epic creature, or send your Chieftain on a solo quest to find a shrine that levels up his spells or gives him more hp or something. Or even, as HP thought, a fog of war.

It seems very shallow... it's supposed to an RTS but it's really not. Oh and I could never get the burning torches to actually do anything.

Also, it seems that your creature as it ends Creature Phase really doesn't have any bearing on how it plays in Tribal Phase. Some of the attacks carry over, but do they actually have an effect? I mean, I had a high combat score in Creature Mode. Lvl 3 Bite, lvl 5 other stuff... but in Tribal my Combat score is based on what I am *wearing*.

If I am a fearsome predator, surely I would be better in combat than a wussy passive herbivore?

I think I'll have to play through a few more times to see if there actually *is* a difference or if it's all just cancelled out when you end the stage.

[coltraz]

There is a fog of war if you eliminate eyes on your creature. You get just a window of its surroundings and it's black and white, as well. I've been playing with a blind bug for most of the creature phase. It's a lot harder. I'm constantly being whacked and I can't find things to eat anymore.
I just don't like how, in order to advance, you really need to make sure your creature has feet, probably arms or another set of feet, can walk and run fast, can see, is decorated with things that will provide social interaction knowledge/ability, is decorated with better mouths than they started with, better, better, better, more advanced, etc.. I mean, I know it's about evolving, but I wish it was possible to live as a piddly little blind insect that shoots venom and has a terrible bite and not much wants to F with it because it's a lethal meanie. I am trying to build a species in this direction and keep getting killed by anything that spots me scurrying through the bushes.
Also, it's getting to be nearly impossible to ally myself with other creatures. Even when I repeat their interaction, the progress bar just depletes into nothing and the other creature gets all exasperated.
I've been killing these huge spider creatures by luring them to my nest, but for some reason once I hit the nest and all my other friends beat the crap out of the spiders, the game doesn't register it as a kill so it keeps saying in order to get a bonus I need to kill 5 spiders. -sigh-
I wish the "Spore" phase (is that what it's called?) lasted longer. I really enjoy that part.

[HystericalParoxysm]

coltraz - It's not just about repeating their interactions, but about having the right -level- of interaction. If a creature, say, dances at you... and you only have level 1 but they have level 5, it really won't do much at all and they'll shake their heads disappointedly. However, the opposite also works - if you have level 5 dance and they only have level 1 and they dance at you, they'll be extremely impressed and the meter will fill much faster, sometimes filling the whole thing with just one interaction. You can actually "cheat" a little bit - get a level 5 in something and if a creature does an interaction that you can't do, just do your level 5 one instead. It fills the meter slower than if you'd copied them, but they don't get disappointed. Also, try befriending babies. Babies are easier than adults which are easier than alphas. You get less evolution points for the individual friends, but it can help in making lots of allies.

[coltraz]

coltraz - It's not just about repeating their interactions, but about having the right -level- of interaction. If a creature, say, dances at you... and you only have level 1 but they have level 5, it really won't do much at all and they'll shake their heads disappointedly. However, the opposite also works - if you have level 5 dance and they only have level 1 and they dance at you, they'll be extremely impressed and the meter will fill much faster, sometimes filling the whole thing with just one interaction. You can actually "cheat" a little bit - get a level 5 in something and if a creature does an interaction that you can't do, just do your level 5 one instead. It fills the meter slower than if you'd copied them, but they don't get disappointed. Also, try befriending babies. Babies are easier than adults which are easier than alphas. You get less evolution points for the individual friends, but it can help in making lots of allies.

Ahh! Great, thanks. I knew I had to have something messed up.

[Jovahna]

I made it to creature phase last night when the game caused my whole system to crash. Prior to that the graphics had a spastic fit that nearly blinded me. Aside from all that I'm quite enjoying the game.

I do, however, wish the cell phase were just a little longer, just a tad. Seems that just as my new critter gets the hang of things it's time to evolve. I'd like to play one round in the cell phase as a top dog and then move on to land.

[coltraz]

just ready to enter tribe mode and loving this game now. I think you just need to give it time to grow on you, after that it's really fun deciding how you're going to interact with others, how you're going to sensibly evolve your creature. Mine ended up going from a little frog like thing to a big, herbivore bird that flies all over the place. I keep making him larger and larger. Will post a cool picture of him later.

[tinyhayuk14]

Ive just started the Tribe Phase and I LOVE IT! Its taking me a while to get a hang of but once I do its great fun!!

