The Sims 3 In Full E3 Technicolor

Freshy pried from the game's homepage, here's the first trailer for Maxis' upcoming top-seller-for-five-years sure thing, The Sims 3. And yes, it looks better, and the promise of a whole town is certainly a pleasant one, but every time they start to lure me in with those kind of deals, I hear one of them open their mouth, and all bets are off.

Late last month I got a chance to sit down with Will Wright and a few other game writers to check out the full Spore. Having spent a week or so creating meatspace Fruit Fuckers, Spiders and a TickleMeKotaku, I was already pretty versed on the game's Creature Creator.

The full Spore, as we've talked about in detail before, is broken down into five phases which allow you to take a single-cell organism and run it all the way up the evolutionary ladder to a space-exploring civilization.

My concern, after watching the Spore demonstration in Leipzig last year, was that the game wouldn't live up to the spectacular creation tools that are so integral to Spore. I worried that it may be more of a series of toys strung together than a full-blown game.

My time with the game managed to ease some of those concerns.

Spore $80 Edition Announced

Excited about Spore but dismayed by the low dollar specs? Who plays $50 games anymore? Fortunately, EA has upped the ante, giving gaming's upper class snob a more premium Spore buying option, known as the Galactic Edition. In addition to the game, the $80 package comes packed with a "Making of Spore" DVD, a second DVD with the National Geographic Channel's "How To Build A Better Being" video, plus an "Art of Spore" mini-book, a fold-out poster that's already pre-creased and a 100-page "Galactic Handbook."

That Spore poster had better have a large image of Will Wright sporting his best denim on at least one side and have a scratch 'n' sniff patch that reeks of Wright's brand of cigarettes. We appreciate the finer things in life, too, you know.

Spore Galactic Edition [GameStop]

Sporepedia: 350,000 And Counting

OK. We get it. You like the Spore Creature Creator. Just don't like it too much too soon, OK? It's poor form to gorge yourself on garlic bread before the main course arrives. I say this because, having just popped on to have a little browse on the Sporepedia, I see there are already over 350,000 creatures on there, a number that'll already be higher by the time you read this. Really, 350,000? Don't you all have, like, jobs?

[Sporepedia]

Yes, EA Are Monitoring Your Naughty Spore Creations

Penis creatures, creatures that are, well, fucking themselves, it's all a laugh. All to be expected when a company lauches a tool that allows the great unwashed to make living, breathing animals that look like genitalia. But be warned! These heady days of free love, where anything goes and your vaginasaurs are free to flop around the floor unchallenged by the censor's blade, will soon be coming to an end. EA have begun cracking down on some of the naughtier creations uploaded, sending a "please stop or we'll ban your EA account" email to PC Gamer's Kristen Salvatore for her Boobalicious creation. This after we were promised we'd be able to fly a peniscar into vaginatown! We were promised!

BUSTED! "Boobalicious" Banned! [GamesRadar]

Spore Creature Creator Available Today

Spore System Requirements Are Decidedly Sane

After perusing the "Sporepedia" for a bit, you might start to wonder "Can my lowly Windows-based PC or Mac handle this much awesomeness?" Maxis responds with a thorough set of Spore minimum system requirements for the release platform of your choice. And they're not at all unreasonable! Windows gamers, you're up first, Mac gamers, you're after the jump.

Windows XP
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
512 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Windows Vista
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
768 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Care to take a gander at the breadth and depth of Spore's creature creator? Then direct thy internet compass northward to the official Spore web site, with a freshly populated "Sporepedia" that's growing by the minute. The Spore monster manual has more variety than one could shake a stick at, with creatures that are fuzzy, tentacled, even ones that look like walking Bosch pears. Already, more than a gross of man-made beasts have been uploaded.

We're just a week away from the Spore Creature Creator going public, meaning it wouldn't hurt to brush up on the SimEverything bestiary before you get your mouse pointer on it.

Sporepedia [Spore.com]

The Sims & IKEA Are An Exercise In Tasteful Product Placement

Indulge your Sims with an office that is sure to promote order and productivity with its elegant Vika Hyttan desk, inspiring Kila desk lamp, bold Helmer drawer unit, and Lack zigzag wallshelf.

Spore Creature Creator Gets Scaled, Webbed, Dated

Maxis has finally come forward with a few more details about Spore Creature Creator. Coming out this June, Creature Creator will be available for download as well as bundled with the collection SimCity Box. These will be free trials with about 25% of the creator's full anatomy. A full version of the creator will be available as well (our money is by registering the trial version).

The software itself will allow you to create unlimited models, share these models and export wallpapers and videos of said models. Creature animations can also be tested in a dull, lifeless environment. It's a neat idea from Maxis, but just give the full version away free with pre-orders or something. The more I hear about this tiny piece of Spore, the more I see it getting set up to disappoint people who pay for it.

More Spore Creature Creator Details [IGN via Joystiq]

The Sims: 100 Million Served

The Sims 3 Gets Teased

Sure, we've known that The Sims 3 was coming as early as November of 2006, when EA essentially semi-announced the thing in an earnings report. We also know that EA is planning The Sims 4 and a gross of expansion packs over the next decade, but that's just based on common sense.

Looks like we may get our first real look at chapter three in the amazing Sims saga as early as March 19, just two weeks from today. That's according to EA's teaser site, which provides all the information you've seen in this very post, but it appears that Sim jewel icon rendering is going to be just stunning!

The Sims 3 Coming Soon! [EA]

Will Wright Gets all Brainy on Drunk Audience

Last night, Electronic Arts threw a little party for the gathered game developers and various hangers on at the Mezzanine. About an hour into the party, EA's Neil Young took to the stage to introduce Will Wright who wouldn't, he was clear to point out, be talking about anything even remotely Spore related. Instead, Wright took to the stage to deliver a talk in the scatter-topic method that has earned him a small cult following, touching on everything from Godzilla and lunch boxes to James Bond and the abundance of Sims titles to hit the market.

It was as always, a treat to watch. It was also, as always, something that leaves you perhaps with less of an idea of what he's on about than before he started talking.

Check out the clip which shows the talk in all of it's more than 30-minutes glory and stay, at least, until you get to his now infamous Russian Space Minute.

Spore Creature Creation Preview

EA is showing off a bit of the recently dated Spore today, with the PC and Mac versions getting special treatment in the creature creation preview department. In the clip above, you'll learn more about the process of building your own species from all manner of body parts—arms, legs, tails, custom torsos, even parts that are "social," including plumage that draws attention and mouths that are better at singing than others.

The preview also shows off Spore's content browser, a web app that lays out user and Maxis generated content. Highlighted here are a few interesting, holiday themed items like a building shaped like a Christmas tree and a UFO built in the shape of... well, I won't spoil it. Just watch.

We've all seen screen shots and video of Spore's 3D character design. There seem to be limitless options provoking endless gameplay.

But what not many people know about Spore is that the experience lasts just five hours before you are done with a majority of the game's features. Yeah, from all of that cute character creation to the large scale city dynamics, it's over pretty quick.

"I waited in line, where's the ride?"
"The line is the ride."

Good news, vicarious readers. Spore will be journalist-playable for the first time ever later this month at Leipzig. It's almost enough excitement for us to stay sober to enjoy...or to throw us in a bender of nervous anticipation.

We'll still be waiting for Spore's late 2008 release that could easily spill over to 2009. Oh, I meant to say you'll still be waiting for Spore's late 2008 release. We'll be playing it in Leipzig. (And telling you all about it and feeling guilty because you aren't there and calling you late and bringing back a snow globe or something in repentance and XOXOXO.)

Spore playable at Leipzig [gamespot]