Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/This Week in Review is evolution, babyhttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/04/this-week-in-review-is-evolution-baby/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/04/this-week-in-review-is-evolution-baby/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/04/this-week-in-review-is-evolution-baby/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Oh yes, we got to play Spore. The entire thing. With Will Wright providing backseat commentary. We also got some time with the Wrath of the Lich King's Death Knight, and DS Fanboy decided to play Homie Rollerz (so you don't have to). Check out all of our impressions and reviews from the Joystiq Network this week:

PC
 Multiplatform
Xbox 360
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Wii

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]]>sporethis-week-in-reviewRoss Miller2008-07-04T19:00:00+00:00Joystiq hands-on: Spore (the whole thing)http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/01/joystiq-hands-on-spore-the-whole-thing/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/01/joystiq-hands-on-spore-the-whole-thing/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/01/joystiq-hands-on-spore-the-whole-thing/#commentsFiled under: ,


click to enter gallery

As equal parts excuse and contrition, I feel it's necessary to add the following disclaimer to this writeup: spending thirty minutes with something like Spore is like spending thirty minutes on the history of the Russian space program or spending thirty minutes on the theory of evolution (or any other seemingly disparate discipline you may find in one of Will Wright's famously schizophrenic presentations) - it may be deep enough to wet your toes but there's an ocean out there. At a recent EA event in Los Angeles, myself and the rest of the E3 Judges had an opportunity to get our feet wet (figuratively, of course).

Before being lead into a private demo area with a half-dozen high-end gaming rigs outfitted with the latest build of Spore, Will Wright - along with what seemed to be every other team at EA - gave a short presentation covering ... well, he covered a lot (see above). I was able to extract two fascinating details from my furiously scribbled notes.

First: Wright (and EA we presume) was hoping to have 100,000 creatures created by the time the game ships in September; of course, they beat that in the first couple hours. In fact, they had announced the night before that 250,000 creatures were created and, after getting a quick real-time check during his presentation, estimated they would hit half a million before the end of the day's event. (They did).

Second: Wright told us that they expected to "exceed the world population of 3D models in Spore" within the first couple months. If we heard him right, that means there would be more 3D models in the Sporepedia than every other game, movie, you-name-it combined. And, wrapped in the embrace of Will Wright's own special reality distortion field that afternoon, nothing seemed more plausible.

Gallery: Spore (EA3)


At our appointed time, a group of a half-dozen or so journalists were ushered into the demo room. Will Wright was seated at one terminal and, after a really short introduction, we were off. I initially fumbled around the interface, overwhelmed with the simplest of decisions: where to start. Spore is almost five distinct simulations - cell, creature, tribal, civilization and space - and each one offers unique objectives and a unique game type. After some equivocation, I settled on "space" and, after selecting my spacecraft (an 8-bit Mario, if you're curious) from an already jam-packed Sporepedia page (and this is just Maxis designers!), I was off exploring a seemingly infinite outer space.



As I futzed around, I had attracted an audience of one, interested in my unique mode of transport. Will Wright was seated just over my right shoulder and, for the duration of the 30 minute period, he sort of provided a real-time director's commentary on everything I was doing (mental note: more games should come with 30 minutes of the designer's time). He coached me on how to terraform the lifeless rock I had stumbled upon, carving out bodies of water while adjusting the atmosphere to make it sustainable for life. It's an imprecise balancing act, helpfully charted out for you in the display. After briefly making an atmosphere that looked lovely (clouds!) it continued in that trajectory, tipped again towards a hostile environment. Oops! Alright, enough of that then ...

Then I got sucked into the Sporepedia, where I frittered away a huge percentage of my time with the game. My initial run-in with the 8-bit Mario ship - not to mention the huge number of creatures we'd already seen at Joystiq in the couple days the Creature Creator had been available - had me crawling through hundreds of procedurally generated creations. On occasion, Wright would remark on an interesting element or a particularly beautiful design. And, keep in mind, these are all from his internal team. In just six months, 100 EA employees created 15,000 items, he told us. The designs of one of those employees in particular consistently caught my eye: GalaxyKate. One of Spore's most social features is the Sporecast - an RSS feed of sorts for another Spore player's creations that any player can subscribe to. Here, I was crawling through GalaxyKate's creations, both Will and myself marveling at some of the things she's built. My favorite: A building that looked like an ice-skating figurine, with snow-mound base and pirouette pose. You can also subscribe to Will's own creations; his username is WillDude.



