After the "The Wii is sh*t" speech, I'm not as interested.

Oh god, boner.

Im really looking forward to spore but at the same time I kinda get the impression it will be a game where I enjoy hearing about it and seeing it more than actually playing it.

Looking nice. And it certainly sounds like a Maxis game (music and such).

Does phase one remind anyone else of fl0w?

Toad,
Don't be an ass.
Why let one rogue developer speak for the whole game--the dude is obviously a loose cannon and I bet he gets fired.
Will Wright and the SPORE team clearly support Nintendo--Will has gone out of his way to praise both the Wii and DS, and they have already announced SPORE for DS, and are probably already at work on a Wii version.
I think the game looks awesome.

this game looks pretty cool... and yeah, with all the things going on internally, i can see how this isn't a game that would run well on the Wii... that speech was pretty funny though.

Other way around with the fl0w thing.

Damn that made me hyperventilate.

If this gets delayed again I'm pretty sure I will "aquire" one from the Maxis headquarters.

I don't know why, but those videos have completely lost my interest in the game. Granted I haven't seen any videos since a couple of years ago, and I was interested then. But after seeing these, I just don't care anymore.

weird.

This could all fit in one video fine. Why an obnoxious 5 separate vids?

why do they get to play for so long and we don't? I want to play it now! give us a demo, a beta, even alpha version... anything!
or just a date!!!

There isn't much they didn't show in the 0.5 hour-long video with Will Wright narrating it, but I suppose if you're trying to clue someone in on what all the hype is about and s/he isn't willing to sit down for very long, these vids'll do the trick. Providing you can provide verbal transition between one stage and the next.

That is HOT.

The creation screens alone are going to claim many hours from me.

If they implement the 3-D printing of your critters service they did as a promotion at E-3, that would be even hotter.

Does the art direction have to be so bland?

Im interested in the concept, but the visuals are just boring. The same reason that makes me uninterested in The Sims will keep me away from this game as well.

The high level of customization is not excuse for this.

I hate to agree with Toad myself, but if I didn't love ol'Will so much, then I would have overlooked this game myself over that speech too. Developers need to learn to shut the hell up sometimes.

If it came out for the wii, I'd give a go.

WTF does one developer's comments have to do with the quality of a game?

These vids are cool, but now I'm really curious about the transitions.

@victor-hvgo borges:

yeah... if you didn't like the Sims I'm 100% sure this isn't your kind of game.

The reason I buy Maxis games is because they do what other games can't.

The videos look amazing. The amount of customization seen in the quick glimpses of the menus is already quite impressive.

Hey yidali.

I dig this kind of games. I've spend a lot of time playing Animal Crossing (GC and DS), Viva Piñata, Little Computer People, Chibi Robot, Harvest Moon etc.

But these games have some kind of charm. The avatars are charismatic, You feel they´re alive someway...

But The Will Wright games and Nintendogs are exceptions, they're kinda repulsive to me...just my 2 cents.

That's TOO much customization IMO. I wanna play the game, not make it.

Wait, if we're terraforming, does that make us the Alliance? Will we be turning genius little girls into crazy psychics whom their brothers will have to rescue and hide on a cargo ship crewed by a bunch of ragtag petty criminal vagrants?

The developer who insulted the Wii was the same one who insulted Xbox 360 and PS3 at GDC last year, just as harsh. So stop being ignorant Nintendo bitches and create an opinion of your own, instead of critisizing others because they offend your pathetic brand loyality.

I can't bloody wait. This game is so high on my "Want It Now" list that I can't even freaking imagine.

These videos do feel like they're missing something. Or it could just be that they're segmented when the idea is that it should be seemless.

Uhm.

I don't want to play this game any more. It looks like each part of the game is behind the industry standard in the genre it is trying to mimic.

The first sequence with the cell looks like a cheap Xbox Live Arcade Title.

The second sequence looks like a mmorpg, running from a to b fight and then rinse repeat.

The third tribal phase looks like a very cheap rts based on the fighting above. Absolutely soulless.

The civilization phase looks interesting though and the editor looks very capable but I think they have a huge problem. Either we're gonna have to edit and create a lot of vehicles and houses to build our civ and end up not wanting to spend a lot of time in the editor OR we'll be expected to only edit and create one house and one or two vehicles meaning that's all we're gonna see on the map. Massive shortfall.

And the space phase looks just like the civ and tribe phase.

I think this game is gonna fall apart as being way overrated.

@aden.exe:

I feel the same way. Somehow I thought there was more to it than this.

It's kinda like a movie that sounds great in concept, then you see the trailer and it's like, you know you just saw everything that's supposed to be good about the movie and now you don't feel like you need to see the movie anymore.

I hope that the choppy frame rate is no indication of the final game.

