Are you ready to get back that Arm and Leg you paid for Spore? Well EA decided to give you 24 for free!
Mega Man needs new arms
These free parts are part of the 3 patch to be released since the games initial release. Its nice to see them giving something for free. There were also a few minor bug fixes. You can read more about the patch here. They also added the ability to have unique screen names for each member of your house hold (now I don't have to share my wife's!)
Don't worry though, EA isn't THAT nice. They can't give you everything for free. With the announcement of this patch, they also announced the Spore Creepy & Cute parts pack. This game has been out for only two months and they are already releasing add-ons. Seems they are going the same route as the Sims games.
The parts are 'Exoskeleton' arms and legs. They will help give you creature that nice armored or skeletal look you had to force with the in game armor, or random parts. Check out a montage of the parts below:
Anyway, I am off to create some new freaky creatures! Stay tuned to my SporeCasts for more updates!
In light of our post Monday on Spore, We are going to talk about a Super Nintendo game: EVO - Search for Eden.
EVO was released in 1993 by Enix (The company behind the Dragon Quest games, who eventually merged with their rival Square ). EVO is an action platformer with some RPG elements. The game is broken up into five worlds or ages (Fish Age, Amphibian Age, Dinosaur Age, Mammal Age, and the "Age of Eden"), each with multiple stages. The world map (and levels for that matter) is structured similarly to Super Mario World. You progress through each side-scrolling level fighting enemies, and eating the meat they leave behind. This meat serves two purposes, first it restores your health, second it serves as an experience system (EVO Points) which allows you to evolve your character in a few different ways. You can save these evolutions in the "Record of Evolution" for later. At different points in the game, you can aquire crystals that give you special properties. The green crystal, allows you to turn in to any creature in the record of Evolution. The red crystal, allows you to unlock secret powerful creatures (which you can save in the record of evolution...) for a limited amount of time. Check out this video review of EVO.
Turn the volume down if you just want to see some gameplay.
And that is why I decided to post this week. The premise of this game is almost exactly the same as Spore. Sure, spore has slightly more complex game play, but the core element, the one that makes spore truly interesting, is the ability to evolve your creature. Sure, it isn't quite as dynamic as Spore's creature creator ( you can't say, articulate your spine), but each level offers a slew of different parts you can use to upgrade your creature. In total, there are eight different parts of your body you can upgrade: Jaws, Horn(s), Neck, Body, Hands&Feet, Dorsal Fin, Tail, and the Back of your head. Each part has multiple options each typically better than the last.
Really, there isn't much else to the game. To get the best parts for you creature, you always have to spend some time grinding (hey, it IS a game by Enix after all) as going straight through each level only nets you enough Evo P. to get the weakest of parts.
So, how does this game hold up today? Well, I started replaying it this week, and I can say, it holds up pretty well. While the backgrounds and levels are far from inspired, the creatures are detailed and well designed. The game play, while repetitive at times, is simple and fun. The music (composed by Kouichi Sugiyama from the Dragon Quest series) has a very classical sound, and easily compares in quality to some of the finest SNES RPG scores.
I was definitely suprised that my nostalgia for this game holds up even today (it rarely does). True, I am a sucker for anything that lets me build up my character, or make visable changes to your character.
All in all, I highly recommend this one. If you can get your hands on a reasonably priced cartridge, pick it up, you won't be sorry. Barring that, we will just have to wait for its release on Virtual console. But given Square-Enix's limited North American support for the VC, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Now that I have propagated my evil Darwinist evolution to our nations children, my plan is almost complete...
Hello and Welcome to our first New release Tuesday.
This week we are going to talk about a recent PC release: Spore.
Spore is the latest endeavor my Maxis studio's Will Wright. Wright is most notably the creator of The "Sim City", and original "The Sims" games. Spore was unveiled four years ago and has received numerous "Game of The Year" awards.
Spore is comprised of five main "Phases": Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space.
Each phase uses a different base game mechanic, that is tied together by a similar theme of growth. I say growth, because evolution of your creature is only a small part of the overall progress through the game. A bigger part of the game is the sociology and relationships that are established with other creatures of the game.
Spore's meta-game is almost a history lesson of PC gaming. The cell stage could be compared to a flash based browser game. The creature stage is similar in feel to an MMO like World of Warcraft. The Tribal phase is a basic RTS similar to the Age of Empires games. The Civilization stage is like, well, Sid Meier's Civilization games. The Space phase is more in line with Galactic Civilization games, where world conquering modes are prevalent. I will explain more on these when I break down the levels.
The most extraordinary part of Spore are the various creators that you are given through out the game.
The first creator you experience is the simple Cell creator, which allows you to modify the creature you start the Cell phase (and game). This creator only allows you a limited amount of customization of your creature( The cell stage is on a two-dimensional plane). You can attach different weapons, flagella, and orifices for food to your cell. Each part makes your creature better at a single aspect of its existence; Speed, maneuverability, consumption, attack.
The second creator, the Creature creator, is truly where, IMHO, Maxis and Will Wright put their best efforts. The creature creator has approximately three hundred different parts that you can use to customize you creature. These parts include: mouths, eyes, noses, ears, hands, arms, feet, legs, details, and Weapons. You can also specify the number of vertebrae in your creatures spine, as well as its curvature, and the density of each vertebrae. With approximately 17 million creatures in the Sporepedia there are some very off the wall, wierd, complex, funny, and plain creatures. Once you have decided on all the appendages and phalanges your creature needs, the game procedurally generates the creatures movement and mannerisms.
