Welcome to VG247's Best Games Ever Podcast: Episode 43 - The best game that takes ten or more hours to get good.
]]>Spore designer Soren Johnson has reflected on the game's five-year anniversary over on his blog. The post discusses what went wrong with the game, and how its lofty ambitions perhaps grew too vast for the team. It's an interesting reflection on the polarising strategy game.
]]>EA's sounded the bargin siren, pricing the original Mass Effect and Dead Space for £3 on Origin, while its sequels are £10 and £7 respectively. Dragon Age 2 and Mirror's Edge are also in on the deal at a fiver a pop, while Spore's available for £6 and Bulletstorm at £7.50. The deal's available for a limited time, though, so get to it.
]]>EA has released a new trailer for Darkspore full of gameplay footage.
It's below the break.
]]>Organizers of San Diego Comic Con updated the event's website today with panel information for Saturday, July 24.
Interestingly enough, one of the panels will reveal the new game in the Spore series.
]]>Another day, another gaming trademark filed.
This time, it's EA and the trademarks filed are for something called Darkspore.
]]>EA confirmed in its Q3 FY10 financial release Spore will be coming to the consoles in Q4 FY '11, which means it'll be out between January-March next year.
]]>EA and Dr Pepper are teaming up to offer people gaming codes for chugging the popular soft drink.
]]>EA has confirmed that it has laid-off staff members at Sims and Spore developer EA Maxis.
"Often in the video game industry, the size of a studio fluctuates in response to business conditions," read an official statement. "In this case, EA has taken action to reduce the workforce at Maxis as we focus the business and focus Maxis."
]]>EA has announced that Spore: Galactic Adventures will have downloadable content made available from the wacky Robot Chicken folks.
The content will contain everything from angry yetis, exploding poo, librarians with rulers, and who knows what else from the demented minds of co-creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich.
"We're big fans of Spore, so teaming up on Spore Galactic Adventures was a natural fit and so much fun for all the guys at Robot Chicken," said Green.
"We're all gaming geeks, so when the Spore guys said they had an alluring proposition for us, how could we say no?" added Senreich.
"Instead of creating absurd worlds with toys, this gave us the opportunity to create literally anything we wanted as gamers. Geek moment. We think that RC fans will love the pretty random and absurd adventures we created and we can't wait to goof around with the ones the fans create."
The Robot Chicken DLC will be free and launches on June 23 with the game.
Press release is below.
]]>EA has announced four new Spore titles EA - two for the DS and one for the Wii, and the new PC expansion - to be launched this year.
Spore Creature Keeper (DS) should be here in the summer and appears to be aimed at a younger audience.
The next DS title, "Spore Hero Arena" is an accompaniment to the new Wii game, "Spore Hero" which will takes you "on an exciting adventure through a beautiful, colourful world," apparently.
Then, of course, there's the PC expansion Galactic Adventures which adds the "adventure creator" enabling players to make their own missions and share them with friends.
Full release after the break.
By Mike Bowden
]]>Spore senior producer Morgan Roarty has told CVG that in order for a console version of Spore to be considered the design would first have to be in place.
"I think first and foremost we'd have to have the right design," said Roarty.
]]>Following a pretty conclusive rumour that Spore was about to go live on Steam earlier this week, Valve's just confirmed that Wright's latest, the Creepy & Cute add-on, WAR, Mass Effect, NfS Undercover and FIFA Manager 2009 are now all available on the download service.
Mirror's Edge, Red Alert 3 and Dead Space are all to be added in the "coming weeks".
"EA is one of the industry's largest publishers," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some this year's top PC titles."
Press release after the drop.
]]>Simply, probably. A license agreement's been pointed out to us by reader Chris, featuring the word "Spore" and being hosted on Steampowered.com.
No official announcement's been made on this as yet, but it would be fairly astonishing if it were bollocks.
]]>To celebrate the release of the Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, EA's put out a new patch containing 24 new limbs for the Creature Creator.
You can get the update here.
In additional, the patch adds the following:
- Fix for esc key not bringing up Options in Galaxy Game Entry
- Fix for creator backgrounds appearing on small sporepedia cards
- Update to help keep achievements on the server in sync with achievements in the game
Press release after the link.
]]>EA's moved to address comments made by a Spore forum mode regarding banning users that caused "arguments" over DRM issues, saying the person involved doesn't work for the publisher and was speaking out of turn.
]]>EA's announced that Spore's gone through the 1 million sales mark.
"Spore is a hit," said EA Games president Frank Gibeau.