[Delphy]

Okay Tribal and Civ phases where kind of meh, but Space Phase has me hooked.

[coltraz]

OK I'm finally on the tribal phase.
So far I hate it.
Nothing leaves me alone long enough to assemble stupid creatures to go play music for tribes or collect food to give as gifts and sustain my OWN creatures. And my measly, stupid village just keeps getting ransacked over & over. Totally annoying.

[Delphy]

I didn't have that problem coltraz, and even when I got the message "Wild animals are raiding your food" I just ignored it while I was busy beating other tribes with stone axes. The wild animals don't steal *that* much food, so if you stickpile early enough you don't have to worry about it.

[coltraz]

I didn't have that problem coltraz, and even when I got the message "Wild animals are raiding your food" I just ignored it while I was busy beating other tribes with stone axes. The wild animals don't steal *that* much food, so if you stickpile early enough you don't have to worry about it.

OK, I will keep that in mind. I thought they were taking everything I owned.

[tinyhayuk14]

I found the tribe phase really annoying at first too but I played it through and then started again and found it much more fun the second time. I think you just have to get the hang of it.

[kinneer_SC]

I wonder what Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation has to say.

[Delphy]

He'll rip it to shreds like every other game.

[roxxy_SC]

Sum it up, I didn't mind the cell stage, enjoyed creature stage. Tribal and Civ stage was awesome. Failing miserably in Space stage.. :-\

[Axe Gaijin]

Since I'm tired and just about to get my first cup of coffee... I'll copy and paste (including spelling errors....) the post I made on my Guild forum for WoW;

Got the game yesterday and so far I'm hooked

Played until 3am last night and reached the Civilasation age.
I rather like the evolutionary way you play the game, it really allows you to let the game "flow" like that, sure you can change things in your creature abrubtly between each generation if you really want to ( and have the parts & DNA point to do so) but I find it a lot more fun just graduatly evolving your creature.

What also surpriced me is what kind of creature I ended up with, a horned green repilian-like bi-pedal warmongering agresive race of carnivores.
I's suspected I'd end up a as a type of mediator space hippy race happy with co-existance, instead my race is more like the Cylons, Borg & old school klingons all rolled into one.

[Delphy]

roxxy, Space Phase kept kicking my ass too. I kept getting attacked and had my planets taken over. I don't know if you can take them back, or how.

I'm replying through the game though as a different creature, so I'll see how it goes the second time.

[Cloudburst]

Cell stage and creature stage were both pretty good. Just finished tribal stage, and found it a bit lacking. It Seemed to be over very quickly with not really that much to do, although I'm not sure how much that was me rushing through it though. Civilisation stage is good so far, though not much has really happened yet so I can't really judge.
I can imagine this game being very replayable, so I might start a new one with a different type of creature, and see how that goes...
I have to say.. so far it has me hooked, although I'm not sure how long that's going to last.

[kustirider2]

I bought it today, Played through the first stage and then when i got onto land, My graphics started going funny making big black patches and lines in the screen so im gonna have to take it back and get a refund..
Im upset now because its an awesome game... Alough i've never had any trouble with sims graphics??

[coltraz]

I bought it today, Played through the first stage and then when i got onto land, My graphics started going funny making big black patches and lines in the screen so im gonna have to take it back and get a refund..
Im upset now because its an awesome game... Alough i've never had any trouble with sims graphics??

Are you sure a game company is going to let you return a game you unpackaged and installed?
Try turning the graphics down or something.

[Delphy]

Spore is not the Sims is not Spore. Just becuase one game works doesn't mean another will. Spore has slightly higher technical requirements than the Sims 2 basegame anyway, as I recall.

[Petchy]

Are you sure a game company is going to let you return a game you unpackaged and installed?
Try turning the graphics down or something.
Its regularly OK, I've done it with a Console Game.
's long as you have the receipt :smash:

Delph; what ARE the system Requirements? :confused: :blink:
(Don't have it, Might do, Maybe in the future when Wes Cracks it open like an egg :P)

[kustirider2]

Coltraz: The game company where i bought it has a 'Try for 10 days' Policy and i asked the manager and he said take it and try it, If it doesnt work bring it back. They arent packaged and i uninstalled it :)

Delphy: Oh, someone told me that the graphics requirements were not as high as the sims.

[Petchy]

Delph; what ARE the system Requirements?...

