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Reality just took a back seat to the gaming world, with user-generated species in Spore outnumbering the variety of living creatures on Earth for the first time.
Maxis, the Electronic Arts studio, announced today that over 100 million different species had been uploaded since it released the Spore Creature Creator in June of last year.
That compares to scientific estimates of between 5 and 100 million species on Earth, although only around 2 million of them have been formally ca..."
"Although it was not close to its potential success especially because of its simplified, cartoonish gameplay, Spore is still a milking cow and Electronic Arts will certainly do its best to squeeze even the last drip of milk: therefore, the company has announced that four new Spore products will be released by the end of 2009, including a Wii port, Spore: Hero. Finally, the Sims have some competition expansion-wise."
"6:00 AM - Romp through the garden with your pets.
Slightly obvious imo: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise, of course there is the sad chance it could be one of those many many (many) Ubisoft Petz games
8:00 AM - A PS3 game that dreams are made of.
A couple of choices here that all kind of make sense: LittleBigPlanet, Eternal Sonata, SingStar
11:00 AM - This should hold you over on Xbox 360 until Final Fantasy XIII releases.
These two Square games come to ..."
"Today, 2nd January 2009, is the ninth day of Christmas. It may seem like Christmas is all but over-and-done with now, but Electronic Theatre are staying true to tradition and heading-on through those infamous twelve days! On this ninth day, The Twelve Games of Christmas enters its ninth edition, and today we run through the top-performing disc-based releases of September 2008. Hold onto your hats, its going to be bumpy from here-on out!"
Well now this is good news. EA recently announced that they will be releasing their games on Steam. Well, now it has been revealed that the DRM protection of SecuROM that EA uses on some of their popular titles will be dropped for users that purchase the games on Steam.
"Just in time for the holidays, Valve announced that, Spore, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Mass Effect, Need for Speed Undercover and EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to gamers in North America via Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.
In the coming weeks, Mirror's Edge, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, and Dead Space will also be added to the catalog of EA's titles availabl..."
"1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $36 (Average)
2. Spore / EA Maxis / $48 (Average)
3. The Sims 2 Deluxe / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)
4. Call Of Duty: World At War / Treyarch / $50 (Average)
5. Fallout 3 / Bethesda / $49 (Average)
6. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $21(Average)
7. Grand Theft Auto IV / Rockstar Games / ($49 Average)
8. Left 4 Dead / Valve / $48 (Average)
9. Far Cry 2 / Ubisoft Montreal / $50 (Average)
1..."
A nice quick and to the point write up from Primotech that includes all the winners from the show on top of some random news blips (such as Pearl Jam's full album Ten coming to Rock Band, Brutal Legend confirmed for 2009, GTAIV DLC trailer, Gears 2 maps coming, Fight Night Round 4 coming 2009). See quote for full list of winners, go to source to see some more news from the event.
"You can also set up ecosystems to fix the climate in place and pave the way for your own colonies, or just graffiti the place with mountains, valleys, new colour schemes and whatnot. In fact, as most of you will have already guessed, Spore isn't so much a game as a do-whatever-the-hell-you-like simulator."
Let's start with Spore. Spore (PC) has been rated 20th best invention of 2008. The concept of creating your own life form and then take care of it through the civilisations as the species thrives was just too enticing for Time Magazine to pass up on.
Wii Fit won best gadget of the year for the obvious reason that it's a great and fun way to lose weight, something crucially needed in this current day and age. It's something which appeals to the average modern day person, unlike running or h...
"Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly reccommend people play nice and act mature.
..."
"If you thought that EA might have been humbled by the massive Internet backlash against its use of SecuROM in its recent games, then youd be wrong. Speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference, EAs CEO John Riccitiello claimed that the whole issue had been blown out of all proportion.
We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 per cent of users wouldn't notice, claimed Riccitiello, but for the other 0.2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them la..."
"Next is the untitled Space stage expansion, due for Spring 2009. This one gives the Space-travelling folk in the game the ability to beam down from their ships to explore other worlds and go on new missions. More than that, you get the "Adventure creator", which will allow players to build and share their own custom-made missions. Details on how exactly this will work are likely to surface in the coming months."
Even though it is technically allowed in their EULA - EA is trying their hardest to limit/prohibit the resale of Spore.
Ars goes in depth into several other court cases of this nature - ranging from promo CDs, WoW account selling, to even AutoCAD.
Spore is drawing far too much negative publicity right now- and EA should really be pushing damage control more than anything else, but the more and more facts that come to light about their restrictions and shady business practices - the more...
In a class-action lawsuit brought up against EA, the Northern California US District Court has raised the point that Spore is installing a program to the users computer without their consent or knowledge, and make it extremely difficult to remove.
One is reminded of when a similar issue with Sony's rootkit was ruled in favor of by the FTC - basically stating that companies cannot install software on users' computers without express consent.
