Archive for the ‘Spore’ Category

Poor Japan, they have been waiting to get their hands on EA’s Spore Hero for the Wii and DS due to the amount of time it takes to localize the game for their region.  Have no worries, the game should be out for release during the first week of April.  Here are your boxarts for both versions along with screens.  You can also check out the trailers at the official site (which won’t let me embed here).

Thanks to reader Jucimar for sending me a note!

DS Screens

Wii Screens

Whoa, there are a number of great creations sent in for the Spore Pi Day Challenge!  My pick to win is the Wheel of Fortune, but I also love the Grox one as well.  Who do you think should win?  Vote here!

Voting: The top 4 creations will be featured and the top rated adventure will be featured. If there’s a tie, Maxis will be the tiebreaker and choose our favorite.

Vote by 11:20 AM PST 3/12.

1. Blueberry Pie By Jonathanjj55jj
2. History of Pi By Acheron55
3. Pi By 321drew123
4. pi nomer By Loppynutjob
5. Pi By techno605

6. Pi 3-142 By Vektrix
7. Pi Oven By codyr2391
8. Cutie Pi By _Mark_
9. The Power of Pi By delayedreaction
10. The Greatest Pi Ever By sarcosuchus

11. The Complexity of Pi By Stultus11
12. Ping By ComTek
13. Wheel of the pi By Berbert77
14. Spectral Pi By Chaoskampfkeks
15. Sir Cumference vs THE PIE By Quaizor

16. Super Ultra Pi Tribute By Phenotypical_1 (Adventure)
17. π-Race By yjulixz (Adventure)
18. KDC_Pi(e) By Rantalia (Adventure)

The Sims 3 can’t catch a break.  Right when you think they’ll claim the number one spot (as they were in #2 last week) a new game was released (Napoleon: Total War) taking away their chance for glory.  However, even if the game did not release, the Europeans are still crazy for Football and Aliens.

On a much brighter note, The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff is still at #1 on the Budget Price list.

Source:  Chart-track

Well done, Sims!  You finally were able to surpass Football 2010…it looks like it is starting to lose steam!  However Aliens vs. Predator just released and that took the #1 spot, so maybe next week you’ll get back to your normal position. As for The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff, it is still hanging on to its #1 spot in the budget price list.

Source:  Chart-track

Let me note that compared to Origins, Spore Creatures is more challenging. There are 20 levels spread out in 4 different environments, and to complete each level successfully the player needs to collect a certain number of points or fulfill quests. There are boss battles for example, that require some ingenuity in order to emerge victorious.

The game is unstructured enough to allow the player freedom to explore the environment. Because the environment is populated with flora and fauna, it’s more difficult to move around especially using accelerometer controls. While the tilt controls run quite smoothly and can even be calibrated to suit one’s preference, the small physical space to work with makes it difficult to move around freely.

review here

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

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

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!

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

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