brianjacobsendotnet

Like a lot of people I was reading and waiting for spore for some time. The concept sounded awesome. If someone asked me what the game was the short answer is The Sims for Monsters. You start out as a small single cell type creature in the water and from there you have to collect parts to begin your evolution in to a land creature. Once you hit land you start becoming civilized and work towards the end goal of reaching space so you can explore other planets.

*note - I am playing this on the Mac, I don’t know how different if it all it is on the pc.

The graphics are good. I am only on the second level but like what I have seen so far. The first cell stage is beautiful. Parts of it remind me of Yoshi’s Island. You will start seeing bigger creatures underneath yours and they have this really cool hand drawn look to them. I think they look that way because they are in the water and have that water motion over them.

The gameplay is a lot of fun. Especially when you get on land. If you like simulation games you will enjoy the gameplay. Its simple to figure out and you can pick up and play for 5 mins or a few hours.

The DRM - To me this is a non issue. Apparently you only have three installs of the game before you have to call EA and get your key code reset so you can install it again. I don’t ever see this being an issue for me ever. You also have to activate the product over the internet immediately in order to play. Again a non issue for me. It took all of 10 seconds to do that and in this day and age its nothing really. You can choose to connect to the internet while you play and get new creatures from other players randomly or never connect to the internet. The only time you must connect is to register the game initially. Whats great about that is you dont have to keep the dvd in your machine to play. The internet registration allows that.

The only reason I bring up the DRM issue is because geeks everywhere have their panties in a twist because of this. Just search spore reviews on google or better yet go to amazon and watch the drama unfold there. You will see 1000’s of 1 star reviews from people who havent play the game. The are only there bitching about the DRM. I am sure most of them downloaded the hacked version that was out days before the official version. (I bought mine and I bought the creature creator.)

I rated the game a 4 of 5 at amazon. Its a great game that has a lot of new innovative features to it. Knowing how The Sims has a million expansion packs for it I am sure there will be spore expansions right around the corner. My only issue with the game is that because its supposed to be an evolution type game I think that if you add 6 legs to your character something should improve (faster, stronger) but that isnt the case. Adding an extra set of legs to your creature changes nothing. Its just for looks.

Speaking of evolution, I cant wait for the conservatives to get upset about it and not let their kids play because of what the game might be teaching.

FINALLY!!!!! Nintendo is releasing a picross game for the DS. I remember playing the old picross game for gameboy when it came out. What a great puzzle game. If you like Sodoku you will love picross

oh holy shit! I just downloaded a video on the 360 for the new tony hawk game and its gonna be awesome! You will use the left and right thumb sticks to control your feet. so like if you wanted to kick flip you would press up with one and down with the other then when the board was flipping you could flip one of the sticks up and shove it then release the sticks when the grip is facing and up and catch your board with your feet. sounds like they are gonna add some real new shit to it this time, none of this bullshit no loading time they tried to pull last time in wasteland

http://tonyhawksproject8.com/

So i have been meaning for some time to start writing about gaming. Im not a huge nerd so dont expect e3, tech tv shit here. Just stuff I am interested in.

Anyways the New Super Mario Bros game comes out tommorow and I plan on getting it. I grew up on the original NES and the original Super Mario Bros. Years back everything went from 2d side scrollers to 3d worlds. While this was awesome (remember the first time you played mario 64?) it sucks at the same time. With the rerelease of Super Mario World 2: Yoshis Island on nintendo gameboy, I have been able to get my classic 2d scroller fix. All the other 2d mario games are on the gameboy advance but can be hard to find, especially super mario world. Getting that used anywhere is the same price as new and you cant find it new.

Anyways new mario. The videos look great. Mario goes huge and just tears stuff up. There look to be other new power ups and new baddies. Anyways I will give a full review after I get it and get some game play in.

Glad to see nintendo hasnt given up on the classic sidescroller.