By Jim Rossignol on March 2nd, 2009 at 6:28 pm.
Ooh, just a kind of radar-blip news post for Spore’s expansion pack, Galactic Adventures. No firm release date yet, but we understand it’s not far off. So here’s something: Galactic Adventures delivers a whole load of space-stage stuff to do, mostly with missions on the planet surfaces that you can undertake with your creature and his/her space chums. There’s rescuing of princesses, destroying aliens motherships, and of course loads of that user-generated content pollination. Judging by the trailers post after the jump, the planets themselves are massively more detailed than they were for vanilla Spore, and the “massive battlefields” that the expansion reportedly features could make the unhappy endgame of Spore a little more interesting to get through. Take a look at how Spore will change.
02/03/2009 at 18:51 Kieron Gillen says:
I totally forgot that I saw this at NYCC. I may see if I remember enough to write a preview.
KG
02/03/2009 at 18:52 Empyreal says:
They are going to suck more money out of me with this, and it will probably not be worth the money, but I’ll still do it. Why? Because Spore had so much potential, and it looks like it’s starting to live up to it.
02/03/2009 at 18:55 Tei says:
Buying Spore is like buying Windows XP. You get minesweper and solitary on the pack, good games. You get the impression you can do more with Windows XP than playing minigames…
02/03/2009 at 18:56 Tei says:
posdata:
aRRGGhhh… I forgot to say that this videos looks awesome!
02/03/2009 at 19:00 IdleHands says:
That does look cool and interesting, but so did Spore before it was released and that turned out to be just Meh.
Do I really want to splash out money to make a Meh game have a bit more longevity?
02/03/2009 at 19:17 IdleHands says:
Oh yeah sorry for double post (been awake for over 24 hours), but does anyone else think Will Wright and Peter Molyneux should form a club of developers that promise much more than they can deliver?
Could call it the “Beat them with sticks until they learn” club
02/03/2009 at 19:17 PlayNoEvil says:
… ah, LittleBigSpore
02/03/2009 at 19:24 Rich_P says:
I’ll play Spore in four years once I can get the complete game for $40.
02/03/2009 at 19:35 Rei Onryou says:
Neverwinter Spore.
02/03/2009 at 19:37 Scott PM says:
This is a pretty good idea, whoever came up with the notion of taking Spore and adding something fun to do in Spore should definitely get a raise.
I won’t be buying this though because is looks like the games are still going to be kind of boring and shallow. FIND YOUR WAY THROUGH A MAZE??? WOW SOUNDS GREAT.
02/03/2009 at 20:00 Mike says:
Too little, too late?
02/03/2009 at 20:27 Theory says:
I’ll be getting it. Culture is exactly what the space game needs, and I reckon that with it we’ll be able to thoroughly plug that big, gaping black hole.
02/03/2009 at 21:02 shon says:
I actually liked Spore but stopped playing because I had other games with more interesting things to do. The idea of assembling a crew intrigues me and I will probably get it.
02/03/2009 at 21:17 Nimic says:
Spore was a good game, and I think most people actually agree with that. The problem is that it could and should have been so much more than “merely” a good game. That means that you’re liable to have that in mind whenever you play one of the otherwise decent stages.
02/03/2009 at 21:17 clovus says:
@Rich_P: What makes you think that will be available in four years? How old is the Sims2? Wiki says…. 9 years?!? I still can’t find a single box that has all of the major expansions combined for that price. I bet they will still be releasing new expansions for Spore in four years.
Of course, I don’t think Spore will have quite the shelf life that Sims2 had, so maybe we’ll get lucky. Of course, I already wasted $50 on the original. That’s the only time in about 5 years that I bought a game on release day for full price. Lesson learned.
02/03/2009 at 22:29 Jake says:
I think I’ll wait for Spore Double Deluxe, or whatever they decide to call it. Or a $5 Steam sale :P
02/03/2009 at 22:39 Sagan says:
Doesn’t look too great to me. I bet it has the same problem as the main game, in that they only allow you to change the skin of stuff. So probably you can put shooty-missions on a red planet, and on a blue planet or a yellow planet. And then you can either fight against ten enemies, or eleven enemies or twelve enemies, which will all behave the same. The possibilities will again be endless.
Oh and you won’t be creating gameplay, despite what they claim. You will just build more levels for the simplistic gameplay that they created.
I would have paid for an expansion pack that turns Spore into a sandbox game. But this is most likely not it.
Sorry, im bitter because I’m disappointed.
02/03/2009 at 23:37 solipsistnation says:
New Expansion Pack Makes Spore An Actual Game! Film at 11!
03/03/2009 at 01:56 apnea says:
“Too little, too late?”