After selecting a building and selecting a creature (we were sort of hopping through stages of the game - helpfully rendered on your own timeline if you so choose) I was in the tribal stage, gathering items, making babies, and generally growing my village. I tried making friends with the neighboring village - another type of creature loaded from the Sporepedia at the beginning of the level - and after some effort including playing music, we were ... well, not friends. Let's just say we could tolerate each other.

Eager to round out my tribal experience, I tried hunting. My first prey: A giant, one-eyed creature who, perhaps unsurprisingly, became rather irate when attacked. Will informed me that I had virtually no chance of defeating a creature of that size right now so, I ran. I didn't run away necessarily, simply towards another foe ... which took me awhile to find. As it turned out, every potential meal was either too large or too aggressive for me to attack. Will guided me around a bit and was himself shocked that not only were there not enough animals (really, I had to hunt) but they weren't balanced very well. Of course, Spore's still in beta. He filed a mental note.

After poking around in the tribal stage for another couple minutes, we got the word that our thirty minutes were, in fact, up. Really? You see, we just got here and actually barely had a chance to do much of anything! What about the three modes I didn't tinker with? What about the Sporepedia (I barely put a dent in it!)? What about my blossoming friendship with Will? My imaginary pleas were greeted with an imaginary stoicism and this imaginary response: "Yeah, we know. You'll just have to wait until Sept. 7 like everyone else." That's just over two months away; who wants to take bets at how many creatures will be in Sporepedia by then?

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]]>EA3MaxisSporeWill-WrightChristopher Grant2008-07-01T13:55:00+00:00Will Wright talks Spore and defensive cowshttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/27/will-wright-talks-spore-and-defensive-cows/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/27/will-wright-talks-spore-and-defensive-cows/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/27/will-wright-talks-spore-and-defensive-cows/#commentsFiled under: ,


1UP has a nice video interview with Will Wright where he discusses various elements of Spore. He covers the different stages of evolution in the game, the AI built into the creature creator and tells a good story about a really mad cow.

For Civ IV fans, Wright also briefly talks about Soren Johnson's contribution to the game. Johnson left Firaxis last year to go work on Spore and help the team streamline the title. The full interview can be found after the break.

Gallery: Spore

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]]>interviewsporespore-creature-creatorwill-wrightAlexander Sliwinski2008-06-27T11:00:00+00:00Pokemon invade the Sporepediahttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/26/pokemon-invade-the-sporepedia/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/26/pokemon-invade-the-sporepedia/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/26/pokemon-invade-the-sporepedia/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Sure, Will Wright's Spore Creature Creator can let your imagination run wild ... but sometimes your imagination doesn't exactly go that far. Our friends at Nintendo Wii Fanboy have amassed a collection of Pokemon creatures from the Sporepedia. Each picture in the gallery can be added directly to your game by saving the picture into the Spore folder. Our Sporémons, let us show you them.

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]]>pokemonsporesporepediaRoss Miller2008-06-26T16:05:00+00:00The best of WoW Insider: June 17-24, 2008http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/the-best-of-wow-insider-june-17-24-2008/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/the-best-of-wow-insider-june-17-24-2008/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/the-best-of-wow-insider-june-17-24-2008/#commentsFiled under: , ,


It has been a wild week in WoW -- first, we heard about patch 2.4.3, with level 30 mounts and big changes to the talents. Then, new loot cards for us to drool over. On Saturday, the Midsummer Fire Festival started, with new quests and a new boss to fight. And this week, we're all puzzling over what Blizzard will announce at the Worldwide Invitational (and what "Icefield" means -- it's like Cloverfield, only colder). Big stuff happening at WoW Insider! Here's all the links you need to catch up.

