Gameplaywise, this Game really deserves the 70% Score. It's basically one huge ass box of Lego Pieces and that's it. Sure if you were to rate the design feature alone, it would get a pure 100% because it's so awesome but the rest of the game sucks.

That kind of sounds like 70% is a bad thing. I mean, I may not get the complexity of game rating systems, but anything that's rated above 50% (% of WHAT anyway?) is a nobrainer to at least try out (in my book), especially if the gameplay appeals to you. Anything below 50% is to be taken with a grain of salt, but if the gameplay sounds good to you it's probably still a good game (Baroque anyone?)

Spore is a great sandbox game but nothing more.

OK, this will come off a bit hostile now, but...duh? Everybody who expected more out of Spore than a sandbox game is in for a huge disappointment.


Just for everyone in general again, this is still a Sim game, basically. From what I recall, the development title was even "SimEverything". Sim games (or at least the more recent ones) have never been quite known to blow everyones mind with hardcore indepth-gameplay. Sim games are about accessibility. Everybody in my family can play Sims 2, from my younger siblings, to my mother, to my father, to my grandma (if she tried it). And I'm pretty confident, that everybody in my family could also play Spore (if their computers could handle it, that is) and THAT is what makes it that much of a good game in my book.

Sure, my younger siblings would probably be helplessly swamped in the space stage, but Spore is open-ended, basically. They don't have to play the space stage. I can quite imagine that my younger siblings would primarily dawdle around in the creature creator and play their creatures in the Creature Stage. What I love in the game is to create a race from scratch-up without any real plan and play throughout its entire evolution to see how it ends up. Also, I've been ending up as a Warrior and a Shaman in Space stage now, and from what I know there are still two other archetypes that I have to try out. The Shaman's "Return Home Ticket" ability is useful as hell, especially when your ship is about to get blown up.

This just isn't a hardcore indepth RTS/RPG, it's a Sim game. And if you really want to be challenged, try getting the Achievements.

Also, for the whole "Space is a chore" thing that seems to be the vibe around the internet, you don't HAVE to do these missions. Sure, your homeplanet gave you the mission to make allies, but why do it if you don't want to? Screw them and throw a bomb on their planet instead of making allies with them. If you want to go to war with them, all it takes is that you blast a city. Your homeplanets missions really are just mostly story-driven or serve as tutorials. And if those mission windows on the left get on your nerves, just stop tracking them in your collection menu.
The only thing that really does undeniable suck with the space stage are the Eco disasters and ship raids, but even for those you can buy stuff to prevent them or at least make them less frequent (Bio Protector and "BFG Turret")
And if you really just want the space stage to be sandboxy, you probably can cheat your way to money and then just try to "speedrun" the badges to get all your upgrades. I'd have no problem using cheats to get maximum enjoyment out of the game, but I'm having that as it is already.
And yes, collecting Spice IS a chore. I know that. The only gripe that I really have with the Space Stage is that pretty much the only way to make big bucks is to harvest and sell spice. For some weird reason though, I get the best price for green spice (which my homeplanet mainly spits out) on my homeplanet.

I guess in the end EA is to be blamed a bit by marketing this game in the wrong way to the wrong people (speak, mostly the gamers, instead of everyone). Spore may be good, Will Wright might be good, but EA is still EA :D

Oh, I have an idea. Let's turn this into a debate about the importance of graphics in a game.

For some reason, many people seem to be very irked about this games' graphics. I don't get that, I especially think the animations are very smooth.

Maybe there is something in the style that just puts some people off.

Probably the same reason some people were put off by Windwaker.

For some reason that reminds me of both this comic and this comic.

Although I don't think it was meant to be deep in any way (the video that is) :D

I think we need Iji in this game now.

Also, I second (or third, fourth, whatever number we're at) the idea of a roguelike character. There even could be a "roguelike" scroll item that randomly spawns the attack of any of the characters.
You know, like roguelike scrolls. You never know what they do until you use them :D

I didn't like the game that much either. Sure, the graphics were gorgeous and the puzzles challenging and (sometimes) fun, but other than that the game left me bored pretty quickly. That, and the story kinda makes it seem like that Blow guy only made the game to woe over his lost girlfriend.

Like, the biggest effort to show off you're emo, ever.

But yeh, I kinda let the hype get the better on me on that game. If I would've played the demo first (there was one, right?) I wouldn't have bought the full game :T

Hum, I agree that the graphics aren't exactly top-notch, but I figured the author went more for style than for cutting-edge graphics, like imitating Another World/Flashback a bit. Besides, the animations are super-smoothly animated, so I was really impressed by everything. It even had something a bit vector-ish about it.

I think the only, and really only, gripes I have with the game is that I keep hitting C to jump and that I can't shoot/kick while jumping :D

I have a question for you, Don Andy: is it possible to skip past certain stages? Just in case I don't like the cell stage.