And so I went Searching;


PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR WINDOWS XP
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space
FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 768 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space
When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may receive a warning about running out of address space along with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions and go to the website listed in the message to update your system.
For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, 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
Supported Video Cards

ATI Radeon(TM) series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900,
3650, 3850
NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
Intel(R) Extreme Graphics
GMA 950, GMA X3000, GMA X3100
Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts, such as the 945GU, GML, and GMS, will not perform adequately.
Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.
Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn?t listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.
The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.


MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spore requires at least the following:
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 4.7GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for creations.
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).
For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
Intel Integrated Chipset GMA X3100
Dual 2.0GHz CPUs, or 1.7GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
Supported Video Cards
ATI Radeon(TM) series
X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600
NVIDIA GeForce series
7300, 7600, 8600, 8800
Intel(R) Extreme Graphics
GMA X3100
This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.
Install space subject to change.

[kustirider2]

Ah, My graphics card isnt on there, Ive never even heard of my graphics card... Its an Intel Extreme2 graphics chip..?

[romyhorse]

Ah, My graphics card isnt on there, Ive never even heard of my graphics card... Its an Intel Extreme2 graphics chip..?That's because you don't have a graphics card ;)

[kustirider2]

How do i see things then? Im really confused :)

[Spiderchi]

I was strangely addicted to the cell stage, LOVED the creature stage and am hating the tribe stage :/ I'm going to start over methinks XD

My graphics also suck with this game, they look great in the creator, but when I play the actual game everythings a bit blurry! Time to go shopping for a new graphics card methinks!

[HystericalParoxysm]

kustirider2 - A graphics card is a separate piece of equipment that you can take out of your computer. Integrated graphics such as Intel Extreme Graphics are a chip which is part of your computer. It performs the basic functions of a graphics card - making pretty pictures, but it's made to really just do the basics - web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets, etc... It is NOT made for gaming whatsoever unless the games you're playing are several years old. Unfortunately some manufacturers of games (like EA) like to put them on lists of supported graphics because they want to sell more games. This is the case with Sims 2 and apparently now with Spore. Playing with Integrated Intel graphics on modern games is a great way to kill your graphics chip entirely due to over-stressing it. This generally means needing to purchase a new graphics card to install - which usually also means buying a new power supply as you probably have a weak one. In extreme cases (and with laptops), the chip burning out means your entire computer gets deaded. The moral of the story: don't game on Intel graphics if you like your computer to stay healthy long-term.

Spiderchi - My graphics in the actual game aren't fantastic either. In the creator stuff they look lovely but I get blurring and weirdness in the actual game. I've noticed pixellated and blurry textures on terrain and the like as well. It's not really a graphics card issue - I have a nice gaming card and my graphics and textures are turned all the way up. It's just... startlingly un-pretty for a brand new game.

[kattenijin]

Aarakis rules the Spore-iverse! The spice must flow! lol!

[Neeri_SC]

I've played it, for a day or two now, and I’m not to happy with it.

I feel a bit cheated, cause in the previews they said that how you make your creature determined how they move and interact with things.

Like THEIR creature had a long tail overhanging its head, and it walked on 2 legs. Then they put a grasping hand on its tail, so when he was fighting with other creatures he used his tail. they even showed him moving corpses around with the tail.. it was awesome..

When i tried to create the same it didn’t work, i had to make an arm, and it just didn’t work for me. which annoyed me.

Also they do the same movements regarding of where you put the parts on them. Charge / bite etc.

I play a carnivore, and in the creature stage i played without the tutorial and just devastated the whole planet. Everything i saw i killed. And i got all the parts and over 4k DNA. so i built the best of the best. (a little dragon like creature without hands <3)

Im not even going to start on the tribal stage, cause after i destroyed the 4-5 tribes on the map, i couldnt walk anywhere els than what they showed me.
so... i just went on to civilization.


So when i got in to civilization, i had a lot of Boosts, since i unlocked so much in creature stage. which made civilization so easy. I killed everyone on the planet within 20-30 min. I wasn’t too happy, since after killing 5 societies, You get something like an atomic bomb. I didn’t really know what it was so i clicked it. and i nuked everyone. NOT FUN >;(

So now im in space, i haven’t played it so much yet. But I’m sure expecting something to make this game worth my time.


I unno, alot of things they showed us in the beta stages in previews and stuff. Arent there, i havent seen it atleast.

So i just felt cheated in a way.

[kleoscanti]

So, I tried playing Spore, and I must say this game is very good. I don't think I'll play it for ages, like I do with The Sims 2, but I like it nevertheless.

