By Jim Rossignol on June 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm.
Spore: The Sim Everything we require, or the downfall of Mr Wright? Only time, and a long time sat alone at a PC screen, will tell. Anyway, more images from the early-sentience stages of a civilisation after the jump. EA’s typo-ridden press release reports: “You begin the Tribal Stage as a small group of sentient creatures which have just discovered tools and have formed the first tribe on their planet. Gather food with your tribe members by picking fruit, hunting or domesticating wild animals and fishing. Your tribe runs on food buy tools with it, purchase tribal accessories with it, gift it to other tribes, steal it from other tribes, and (of course) feed your tribe with it. Use different tools to befriend or attack neighboring tribes, aid in hunting and gatherting, or heal your tribe members.”
You can click for the full image, you know.
I’m going to the shop now and I’m going to buy a Double Decker. I love that my favourite confectionary has its own web page. Also the information contained therein: “Positioning – The zany hunger-buster!” Yes.
When it comes to interacting with other tribes (whether it be shmoozing them with dancing and music or crushing them likes bugs (LIKE BUGS!!)), I’ll be interested to see if the aggressive option can backfire. You know, whether there’ll be some tribes just full of enormous, vicious bastards who you’d either have to avoid or play nicey-nicey with to avoid them squishing you.
I’m looking forward to this being released in 2013, though. :)
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Surely it can’t deliver on every aspect and live up to the hype.
Spore, however, is certainly going to be a bit of a let down.
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I can’t help but wonder how much freedom there is for personalisation at this stage as it would be so hard… they going to make loads of variation in activities and buildings etc?
Also it does look a bit messy and wierd sometimes. Not used to seeing a game look like a primary-school picture.
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@Bob Arctor: That’s something I’ve been wondering too. The number of different-looking creatures is immense and I find it hard to believe the rest of what helps you build a civilisation in the game will be able to match it.
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I’m also a great Double Decker fan. There’s something very satifactory about the contrast between the chewy nougat and crispy underlayer. But ‘candy bars?!’ While I don’t mind the trans-Atlantic travel of language I’m afraid this is still one that sounds odd to my British ears.
Edited to add: Oh, and Spore. Although you can vastly increase the number of limbs etc., I’m a bit disapointed that everything still ends up looking vaguely amphibious. I want furry monsters!
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Just imagine me saying it in a faux Southern-fried accent.
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Still, it looks a bit more like a game in these screens, as opposed to a novelty sandbox.
I’d take a boost over a double decker for a substantial sugar based snack any day.
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I thought the first screen was a photo of some tabletop miniature game before I read the article’s title.
Still looks droolworthily pretty :(.
Also I completely agree on the furry monsters. They must be in there, they MUST!
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Furry monsters? I want Carniferns, for the Sim Earth shout-out…
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So much potential fun, also so much potential to disappoint and annoy. Ever since I got burned so badly by B&W I’ve never been able to muster more than cautious excited for games of this scope.
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Those screenshots show a disappointing number of two-armed bipeds with one head each. Is this a sign of what’s going to be the most efficient way to a successful species? I hope not! I want my one-legged hopping race of multi-headed doom!
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I like that Bournville shtuff. Sexy voice.
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I concur, you really can’t beat that glucose hit…..in fact I really have to get my next fix now….
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Double Decker For President
You have to be careful about the ambient temperature of storage, though. DDs from chilled vending machines have a tendency to have hard nougat, which breaks, rather than the soft, teeth-sinking nougat it should be.
As for spore; though hair / fur may be far to difficult, some more diversity in the bump mapping would be appreciated.
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Bah, Boosts leak caramel all over the place. I don’t trust any chocolate bar that remains half suck to its wrapper. (Although admittedly deformed double deckers aren’t all that rare.)
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I too would choose a Boost over a Double Decker, but ultimately both are damned fine chocolate bars.
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Rock, Paper, Shotgun: where the hot button issues are video game piracy and British chocolate bars.
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convenient that your species is always the first to develop tools and civilization, otherwise you could have fun playing the short but simple existence of a domesticated food species when someone else got there first. I quite fancy making the strategic eat/sleep/look confused choices required of a successful (multi-legged, bald) sheep…
oh, and – Starbar.
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Fur would be good. If only because it means that the obligatory races made up of ambulatory cocks that will spring up mere hours after release can have suitably hairy ballsacks as well.
I’ve always preferred the humble kit kat myself – it’s genius lies in it’s simplicity and lack of pretension.