News

Features

Update: Did we mention that Season 4 starts today? WoW Insider has both a roundup of Season 4 news as well as an in-depth gear guide to the new set. Go get that Arena gear!

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]]>gotfragicefieldmidsummer-fire-festivalpatch-2.4.3sporeweekly-recapwotlk-wikiwow-insiderMike Schramm2008-06-24T17:45:00+00:00Spore getting $80 'Galactic Edition'http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/spore-getting-80-galactic-edition/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/spore-getting-80-galactic-edition/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/spore-getting-80-galactic-edition/#commentsFiled under: ,

By design, Spore is all-encompassing, with nigh infinite possibilities for gameplay, from crafting the very essence of life to managing entire galaxies. But sometimes, you have to go to the bathroom, it's a scientific fact. For those moments, there's the Spore Galactic Edition announced today by Gamestop, available for $79.99. In addition to the game, you'll get:
  • 'Making of Spore' DVD video
  • 'The Human Toolkit' DVD video, by National Geographic
  • 'The Art of Spore' hardback mini-book
  • Fold-out Spore poster
  • Premium 100-page Galactic Handbook
So whether nature calls and you need reading material or your significant other wants to watch some TV, you'll have no problem keeping it Spore-centric. And yes, now that you mention it, that was a very depressing sentence.

[Thanks, Dalibor and KrAzYmAn]

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]]>gamestopsporespore-galactic-editionJustin McElroy2008-06-24T11:40:00+00:00A week with Spore Creatures: Conclusionhttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/20/a-week-with-spore-creatures-conclusion/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/20/a-week-with-spore-creatures-conclusion/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/20/a-week-with-spore-creatures-conclusion/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages:
For the final day, we tried to commit ourselves to pulling out all the stops, but a very long day of blogging left us with some epic failures that will never see the light of day (e.g. Big Bird). We do feel, however, that we have a much better understanding of Spore's limitations. (You can read about them in our gallery.) You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

Gallery: One week with Spore Creatures

Moogle!EbolicOcto-GrimaceWeeglerMelliphon


Put your skills to the test and win some gear. BigDownload is offering BigPrizes to see your Spore creations.

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]]>eaelectronic-artsjoystiqfeaturesmaxissporeweek-with-spore-ccRoss Miller2008-06-20T08:30:00+00:00Today in Joystiq: June 19, 2008http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/today-in-joystiq-june-19-2008/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/today-in-joystiq-june-19-2008/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/today-in-joystiq-june-19-2008/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Today's daily recap is going video. If hearing "Crank Dat Souja Boy" one more time is going to cause you to drill a hole in your head, we'd advise you not to press play (thanks, Myke). Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
A week with Spore Creature Creator: Day Three
Counting Rupees: Bust Blox
Metareview -- Don King Presents Prizefighter (Xbox 360)
Off the Grid reviews Power Grid
X3F Week in Review: June 13, 2008 - June 19, 2008
Wii Wheel + Balance Board = racing simulator

News
GameTap Thursday: MDK, Cosmic Osmo and Descent II
Pain gets some free content
NCAA Football 2009 demo hits Xbox Live
Ubisoft needs help picking Prince of Persia achievements
LucasArts confirms Star Wars: The Clone Wars games for DS, Wii
Square Enix: Final Fantasy Versus XIII not on hold
250,000 Spore creatures shared, interstellar plague to follow
Puzo's son sues Paramount for Godfather game money
LucasArts reconfirms E3 attendance, not announcing new titles
New Diablo II patch lets you play without disc
MGS4 runs 12 circles around closest competitor first week in Japan
Take-Two makes good with FTC
New Sonic Unleashed clip highlights speedy foot-age
Eidos showing four titles at E3; Lady Croft will attend
See the first image from Quantum of Solace
GDAA mate, Aussie developer group chief quitting
The secret weapons of Metal Gear Solid 4
PSN Thursday: The MGS4 Database, Fatal Inertia EX
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway deploys August 26
LittleBigPlanet: Story mode, private level sharing, PS Eye use and Sackboy Plushies confirmed
Sony planning new clampdown on PSP piracy
Reminder: TF2 Pyro update now available, free to play this weekend
McCain campaign ad features Medal of Honor music, composer 'dismayed'

