I'm convinced the overall critics will pan it on not living up to the hype, much like Spore, but the hype has always been served by the media despite the developer consistently telling us blunt truths that many are inevitably going to overlook.

It's a no-brainer for a guy like me who loves exploration, though. Gotta get this. I have two weeks off work around then too so will be nice to have something fresh to get me going.

For what it's worth, I actually liked Spore. I read back over the threads for Spore recently and it was pretty decently liked, people just raged over the DRM more than anything.