From what I saw you have to "unlock" each stage first by playing the previous one. So, for the first time you gotta play from Cell to Space completely, but then you can start freely at any point.

And I guess I can see what those reviews mean as far as replay goes... the canned actions that your creatures do kinda make them all seem like the same creature, just with a different number of legs or eyes or whatever.  The dances, the poses and roars, and all that shit just kinda looks the same no matter what creature you build.

I think it makes a slight difference how you build the anatomy of your creature, but in essence, you're pretty much right. As soon as you enter tribal stage, you can't change anything on your creature anymore (except rather akward clothing options). They said as a tip "Give your creature more arms, as that enables it to carry more tools". But either I was too stupid to figure it out, or they could just carry one tool at a time anyway.



Oh, and another factor that MAY add to replayability (although only for some) are some sort of built-in achievements you can get. They seem to be more of the "personal accomplishment" than "e-peen" sort though. Like, I got one for collecting all body parts in the cell stage or for finishing the nest stage in under an hour. Or for your style of play. "Finish city stage with more than 8 military cities".

The funniest thing that could probably happen is that that one of the numerous penis monsters that players made gets made Epic on your planet xD

No, I don't think so. And there's no money to be mae from magazines, anyway.

But FAME 

Utilize that fame to undermine the swedish government and free Germany!

Also, I didn't say that.

What?

I demand that we replace with Iji now.

I don't think quality is a way to measure how good an indie game is.


It's the amount of love that makes a game. And both games have massive amounts of love, so come on.

Indie Brawl, Iji vs Quote. Do want.

Well, I've only just reached the space stage for the first time, but so far I'm pretty satisfied. I think the replay value lies in the way you play the game. This time, I did everything aggressively. I started as a Carnivore, pretty much killed anything I saw, and didn't bother with economics or religions, but just bombarded everything till it was mine. Naturally, my creature was developed with that in mind, mainly utilizing body parts that boosted strength or health.

Next time I'm gonna try the exact opposite, trying to socialize with other nests/tribes/cities and use body parts that focus on socializing, like dancing or singing.

And from what I gathered, the choices you make during your evolution (killing, dying, socializing, etc.) give you a unique tool in the space stage.

And after that I'm, probably going to mix the aggressive/non-aggressive thing and look what comes up with it.

As for the lack of depth, I think have to agree there, especially in the tribal and city stage. The tribal one still required management and had me dying a lot, but in the city stage you can basically just boost through without looking out for too much factors.

Naturally some people are going to be disappointed, but it's a great game nonetheless. I personally have the most fun with the Cell, Nest and Space stage.

(And yes, the game IS already in stores where I live)

Found this site today,

http://gamedevelopertools.com/index.php

Seems decently comprehensive if maybe not super deep at the moment, plus they have reviews and ratings.

Wow, this site has stuff I googled months for and still didn't find.

I demand that we replace with Iji now.

The whole firmware hacking thing is the biggest gripe I have about homebrew on the PSP.

That, and I still have yet to find a portable SNES emulator that doesn't suck balls. Lot of people have been telling me that the PSP ones run just fine, but either I play the wrong games or the emulators aren't all that good.

Ah shit, sorry, for some reason my brain totally garbled up that one sentence.

With that awesome stuff up there I'm sure you'll find a developer to pick you up.

I have to think of Desu every time I read Gosu and that's really driving me crazy.


It does look interesting though. What I didn't quite get, is it a mix of Ruby and C++, for Ruby made with C++, for C++ made with Ruby or just a library for Ruby and C++?

A tutorial on how to use the Chipmunk physics library with Gosu: RubyChipmunkIntegration, written by Dirk Johnson

Expect a sudden flow of random phyics based games.

Though I'm not sure how you would handle the fact that half of the explorers get killed in transport.

Roguelike :D

After having played it till the ice cave (rather far into the game) where the game decided my HDD isn't readable yet again and threw me back 5 levels yet again, I'm rather skeptical about the game in general. Not about the savegame thing, though, I guess that's just my Xbox.

But what's been bothering me is that towards the end the game just kinda felt...dragging. At the start it was still pretty awesome, especially the bosses, but I kinda felt that toward the end both the levels and the bosses kinda became less and less interesting. Like the developers where hyped about the game at the beginning and then lost interest/motivation towards the end.

Other than that the game really is a blast though especially in coop (in the same room, not over the internet). When it isn't currently throwing us back a bunch of levels that is. Hope moving the game to the Memory Unit will help.

The sandwiches are hilarious.

I think Frederick Pohl's Gateway books would make for a good game. More based on the universe though and less on the actual story.

OK, granted, there are already two games out that are based on the books, but they're rather linear old-school adventure games.

But it'd make for some real good open-ended space-exploration. Like Mass Effect or Noctis, just with actual stuff on the planets.
Although it may seem daunting to have a whole universe filled with actual content, I think Spore proved that it isn't an impossible task if you have an easy to use editor and a community to back you up.

Or just a really good random creation algorithm.