Even funnier - SecuROM was actually developed ...
As posted earlier EA was threatening to ban members for complaining about DRM and SecuROM issues in their official forum, which could also lead to banning them in game.
Senior members of the EA moderating staff have cleared the air and responded with how this practice is "absolutely not true" and not "in-line with EA's moderation policy".
Evidently somebody outstepped his bounds when making the initial statement.
The fascist state that is becoming Spore's online community is becoming more and more real. EA moderators are now proposing bans on anyone who discusses DRM issues in game or more specifically in the game's official forums. Not only will these ban you from posting to the message board, but you may even be forced to purchase a whole new copy of Spore in order to play again (let alone participate in the forum).
I am curious as to how this lines up with their TOS and EULA, because it doesn't ...
Australian software sales for the week of September the 21st for all consoles, the Wii and the Nintendo DS.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed heavily dominated the all consoles top ten, also managing a respectable second on the top ten Wii games from being beaten by Wii Fit which also managed third being the best all console seller other than Star Wars. Wall-E managed top spot for the DS chart closely followed by Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What To Eat.
Overall the Nintendo Wii was by far ...
"Today, Electronic Arts have announced their UK Christmas 2008 family gaming line-up. While many of these titles will already be familiar to both Casual and Hardcore Gamers, there may also be one or two surprises...
Spore update 1.01 has been released for the PC/Mac game, which fixes a few bugs, and adds cheats. Here's the list of everything that was added, and updated.
New features
It seems EA is finally responding to the complaints of hoards of gamers (and about 15,000 Amazon.com reviewers) and is loosening its grip on the DRM and Spore.
They have agreed to increase the number of activations from 3 to 5, and will allow users to deactivate a machine without having to contact customer support.
Too little too late? That is for the gamers to decide - so I turn the question to you gentlemen (and ladies).
There have been tons of complaints about the DRM in Spore ever since it has been released, mainly because of the fact that the game can only be activated on three different computers.
MTV went in and talked to EA about what the plan to do about combating that problem, as well as other ones. They responded, hit the quote and source to check it out.
Our friends over at Arstech see what all the hoopla is about with this DRM business and Spore.
They seem to have a little better luck than most of us wish EA customer support - though they have to jump through the usual hoops to get a competent representative.
Ultimately, they are told that "you could install the game all day long on the same machineit was limited to installations on three separate machines." - possibly clearing up some of the issues with this whole 3 installation limit.
Given the recent backlash against the DRM and SecuROM in Spore, you would think that EA might change their tactics? Nope- they are standing strongly by it, though they have lightened up and are allowing 5 installs before you have to contact their wonderful customer support for Red Alert 3.
Amazon.com has decided to remove the most negative reviews for Spore. The review was rated 3000 out of 3300 of being helpful, and was a good review. To read it click the source.
Along the lines with my previous article about EA customer support- it seems that gamers are not as happy with spore as they thought.
You are required to activate the product over the internet, and if something goes wrong- you have to call EA (we all know that will be a joy).
The game is barely pulling 1 star reviews on Amazon (With over 1200 1 star reviews!) Not bad for a game that has been filled with anticipation for almost 10 years now.
"Heres a list of this weeks U.S. game releases. The most popular games are Spore on PC / Mac, Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise on DS, Yakuza 2 on PS2, and NHL 09 & NHL 2k9 on multiple platforms. On the downloadable games front weve got todays Wii Shop titles Groovin Blocks, Cho Aniki, Final Soldier, as well as Samurai Shodown II, RocketBowl, and Shotest Shogi on Xbox Live Arcade (updates Wednesday). American McGees Grimm: The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs will join the GameTap lineup (upda..."
Flippin' sweet week to be a DS owner, and well, if you're reading this (as in, on a PC), it's also a good time to be a gamer. Spore comes out for the DS and PC, sports fans get NHL 2K9 and NHL '09 to choose from on all consoles, and DS owners also get Viva Pinata, the fabulously old school RPG Mazes of Fate (finally!), another interesting looking RPG Lock's Quest, a new color for the system, and more.
"It will only take 30-60 minutes for the install to complete before you can begin conquering galaxies in Spore before anyone else! Please note that you will be charged for the game on the 28th of August and your statements will reflect this.
Spore ships on September 5 in Europe and Asia and on September 7 in North America."
"Ahead of Spore's September 7 launch for PC and Mac, genius creator Will Wright has been talking about the create feature that's so far spawned more porn than yesterday's Bristol pirate.
But Wright says he's not offended by the army of cock monsters that invaded the internet following the release of the Spore Creature Creator. Quite the opposite in fact.
"When you give players creative control, you have to expect they're going to do the unexpected," he told the AP.
"Some of it's reall..."