Me, I'd rather have a perfect frame rate than one that fluctuates with onscreen action.

There really is no excuse - especially for promotional videos.

@Toad:
Drama and angst suitable for an emo kid. It was one guy's comments at an event intended for ranting and raving. They're still making Spore for your precious Wii, so get over it.

@victor-hvgo borges:
living pinatas would scare the shit out of me.
maybe it's the fact the the creatures are user created?

The visual style of this game is more inline with Pixar-style character design, imo. Which I neither hate nor love but in an active setting can be quite entertaining.

So much for not inciting flames. Simply, saying such things under the veil of a rant session is unprofessional and shameful. I lost interest in Spore months ago after the first batch of videos and the announcement that it would have limited online functionality and this little speech did little to sway me. Those calling me a fan boy or what have you, do try to grow up. Don't spout off about "making your own opinions" if you can't speak out of context of the big three.

And now we can add creationists to the list of video-game haters. Awesome.

Wow. It's like flow...only eventually you get out of the primordial ooze and get to have fun.

"He poops to see!"

Ha Ha, now that thats out of the way. This game is awesome and I had no idea it was so violent. I'm more intrigued about this game then ever before

Has a Wii version actually been announced? I'm a huge Civilization fan, and it appeals to me on that level. So long as I can play it on the Wii or my Mac, I'm happy.

i just got a custom computer in part to play spore, so i for one am really excited that theres some more footage of the game coming out. to me, theres a lot more going on than just what you're seeing here too, remember that those other planets are other players in the world, remember that all those customizations can be shared with other players. hell, i'm even excited over the ambient score. can't wait.

Actually, flOw's creator was hired early on to make Spore. So he's been working on the game for some time. If I recall right it was after seeing flOw that Spore came to be.

I'm having mixed feelings on this. E3 2005, I was WAY into this game, but almost 2 years later it's not as appealing(watching videos about it, anyways). I have a feeling this is due to my current infatuation with all the "new-gen" games that are so close to release now. Once I get my hands on this sucker though, I don't think I'll put it down for awhile.

I hope the final game will have some sort of "Pick something that looks nice" button so if I want I can skip past some of the more tedious bits of construction. Making a boat from the hull up? No thanks.

@t3knomanser: EA is publishing this game. That's pretty much all you need to know.

There's a freakin' CELL PHONE VERSION. It's been announced. (before you scoff, it's SUPPOSED to have some neat tie-in features to the 'big game'. might actually be cool.)

People that say they're going to pass on this game because some random jackass dissed the Wii are morons. WIll Wright is gaming's Speilberg, Lucas (pre ep1), and whatever other big name directors you care to throw out there. Unlike Molyneux, who has great ideas, but falls short, Wright delivers a truly groundbreaking game every 5 years or so, and has for decades. The man has done more to shape the nature of the games we play today than almost anyone aside from Miyamoto.

As for those of you who say "I want to play a game, not create it", I would remind you that all games are meant to be interactive. To an extent, user inputs 'creates' every game you've ever played. No two people will ever play a game in exactly the same way. If that doesn't appeal to you, might I suggest watching TV? Thought isn't for everyone.

Spore is groundbreaking on several levels, not the least of which is the promised seamless transition between the eras of play. No loading, no waiting. Pond to grassland to continent to planet to universe, in an eyeblink. That alone is a huge achievment by this team. Couple that with massive resiviors of player created content, automatic uploading and downloading, and all the other features this game has...
the only real question is how well the ports to the various consoles will handle.
(I feel compelled to note this could very well be the first game that shows of the PS3's as-yet-untapped potential.)

This is probably the most signifigant game of the next 10 years. If you consider yourself a gamer, you owe it to yourself to try it out.

The waaaaaiting is the hardest part...

@Toad: Nice try, but you can't insult the intelligence and maturity of people replying to you after using a single developer's unrelated comments as a reason to be less interested in a game.

I was pretty excited about this, I dunno. Like others here, these videos seem pretty blah. I hope the game is prettyified by 62% before release. It looks last gen, even though the back system is clearly next gen.

I think my biggest problem is the 5 separate videos make the game feel like 5 seperate games. I'm hoping that this game does flow from one part to the next without any major fanfare and loading screen.

Totally agree with the level of customisation being too over the top. A nice random button will suffice for the main part, especially boat building *yawn*

oh and insomniabob, Lucas pre ep 1, you are referring to Howard the duck Lucas right?

Just a guess, but I guess that the visuals don't look really all that eye-popping because of the massive amount of detail they took to making the functional aspect, ie: gameplay, so damn involving.

