AppModo – Spore Creatures iPhone review

The second in the series takes us to land this time, you start off with a basic Spore on the sandy beach and it just gets wild from there. As you play the game you can create new Spores based on your actions in the game, there are over 40 different things you can add to your Spore to make it different there are so many possibilities of what it could look like. As you play the game and explore around on one of the 20 different levels you can find and collect different items that can then be later added to your Spore all while slowly evolving the DNA of your spore. You also have the option the change the color and shape of your Spore. One of the really fun features is how you can chose to interact with other creatures; you will sometimes have the choice of communicating or attacking and both will lead you down different paths in the game. This all makes for a unique game play with high replay value.

AppModo reviews Spore Creatures for iPhone

Spore Creatures iPhone trailer

I had this on my YouTube profile but I never did post about it.  Luckily SimOperations is there to remind me that I should!  If you’ve yet to grab the game then fire up iTunes and pick it up!  Its a great time-waster in between games of Bejeweled

EAmobile’s Spore Creatures Creature Creator Contest

If you follow EAmobile on Twitter and would like to win a copy of both Mass Effect 2 and The Sims 3 World Adventures then enter their Spore Creatures Creator Contest!  All you need to do is create a creature in your iPhone/iPod Touch version of Spore Creatures and then twitpic a screenshot of you creature to EAmobile.  At the end of this week they’ll pick a winner.  Good luck if you decide to enter!

UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 13, 2010

Brits…care to explain why The Sims 3 Design & Hi-Tech Stuff didn’t make it on the list this week?  Have you gotten fed up with Stuff Packs?  You’re doing your job in the fact that both The Sims 3 and World Adventures have moved up…I just find it odd that the Stuff Pack isn’t on this….

update – wow, thanks to a mention from ConnorJack, the Stuff Pack is on the Budget Price list, and took #1 in that listing.  Okay, so congrats EA for #1

Source:  Chart-Track

A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything

The topic of evolution has been around for a long, long time…but I think Spore had to play some sort of role in giving this artist the idea of creating this flipnote video.  Loved it!  Thanks to Robb for sharing this video with me!

Reuseable Dr. Pepper codes for Spore & Sims 3

Update – EA has fixed these codes, they will only now work for Mass Effect 2.

I can’t take credit for the following as it was posted on the official Spore forums.  However I tried one of the codes…and to my surprise, it actually worked.  It did say that it was for Mass Effect 2, but it’ll still let you choose what games to use it for – Spore, The Sims 3, Battlefield Heroes – its left up to you to decide.  Here’s the info below.  Enter your codes at the Dr. Pepper Promotion Page

Reusable Dr. Pepper Codes

Use one of these:

CBEEAAA41NWH

CBEEAAAE4L9N

CBEEAAAFQG9J

CBEEAAAE98ZV

They are ALL reusable. But you can only enter one of these on your account. But if you want more prizes you can just make another account. These also work outside of the US.

————————

EXAMPLE REGISTRATION:

ZIP CODE: 85224
Town: Chandler
Street:2118 w knox rd
State: Arizona

–

Only 1 EA account is necessary, however multiple Dr.Pepper accounts are necessary.

“How Will You Create The Universe” – an animated short based on Spore

I want this.  Want it now – will cut off an arm and a leg to get it (don’t worry, it won’t be any of mine).  Sadly it is just an animated short that was shown at TED2010 in California.  If Spore 2 ever looks like this…damn…

This spot was inspired by, and is a new take on life and evolution simulated video games.  It was a labor of love, animated by the wonderfully talented staff at Tippett Studios in Berkeley, CA.

All the characters are CG, modeled and painted after drawings by Daren and Isaiah.  The swarms are particle simulations, with creatures exported from a game and attached as sprites.  The backgrounds are all digital matte paintings, created by Isaiah and Daren.

Source:  Ghostrobot

Spore’s Stegavaar Template Challenge

One thing I love about MaxisCactus is her enthusiasm for Spore contests.  Every week she thinks of another fantastic idea for one.  As much I enjoy reading and posting them, I kind of hope that we’d get something different for once.  I don’t know, perhaps a sneak peak video around their office, random discussions with their developers, talks about their upcoming projects.  But I suppose having a contest is better then nothing…we’ll soon find out what they have been up to anyways.

This week’s contest is the Stegavaar Template Challenge.

Challenge Details

In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, and how well they animate. Show us what this creature should look like in the Stegavaar Template Challenge!

Creature Bio:
Name: Stegavaar

A solitary, dangerous creature, Stegavaar burrows through the eternal rock of its planet’s mantle and crust seeking the loren, the rare and precious underground rivers in which to spawn millions of creatures like itself in hopes of one day conquering the surface.

Stegavaar has the power of devastating bio-electron beams–living lightning. Charging at speeds that belie its cumbersome appearance, and protected by its impenetrable bio-armour, Stegavaar is nothing less than a living tank. Should Stegavaar ever fall in battle, its final act will be an electron explosion of vengeance that slaughters all who are nearby.

Stegavaar’s adaptations:

• Lightning based creature.
• Charges at its enemies.
• Tendrils emit electric current.
• Explodes in electricity on death.

Suggested colors: White, red, and/or blue. This is just a starting point. Feel free to deviate if you come up with a color scheme that better suits your creation.

To use template:

1. Right click on either image above and choose Save as. (The second is for non-C&C players)
2. Open your Spore Creature Creator and drag the png into the editor.
3. Add parts and paint to flesh out the character of this creature. All parts including accessory, mech, C&C, and base game parts are allowed. You may not scale, remove or move any parts of the original template, with the exception that the feet may be swapped out for other feet.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner in this challenge. Finalists will be posted before the 1st place creation is announced.

Challenge Rules:

• Your creature must use the provided template
• To submit a creation, just publish and tag it with: mcStegavaarChallenge
• You can submit as many creations as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT Mar 1, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

The Sims 3 on consoles, MySims Sky Heroes & Spore to have online support?

EA COO John Schappert said during the company’s Q3 financial earnings call Monday that “every one of EA’s releases will have an online component—both downloadable content and online play.” That goes for Dead Space 2, the two Need For Speed titles, and Crysis 2, as well as Fighting Title and Action Title. Everything.

Now, does everything even go as far as MySims Sky Heroes, the new Spore games and the various console/handheld releases of The Sims 3?  Cause if so, it’s about time!  There are a number of EA games that would of been perfect for online play – MySims Racing and MySims Party for one.  I wonder what online feature’s they’ll consist of…leader boards, a library of downloadable content (like the Sporepedia), a Sims 3 Store (no thanks!).  Better keep your word, EA.  I want to start playing your games online!  Source:  Kotaku

EA reports 3rd Quarter Fiscal Year 2010 Results; new MySims, Sims 3 & Spore coming

EA’s results of their 3rd quarter fiscal year 2010 is in!  The bad news?  They lost more money (like we didn’t see that coming).  The good news?  We’ll be seeing new games in the MySims, Sims 3 and Spore franchise announced soon, with a timeframe to be released anywhere between now to March of 2011.

We already are aware that The Sims 3 will be hitting consoles and handhelds…but we are still left wondering for which ones.  The new MySims game they mentioned is probably ‘MySims Sky Heroes’ that was trademarked last week.  The Sims 3 has a new expansion coming out for PC – but no information for that.  Oh, and Spore will be having two titles – one for PC and the other for consoles coming out as well, so long live Spore!  Hopefully the PC one isn’t a spinoff but I have a feeling it’ll be Spore Creature Keeper… 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for Sim/Spore fans… Can’t wait until we start getting actual news to report on!