]]>A class action has been filed against EA regarding Spore DRM, as reported by GamePolitics.
According to this CNS piece:
Electronic Arts, a leading maker of computer games, defrauds consumers through its "Spore" game, which "completely wipes their hard drive" and replaces it with an undisclosed program that prevents the computer from operating under some circumstances and disrupts hardware operations, a class action claims in Federal Court.
]]>It's been apparently confirmed that each household may only have one Spore account per copy, creating a large thread on the game's official forum and throwing yet another bone on the "PC protection issue" pile.
]]>An anti-Spore site has launched in direct protest of the game's "attack on Christian values," calling itself Antispore.com.
This is our favourite bit:
You would think that as a member of the Episcopal Church, a smart man like Will Wright would not be capable of creating Spore. However, we must be reminded that the Episcopal Church is the only church in america [sic] that ordains homosexuals on a regular basis.
]]>We'll put this down to being "unfortunate." According to this GhostRazor story, Spore will only run on MacBooks made post-2007.
Before then, Apple was making Macbooks with the GMA 950 graphics card embedded, after which it was upgraded to the GMA X3100.
]]>Speaking to the BBC, EA's Will Wright said he believes that Spore - released today - will be a turning point for games in general.
"Spore will change the way people look at games forever and change hopefully the perception people have of their own creativity," he said.
]]>Looks as though it may just be the Germans that aren't getting on with Spore. Eurogamer's given it 9/10. Snip:
We're all familiar with the innovative, web-aware customisation cloud that underpins Spore, but nobody's done it better (even though many now do it - apparently years after Maxis thought of doing it here) and the final game is proof that it was all worth it: you're all one big Designer, and Spore succeeds as much because of you and me as the many worlds scattered across the stars and the many ways we've been given to explore them.
So far:
- EG - 9
- Gamespot - 8
- IGN AU - 9.2
- IGN UK - 9
- IGN US - 8.8
- PC Gamer (UK, mag) - 91 percent
- Gamestar (Germany, mag) - 79 percent
- PC Games (Germany, mag) - 73 percent
- GameSpy - 9
If you want a score added, stick it in the comments and we'll update it.
IGN's video review is after the drop.
]]>IGN Australia's posted up its Spore review, and it's given the game 9.2/10. Snip:
]]>Inevitable. According to this GameViper story, Spore's been cracked by a team called Reloaded and has been made available as a torrent.
]]>IGN's promised to post its Spore review at midnight PST tomorrow, so we're assuming that means "the internet" gets to go at the same time. We "assume," because we asked EA when the embargo was and no one responded to our call.
Anyway, that's 8am on Friday, UK time. Place your bets on the Metacritic average. Get some mixed magazine scores here.
]]>Lazard Capital's Colin Sebastian has predicted that Spore will move 2 million units for EA this month.
]]>Will Wright's going to be on hand to answer fan questions and HMV's Oxford Street store tomorrow, if you fancy popping along to worry the poor old sod.
The event, rather obviously, is in honour of Spore's launch this week. Details:
Event will be wristbanded to 200 fans. Fans can pick up free wristbands at HMV which allow them access to the event. Wristbands will be available only from hmv 150 Oxford Street from 9.00am on Wednesday 3 September on the day of the event onwards. One wristband per customer maximum, in person only, while stocks last, subject to availability, at participating store only. Due to the whimsical nature of the entertainment industry, events are subject to change without notice.
Press release after the link.
]]>Talking to GameInformer, Will Wright said that Spore won't expand in the same way the Sims did, with endless content packs. It's all about going sideways with the soon-to-be-released alien sim.
]]>Speaking to the AP, Will Wright has done the right thing and said all the Spore Creature porn's creative. Good, even.
]]>After the break. Still not excited. Help us, baby Jesus. The movie contains producer Kip Katsarelis and software engineer Soren Johnsen talking about how to build, trade with and destroy civilisations in Spore.
Thanks, Kotaku.
]]>Leipziger Messe's announced its official awards for last week's Games Convention, with LBP, Mirror's Edge and Spore scooping the main three categories.
EA was the big winner, taking four of the nine available gongs. No Heavy Rain, though. Here's what took the biscuit last week:
- Best PC Game: Spore (EA)
- Best Xbox 360 Game: Mirror's Edge (EA)
- Best PSP Game: Resistance: Retribution (Sony)
- Best PS3 Game: LittleBigPlanet (Sony)
- Best Wii Game: Skate It (EA)
- Best Online Game: WAR (EA)
- Best Hardware: PlayTV (Sony)
- Best DS Game: Sonic Chronicles (Sega)
Press release after the link.
