By Jim Rossignol on July 21st, 2010 at 8:47 am.
It might sound like a medical condition, but it’s actually an “online, science-fiction action/RPG”. There’s a bunch of information on the Darkspore site, including a teaser trailer. Looks like an attempt to rework the Spore systems and make it a bit more palatable to mainstream gamers. Here’s EA’s blurb:
“Darkspore is inspired in part by the award-winning creature editor tech of Spore, but also in large part from the team’s own passion for gaming and prior experience,” said Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of Maxis Studio. “The team has combined these inspirations to produce a unique take on the action RPG genre.”
Darkspore will feature dynamic, fast-paced action as players battle across alien worlds to save the galaxy from the mutated forces of Darkspore in a four-player co-operative and full single-player campaign, as well as intense multiplayer battles. In order to defeat the malicious Darkspore, players will need to collect an arsenal of living weapons – genetic heroes with different combat abilities – and upgrade them with tens of thousands of collectible body parts and armor.
Release set for February 2011.
It’s Spore.. but dark! It’s… Darkspore!
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THE CREATIVE PROCESS REVEALED.
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I think it’s awful enough that it works.
Just.
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Nah, the game centres around the search for the ultimate biological weapon: a toxic secretion from the creatures known as the Darks.
This can then be fused with your creatures to win the war.
You must find: The Dark’s Pore.
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By law, I am required to become your archnemesis now.
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Spore… directed by Tim Burton! Starring Johnny Depp!
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My secret plans, revealed!
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The subtext on this one is fun.
Crogenitors = Investors
E-DNA= EA
Darkspore = The spore that got released
Heroes = Game developpers tryiing to make a fun game
—
For eons the Crogenitors traversed the galaxy, genetically transforming and sculpting living matter to their will. In their unchecked arrogance they created something they could not control – the Darkspore. Now the galaxy is under siege.
Using the powers of E-DNA, the Darkspore has transformed planetary populations into mutated hordes. Its sole purpose…to dominate life on all planets.
You are a fugitive, hidden for a millennium. Your mission…to reconstruct an arsenal of genetic heroes. And lead the battle against the Darkspore.
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Huh. Spore of War? Spore-lo… Hal-ore… Spo-lo? Never mind.
Killspore!
(No, honestly it sounds interesting. Just hope it’ll be better than Evolva.)
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I have fun memories of the demo. Well, not fun, exactly. But… memories.
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has the potential to be fantastic if they execute it correctly… we shall see!
One major problem I can foresee is the clash between being powerful and looking good – if you want your creature to be at its strongest then you’re limited to the same selection of parts
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American Mcgee’s Spore.
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Am I the only one who thinks this sounds incredibly shitty?
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Definitely not.
At first I thought the trailer was parodising the Starcraft 2 one, then I realised it was being deadly serious. Why do games with even the silliest, most stupid concepts have to try so hard to be serious? Worse still, DARK AND GRITTY. This seems like a perfect title to pull of something Pixar-ish, filled with goofy joking around.
Or did I just totally miss the point and is it actually all a (tightly concealed in PR talk) joke after all?
I mean surely gritty space marines and dark epic storylines don’t mix with penis monsters and… penis monsters.
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I do think it warrants analysis, though. Considering that Spore was a posterchild for the post-Sims generation of games that were designed to have genuine mainstream appeal, what on Earth is Maxis doing swimming back upstream, as it were, to release a game that only the ‘hardcore’ (and even then, I think they’re being optimistic on current evidence) would take two looks at?
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“…rework the Spore systems and make it a bit more palatable to mainstream gamers.”
So, they are going to take a painfully watered down game and water it down even more?
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No, it sounds Diablolical.
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In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there is only Spore?
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In event of Tyranid spore, please try to remain motionless and calm. If a spore is moving towards you, please calmly move slowly away. The spores are attracted to movement, so running will only ensure they go after you. If the all clear has sounded and a spore is spotted, please notify the nearest Imperial Guardsmen with the location.
Thought for the day: Obedience builds a stronger Imperium.
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EA’s previous forays into MMOs have been less than splendid.
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“in a four-player co-operative and full single-player campaign”
MMOs?
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My reading comprehension, she is not so good.
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You mean their previous Sporays.
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Is it going to be gritty? I hope it’s gritty.
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Darksims, now with sparklepeen.
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“Bit more palatable to mainstream gamers”
Wouldn’t that be the hardcore gamers? I mean, my girlfriend, who was delighted enough by the demo, bought “Spore” back in the day (and grew pretty fast bored), but I can’t see her being interested in darky darky Spore… And I think of her as pretty mainstream gamer, like, in casual games.