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: MadCatz Rock Band controllers arriving soon
Rumor: Dark Cloud 3 in the works for PS3

Culture & Community
Guitar Hero Aerosmith sponsors NASCAR ... car

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]]>crank-datdailyrecasouja-boysporeRoss Miller2008-06-19T23:59:00+00:00250,000 Spore creatures shared, interstellar plague to followhttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/250-000-spore-creatures-shared-interstellar-plague-to-follow/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/250-000-spore-creatures-shared-interstellar-plague-to-follow/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/250-000-spore-creatures-shared-interstellar-plague-to-follow/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


Electronic Arts announced late last night that 250,000 new creatures had been uploaded to the Sporepedia since the program got into various Sporeophile's hands mandibles. The company claims two creatures are being shared every second, with the latest data from our Spore page (image after the break) showing that 377,200 creatures have been created since those numbers were last updated on Spore.com.

Quick math break: 377,200 - 78,762 penis creatures = 298,438 actual creatures.

We've certainly been having fun around here making our adorable animals, ready to rule the galaxy on Sept. 7. The Spore Creature Creator demo (with about 25% of the retail content) and the full $10 version are available now.

Gallery: One week with Spore Creatures

Moogle!EbolicOcto-GrimaceWeeglerMelliphon


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]]>EAMaxisSporeSpore-Creature-CreatorAlexander Sliwinski2008-06-19T12:00:00+00:00A week with Spore Creature Creator: Day Threehttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/a-week-with-spore-creature-creator-day-three/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/a-week-with-spore-creature-creator-day-three/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/19/a-week-with-spore-creature-creator-day-three/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages:
Today's highlights include a living guitar, a chocobo and a failed attempt at recreating the faun from Pan's Labyrinth. You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

Gallery: One week with Spore Creatures

Moogle!EbolicOcto-GrimaceWeeglerMelliphon


Put your skills to the test and win some gear. BigDownload is offering BigPrizes to see your Spore creations.

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]]>eaelectronic-artsmaxissporespore-creature-creatureweek-with-spore-ccRoss Miller2008-06-19T07:00:00+00:00Today in Joystiq: June 18, 2008http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/18/today-in-joystiq-june-18-2008/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/18/today-in-joystiq-june-18-2008/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/18/today-in-joystiq-june-18-2008/#comments We didn't believe it at first, but sure enough, if you spin the galaxy on the Spore Creature Creator main page fast enough (just click on the bottom left and quickly move your cursor to the right), Will Wright's face pops out to say hello! (Thanks and hello, Matt B) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
A week with Spore Creature Creators: Day Two
Law of the Game on Joystiq: The Madden Suit
Massively Week in Review: June 11-17
Metareview (US Edition) -- Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
Ten uses for that extra DS
Wii Fanboy Weekly: June 12 - June 18

News
Study: in-game advertiser says 82% of you don't mind in-game ads
Microsoft wants to go first (again) with next Xbox
Space race: Nintendo working on Wii storage 'solution'
Next Halo novel, 'Cole Protocol,' detailed
FaceBreaker to pummel retail shelves September 5
EA: Online to make up around 60% of Asian business in 5 years
More Offspring tracks coming to Rock Band
Ubisoft Reflections creating new Driver game
Wisconsin offers 25 percent tax break for game devs
Tecmo seeks to gag Itagaki with suppression order
See TF2's Pyro's new weapons, achievements
PSP Firmware 4.00 available now
Next Need for Speed going 'Undercover' in 2009
Final Fantasy Versus XIII on hold
Tecmo denies Team Ninja exodus, extent of lawsuit
EndWar beta footage leaked
Godfather II has RTS elements
Spector: 100-hour games are out
World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3 notes released
Zootfly footage helped sell Ghostbusters revival
Prepare for sploderific Schizoid-phrenia this July
MGS4 Database available tomorrow on PSN
Watch the Oregon Trail gameplay video, stave off dysentery