1. Cell Stage. It's fine and is a good fun at the beginning, but then it becomes boring. Eat or be eaten. Decided not to repeat it with my second creature.

2. Creature Stage. That's a great one. Be good or be bad, collect fruits, kill others or both, befriend other creatures or make them disappear. My first creature was totally aggressive, while the second was peaceful and nice. Both were cute.

3. Tribe Stage. Another interesting stage. Here you can manipulate a small tribe of creatures. And again, you should either befriend your neighbours or conquer them. My first tribe methodically killed everyone while my second tribe befriended almost all of the other tribes besides a particularly agressive one. My only complain is that creating friendly relationships is quite a monotonous job. All the tribes want to hear music, and the only difference is in instruments they want to hear. While there are only three instruments, it's really easy.

4. Civilisation. Your creatures move to a city and are able to build huge buildings and machines. I'd say this stage is not very well-thought. You should conquer, buy or turn into your religion all the towns on your planet. Actually, the only difference between these three ways to the world domination is in their titles. You equip your war units with the best things you've got and send them to other towns. That was really really boring.

5. Space/Cosmos Stage. I'm playing on this stage with my peaceful religious race now and love it. There are a lot of small and big quests and a lot of planets to explore. I'd say it's the best part of the game.

Generally I love this game. It may be not as grand as I expected, especially in some parts, but it's a good way for killing time.

[kustirider2]

kustirider2 - A graphics card is a separate piece of equipment that you can take out of your computer. Integrated graphics such as Intel Extreme Graphics are a chip which is part of your computer. It performs the basic functions of a graphics card - making pretty pictures, but it's made to really just do the basics - web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets, etc... It is NOT made for gaming whatsoever unless the games you're playing are several years old. Unfortunately some manufacturers of games (like EA) like to put them on lists of supported graphics because they want to sell more games. This is the case with Sims 2 and apparently now with Spore. Playing with Integrated Intel graphics on modern games is a great way to kill your graphics chip entirely due to over-stressing it. This generally means needing to purchase a new graphics card to install - which usually also means buying a new power supply as you probably have a weak one. In extreme cases (and with laptops), the chip burning out means your entire computer gets deaded. The moral of the story: don't game on Intel graphics if you like your computer to stay healthy long-term.



Holy crap, I'd better buy one soon! I never knew that laptops needed one, Do you know how much a decent one would cost? (I dont really know much about computers)

[HystericalParoxysm]

kustirider2 - If you have integrated graphics on a laptop, you cannot get a graphics card. Even with dedicated graphics on a laptop, you usually can't upgrade the graphics card.

[kustirider2]

Oh, i Do have a slot in the computer where if you press a lever in the laptop a card comes out, doesnt it go in there?

[HystericalParoxysm]

No. No, it doesn't. As I said, if you have integrated graphics on a laptop, you cannot upgrade or change your graphics card. If you (or anyone else) have more questions on this or other graphics/computer related stuff, please use the Computer Hardware & Software forum here on S2C - we're going off-topic of this thread.

[kustirider2]

Okay, So would you suggest to buy a new laptop? and do you know of any that have very good graphic chips in them?

Thanks for your help :)

Edit: Sorry for posting this, I didnt see the last bit of your answer.

[Axe Gaijin]

I've hit a brick wall in space....


I'm pretty much stuck for two days now. From early on I've been at war with a neighbouring race, they keep sending waves and waves of ships to attack my homeworld. Sometimes as soon as I leave the system just after I reppeled yet another attack, i get called right back again for another attack.

All I'm doing right now is fighting of attacks, making a quick run to an allied system to get a new allied ship to join me and sell spices. then it's back to my homeworld to rebuild my cities and wait for another attack. it's getting to a point where it's just frustrating more then anything else :(

[Ryslin_SC]

I've hit a brick wall in space....


I'm pretty much stuck for two days now. From early on I've been at war with a neighbouring race, they keep sending waves and waves of ships to attack my homeworld. Sometimes as soon as I leave the system just after I reppeled yet another attack, i get called right back again for another attack.

All I'm doing right now is fighting of attacks, making a quick run to an allied system to get a new allied ship to join me and sell spices. then it's back to my homeworld to rebuild my cities and wait for another attack. it's getting to a point where it's just frustrating more then anything else :(

Try the SPORE forum (at EA)..yes I know that is contrary to normal advice but currently the info to noise ratio is good there.
A few places have links to better ways to manage space.

[crunkybunch]

I am so confused by the tribal phase. Cell and Creature were pretty simple, but now I can't seem to do anything?