Also, does anyone have even the faintest of ideas of when this is coming out or what sort of machine it will ask for? I realise it looks simplistic, but I can’t help but think it will still be out of reach of my wheezing old PC.
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Looks like they have improved the rendering engine slightly.
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Spore has begun to give me that odd “she-is-going-to-dump-me” feeling. I am worried.
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yeah, Spore has started going for long walks with its ex. When I asked what they were doing it replied that they were ‘just talking’.
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I’m sure a lot of people are pissed about how crappy those screenshots look, but it just makes it all the more likely that I’ll be able to run the damn thing. I still hate the cartoony art style, but I suppose Will Wright has to screw up something, eh?
Also, on the topic of candy bars, do you Brits have the Take 5? It’s my personal favorite.
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Well, everything looks samey thus far, BUT that could be a sign that the tools they’re including are meant to be the real meat of the game. Limited base selection + nigh infinite customization and scratch-built content would be far superior to just a slightly larger ‘official’ creature option/part/piece/howeverthey’recallingit set.
The copy protection hinders it for me. I’m curious to see how that all gets pinned down when this goes to press, but if they stick with the shat they tried to put on Mass Effect (or anything short of anti-copy and a CDkey, really, to heck with activation) it’ll never see play time on my box.
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Since first announcement, the tribal phase has been the one to make me go “Mfeh?” the most. Unlike the others it seems rather uncreative, since you’re not lending your own twisted vision to the species, buildings*, tanks or spaceships. A shame. I’m wondering if this phase will be the one most players will become eager to skip.
Shouldn’t there be a video of this phase soon? There was one of the creature phase, though I think RPS missed it.
*Well, you get a couple. But do you design them?
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Sim Earth was bomb shit. Perhaps nuclear annihilation will be an option in Spore? I think Will Wright should talk to the Soviet Assault guys and make it happen.
Oh, and Pearson’s Salted Nut Bars. I don’t even know if they exist outside of Colorado.
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@ Schmung: Tim Edwards has made an early belegged penis in this months PC Gamer (I would say first, but I have a feeling there are some suspicious Maxis creations out there already), aptly named the Freudian Nightmare. The lack of fur is made up for by the addition of some errant curly hairs and purple speckling to its bulging ballsack (complete with a solitary staring eye).
Is it possible to edit any of the tribal stage tools? I can’t recall there being any mention of this as much of the focus has been on creature design and making stuff at the civilisation stage, but it’d be great if you could. It’s still shaping up nicely in my eyes, even if most of the appeal currently lies with the editors.
Also, Snickers are best.
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Eh. I was initially very excited about Spore, but the more they talk about how it’s actually shaping up, the less excited I am. This whole “stages of life” business with the very hard gradations and shifts in gameplay sounds pretty rubbish, to be honest.
I’ll still give it a look when it comes out, but my hopes are no longer high. Though, to be fair, I suspect I’m not the target market. I used to really dig the various Sim titles, as well as related titles like LucasArts’ Afterlife (love that game) but as I grow older my patience for that sort of sandbox simming has all but vanished. The Sims 2 is in every way a dramatic improvement over the first, for example, but while I spent hours and hours with the original and the first expansion, I only fiddled with the sequel for a day or two before shelving it. I’ve never even really spent any time with the expansions . Though I think that’s probably just as well – EA has managed to make the process of installing them a hideous, lengthy nightmare, from what I’ve heard.
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decent fur shaders have been around for several years now! no excuses!
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I’ve had hands on with the creature creator and I can confirm it’s pretty hard to make a creature look furry. There are lots of different kind of skin, but little to no hair.
Expansion pack, perhaps!
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GT now have a video up.
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As a public relations professional, the poor grammar and typos in that press release make me want to cry. Whoever approved that release before it went out to media should be fired.
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Chalk one up for the Boost fanclub.
Double Deckers are of course second in the hierarchy of “BEST CHOCCIE BAR”.
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No doubt EA will have a slew of shameless expansion packs for Spore.
“Spore: Hairy Fun Stuff Pack”
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“Spore: Tentacles, Tentacles, Tentacles!”
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You’re all wrong.
Best chocolate bar is, without doubt, the Starbar. Hard to find i’ll admit but that just makes it even more worthwhile when the peanut-butter and caramel goodness covered in chocolate finally hits the back of the throat. Mmmm
Boost second, Double Decker third I’d say…
Spore: Cant wait. Legs tho? Who needs legs, I want wings!!
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I opted out of functional legs/wings/arms and made a rolling ball, shrunk all the arms and several pairs of wings, mouth and other necessities in favor of huge cythes on the sides. It bounces!
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