Which I don't mind, being able to create worlds from microbes floating around in primordial ooze all the way to flying in space to other cities, on other planets, in other planetary systems, in other galaxies, is simply mind boggling. Having a content creation system that borders on being game-developer-esque is nice too. I do wonder how they will allow players to set attributes to certain things though, like, you make a hole on some creature, is it his mouth or his pooper? And, that bucket shaped thing on the spaceship? Thruster or Cockpit? Will this vehicle be submersible or capable of space flight. I wonder exactly how deep this creation system will be, it all relies on what presets are in place I guess. Half of my excitement not only comes from waiting to play it, but wanting to see how "smart" the mechanics are at allowing your to create whatever you want, and then be able to make it DO whatever you want.

Oh, and about he foot-in-mouth developer? We probably won't hear much from him anymore. I bet they moved him from the cubicle to the janitor's closet. Either that or he's reading the Sunday paper for new jobs.

@lunaticcore:
God dammit, lay off him!
A developer's speech at a conference is representative of the whole team. By his little rant, he cast his whole team in a bad light. And even though the area was for ranting and raving, that's just not something a professional would do. That burns a lot of bridges saying things like that and I would not be surprised if Nintendo was just a bit less eager to do business with the Maxis crowd.

What Toad said was an honest opinion, and had nothing to do with any of you until you started with the flaming and the emo stuff. Get over yourself, and go reexamine who the immature dramatic emo kid really is here.

@Narsil:

Sooooo. . . You're telling lunaticcore to quit doing what you just did??!??! Doesn't make sense to me, lunaticcore just gave an opinion about something and you jumped his case saying that it was someone's right to voice their opinion!?!? Oh, the hypocrisy. . .

Anyway, I can not wait for this game! It looks more and more amazing each time I see it! Though I do see where it will appeal mostly to creative types and not necessarily "gamers". Now, if they could implement something that would let folks, say pick pre-made content from that another user has created and just jump right in and play, maybe that would get more folks on board. . . Just an idea.

Seems odd to have the progress bar and background take 1/3 of the screen. Wonder if that will be in the final game? Perhaps this is a way to manage framerate?

To respond to some of the comments above:
The game is supposed to upload user creations to a central database. If you don't want to make your own buildings, boat, textures, whatever, you can browse this catalog and select ones you want to use in your own game.

This database will also contain player created planets, including all creatures and civilizations. When you reach the space phase, some of the planets you visit will be another user's creation. The reaction of that planet's populace will also reflect the play style of the original creator(peaceful, warlike, etc.).

@baberg:

Oh it does, it scans the database of existing and user creted items to ffer creations that look similar to your style. Im not sure if it applies to creature creation, but then again that has gameply mechanics added to it so it might be better to do that bit yourself.

Argh....

Although the guy who said it worked for Maxis (who are relatively hip as far as developers go, even if they are owned by EA), don't get so annoyed when someone disses Nintendo. Nintendo purposely went out of their way to do something different this generation, and that will always cause some people to look askance.

It's unavoidable, and I'm surprised more people haven't done that kind of thing. When you try to change the world, you always get some people who get angry about it. If they didn't, it's not working.

The background and phase indicating thing are just there for the benefit of this video obviously.

I honestly can't believe that some of you guys don't like the look of this game. Seriously. Creating a race of creatures, shaping them into a great civilisation, and then exploring space? Not to mention creating anything you want along the way (creatures, buildings, vehicles, planets and even stars can be made (and destroyed) by the player at various stages of the game ). That's just awesome.

@flyingtaco:
You say they have already announced other vers of the game? Why cant they focus on one so i can play the damn thing. I doubt we will see this game this year.

I should probably stay away here and keep my trap shut but in my humble opinion, I have never been excited about this game and those videos certainly didn't help the matter. It looks like sims and evolva put together in one lousy game.

For the lenghth of time this has been in development, granted this isn't the final cut, I'd be expecting more, especially by now.

Those vids leave me bored and uninspired.

Didn't that seem like a quick change in the creature phase? I hope the finished game makes you work for your improvements and implements some kind of research tree, like EVO.

Is that Brian Eno's procedurally-generated soundtrack?

@ablemancain:
Yes, actually, I thought it was odd how far your critter evolved in one chunk, especially in the creature phase. I'm hoping the player had saved up a bunch of evolution points or something, otherwise, this looks more like a string of unrelated strategy games with a common character model. flOw -> Black and White -> Civilization -> Alpha Centauri. But with none of the depth of any of the above games (especially the last two).

On an unrelated note, those videos make me want a next-gen Magic Carpet game.

I don't understand why people worry about what developers say. If someone says "I don't like the Wii," all the fan boys get their panties in a bunch and say; "Oh yeah?! Well I don't like your game!" *Sticks out Tounge*

Point and case, this is going to be a great game. No matter what a developer said about his own opinions... I guess this isn't America, and we don't have the right to free speach anymore.