Is casual the new mainstream?
Wasn’t it always?
Is hardcore the new niche?
And will Popcap follow the lead with angstier versions of Bookworm Adventures? (Then again, there already was Evilex in there, and there was Peggle Extreme, so I can see where EA is coming from with this…)
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Indeed. Making it “a bit more palatable to mainstream gamers” is what was wrong with Spore in the first place. It seemed such a victim of the marketing department that we ended up with a game entirely lacking in any substance.
I wonder if there’ll be any actual consequences for creature design in this one.
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Extreme Spore.
EXTREORE.
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Judging from the gameplay and premise, this may be a great game.
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The only way I could be less interested in this is if it was a co-op MMOG.
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this is what happens when Will Wright moves on
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this is what happens when Will Wright moves on.
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A horde of penis monsters shall descend upon the galaxy once again.
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I think those are supposed to be the bad guys.
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Darksporn?
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Penises…WITH SPINES!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090225-seed-beetle-sex.html
In the Grimdark Darkgrim of Darkspore Grimthousand, there is only traumatic insemination.
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fuckin bugs
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sounds like a non competitive version of dota… [ watch the heros in the site as "LIVING WEAPONS"! ]
and more.. customizable?
sounds intresting either way
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This is precisely what I was thinking.
If it was the case, bitchin’.
But it will not be the case.
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I’m happily remaining skeptical on this one. Something that I’ve noticed is that they continue to use the words editing and collecting rather than creating. My guess is that their “award-winning creature editor tech of Spore” is the tribe/civ/space/captain outfitter, not the creature creator at all. In other words, you’ll be able to customise an arsenal (read: paltry handful) of predefined creatures, not make them yourself as the connection to Spore obviously implies.
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To be honest it just sounds like a certain recent free offering from Valve, with a bit more chrome thrown in.
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I was also instantly reminded of Alien swarm. This seems to promise some more customization options though.
Not that I’m putting down AS, mind. It’s free after all.
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I for one am willing to give EA another shot on this. Spore promised too much and delivered too little. In particular I’m excited about the coop section. In my opinion all games with SP campaigns should offer a Coop version of same. With all the easy-to-integrate network middleware out there, there is really no excuse to deny people the possibility to enjoy games together. “The story is too hard to implement” is no excuse.
The dearth of coop offerings up until recently has seen me and my wife playing Vegas 2, again.
Happily this seems to be improving of late, with Fable III implementing true coop, and Alien Swarm like games.
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Simcity 5 please, waited for 7 years now.
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You think that’s bad? I’m still holding the torch for Sim Tower 2!
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?
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Uh…
That question mark’s a link to the wikipedia page about Yoot Tower..
*slinks away*
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Sounds like they’ve finally decided to attach a game to that awesome creature editor I bought.
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If you have a liquid with chemocarcinogenesis substances, and retrovirus that shape the DNA, I kind of think is a good idea to add a luminiscent green substance, so any leak of such liquid will be bloody obvious. Still… wen you use glowing green liquids, It look like cheap sci-fi.
My only problem with this, is the eyes of the monsters. Are more bovine than tiger-ske or shark-ske. These are not predators, these are cows with shoulderpads. How can I take cows seriusly? cow tools? cow weapons? Imagine cow weapons.. grown from meatmaterials using dna altering virus.
I think we all have think “Are you kidding me? Darkspore?, can you think on something less of a cheap juveniles idea. Come-on!”.
Also, I predict one-eye-monster-jokes on penny-arcade. Meh.
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I still want my fix for realistic ecology simulation and terraforming, not some kind of rpg.
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“Collectible Body Parts” sounds awesome to me! Getting a giant claw is much better than a skill that gives +10% damage.
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This one probably deserves the biggest MEH ever.
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palatable to mainstream gamers = dark. space.
me = depressed.
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After the awful winter we had the gritting industry wasn’t keen to go back to “business as usual” after its bonanza season, so some bright spark sold twenty tonnes of the stuff to an EA studio executive, now they’ve got to put grit in EVERYTHING.
That or it’s just rhyming slang, after all the last one was a bit grit too…
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reply fail! that should have been @JohnArr
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soo… anyone for a quick game of ‘Revenge of the Penis Monsters’?
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I am sure some modder can replace the camel in “revenge of the mutant camels” for what you suggest. Anyway, the obsesion with penis is weird. On all games with lots of players customization, I still have to see 1 penis. It seems the penis related jokes only live on the threads, youtube videos, and penny-arcade jokes. I never see then in-game. But I don’t play consoles. Maybe the penis-obsesed people play consoles.