Later in the game, you encounter creators that allow you to create buildings, vehicles, space ships, among other things.
Once you progress to the creature stage, the game begins populating your world with content from the Sporepedia. Some of this content is created by Maxis, but the vast majority of it is player created. Who knows, you may actually see one of your friends creations in your world!
A brief explanation of the phases:
CELL: In this phase you start out as simple cellular organism, and must kill other creatures, or destroy meteor rock to unlock parts to upgrade your creature, till you amass enough DNA to progress to the next stage. This two-dimensional stage is simple, but fun as it gives you a glimpse of the customization to come. From the offset you choose whether you are a Carnivore, Omnivore, or Herbivore. If you choose Omnivore, your actions (how much plant matter as apposed to cellular matter you consume) affects what you will be in the next phase.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
CREATURE: This phase begins with your cellular creature developing legs and moving from the primordial goop to dry land. The play-scape changes from 2D to 3D and the world opens up. you acquire parts and DNA as in the Cell phase, but your relationship dynamic with the creatures around you changes. In this stage, you must either befriend, or subjugate the other creatures to allow your creature to evolve. You can also form a party of (eventually) up to 3 other creatures to help you impress or suppress the other creatures. Your attitude towards other creatures, hostile or friendly, affects your social skills in the next phase.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
TRIBAL: In the Tribal phase, you switch from controlling a single creature, in WOW style gameplay, to Controlling a group of creatures in an RTS style mode. In this mode you will gather resources to help you build more creatures, Buildings, and equipment for your creatures. You can either ally with the other species on the planet, or annihilate them. Your actions in this mode, affect your civilizations behaviour in the subsequent mode.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
Having only progressed to the Tribal phase of the game, I will now give you my impressions of the next levels.
CIVILIZATION: The Civilization Phase switches you from Creature units, to vehicular units and focuses on building and conquering cities. Based on your actions from the previous phase, you will be either a Religious, Economic, or Military power. Each "power" allots you vehicles that correspond to your alignment. You can convert to your religion, build trade routes, or destroy with force, respectively, based on the alignment.
Check out the following video to see it in action:
SPACE: The space stage, for me, appears to be the most interesting stage. In this stage, you progress from commanding vehicular units to being the captain of a spaceship. With this spaceship you can abduct creatures from other planets, terra-form uninhabitable planets to lush paradises, invade and conquer enemy worlds, among other things. In all your world conquering goodness, you may even come across a tribe of creatures that you created (maybe abducted from your planet when you where in a previous phase?).
Check out the following video to see it in action:
Now that you know a little bit about the game, why not check out my family's creations so far:
All in all, spore is a great game (should be after 4 years of hype...) but it still has, what some might call, failings. For one, you can install spore only three times per box. After that, you must wade through EA technical support before you can reactivate the game a 4th time. This may not seem like a big deal, but to someone who reformats their machine often ( I do once every 6 months, barring any incidents.) this could be an issue. On top of that, say you bought one copy of the game for your household, and you and your significant other each want to have an account to share your creations. Well, too bad, as EA only allows one account per activation key.
Despite all this, I still love the game, and highly recommend it to pretty much anyone.
And now for this week's releases (there were a lot. :) )
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009 - 360, PS3, PS2, Wii LEGO Batman: The Videogame - 360, PS2, PS3, Wii ~my pick of the week. N. DQ4 is good too. Igor - NDS, PC, Wii Cabela's Legendary Adventures - PS2, PSP, Wii Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway - PS3, 360 Line Rider 2: Unbound - NDS, PC Armored Core for Answer - 360, PS3 Baja: Edge of Control - 360, PS3 BUZZ! Master Quiz - PSP, PS3 SimCity Creator - NDS, Wii Battle Fantasia - 360 Birth of America II: Wars in America - PC Brain Quest - Fifth & Sixth Graders - NDS Brain Quest - Third & Fourth Graders - NDS Crysis Warhead - PC DanceDanceRevolution X - PS2 Dark Horizon - PC de Blob - WII DRAGON QUEST IV: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS ~ my pick of the week. K. Dropcast - NDS Football Mogul 2009 - PC Ford Racing Off Road - PC Hell's Kitchen: The Video Game - PC Kirby Super Star Ultra - NDS La Tale - PC Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! - WII Mazes of Fate - NDS Mount & Blade - PC Namco Classic Fighter Collection - PS2 NARUTO: Ultimate Collection - PS2 Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals - PC PAC - MAN Power Pack - PS2 Peggle Nights - PC Pirates: Duels on the High Seas - NDS Rebel Raiders: Operation Nighthawk - WII Red Baron Arcade - PS3 Red Bull BC One - NDS Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization - PC Speed Racer - The Videogame - PS2 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - WII Starpex - PS3 The Witcher Enhanced Edition - PC Time Hollow - NDS TNA iMPACT! - WII Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (War) - PC Wario Land: Shake It! - WII
If you have comments, you know where to stick them.
Now, go out and pick up spore, or one of these other great games!