"Atlanta-born Wright, a bespectacled, mop-haired alien obsessive who builds robots for research purposes, said Spore was inspired by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program.
"I believe there are other intelligences out there, and the closest is several galaxies away," said Wright, 48, who grew up building model cars and dreaming of space travel."
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) have finally rated the RTS game Spore -- because of mild language and animated violence, it was rated PG.
One of the reasons the BBFC were tempted to rate the game as such was due to a group of aliens in the game that were referred to as "little buggers". To check out the other reasons why Spore got a PG rating, hit the source.
Will Wright is a legend in the gaming industry and you're now able to send in your questions to him! In case you don't know who he is, he is the co-founder of Maxis and created the game almost all of us know, SimCity.
Later on, Wright would help create The Sims, which has sold over 100 million copies, making it the best selling gaming franchise in the world! He is also helping in the development of Spore, where you're able to create your own beasts. The game will hit stores on September 7t...
"She then added that a "flora editor" may be among these additions, allowing players to create their own plant species as well, presumably for your creatures to munch on. I'm sure the internet community will keep things completely tasteful when it does come out and certainly will not produce a field of phallic trees or some such.
If you want to hear more about the future of Spore, be sure to check out the interview we did with Maxis senior producer Morgan Roarty on 1UP FM."
The Spore Creature Creator is essentially a demo of the tool you use to create your species in game Spore. Now this has been available for purchase for some time, but for those scroungers and cheapskates there is a free version coming with the Sunday Telegraph here in Australia, at least according to the advert that I witnessed.
It gave the impression of being the full version but no news on whether this will occur outside of Australia.
"At its press conference just now, EA announced that over 1.8 million creatures have been created by people using the Spore Creature Creator -- that's more than the number of known species in the world (1.5 million)! The Creature Creator has been available less than a month, meaning all of those creatures were created in just that amount of time. This is an especially staggering number considering the real game in which these creatures are used, Spore, isn't even available yet.
Spore creato..."
"LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) - - The "Spore" alien population is exploding, boding well for the September launch of the latest brainchild of computer game legend Will Wright.
The response astounded even Wright, maker of the world's top-selling computer game "The Sims."
"I was really hoping we'd get 100,000 creatures by September and a million by the end of the year," Wright said Monday while demonstrating "Spore" on the eve of the Electronic Entertainment Expo video game trade show in Lo..."
The annual E3 Media & Business Summit, known as E3 is coming up soon between 15-17 July. There will be new games and announcements, but that's not all! Major game producers will be spreading big news, so be sure to take a look.
Gamespot have listed the games they're most anticipating and what will be seen at E3. The list includes the following: "Lego Batman", "Resident Evil 5", "Resistance 2", "Saints Row 2", "Soulcalibur IV", "Spore" (yes Spore!)... see the source for more.
"UNIQUE GALACTIC EDITION CONTENT
*
'Making of Spore' DVD video
*
'How to Build a Better Being' DVD video, by National Geographic Channel
*
'The Art of Spore' hardback mini-book
*
Fold-out Spore poster
*
Premium 100-page Galactic Handbook"
"Hey! People aren't just using the Spore Creature Creator to make penis monsters. Creative kids are trading cocks for controllers just look at what Kotakuite zOmbi's friend Eric made in the Spore creator editor a few minutes ago. Yep, that's right, Eric made an Xbox 360 controller."
"Any time you give human beings a vehicle of expression, they are liable to try to impress you...OR degenerate the medium to portraying the most primal acts and functions. Over the past few days, humanity has been using the Spore Creature Creator to flood Youtube with tons of penis monsters, booby monsters, and vagina monsters. There's videos of monsters (though technically the same monster) bumping uglies. Spore porn (Sporn?) is all over the internet. These people are the kids that made i..."
"How far is too far in the Spore Creature Creator? PC Gamer's Kristen Salvatore found out the hard way this morning when she got a time-out in her email from EA.
Less than a day after responding to Tim Edwards member contribution to the Spore Creature Creator community with Boobaliciousa somewhat more gynocentric take on the same themeshe received the following cordial but unambiguous email:
quote"Hello [Perv],
Your Electronic Arts account has been flagged for violating the Electr...
"Spore Creature Creator available for both Mac OS X and Windows enables users to create creatures using design tools taken from Spore, a virtual life game created by Will Wright, designer of Sim City and The Sims. Spore takes the Sim City and The Sims concepts to an extreme, where you create a life form from its first stirrings in primordial ooze all the way up to an intelligent, spacefaring civilization.
Spore Creature Creator lets you assemble hundreds of parts into a creature of yo..."
"The Creator itself, which will be hitting the public soon, is impressively flexible. All of the pieces you place on your creature have various manipulation points which you can click, drag, and turn to mold your digital putty into something unique. You can alter how many spinal columns it has, how many limbs it sports, whether it has eyes sticking out of its head or recessed into its bodythe options really are pretty vast. Wings, beaks, claws, horns, and more are all available. The slick int..."