]]>EA has announced its Games Convention line-up revealing that Harmonix's Rock Band 2 will be shown for the first time.
EA reckons it's "best ever product line up for European consumers this holiday and in 2009" and as we'll be able to confirm that for you when our full coverage gets under way tomorrow.
From the release:
On show in Leipzig are Europe’s best selling franchises and consumer favorites like FIFA, Need For Speed, The Sims and Harry Potter, a wide range of casual and family titles for Nintendo platforms including LITTLEST PET SHOP, Boogie SuperStar, Zubo and MONOPOLY, brand new IP like SimAnimals, Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, Dragon Age: Origins, Battleforge, Spore, the new MMORPG Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning, and EA partner titles Left 4 Dead from Valve, Rock Band and Rock Band 2 from MTV Games/Harmonix and Crysis Warhead® from Crytek.
Never before has EA had such a diverse and powerful slate of offerings, and it’s been great to see consumer and critical response to our games,” said Jens Uwe Intat, senior EA VP.
“As more and more people come into interactive entertainment, we are ready with the best games in sports, action, casual, horror, simulation, and online. We’ll be bringing more new games to market this year than in our history, and Leipzig is a great European window to showcase those offerings for the broad range of people that love to play them.”
Full thing after the jump.
By Mike Bowden
]]>Speaking to Eurogamer tonight, Spore exec producer Lucy Bradshaw confirmed that there's going to be no Spore demo, but that expansions to the now-gold sim game are planned.
"When we started Spore, we were thinking about how we'd make an engine that had the possibility of expansion, so yes, we'll add to the experience," she said.
"I think, however, we have a very cool opportunity to take Spore in a few different directions too. The editors are so cool and fun, that we want to advance those as well as the gameplay that we put into the core game."
]]>Lucy Bradshaw's opening herself up to live questions on Eurogamer today from 5.30pm BST.
]]>God knows how many years in the making, Spore finally went gold today ahead of its September 5 release. We could talk, but we won't: there's nothing you don't already know.
“We are so excited to finally get Spore into the hands of fans and players,” said executive producer Lucy Bradshaw.
“The Maxis studio has had an absolute blast creating Spore, but the fun is just beginning. The most engaging stories are truly the ones people create themselves, and we can’t wait to see how players not only craft and explore the Spore universe, but hear what stories they have to tell as a result.”
Press release after the link.
]]>In an interview Reuters in Singapore today, Spore creator Will Wright said that EA is looking at taking the title "outside the game space," and that TV shows and movies are being considered.
]]>Speaking in EA's first quarter earnings call last night, company boss John Riccitiello said that you'd be paying for Spore creature body parts if he had his way. From Edge:
]]>Speaking with Joystiq, Spore producer Thomas Vu said that the space phase of the game is 15-20 hours long.
]]>IGN has upped two new movies of Will Wright's God game/life simulation/real-time strategy title, due for release early September.
As we're so nice, we've embedded them for you. After the drop.
]]>Speaking at the EA E3 press conference in LA yesterday, Will Wright came to the conclusion that Spore fans are "38% God."
As you can see from this Joystiq report, he has the figures to back it up. From the site:
His basic argument goes like this: In the span of 18 days, Spore Creature Creator users were able to top 1,589,000 species in about 18 days, a feat that took God 7 days to accomplish. So, by his math, users of Spore at operating at 38 percent of God's capacity, or .38G.
]]>EA has just announced a giant line-up for Holiday 2008, and it's hard to be unimpressed. There is, quite fairly, something for everyone. Big boss John agrees.
“EA’s 2008 lineup is our best ever,” said EA head John Riccitiello. “This is the year that our core franchises leap forward with stunning innovation and we introduce more brand new games than any other year in our history. Sports lovers will compete in an all new holographic mode in Madden NFL 09 and experience the online evolution of their players in NBA LIVE 09. Action fans will be able to destroy everything in sight in Mercenaries 2 and be scared witless in our new Sci-Fi horror title Dead Space. We’ve got casual family titles like Hasbro’s Littlest Pet Shop and genre-defying experiences like Mirror’s Edge and Spore. EA has never offered consumers a stronger, more innovative and diverse line up of new games.”
It's all after the link. There's nothing there you don't already know about, but seeing it all in one place is something else.
]]>Lazard Capital's Colin Sebastian has dropped his price target on EA from $58 to $55.
]]>There's an eight-minute interview with Will Wright after the break that's pretty much essential viewing. He talks about how "cultural personality" for you entities is defined in Spore and says things like "goal-state," "meta-game" and "modelling invisible fields and forces." We could listen to him all day.