Actually, I can make the neighboring "Pink" tribe hate me and kill me off, but that's about it.

Otherwise, I'm loving this - and I'm actually glad that it is getting a little harder as it progresses. The first two stages felt a little like tutorials, and I kept saying "this is easier than the sims! Wierd!" I like that there's more to the tribal phase - hopefully I'll figure out how to play it! :)

[SimJymm]

I liked the first three phases of the game , bu I guess I'm too use to playing Civ4 to get much from the civilization phase. I've only played the space phase for a while and it seems my advisers have forgotten that the "Snazz" are a bloodthirsty empire of warriors. So when I blew away the the contact ship from the first alien space empire I encountered, they still think that the best path for us is trading spice, stupid advisers, ;) So I guess I'm no Captain Picard :)

[crunkybunch]

Tribal was solved with a new species and err... paying attention to the booklet. Yes. Am now in Civilization phase, having become a friendly/religious society. :blink:

Not what I was going for, and I was actually sort of surprised that it worked out to be easiest to be nice! I'd read that people were having a hard time playing creatures as anything other than agressive...

[Simply_Sims]

I played Spore on my friend's computer the other day. It's fun, but not enough to suck me in.

[miss_name_hater_SC]

First impressions... this is not as epic as the advertising promised. You don't really grow and evolve since you don't add to a basic design but can alter your basic design at any point. I would have preferred it if it was like real evolution. Also the changes should not be purely aesthetic. Adding extra legs should make the creature go faster, for example.

The stages are fun but not complicated enough and I feel they should be at least twice the length they are. I really enjoy the creature stage but it's completed too quickly, and although in theory you can continue playing that stage indefinitely you get the annoying flashy "move on to the tribal stage!" message constantly, and once you've allied or defeated all the other nests there's nothing to do. The tribal stage was very frustrating at first but once I'd got the hang of it it took about 10 minutes to complete. I haven't completed the civilisation stage yet because I got bored and went back to the cell/creature stages, which I found a lot more fun.

I found building a town hall very difficult, partly because of the ludicrously small space it has to fit in to. I think this might be because I'm used to building with the Sims, and building in Spore is completely different. In the end I just downloaded some city halls/vehicles and I hope I can use those in future and not build them myself (I haven't tested that out yet though).

I think the real problem for me is that it's not open-ended enough. You enter a stage, complete some very easy goals and move on. I wish it was less black and white - in Spore you can either befriend or conquer, in the Sims you can do whatever the hell you like. Spore is a fun game and I will be playing it but I really don't think it's lived up to the advertising.

[inabisim_SC]

I tell you what, I have been having a ton of fun with this game. I am only disapointed that there is no fish stage, and you don't actually evolve and can swap items out whenever you just feel like it.

I found myself swapping out parts to impress a group of people, then deleting them and swapping out to other parts to decimate another. It shouldn't be like that.

But other than that I am having a ton of fun. The cell stage is great, I especially like ...well, not "like".... running from this giant gaping mouth, eating something, growing larger and then turning around and devouring the guy that tried to eat me :p. I discovered how fun something simple like putting a spike on your butt can be.

Oooh and last night, I got the herbivore, suck mouth (dunno what it's called sorry) but I was chasing these huge monster guys around, and sucking the life out of them. There's just something fun about little iddy biddy me chasing a giant claw mouthed cell monster because it's scared of my sucker :D

And that's just cell stage!


On a side note:
A lot of folks seem to be running through the game too fast, getting to space then going "I DONT LIKE THE GAME ITS TOO SIMPLE" and the like. What ever happened to exploration?

[miss_name_hater_SC]

On a side note:
A lot of folks seem to be running through the game too fast, getting to space then going "I DONT LIKE THE GAME ITS TOO SIMPLE" and the like. What ever happened to exploration?
Hmm I've explored the cell, creature and tribal stages completely and I still think it's too simple. In the cell stage once you've got enough brain power to move on you can't collect more DNA... in the creature and tribal stages once you've befriended/conquered everyone you can't do anything else. It IS too simple, no matter how much exploring you do.

[HystericalParoxysm]

On a side note:
A lot of folks seem to be running through the game too fast, getting to space then going "I DONT LIKE THE GAME ITS TOO SIMPLE" and the like. What ever happened to exploration?

I've never said I didn't like it overall, but I -do- think it's too simple. I enjoy certain things - I think the cell stage is fun just swimming around, and I like playing creature stage just bopping around and seeing what's there, getting rogue creatures on my side... You can take down epic creatures in that stage, too, but there's no reward for it besides an achievement.