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: The reasons behind Ironside's Splinter Cell split
PwC study finds game sales will continue to rise

Culture & Community
Microsoft to support second coming of E for All
Gamestop to show you their exclusive Pokemans
Ralph Baer crushes Utrecht, the Netherlands mayor at Pong

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]]>dailyrecapsporewill-wrightRoss Miller2008-06-18T23:59:00+00:00A week with Spore Creature Creators: Day Twohttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/18/a-week-with-spore-creature-creators-day-two/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/18/a-week-with-spore-creature-creators-day-two/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/18/a-week-with-spore-creature-creators-day-two/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages:
For day two (new entries start here), we've got an elated peppermint, an attentive dinosaur, and a hiphopapotamous with flows that glow like phosphorous. You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

Gallery: One week with Spore Creatures

Moogle!EbolicOcto-GrimaceWeeglerMelliphon

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]]>eaelectronic-artsjoystiqfeaturesmaxissporespore-creature-creatorweek-with-spore-ccRoss Miller2008-06-18T07:00:00+00:00Force your older Mac to evolve and run Spore Creature Creatorhttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/fool-your-old-mac-minis-and-macbooks-into-running-the-spore-crea/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/fool-your-old-mac-minis-and-macbooks-into-running-the-spore-crea/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/fool-your-old-mac-minis-and-macbooks-into-running-the-spore-crea/#commentsFiled under: ,


If you've been living under a rock lately and haven't heard about the Spore Creature Creator, we forgive you. However, if you actually just live under a rock and look like something spawned from the Creature Creator, and have been pouting because you have an Interl Mac Mini or an older MacBook with Intel's GMA 950 integrated graphics, then turn that frown upside down.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog will let you know how to fool the program into thinking you're sporting a different graphics chip, and you'll be able to play God on your precious piece of outdated, but still loved, hardware. Just don't blame us if your now hacked machine becomes sentient and starts spawning.

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]]>GraphicsIntelMacBookSporeKevin Kelly2008-06-17T20:10:00+00:00BigDownload offering big prizes to see your Spore creatureshttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/bigdownload-offering-big-prizes-to-see-your-spore-creatures/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/bigdownload-offering-big-prizes-to-see-your-spore-creatures/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/bigdownload-offering-big-prizes-to-see-your-spore-creatures/#commentsFiled under: , ,

How intelligent is your design? Our friends at BigDownload want to see your best work using the Spore Creature Creator demo, and they're offering 10 copies of the full version, a Wacom tablet and two NVIDIA video cards to tempt you. Click here for details and contest rules.

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]]>eaelectronic-artsmaxissporespore-creature-creatorRoss Miller2008-06-17T15:25:00+00:00Spore Creature Creator demo available now on PC and Machttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/spore-creature-creator-demo-available-now-on-pc-and-mac/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/spore-creature-creator-demo-available-now-on-pc-and-mac/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/spore-creature-creator-demo-available-now-on-pc-and-mac/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Like another layer in the Russian nesting doll of Spore hype creation, the Spore Creature Creator demo is out now for both Mac and PC. Big Download reports the demo contains 25% of the content available in the full $10 retail version releasing tomorrow.

We've got some impressions up on the Spore Creature Creator after fiddling around with it for a week. Spore proper will release Sept. 7 -- make sure to check your system specs.

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]]>easporespore-creature-creatorspore-creature-editorAlexander Sliwinski2008-06-17T11:40:00+00:00A week with Spore Creature Creator: Day Onehttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/a-week-with-spore-creature-creator-day-one/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/a-week-with-spore-creature-creator-day-one/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/a-week-with-spore-creature-creator-day-one/#commentsFiled under: , ,

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this writer's progress via this Spore profile page.