]]>Since the Spore Creature Creator was released a week ago, the Sporepedia has been flooded with over 1 million creatures of all shapes and sizes, from dogs to indescribable aliens.
]]>Will Wright will make a public demonstration of Spore at the San Francisco Apple store on June 21, according to Ripten.
]]>Oh noes. EA will spoil all the sexy Spore "fun"! According to this GamesRadar story, someone's had an email from EA complaining she was making sex-related Spore Creatures. Unlike the rest of the planet, obviously.
]]>EA's announced that more than 250,000 Spore creatures have been created and shared in a single day, following the release of the aptly named Spore Creature Creator.
]]>The Spore Creature Creator releases worldwide today for PC and Mac. The taste is a prelude to the main September event, and allows you to make beasties for use in the full game.
Press release after the link.
]]>It's here. The Sporepedia is essentially a list of all the creatures made in the Spore Creature Creator, from the look of it, despite the fact it's not being released until June 17.
In all seriousness, we want to hate this game, but seeing loads of daft animals lined up like that is quite cathartic. Please don't be good. The full game's out in September.
]]>According to this Shacknew piece, the minimum hardware specs to run Spore are:
]]>After the link. Funny animals walking about, bloke talking. We're hoping that there's some kind of lightning strike when we finally install Spore, but at the moment we're really not feeling it. Are we missing something?
]]>Blue's reporting that a new Spore video's up. It shows the cell phase seen in the new screens earlier and is available from a variety of sites. Have fun, odd life simulator game fans.
]]>EA's just put a press release listing all its upcoming summer releases, including details for Battlefield: Bad Company, Burnout Paradise updates, Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, Mass Effect for PC, Rock Band Wii (US-only, we assume), Spore Creature Creator, Spore and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
The release points out that the likes of Battlefield Heroes, Battleforge, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, Skate It, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and more are on the way from the label towards the end of the year, so it's all looking pretty rosy on the EA Games front, truth be told.
Here's all our coverage from the recent EA Games press day in London. Press release after the link.
]]>Following news that Mass Effect will now no longer use SecuRom's automatic ten-day authentication system, EA's confirmed that Spore's to ditch the unpopular measure as well.
Press release after the link. Good work for actually listening to people, EA. Thanks, Kotaku.
]]>According to this IGN interview, a free trial version of the Spore Creature Creator will be released in June. It'll contain a quarter of the final game features, but there'll be a retail version as well, which will contain the full creature creation kit.
]]>The movie you can see past the link is a clear indication that we're going to proved wrong about our aversion to Spore when it releases in September.
It's a promo trailer from Maxis about the working environment at the studio, and allows you to hear Will Wright say things like "solution space" and producer Caryl Shaw say, "The opportunity that we have here, in front of us, to create something that we all believe will be one of the best things that we can create in our careers is very powerful."
Go see.
]]>EA's going to be the exclusive games sponsor of Sci-Fi-London, the event's announced, and will apparently be showing playable code of Mass Effect, Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, Spore, Boom Blox and promising horror title Dead Space.
The show is held this year at the Apollo West End theatre in London, and will run from April 30 to May 4. Details after the link.
]]>We reported earlier that iPhone could be the answer to mobile gaming’s prayers. This video of last week's demo of Spore running on the handheld proves it. Possibly.
By Mike Bowden
]]>Here and here. Apple's just shown its iPhone games SDK in the States, including a demo of EA's Spore. Hit the links for more.
]]>Below. We can't hear this because our laptop's being weird and doesn't make any sound, and we can't use the PC in the bedroom because someone's asleep in there, but we're willing to bet it's worth watching Wright go on about stuff. It always is.
]]>According to this, a range of analysts has provided sales estimates for Spore of between 3 and 5 million units in 2008, and a healthy revenue target of around $250 million.
]]>Dutch show the NLGD Festival of Games is to be held on June 14-22 in Utrecht, the organisers confirmed today.
]]>Will Wright's magnum opus, Spore, will let you upload videos of your creations to YouTube with "just one click", according to this.
These feature alone means Spore is likely to play complete havok with the internet when it's released in September, because everyone will buy it. Because it's Spore.
]]>So says this. We assume this means you're going to be able to make stuff to drop into Spore when you finally get it. And everyone will get it. Because it's Spore.
]]>Speaking here, Maxis's Patrick Buechner has said that Spore's "priority" is Europe, based on the amount of PC sales the company gets from the region.
]]>