Sporelebritarianism: David Lynch, Carlos Santana, Flight of the Conchords make creatures for charity
Okay, so Electronic Arts isn't all bad, because this idea is freaking awesome. The company got together a bunch of celebrities and asked them to create a creature using Spore's creature creator. The winner of the contest will see $15,000 going to the charity of their choice. Who's participating? Santana, Lynch, Stan Lee, the dudes from Flight of the Conchords, and a bunch of others. (If you aren't familiar with FotC by the way, I highly reccomend it.)
Following the announcement that Mass Effect will not be using the almost Orwellian modified SecuROM authentication protection, Spore, EA's other big game has been changed as well. SecuROM will still be used, but in a modified reauthentication process that only checks on installation and when the online function is first used.
The positives that can be brought from this announcement apart from the obvious are that this new process will not require a CD in order to play after installation. I...
Remember my story about Mass Effect for the PC needing to be authenticated every 10 days? Well Bioware and EA have apparently had a change of heart and changed the system. Now you will only need to enter a code when first installing the game and when you purchase additional content. No word on what's happening to Spore.
A lot of PC gamers are pretty excited about these two titles hitting the computer arena, but would you like them enough to check it every 10 days for the rest of your life?
What am I implying you may ask? Well for those of you who have played certain PC games will know that sometimes as a anti piracy scheme a developer will occasionally make you log onto a certain site and activate it via the Internet or you get banned. Well Bioware seem to have taken this method a little too far, making y...
"The Creature Creator functions identically to the creator you'll find in Spore. You'll be able to create an unlimited number of creatures. Mold them, apply body parts, [and] paint them. Once you've made a creature, you can bring it into a test area where you can walk it around and try a variety of animations."
"Dead Space (Oct 31, 360/PS3/PC)
Dead Space feels eerily similar to Aliens, but the introductory trailer and our first hands-on demonstrated a level of suspense, mood, and intensity we haven't seen in a while. The premise: the entire crew of a deep space mining ship has gone missing, and it's up to you, the sole survivor, to rid the vessel of alien baddies. It should be noted that EA's survival horror only marginally beat out Left 4 Dead (360/PC), the fast-paced Zombie Killer by Valve with ..."
Delayed, delayed and delayed. That's been the story for Spore, always being delayed... however it recently (and finally) managed to get an EU release date of 5th September for the PC, MAC and DS versions.
However, rumours have already begun to surface about a next-gen version of the game being considered, and better yet, the Wii version is already underway....
"To call the upcoming game Spore, from the genius mind of Sim City creator Will Wright, ambitious would be a massive understatement. Some have even wondered if its possible to make a game of this size and scope fun. Theres even some who believe that the game, which was first shown off in 2005, and will take the player from a simple multi-celled organism, all the way through the process of evolution until you reach space exploration and extra-planetary colonization, may never come out."
"Official Release:
At the Macworld Expo today, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced that SPORE will be available for the Mac later this year. From Will Wright, creator of the mega-hit The Sims comes Spore, the only game that allows creative personalities to explore the depths of their own personal galaxy. A sneak peek of the game will be on display at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, CA throughout this week. A PC version of the game will also be released later this year.
We ..."
So, the Wii gets Spore, something I am glad to hear as a self aware fanboy, but apparently Wright is acting like one too. I don't mind what he is saying about the other consoles since it is his opinion, but does he realise how much flaming this whole 'the Wii is not a / is the only next gen console' causes? It is just nonsense at this point in my opinion.
It looks like Spore has an actual release date, now. According to one very large online retailer known as Amazon you can now preorder your copy of Spore. With a price listed as $49.99 and a boxshot to go with it. Amazon is giving it a release date of March 03, 2008.
Will Wright's Spore could well prove to be one of the most influential computer games ever created - should it ever arrive. Moreover, publisher Electronic Arts has this week revealed that the game will arrive when it's ready, and not a moment before. What? EA not rush out a game for quick profit in favour of actually offering a top quality release? Never!
Recent rumors have suggested that Will Wright's evolution sim, Spore, will possibly see another delay, this time into 2009; the game's release has already been pushed back once until sometime next spring 2008. However, Electronic Arts was quick to point out that this speculation currently holds little ground, being based on misconstrued information.
"In a conference call to discuss today's financial results, EA said that Will Wright's highly anticipated evolution sim, Spore, is no longer in the company's plans for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2008. Most in the industry had expected the game to be released later this year, perhaps in time for the holiday shopping season."
![Box shot of Spore [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvUEMvU2ltdWxhdGlvbi9MaWZl/spore_frontcover_small_BoprMjWvoSs0Vfx.jpg)