While we've got no Murlocs today, we did try our hand at making a Moogle. Check out all our creations via the gallery below. Each one contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

Gallery: One week with Spore Creatures

Moogle!EbolicOcto-GrimaceWeeglerMelliphon

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]]>eamaxissporespore-creature-creatorspore-creaturesweek-with-spore-ccRoss Miller2008-06-17T07:00:00+00:00Quirks: the 1980 board game equivalent of Sporehttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/16/quirks-the-1980-board-game-version-of-spore/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/16/quirks-the-1980-board-game-version-of-spore/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/16/quirks-the-1980-board-game-version-of-spore/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,


As you know, we sometimes like to cut the wires and take things Off the Grid, which can lead to bouts of surfing through websites like BoardGameGeek until 5 in the morning ... allegedly ...

However, all of that browsing paid off in spades when we stumbled across Quirks, a board game from the magical year of 1980. Looks a bit familiar, doesn't it? We wonder if Will Wright ever sat down with this back in the day. He would have been around 20 years old when it came out, and he's admittedly a huge fan of board and strategy games, so you do the math. Find out more about genetic manipulation in the 80s after the break (spoiler: it wasn't all big hair, bangle bracelets, and friendship pins).



Quirks is an evolution-based game of "Un-natural Selection!" as the box top states. One to four players form bizarre plants and animals in this card game, and have to keep adapting them so they can survive in different climates and against encounters with other "Quirks". Think something along the lines of Go Fish meets a policeman's ident-i-kit and you've got Quirks. We found a single copy of this on eBay this morning, and we're planning a Joystiq Quirk Off during E3. Stay tuned for a full report on the game when it arrives.

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]]>Board GamesOff the GridQuirksSporeWill WrightKevin Kelly2008-06-16T20:15:00+00:00Spore's system requirementshttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/10/spores-system-requirements/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/10/spores-system-requirements/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/10/spores-system-requirements/#commentsFiled under: , ,


We're not exactly sure how long it's been up on the official Spore site, but below we've posted the basic system requirements for running the sim-everything title on PC and Mac. The "recommended" (read: real) requirements are not currently listed on the site. For the super-breakdown of supported graphics cards and other nit-picky details, check out the Spore site.

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:
  • 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.
  • This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).
[Thanks binturong]

Gallery: Spore


We're not exactly sure how long it's been up on the official Spore site, but below we've posted the basic system requirements for running the sim-everything title on PC and Mac. The "recommended" (read: real) requirements are not currently listed on the site. For the super-breakdown of supported graphics cards and other nit-picky details, check out the Spore site.

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:
  • 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.
  • This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).
[Thanks binturong]

Gallery: Spore

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]]>easpecssporespore-specsAlexander Sliwinski2008-06-10T17:30:00+00:00Spore: Creature Stage wanders onto land, into blog posthttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/28/spore-creature-stage-wanders-onto-land-into-blog-post/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/28/spore-creature-stage-wanders-onto-land-into-blog-post/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/28/spore-creature-stage-wanders-onto-land-into-blog-post/#commentsFiled under:


click to enlarge

EA just dropped a handful of screens and a short recap of Spore's second stage - the Creature Stage - into our laps (we have a hand there ... and some eyes ... and mandibles). Of course, they did the same thing last week for the opening "Cell Stage" and we presume they'll keep doing so in the coming weeks; we've still got Tribal, Civilization, and Space to look forward to.

The Creature Stage jumps from Cell's 2D world into three dimensions, where you'll gather DNA points which you can use in the Creature Creator (check out our hands-ons and meet Sporky) to expand your critter's abilities. Here you'll encounter other strange species as you explore your world - "all of them created by other players" - and you'll "race" to "become the first sentient being" on your planet. It's like massively single-player online gaming.

