|
|
|
Strategy
|
|
Posted by Administrator
on Friday, 05 September 2008
|
 Spore is an enjoyable game that pulls off an interesting balancing act. On one hand, it lets you create a creature and guide its maturation from a single cell to a galactic civilization through an unusual process of evolutionary development. Because the tools used to create and revise this creature are so robust and amusing, and each creation's charms are so irresistible, it's hard not to get attached to your digital alter ego. On the other hand, this intimacy is abandoned in the long, later portions of the game, when you lead your full-grown civilization in its quest for universal domination. The idea sounds ambitious, though Spore isn't as much a deep game as it is a broad one, culling elements from multiple genres and stripping them down to their simplest forms. By themselves, these elements aren't very remarkable; but within the context of a single, sprawling journey, they complement each other nicely and deliver a myriad of delights.
Spore's greatest asset, by far, is its intuitive set of creation tools. If you've played the separate Creature Creator, released earlier this year, you're only seeing a small piece of the puzzle. At various stages, you'll construct, for example, town halls, land vehicles sporting cannons, and aircraft that spout religious propaganda. The creatures are the true stars though, and you can mix and match legs, arms, mouths, wings, and lots of other parts into a beautiful work of art--or a hideous monstrosity. Each part of your creation can be turned, resized, and twisted, so whether you wish to re-create a favorite cartoon character or develop an original concept, you'll probably find what you need in here. You don't need to be a budding Pablo Picasso to make an interesting creature, however; just slapping a bunch of random parts together can result in a truly hysterical beast. Yet even if your onscreen buddy is a three-armed ogre with scales running up his belly, you'll be spending some time getting to know him in the first few hours of gameplay, and you'll probably develop some affection for him in spite of his hideousness.
[Read More at GameSpot]
[Read Another Review at IGN]
|
|
Strategy
|
|
Posted by Administrator
on Friday, 29 August 2008
|
 After having cruised through Cell Stage and Creature Stage, it's time to take a look at the third and middle stage of Spore. We're talking about Tribal Stage, when you go from controlling a single creature in Spore to controlling a primitive society where you can divide labor between over a dozen creatures. We had a chance to go to Maxis to play Spore and record brand new footage of what the game is like, so you have an idea of what to expect when it ships next month.
Tribal Stage is a rudimentary real-time strategy game; it's like Age of Empires or StarCraft but on a much smaller and more manageable scale. At the heart of Tribal Stage is your tribe, and you find yourself on a continent surrounded by tribes of rival creatures. To advance, you must neutralize your opponents, either by allying with them or by wiping them off the map.
[See it at IGN] |
|
Strategy
|
|
Posted by Scotty
on Wednesday, 13 August 2008
|
 Evolution is a long, slow process, and its effects sometimes aren't noticeable for millions of years. In Spore, it takes about 15 minutes. We visited EA Maxis this week as part of our ongoing coverage leading up to the game's September 7 release date, and we played through the cell stage up to the final moments of the tribal stage as our creature evolved from single-celled organism to fire-wielding biped. Someday we'll conquer the planet and then the galaxy in the civilization and space stages, but today, we'll walk you through the first half of Maxis' hybrid strategy game.
Your first decision is one of the most important and will affect everything down to the design of your spaceship a billion game years in the future: Do you eat meat? Carnivores are more aggressive than their vegetarian cousins in Spore, and the simple act of eating animal cells instead of plant cells will lead species to be more hostile. That said, evolution in Spore is at your fingertips, and one mating call will take you to the cell creator tool, letting you completely reverse the direction of your evolution should your gameplay tastes change.
[Via GameSpot] |
| << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>
|
|
|