*breathes in loudly*…
Yes.
03/03/2009 at 06:23 A-Scale says:
Spore- Failed. Hope let down.
Expansion- You lost me at Spore.
03/03/2009 at 08:27 MrDeVil_909 says:
I like being a late adopter. If a ‘Gold’ type edition comes out with this expansion at the price of Spore at launch I’ll pick it up.
If not, then I won’t.
03/03/2009 at 09:01 N says:
The whole crew on planet thingamagimmick seems like a retarded version of battlezone/uprising.
lol.
03/03/2009 at 09:04 chaves says:
So, this expansion will make Spore actually fun to play?
03/03/2009 at 09:26 Anthony Damiani says:
Sims 2 was 4.5 years ago, not 9. The original Sims was released in 2000.
—
re: Spore:
It’s going to take some really spectacular reviews, word of mouth, footage and features lists in order for me to even consider taking another chance on that game.
03/03/2009 at 10:43 danielcardigan says:
Jim Rossignol – unhappy endgame? This is the Spore that PCGUK gave 90%+ (Tom Francis reviewed it I think)? That Spore? The one that had all the previous levels in the game exist as character creation for the REAL game which was the Space Stage?
Spore was mediocre at best and the space stage was just repetitive and annoying. They should have released the creature creator for a fiver and… oh that’s right they did that. No-one actually had to pay any more than that to get the best bit from the “game”.
03/03/2009 at 10:52 Theoban says:
I enjoyed Spore quite a lot, even though I was lost when it came to the Space phase. Eventually though I realised the bits I liked were just the creation tools, so I played with those for hours.
Maybe this expansion might help, as the Galactic stage just threw me completely.
03/03/2009 at 13:07 Songbearer says:
Hi. I consistently enjoyed (And still enjoy) Spore. Am I a bad person?
03/03/2009 at 14:20 MrFake says:
Yeah, this looked exciting. Then they dropped the “user-generated” bomb.
The Creature Creator worked because despite your best efforts, every damned creature looked cute enough to hug (even the penis monsters, worryingly). And though the other creators left far more room for imagination, that came with the price of fugliness. And I know I’m responsible for a few misshapen cars and spaceships–multiply that by millions and you’ll get a whiff of some of the bad eggs.
Their own video for the mission creator shows just how depressing this is going to be. Structures and objects left floating above the geometry. Pointless, monster-filled bouncy pits. A remarkably organic free-form experience, in which you can either jump over the wall or blast open the door, y’ know, what only Spore can deliver. *sigh*
Ugh! I didn’t consciously think Spore was a letdown, but why has it made me so cynical? Why do I keep seeing visions of Second Life?
03/03/2009 at 14:20 mrrobsa says:
Does anyone know if this would change the basic nature of Spore throughout the game? Or are these just extra things to do once you reach the space stage? I ask because I’m yet to play Spore, but am interested in doing so, and I heard the earlier stages are the dullest part of the game.
03/03/2009 at 14:26 Tei says:
@Songbearer: I don’t think soo. But I doubt you are playing the “civi” subgame for hours, and get tons on enjoyment from it.
The creature and cell stages… I see how that is posible. And the Space is a sandbox, so yea, it feasible. I suppose.
03/03/2009 at 14:46 SwiftRanger says:
This seems like a must-buy for me, Spore was more than decent.
03/03/2009 at 15:02 Moonracer says:
I have to side with the folks who feel let down with Spore. It will be a while before anything added to the game feels more like an expansion than something that should have been included in the first place.
Even at $10 I think I’ve moved on enough to pass on this.
03/03/2009 at 15:04 Dizet Sma says:
There are a lot of inventive creators in the Sporepedia and I’m betting they’ll come up with better ideas than ‘find your way through a maze’.
I’m still enjoying Spore and if they get the hi-res texture issue sorted on this then I’ll be even happier. Less happy with the idea of the several dozen ‘extra parts’ expansions that will be coming down the pipe, however.
03/03/2009 at 22:32 Mike says:
Songbearer: Yes. This will become clear to you in the future.
14/03/2009 at 11:03 Jub-Jub says:
Don’t think Spore is sucking money out of us. Well yes they are and they arent. Cute and Creepy was definently sucking money out of people. But no S:GA. People actually requested it be made. I still like spore. They did change some stages(that wouldn’t work anyway;Underwater) but really, are you gonna hate a game that has changed and actually bothered making an expansion pack that players need rather than want? Are you gonna hate a game company?
You shouldn’t hate Will Wright though he isn’t the asshole behind all this….(EA)…..
22/03/2009 at 16:04 josco says:
I’d like to see them do to the other stages what theyre doing here. an expanded creature stage has me pretty excited.