I really don't enjoy playing the tribal or civilization stage whatsoever though - tribal stage is pretty much just kill everything or make friends, and even gathering food takes a minimal amount of effort and only has to be done a couple times in the tribal stage. It's cute, I'll give it that - your tribe roasting marshmallows and talking about pants around the campfire...

Civilization stage is just plain -boring- once you've been through it once. The way you build your buildings in the creator doesn't matter one bit, and the placement in cities is simplistic. Then it's just a matter of stomping or converting everyone - pretty much like tribal stage, only with less digiridoos. Even the vehicle building, which I greatly enjoy, is fairly pointless besides slapping on stuff with high stats - once you go to play with the vehicles, they're a tiny tiny speck on the screen and their appearance doesn't matter one bit, so you can spend an hour fiddling with textures and paints, but you may as well paint the whole thing one or two bold colours just so you can see the damn things better against the landscape.

There really isn't much to explore in any of the phases beyond the basics. As I've said before, as soon as you get the hang of a phase and look for more complexity, the phase is pretty much over - and the replay value for most of the phases is pretty low. You can choose to be peaceful or warlike, but once you've tried both, there's not really anything else to explore or discover. I'm not saying it's not fun in many ways, but it can be quite frustrating, and, well, I read a review that summed it up pretty well.... "By the time I had most of my world conquered, Spore had begun to feel like the world's largest kiddie pool: five miles wide and two feet deep." Doesn't mean it's not fun to splash around now and then, but it's VERY shallow.

Space phase I need to do more with. I haven't played that much and that does seem to be the most complex of them, with a lot more to do and more choices and exploration to be done.

As an aside, I've always kind of found the "You're not having fun with this game because you're playing it wrong!" argument a little amusing, and this is no exception.

[crocobaura]

I haven't played the game but from the reviews I've read on this site, it looks to me like they've got the target players' age wrong. To me it sounds like it was made for a much younger audience, that's why people are getting bored so quickly.

[Kissamies]

Yes, as they say. Lots of scope, very little gameplay or depth. Cell stage is pretty fun. Creature stage is fun at first, but gets awfully repetitive. At least it somewhat matters how you build your thing. Tribal stage is even more repetitive. Gets boring very fast. Civ stage is just plain awful. My personal opinion is coloured by my hate of RTS, but most other people won't speak highly of it either. Space stage is mostly fun, but it has its annoyances. The chief thing is that I seem to be the only one in my empire to have a spaceship and am expected to tend to each matter personally. I know my colonies will fend off at least weaker invasions when I equip them with wicked fortifications, but they still keep calling for help. Waging wars is not very fun.

Well, knowing EA there will be expansions to give more things to do at the stages. I'd still buy this game if it wasn't for that DRM. Just can't support that.

[Axe Gaijin]

I think I'm going to have to agree witgh Tim Buckley (from CTRL+ALT+DEL) on this one;

Yeah, I've been playing Spore a bit, in between work and the WAR beta with the girlfriend. I'll reserve a full blown review for when I've had more time with it, but so far I think I agree with the consensus that the game is more than the sum of its parts. Each stage, taken individually, is really nothing to write home about. But once you start to take all of the stages in as a whole product, that's when it starts to resemble the super-hyped Sim game we were all expecting.

[kennyinbmore]

Judging from all the comments here it sounds to me like I was right when I thought this game wouldn't appeal to me. Combine that with the online activation and three install limit, I'll put that money away for TS3. Assuming they don't use the same activation scheme for that too

[Kissamies]

It seems like they're sticking with that DRM scheme.
http://kotaku.com/5047048/ea-sticking-with-securom-though-red-alert-3s-will-go-a-little-easier-on-you

[kennyinbmore]

If that's the case I won't be buying it ;)

[inabisim_SC]

Well, knowing EA there will be expansions to give more things to do at the stages.

Exactly.

I guess maybe I'm just happy with what I got because I went into Spore knowing full well how expansion happy it was going to be, and with EA's claw gripping it you'll get very little with the first Spore game so what we have now I think is fine.

*shrugs*

[Spiderchi]

Civilisation is so dull! I got bored after 5 minutes and haven't played it since. I did however LOVE the previous three stages, but when I tried starting again they had lost their charm the second time around :(

[coltraz]

The logic of "it will get better with expansions" might be right, but I can't see it being their intention to make their customers long for more. If they put out a lousy game then no one will care about the EPs that come out. No one would even notice them.