Gallery: Spore: Creature Stage


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]]>Creature-StageEAMaxisSporeChristopher Grant2008-05-28T12:26:00+00:00Counting Rupees: Digital Rights Madnesshttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/26/counting-rupees-digital-rights-madness/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/26/counting-rupees-digital-rights-madness/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/26/counting-rupees-digital-rights-madness/#commentsFiled under: ,

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

When EA announced that Spore and Mass Effect (PC) would have a DRM program that did performed online verification every 10 days, it generated a massive backlash amongst the gaming community. Many people, who were originally excited about Spore and Mass Effect, now claimed that they would not purchase the games, solely because of the DRM. To be honest, I'm no fan of DRM either. It basically treats all legal customers as potential criminals, and seems futile anyway, as anyone with an internet connection can typically find ways around the DRM. The only people it probably deters are those with little technical savvy and who just want to share a game they bought with their friends and family. The amount of actual sales that would be lost to this is probably pretty limited. With all that said, I'm glad that EA has backed off this new DRM and scaled it back to just an initial online verification. Given the current state of PC gaming as well as the traditionally more "accepted" versions of DRM (like the initial online verification), however, I didn't find this new DRM to be all THAT much worse, particularly with some slight improvements to it, such as allowing a manual verification and extending the timeframe for re-verification slightly (say, to 30-60 days instead of every 10).

The reason for this has a lot to do with what's been going on with PC gaming in the last few years. While the "death" of PC gaming has been talked about for years, it isn't quite here. The landscape is just shifting. While the total NPD sales for each year has been decreasing, other avenues of making money have been developed. For instance, subscription-based games (mostly MMOs, but also games available on GameTap), cheaper more casual downloadable games (eg, PopCap Games), and even free, ad- or feature-driven games (eg, Dungeon Runners, Battlefield Heroes, Quake Zero) make up an ever increasing portion of PC-based revenue. Thus, the actual retail sales are taken up mostly by a few casual games, MMO starter kits or expansions, and maybe the occasional shooter or RTS game. Take, for example, the most recent NPD PC numbers for the week of May 4-10:

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. The Sims 2: FreeTime
5. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. World Of Warcraft
8. Sins Of A Solar Empire
9. Hoyle Card Games 2008
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest

Seven of the top ten games on the list could probably be classified as either "casual" or as an MMO. The other thre games include an FPS that's also available on consoles (and sold far more on them), an old RTS associated with the extremely popular World of Warcraft, and a new, positively reviewed RTS. While FPS and RTS games will probably always maintain some popularity on the PC, particularly when hugely popular developers like Valve and Blizzard continue to make them, the MMOs and casual games have begun to dominate the PC arena. Outside of The Sims, which will continue to do well (and basically uses several retail expansion packs as its "subscription" model), it seems like most PC gaming requires some kind of online component now. That's not to say that every game has some sort of multiplayer component to it, but playing an MMO, browsing over to Desktop Tower Defense, or maybe just downloading the latest game from PopCap Games, all require internet connections.

Which is why, when I saw the newest DRM-scheme, it didn't seem like such a massive extra burden to me. When a publisher's game doesn't have a centralized multiplayer component that could help prevent piracy (like an MMO), it's bound to try and find a scheme that reduces it as much as possible. In an ever-increasingly online, connected world that can support 10 million WoW players (as well as players of other MMOs), it probably just seemed like it made sense to use that online component to try and keep people honest for their own more single-player oriented games. Sure, there is going to be a subset of people that probably couldn't play the game without a hassle, but for the seeming majority of the current PC gaming public, it probably wouldn't be that much bigger of a deal than, say, Steam having to register and unlock my retail copy of The Orange Box. That being said, the less obtrusive and more transparent DRM is to the end user, the happier I'll be.

As co-editors of A Link To The Future, Geoff and Jeff like to discuss, among many other topics, the business aspects of gaming. Game companies often make decisions that on their face appear baffling, or even infuriating, to many gamers. Yet when you think hard about them from the company's perspective, many other decisions are eminently sensible, or at least appeared to be so based on the conditions at the time those choices were made. Our goal with this column is to start a conversation about just those topics. While neither Geoff nor Jeff are employed in the game industry, they do have professional backgrounds that are relevant to the discussion. More to the point, they don't claim to have all the answers -- but this is a conversation worth having. You can reach them at

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]]>Counting-RupeesDRMjoystiqfeaturesMass-EffectSporeJeff Engel2008-05-26T20:30:00+00:00