Spore | 
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| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $22.99
You Save: $27.00 (54%)
New (26) Used (7) from $22.99
Rating:  3133 reviews
Sales Rank: 25
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Windows Xp, Windows Vista, Macintosh
Genre: artificial_life_simulation_games
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 19080
Model: 15352
UPC: 014633153521
EAN: 0014633153521
ASIN: B000FKBCX4
Release Date: September 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and outer space exploration | | • | Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space | | • | Grow, evolve, interact with and battle other cultures, and conquer the planet | | • | Visit literally millions of planets full of other player's creations | | • | Single-player game provides unlimited worlds to explore and play |
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Product Description
The creators of The Sims present the next big bang - SPORE. Create your unique creature and guide it on an epic journey through a universe of your own creations. Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space. How you play and what you do with your universe is entirely up to you. Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships.
PC Minimum - Windows XP/Vista, 6 GB Hard Drive Space, 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent, 768 MB RAM, 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 Mac Minimum - Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher, 4.7GB Hard Drive Space, Intel Core Duo Processor, 1024 MB RAM; ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
Amazon.com
Create universal wonder in Spore, an exciting new simulation game that lets you develop your own personal universe. Work your way through five evolutionary phases, including Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization and Space, that offer unique challenges, thrills and goals. For example, you can start in Cell and nurture one species from a simple aquatic organism all the way until it becomes a sentient life form. Or you can jump right in and begin building tribes and civilizations on multiple planets. What you do with your universe is totally up to you.
The powerful creation tools of Spore are easy to use, allowing you to effortlessly design every aspect of your universe. Creatures, vehicles, building and even starships are all within your grasp. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, offering a nearly limitless number of worlds to visit and enjoy. You can also go online to view the incredible things other players have made and can even pull those items into your universe. Spore gives you the chance to make worlds and beings that evolve, grow and delight you every step of the way. SPORE CREATURE CREATORFinally all that hard work creating the perfect being can be put to good use. Import creatures that you created with the Spore Creature Creator and watch them live, breath and thrive in the full version of Spore. TAKE YOUR SPORE ONLINEWhile Spore is a single player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play within. Internet Connection Required. Minimum System RequirementsThis game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac) - PC Minimum - Windows XP/Vista
- 6 GB Hard Drive Space
- 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
- 768 MB RAM
- 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
- Mac Minimum - Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
- 4.7GB Hard Drive Space
- Intel Core Duo Processor
- 1024 MB RAM
- ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Good Beginning and Then Disappointment October 9, 2008
Kyle D. Johnson (Vero Beach, Florida USA)
Spore had a lot of potential, however, poor design choices have crippled what could have truly been a spectacular game. A common complaint (which I completely agree with) focuses around the lack of depth in this game. For example, the creature you design is affected in a very limited manner by the shape or stature of its body (id est; uneven weight distribution will not really make for an awkwardly running creature). It also seems as if (cell stage aside), the placement of specific parts does not affect behavior (a spiky tail simply adds attack value; the creature doesn't actually use it).
In addition, the Space Stage is a nightmare. Colony and empire management are horrible, the universe is way overpopulated, the missions are boring and repetitive, and the design of alien empires is complete garbage (going back to the lack of depth, the same shallow personalities are recycled over and over again). I was really looking forward to this stage of the game, and was VERY disappointed by what I found. Imagine having to construct every city on a planet building by building in a moderately sized empire of 35 worlds. Imagine having to constantly fend off attacks by raiders, or else hunt down diseased animals to prevent ecosystem collapse over and over again so that you cannot concentrate well on whatever task you want to pursue (like empire building or terraforming).
Until an expansion pack is released, which fixes at least some of these issues, this game is going on the shelf to collect dust. Try it out if you must, but be forewarned that it is not at all what it could have been.
 If only October 9, 2008
Matthew J. Husk (Lincoln, NE)
Would have been a great game, side the fact that I can't touch it again for fear of losing the ability to play it. Install failed the first time, but I'm still down to a maximum of 2 valid downloads. All in all, a decent game, not worth the hassle though
 GREATEST GAME EVER! (Ignore the whiners here) October 9, 2008
A. Wilson (Fairfax, VA, USA)
All the moaning about DRM is laughable. By the time you'd install this game on the now allowable 5 machines you'll be long done with it and if not, the process to add will have minimal impact on your life.
That aside, this is by far the single most creative game ever imagined, yet alone released. It is a momental effort that gives the player more depth and explorative consideration than ever before. While the somewhat kid-like quality of the graphics and creatures may be off-putting to some, it keeps the player firmly entrenched in an alternate reality than plays well for escapism. It's the antidote to the tired old realism apparatus so en vogue.
Wil Wright is a genius whose work should be celebrated by those who have played any of his masterpieces. I saw him present a demo of this at SXSW last year and it rocked my world. The idea that you could create a universe is a lofty, if not seemingly impossible task and Wright has successfully delivered.
Whiners be damned! Buy Spore if you love games and having a good time!
DRM too strict October 9, 2008
Adam Douglass Burtch (Berkeley, CA United States)
I was so looking forward to playing this game, but the idea that it will expire if I upgrade my system a few times is unacceptable. I do not pirate, so unless they change their policy, I guess I won't be playing this one. Too bad, it looks fun.
Buggy, boring, and an utter waste of space. October 8, 2008
B. Farren
It's obvious that Spore is no longer the most wanted game this year. I originally bought Spore for a friend, who incidentally doesn't have an internet connection, and was unable to even install the game because of it. Because of this, I gave him another game in exchange for Spore. I should have just refunded him, as Spore tends to be extremely boring, simplistic, and buggy. The reason that mainstream reviewers were unable to put Spore into any particular genre of game is because Spore's game play is so simple. This simplicity makes Spore feel like a "Fisher Price: My First Video Game" more than anything.
Most stages are mercifully short, until you reach the Space phase, where you can fly around in your very own spaceship and rule the galaxy. Sounds great, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it isn't. In order to get any worthwhile tools or weapons, you need to gain Sporebucks(the form of currency in Spore) from quests and your fellow aliens. This eventually puts World of Warcraft's grinding to shame, as you gain little reward and constantly have to defend your neighboring planets from pirate attacks and "ecodistasters", which considerably slow your progress.
One of Spore's more touted features is sharing your creations with other people, and is the reason Spore is sometimes (incorrectly) called a "Massively Multiplayer Online Singleplayer Game"; this name couldn't be farther from the truth. Calling Spore a MMOSG is like saying, "Fighting custom bots in Unreal Tournament counts as you fighting a REAL person, even if the skins are purely cosmetic! A REAL person made the skin, so it counts!" As such, putting custom creatures into Spore is just another waste of space, due to the fact that you can't even configure what ships they should get or what their personality should be.
It should also be noted that there are several aspects of Spore that were cut from the game (but still reside in the game's code). For example, it is possible to see many extra cell parts by changing your Spore shortcut (the flora editor is still in as well, but is unstable beyond use). As nice as extra stuff sounds, it is impossible to actually use any of this.
Spore also has several glitches that are extremely annoying, such as planets merely appearing as gray globes until you enter them. Being unable to make backup save files is also an issue, as you will be unable to restore your save should it become corrupted like mine did. Spore's DRM is also a huge problem, but this is probably covered in the 3000+ negative reviews.
All in all, Spore is a waste of money, computer space, and time. I strongly urge fellow gamers to stay away from this game. I don't see Spore's expansion packs selling very well. If you absolutely MUST get Spore or any expansion packs, I suggest you listen to the pirates.
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