[Elyasis_SC]

Space stage and cell stages are the best in my opinion. There seems to be alot to do in space stage. My creature's class is scientist. :P
Still not sure how you get different classes.

[Axe Gaijin]

Personaly I'm still loving it.

I have given up on my first race and since started two new ones, one is now in space and doing well as Shamans, trading with allies and avoiding war by sucking up to the space bullies by doing missions for them. The other just entered tribal stage last night, and I keep finding stuff I've never noticed before. On the planet I'm on it rains quite often, something I hadn't yet seen in the previous two games, and when I came close to a nest of an ape like creature (my own Jumonky) they got quite upset and one of them picked up a stick and threw it towards a member of my pack :)

Of course it helps that I really love creating stuff too ;)

[miss_name_hater_SC]

The logic of "it will get better with expansions" might be right, but I can't see it being their intention to make their customers long for more. If they put out a lousy game then no one will care about the EPs that come out. No one would even notice them.
This is how I feel. I'm certainly not wasting any money on expansions.

[HystericalParoxysm]

The logic of "it will get better with expansions" might be right, but I can't see it being their intention to make their customers long for more. If they put out a lousy game then no one will care about the EPs that come out. No one would even notice them.

That's exactly the logic. They've actually removed certain things (like underwater civilizations) from the base game, claiming "they couldn't get it working right before release" and will be doing that in expansions. I'm sure the depth the game is sorely lacking will also be put in with expansions. I'm not silly enough to assume EA would release something as hyped as Spore with -no- intention to do expansions, but to release a game that feels unfinished and extremely shallow due to its lack of expansions is just a bad choice. If people give up playing because they're bored long before the expansions (and I've had the game for a little over a week and I'm already pretty bored and VERY frustrated with the bugs) then they're not going to care at all about the EPs.

I also got such a terribly poor result from attempting to contact EA support about my connectivity issue, I have utterly no confidence in them whatsoever anymore (not that I had much before) and based on that, will not be purchasing any of their expansions, and likely no more EA software.

[HyjaClinton]

Prez, there are so many games like fl0w. Sooo many. Just look up Fish eat Fish game and you'll see what I mean.

Omgusrs?! My favorite part was the Creature age, hands down.


Spiderchi, same for me. But I suffered through it nonetheless (with cheats <3) and got on to Space age.

You think Civilization is dull?
But yeah, the alien races are kinda cool. I started over. ;<

[kattenijin]

I'd like to be able to say that this is the last EA game I'm going to purchase, but, I really want the stupid SP for Sims2. Yes, it's stupid, and yes I still want it; I'm so ashamed! lol! There are also rumors of a further Sims EP, which I guess EA is holding in reserve for the summer market if Sims3 bombs too. (Of which I've also heard rumors of the same 3 install limit, I think it was on Game Spot)

[lilsweetcori]

I've been living in a cave lately... what is this "install limit" all about? You can only install Spore (or eventually sims 3) 3 times?

[kattenijin]

I've been living in a cave lately... what is this "install limit" all about? You can only install Spore (or eventually sims 3) 3 times?

Exactly. 3 installs, and then "you can call for a fourth". Even if you get the fourth, that's it, if you need to re-install for a fifth time, go buy a new game. The limit on Sims3 is just a rumor so far, but as it has the exact same Securom DRM, it's suspected.

Also, Forbes.Com posted the following article:

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/09/12/spore-drm-piracy-tech-security-cx_ag_mji_0912spore.html "SPORE's piracy problem"

The "firestorm" is beginning to hit more mainstream media.

[SilentPsycho]

Interesting, just found this - http://www.neoseeker.com/news/8809-spore-drm-protests-they-actually-worked-/

To be honest, the image at the bottom seemed to me to be the highlight of the article.

[kennyinbmore]

Exactly. 3 installs, and then "you can call for a fourth". Even if you get the fourth, that's it, if you need to re-install for a fifth time, go buy a new game. The limit on Sims3 is just a rumor so far, but as it has the exact same Securom DRM, it's suspected.

Also, Forbes.Com posted the following article:

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/09/12/spore-drm-piracy-tech-security-cx_ag_mji_0912spore.html "SPORE's piracy problem"

The "firestorm" is beginning to hit more mainstream media.

