Gaming Spore: Hands-on Preview

Looks delicious.

 

Must have

Always been a fan of Black & White series and Dungeon Keeper.

 

They've obviously changed it, probably to make the beginning experience more user friendly and consistent. After all, it would suck if you ended up with a planet that was crappy somehow.

All the other planets should be though, I saw someone going through a demo of how the procedural planet generation works.

 

Wow , I can't wait. I wasn't even thinking that I'd get such a detailed preview of a game thats so far away from release date. You are very lucky Joe, and I'm glad you wrote the preview because I know you'd be honest about it. This will be one of those games that makes the honey-do list a mile long.

 

What kind of machine did you guys run it on? Do you have any estimate of minimum and recommeded system requirements?

 

Wow, I've been waiting for this forever... Good to see some screens and hear your thoughts, I was worried it would be come vaporware after it didn't come out in '07.

 

Must... restrain... Must... have.... patience....

Someone's gotta help me freeze myself.

 

No idea on the systems we had - all I could see was that they had Cooler Master Cosmos cases and the laptops used for big screen introductions were XPS'. There's an interview coming later in the week that touches on this though.

 

so... multiplayer will be pretty wicked imho. I don't know how they will do it for the first two stages.

 

There is no multiplayer. As Joe said, MOSH; Massively Online Singleplayer Hybrid. It downloads content from other players, which is where it gets the online.

My jaw honestly dropped when I saw bit-tech got to do a preview. Been waiting for this game since it was announced back in... 2005? I'm EXTREMELY glad its still shaping up to be awesome.

I'm also glad that it'll be out a couple months after I get my new rig.

 

Just out of curiosity... how many times have you guys been dugg twice and slashdotted at least once in a day? This article showed up on both (and I'm sure on plenty of gaming blogs), plus an old project log where someone modded their apartment door to have a window etching hit the front page too.

 

I didn't see that last digg. Got a link?

 

If I get my job I'll be starting my training on release day :'(

 

I had heard of this for a while now, and yet, showed no particular interest, however, with this review, i'm a changed mind, looks like it could be a blast, haha.
Cheers Joe for a good read up.

Sam

 

This one will definitely land in my collection.

Hmm... anyone remember Sim Earth?

 

I noticed that you pointed out that the model starts as a blob with a spine... Does that mean we can't make Invertebrates? Would my dream of making those silly squishy Jellyfish Aliens from Metal Slug be crushed forever? No Giant Flesh Eating Demon Squids? ... No floating heads of Cthulhu?

Sim Earth was awesome! My personal favorite is still Sim Ant. Giant Spiders with Lasers! Can't go wrong with that

 

I think invertebrates are out yeah - blobs would be too hard to animate it seems. You can of course make them blob shapes and reduce the spine however you want though - I saw one where the body formed a O shape which was fun.

 

A question for the article's author:

In all the screenshots I've seen of Spore, I've never seen any hair and just a few feathers. When you were playing the game, did you notice options for mammalian and avian creatures, or are we stuck with just reptiles (that are only allowed features on their wings)? Thanks

 

I'm sure I saw a hairy thing in a screenshot once...

 

I'm not sure about realistic puffy hair and feathers, but you can definitely apply textures and skin details to the animals that would make them look that way.