Title: Spore
Box Art: Unavailable
Genre: Real-Time Strategy/God Game
ERSB Rating: Unknown (Unlikely to be above T)
Platform: PC
Developer: Maxis
Publisher: Unknown (Probably EA)
MSRP: Unknown (Probably $50)
This game was rather big at E3, but you may not have heard of it. It's the brainchild of Will Wright, the man behind The Sims, the SimCity series, and all the other Sim games you can thing of, from SimAnt to SimEarth.
Thank the lord, this game is nothing like the Sims.
Basically, you create a creature and its world from the ground up. It starts out as a small aquatic animal, and you gradually evolve it. You can give it a tail, six legs, hands, and claws. Or you can have it stay aquatic and give it flippers, fins and gills. Eventually, you evolve it into a creature capable of intelligent thought. You help it build tools and houses. Then, it will build villages, towns and cities. Congratulations, you've created a civilization. You can't relax yet, though. Your creatures have created other civilizations too, and you'll have to conquer them. Whether you do this militarily, diplomatically or economically is up to you. Eventually, you're the boss of the whole planet.
The planet, meanwhile, isn't standing still. Actually, it's got its own ecosystem, complete with creatures to fill every evolutionary niche, whether it be predators, prey or whatever your creatures eat for dinner. These creatures aren't standardized, either. They're taken from a huge database made by other players. See, when you create a creature it's automatically uploaded onto the internet. Same for everybody else who's playing the game. So, that little mouse-like creature who carries a plague into your city? That's somebody's creation.
That doesn't mean you'll be playing with other people though. This isn't pure MMO, but it's not single-player either. You won't be able to ruin other people's games, even if you want to.
Back to your creatures. So, you're in control of the planet, eh? What about that other lovely planet next to your sun? Build a spaceship and take it over, of course! There might be intelligent life on the planet; then you might have some trouble moving in. If there's life but no civilization, start one of your own. If there's no life, however, you're going to have to terraform the planet if you want to use it. Keep doing this until you've taken over enough of your solar system to satisfy you, and then keep moving out. If you want to conquer a galaxy, this game's for you.
Windows XP
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
512 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space
Windows Vista
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
768 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
Intel Core Duo Processor
1024 MB RAM
ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
At least 4.7GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for creations.
The official site warns that the Mac disk space requirements for Spore are subject to change. It also has a fairly exhaustive list of supported video cards for both camps.
Screenshots (don't expect much graphics-wise):
I hope you're not afraid of spiders:
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092212928.jpg
Plenty of space, right?
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092202882.jpg
What a quaint little village!
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092204398.jpg
Not so quaint.
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092205663.jpg
You've still got some evolving to do.
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092207054.jpg
I'm excited.
Box Art: Unavailable
Genre: Real-Time Strategy/God Game
ERSB Rating: Unknown (Unlikely to be above T)
Platform: PC
Developer: Maxis
Publisher: Unknown (Probably EA)
MSRP: Unknown (Probably $50)
This game was rather big at E3, but you may not have heard of it. It's the brainchild of Will Wright, the man behind The Sims, the SimCity series, and all the other Sim games you can thing of, from SimAnt to SimEarth.
Thank the lord, this game is nothing like the Sims.
Basically, you create a creature and its world from the ground up. It starts out as a small aquatic animal, and you gradually evolve it. You can give it a tail, six legs, hands, and claws. Or you can have it stay aquatic and give it flippers, fins and gills. Eventually, you evolve it into a creature capable of intelligent thought. You help it build tools and houses. Then, it will build villages, towns and cities. Congratulations, you've created a civilization. You can't relax yet, though. Your creatures have created other civilizations too, and you'll have to conquer them. Whether you do this militarily, diplomatically or economically is up to you. Eventually, you're the boss of the whole planet.
The planet, meanwhile, isn't standing still. Actually, it's got its own ecosystem, complete with creatures to fill every evolutionary niche, whether it be predators, prey or whatever your creatures eat for dinner. These creatures aren't standardized, either. They're taken from a huge database made by other players. See, when you create a creature it's automatically uploaded onto the internet. Same for everybody else who's playing the game. So, that little mouse-like creature who carries a plague into your city? That's somebody's creation.
That doesn't mean you'll be playing with other people though. This isn't pure MMO, but it's not single-player either. You won't be able to ruin other people's games, even if you want to.
Back to your creatures. So, you're in control of the planet, eh? What about that other lovely planet next to your sun? Build a spaceship and take it over, of course! There might be intelligent life on the planet; then you might have some trouble moving in. If there's life but no civilization, start one of your own. If there's no life, however, you're going to have to terraform the planet if you want to use it. Keep doing this until you've taken over enough of your solar system to satisfy you, and then keep moving out. If you want to conquer a galaxy, this game's for you.
Windows XP
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
512 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space
Windows Vista
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
768 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
Intel Core Duo Processor
1024 MB RAM
ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
At least 4.7GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for creations.
The official site warns that the Mac disk space requirements for Spore are subject to change. It also has a fairly exhaustive list of supported video cards for both camps.
Screenshots (don't expect much graphics-wise):
I hope you're not afraid of spiders:
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092212928.jpg
Plenty of space, right?
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092202882.jpg
What a quaint little village!
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092204398.jpg
Not so quaint.
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092205663.jpg
You've still got some evolving to do.
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/616/616788/spore-20050518092207054.jpg
I'm excited.