Is EA really this naive about their games? Check out this part of the link

"Electronic Arts compares its DRM solution to systems in place on services like iTunes that similarly limits the number of computers that can play a particular song. Sughayer also points out that less than 25% of EA users attempt to install the company's games on more than one computer, and less than 1% attempt to install it on more than three."

Personally I've only had to reinstall TS2 once, but I know friends who for various reasons have had to do 4 or 5 reinstalls easy. They're not even addressing that part of it but instead focusing on the number of computers

Interesting, just found this - http://www.neoseeker.com/news/8809-spore-drm-protests-they-actually-worked-/

To be honest, the image at the bottom seemed to me to be the highlight of the article.


All that does is up the number of possible reinstalls to 5. Still not good enough in my opinion for me to kick out my 50 bucks. The image does rock though :D

[SaraF]

I regret buying the game. I'll admit it was fun for a while but it very quickly started to feel shallow and to easy and I lost interest as soon as my creatures hit the civilization phase.

It just felt like such a big leap for me to go from tribal stage to civilization phase. One minute they are hunting for food and playing instruments to get along with other tribes and the next they have flying cars. I was looking forward to the evolving part of the game. Apart from what I do in the cell phase there are very little consequenses to the choices I make since I can just rebuild my creature at any time I want. The marketing of the game has been so hyped and they've talked so much about the evolution part of it. I feel cheated.

$50 for a game that you complete so fast and get bored with so quickly is to much. But at least I won't be having any problems with using up all the installs since I stopped playing it so quickly.

[HCAC]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place for this..if so, please move it.

I don't get this software they put on to 'police' the installation. That just puts me off totally.

I see very negative reviews of the game so far (I usually read reviews before buying games). It looks cool and both my husband and son thought so (they like creatures..aliens). But what is up with this software/malware? It seems to be putting off a lot of people.

Do they plan on doing this to Sims 3? Maybe all the negativity will persuade EA NOT to do it on Sims 3...

[kennyinbmore]

Do they plan on doing this to Sims 3? Maybe all the negativity will persuade EA NOT to do it on Sims 3...

If they do, I won't be buying it

[kattenijin]

Do they plan on doing this to Sims 3? Maybe all the negativity will persuade EA NOT to do it on Sims 3...

It's already been anounced by EA that ALL new product will contain Securom. If you have bought anything Sims related more recently than April 2007, you already have Securom on your system (this includes stuff packs). As my machine is already "infected", I'm not too worried; HOWEVER, the 3 (or possibly 5) install limit is a total crock of $#!*. When I purchase a game (or even just a license to play the game) I expect to OWN it for as long as I want. Another crock is the "one user per game", so if you have 3 people wishing to play, you need to buy three games.

The biggest crock is that EA tries to perpetuate Securom as being "anti-piracy". It's not anti-piracy, it's anti-resale, and anti-casual sharing between friends. Basically, they are trying to make their PAYING customers make up the "lost sales due to piracy", when most people who pirate a game would NEVER purchase it in the first place. It's sad when a company can't see that the biggest reason more people are turning to piracy is the adititude of the company to the people who pay $$$.

/rant

Edit: Spore is the most pirated game ever! Last I heard it was over 800,000 copies. Also, the game is ranked 17 on Amazaon.com, last I checked. Considering EA wanted to SELL 2 Million copies in September, EPIC FAIL!

[HyjaClinton]

haahahahhaha.
Epic fail indeedy.
I thought the game was...
iffy. I didn't have incredibly high expectations, but they about reached my lowish expectations and went no further.
I'll give it a 6, if TS2 is an 8.5 (Lowered by the upcoming TS3! <3)
I have fun with it, and it's very addictive, but not necessarily FUN. Just addictive.
Which can be handy during moments of sheer boredom.


Either way, Spore probably was a hit with casual gamers. Unluckily for EAxis, I'm a full blown computer addict. xD

[nugnug]

I am so confused by the tribal phase. Cell and Creature were pretty simple, but now I can't seem to do anything?



Really? I'm now stuck on the creature stage :confused: I can't seem to get past the large creatures, plus no one wants to be friends :shrug:

All the while I think it's a pretty awesome game. I'll have to play it for a bit longer to see if I'll play it often!

[Safyre420]

I'd rank spore above TS2 base game, because is brings many styles of rts and rpg gaming together. I've matched gameplay elements with starcraft and up, though most are just seemed to have been "influenced" by the other games, Spore really is a multigaming type game. There will definitely be some part of it that is liked by an RTS gamer, a pure TS2 style gamer, I don't see much that's offered for them minus the creator.