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I’ll let Youtube tell you different Tei (at least where Spore is concerned):
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=spore+penis&search_type=&aq=-1&oq=
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Yea, I have see a billion penis videos on youtube. Is like people hate creativity, so must make a point “people will use the new tool to make penis”, then create a penis, and publish that penis on youtube “see? people will use the tools to make penis, lots of penis. I have fullfill my own prediction”.
But I have played these games, and people is focused on other things.
Have you played APB? you can create anything, I have more than 140 hours in-game, and I have never see people with a pennis tatoo. Maybe all these people is on the USA servers?
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I can’t help giggling every time Tei says, “penis”! I think it’s that new avatar …
Anyway, I’ve definitely seen penises in the wild in Minecraft and Second Life. But yeah, there is hardly an epidemic of phalluses whenever users can create anything they want.
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@Tei Careful what you wish for.
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No. Please. Just. No.
This is some strange, knowing parody form the EA PR office, right?
It’s like they completely did away with the “sequels must be darker and grittier” pretenion and just lampshaded it. Makes me a little sick inside. Spore was a really lovely game.
“Spore was too cute for the core teenage boy demographic!”
“But, er, game players are an ageing demographic, many are women…”
“I’m not listening I’m chainsawing a grey man in a brown corridor with neon lighting. Look this is amazing.”
“I guess we could, you know, adapt the game…”
“Yes: Make it darker, grittier.”
…
EA Announces “Darkspore”
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Could have been worse – Gritspore!
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Actually… the title sucks, but this could kinda work.
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“Crogenitors”?
Maxis, I am giving you a very stern look right now.
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So it’s Gene Wars 2 then?
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Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
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Totally interested. I’ve never played a game that did “feature dynamic, fast-paced action as players battle across alien worlds to save the galaxy from the mutated forces” of something or someone. I swear. I only “Manic Miner” and “Hobbit” for my ZX Spectrum, but now you are telling me that I can experience some dynamic, fast-paced whatever, and across alien worlds to boot, all on this computer contraption? Sold!
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Gears of Spore.
Sporecraft.
Men of Spore.
The possibilities are endless.
P.
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Grand Theft Spore.
Spore Effect 2.
Spore of Brothers.
Dwarf Sporetress.
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Just Spores 2
Left Spore Dead
Sportal
Napoleon: Total Spore
The Elder Scrolls: Spore-o-wind.
OK I’ll stop.
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Darkspore Patchnotes:
Spore 2.0.16.a
* Changed shader to “realistic brown”.
* Added more spikes and claws to the shop.
* Creatures now have 5 more stats.
* Added FUN to the game.
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I’m afraid this game is being developed for the Pokemon demographic.
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Well, Pokemon is a great game, so now I’m excited about this.
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At least, with procedural generation, it will be impossible to Catch ‘Em All.
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I’m guessing there’s no word on the DRM yet? :)
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DarkSECUR. You get the same number of activations, but they’re grittier and more authentic.
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What? Even more mainstream than Spore? If anything I hope it has a deeper (and funnier) gameplay than its former dumbed down version.
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The Darkspore website looks very similar to how Blizzard craft’s their websites. Am I not correct!?!
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I’ll give this a shot… because there’s a big Gauntlet-shaped hole in the current gaming landscape, and as long as this remains a four player co-op shooter with RPG overtones there’s a slight chance they’ll trip over and fill it.
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This is one of the more smile inducing comments threads I’ve seen on RPS in a while. Keep it up, you’re doing great.
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I’m a bit confused by the ‘more mainstream’ comment after recalling that…
…Will Wright has said that the Spore team decided long ago that it was more important to achieve stellar game sales than fantastic review scores. “We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players,” Wright told MTV Multiplayer. “Spore has more depth than, let’s say, The Sims did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for Sims 2, which was around 90, and something like Half-Life, which was 97, and we decided – quite a while back – that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of Sims 2 than the Metacritic and sales of Half-Life.” Wright also said that he was unsurprised by the inconsistent review scores the game had received, citing the variety of different experiences Spore offers and suggesting it was almost impossible to satisfy all types of gamers. “A lot of the reviews I’ve read have said that the Space Stage was far and away the best and they were disappointed by the earlier stages because they were too simple. Other people have said the Creature Stage is their favorite and that the Space Stage seems too complicated… There hasn’t been any consistent feedback.”
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=196675
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