spore ^_^

[ShunNakamura]

Well I decided to give the game a shot. The Cell stage was a bit boring but I still had fun making my little guy.


However, it keeps crashing when trying to load up the creature stage when I make my bigger guy. If I go through with a bare bones creation it works, but I guess my guy is too complex or something (it apparently did 'make' him, but it won't load the stage).


So first impression, game is buggy as can be. I wouldn't mind if it popped up a box saying it is too complex, however, crashing to the desktop with an error is just bad.

That and the first level could probably have been made quite a bit more entertaining with a bit of work.


So thus far I see it as a good inspiration with a flawed implementation. I may like the game more if I can ever get a creature I like to load into the creature phase.

[Loony BoB]

I imagine this is more to do with your PC than the game, as my game has had no trouble loading any kind of creature. What are your PC specs and what is your OS? Do you have the latest driver for your graphics card?

[Roto13]

As I said, so long as you KNOW about this 'issue' then you just need to weigh up whether or not it's worth the money (which is a personal decision each person can make) and pay depending on your decision.

Is this particular feature (as well as the other more invasive DRM crap that comes with the game) advertised on the back of the box or something?

[bipper]

I have been playing this for years. I just grab left overs and throw them in the back of the fridge. You should see my creations.

[ShunNakamura]

I imagine this is more to do with your PC than the game, as my game has had no trouble loading any kind of creature. What are your PC specs and what is your OS? Do you have the latest driver for your graphics card?

I have the latest drivers. My ATI card while not new can handle HD Video just fine(it is a 512 mb card). I have 2 gigs of ram. Really the only component in my computer that is weak is my 1.8 GHz processor.

My ATI isn't the best(it relies too much on the CPU to do stuff), however, other than the crash at creature stage(which pops up on gamefaqs and other message boards a lot, and even an EA rep said to make the creature less complex) my computer handles it just fine.

But I am far from the only one with said problem. It popped up all over the gamefaqs board(as well as others), that when starting the creature stage complex creatures can crash the game(instead they recommend waiting until after the cinematic scene because once you are in the stage the complexity doesn't matter). Thus, I was able to make my guy by just adding legs the first time, and then editing him once I was officially in the stage.



@Roto, I suppose not because I have read that some who pre-ordered ended up 'returning' their copy because they found out it had spyware/malware/whatever on it too late. That and I if I recall right a EA rep said they don't say it on the box because it isn't 'necessary' or some such.

[nik0tine]

I will not purchase this game because of what I have read about the DRM restrictions. I may pirate it someday, but so far it seems like it's turning out to be something of a disappointment.

[Roto13]

Apparently EA is releasing a patch that will let you get one of your install credits back when you uninstall from a computer. That's a good start, but I still don't like the rest of the crap it installs on your computer. Still, it's good to know they're doing something about it.

EDIT: Yahtzee gave his review today. :P (I'm not linking to it because there's a penis that isn't censored enough.)

[ShunNakamura]

Well I suppose that is one step in the right direction. But if I recall don't you have to be online for it to re-credit your install? That and you have to 'uninstall' it not lose it due to computer format(annoying and highly inconveniencing to me... thank God that I don't have to manually uninstall EVERYTHING on my computer.... that would be a couple hours right there(even if I wrote a script for it, it would still take at least a couple hours of removing time)).



And my first impression still stands. Apparently the collision mechanics weren't worked out in the best possible way which can cause some really weird things to occur. And Tribal mode and higher really lack in creative freedom. Thus, the creature stage is the best in my opinion(plentiful rotating, resizing, etc).


Basically it suffers from the same thing that Visual Novel RPG type games tend to suffer from. It ends up being a mediocre or worse in both types. This offers a wide variety of game styles but individual they are not much more than mediocre.

[Yeargdribble]

I'm now having the problem with loading tribal stage on my wife's PC. He computer is fine to run the game. 3 Ghz processor, 3 gigs of RAM, a plethora of free HD space, and a Radeon 7900 with up-to-date drivers.

From looking around the internet this is a very common problem and people just waiting for the patch.

[ShunNakamura]

Any of you kill one of those Epic Creatures during the creature stage? I had a very annoying flying one(5 jump and 5 glide). It thankfully only had level 1 bite as an attack(it was apparently a social monster that epicified). However, that level one bite still came just a tinsy bit close to one hitting me(and it did one hit my pack mates). Even with two rogues as my pack mates I still can barely hurt the thing(I have level 5 spit and level 5 charge level five strike, but only level 1 bite, I am a herbi, what do you expect).

Ah, well, I can't take it head on, that much is obvious, however, the dumb thing doesn't get stunned from charge(talk about annoying) and it is fast enough that I can't do the spit and run tactic. Of course it doesn't help that the AI in this game is..... well in this case AI stands for Artificial Idiocy.



Anyways I am just wondering because I have heard you can do it, it just is a trick and half to do so.

[Værn]

Any of you kill one of those Epic Creatures during the creature stage? I had a very annoying flying one(5 jump and 5 glide). It thankfully only had level 1 bite as an attack(it was apparently a social monster that epicified). However, that level one bite still came just a tinsy bit close to one hitting me(and it did one hit my pack mates). Even with two rogues as my pack mates I still can barely hurt the thing(I have level 5 spit and level 5 charge level five strike, but only level 1 bite, I am a herbi, what do you expect).

Ah, well, I can't take it head on, that much is obvious, however, the dumb thing doesn't get stunned from charge(talk about annoying) and it is fast enough that I can't do the spit and run tactic. Of course it doesn't help that the AI in this game is..... well in this case AI stands for Artificial Idiocy.



Anyways I am just wondering because I have heard you can do it, it just is a trick and half to do so.

I got him down to about 700-750 while I was playing on a friend's computer the other day by spitting. He said that he nearly managed to kill it off by charging and running.

[Tasura]

In theory, it is possible to kill one, since there is an Achievement for it.

[Loony BoB]

I think I did, yeah.

[Nominus Experse]

This game is enjoyable, but only so if...

You are quite creative (you create and enhance everything)
Aren't bothered by repetition
Did not begin playing the game expecting to be blown away
You play it instead of trying to conquer it
You are able to forgive the odd, lingering bugs (my creature killed an epic and then was thrown into a white space that I could not get out of; some of the path-finding is, well, bad; and other oddities that don't really impose themselves too heavily on your experience, but rather make it sometimes annoying...)

EDIT: Yes, you can kill an Epic. The best method I discovered was to ally with all of the Rogue creatures, Charge from a long distance (thus causing all of your allies to perform the same move and also covers a lot of ground quickly), make a few strikes, flee, repeat. The process took around 40 minutes in all, and required that I nor any of my allies perished since the Epic will likely be carnivorous and consume their bodies, thus replenishing its health.

Another method is to find a vantage point such as a steep cliff/slope, climb it, and simply spit upon the Epic. However, this requires that you do it by yourself, the Epic may also have Spit, takes forever, and requires that there be such a place you can lure the Epic.

[Loony BoB]

I don't know about you guys but I killed about four Epics on creature stage. Just wait 'til the end when you have all the possible DNA feature-type things and you should be able to kill them for fun, provided you have a bunch of your creatures alongside you and have decent health/attack etc.